Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition
Department of Media and Communications
September 30, 2021
The Russian military aggression against the Syrian people, which begun in September 30, 2015, has so far failed to silence the voice of freedom.
Since the start of its brutal aggression, Russia has unashamedly bragged that it had tested more than 300 new weapons in Syria. The aggression has so far displaced millions of people, killed and injured tens of thousands, and caused massive destruction to hundreds of Syrian cities and towns.
Russia is an occupying force that bears legal responsibility for all its barbaric crimes in Syria. The latest crime that the Russian air force committed in Afrin a few days ago came to remind everyone of what Russia is committing in our country. Multiple reports by human rights groups have already revealed the details of the crimes and the outcome of the catastrophic aggression that turned into a direct occupation of Syria.
Reports by rights groups have exposed the various war crimes and crimes against humanity that the Russians are committing in Syria, most notably the deliberate targeting of schools, hospitals, mosques and public markets.
History has already taught us that military interventions that come against the will and interests of peoples are always doomed to failure, and that the costs are often very high for all parties.
Russia’s crimes in Syria and its constant obstruction of the UN Security Council, amid international indifference, began to turn international legitimacy into a means of escape through which criminals can get away with their actions, and the international organization into a paralyzed structure incapable of resolving any international crisis.
The Syrian Opposition Coalition reaffirms the responsibility of the major actors with regard to Russia’s crimes against the Syrian people. It calls for the imposition of an effective mechanisms for confronting Russia’s criminal, disruptive role. It also stresses the need for a more effective action to enforce UN resolutions and impose a political transition in the country.
Six years of Russian aggression and criminality have only increased the Syrian people’s conviction of the necessity of the revolution and the insistence on its continuation until the withdrawal of the occupiers and their agents so as to build a new Syria in which all citizens enjoy freedom, dignity and democracy without any discrimination.
