I had promised myself not to write again about Syria. Then Syrian aircrafts attacked the city of Idlib with chemical weapons. Again the pictures of scores of humans dying and suffering under Sarin gas hit the tv screens. What goes on in the mind of a pilot who drops chemical bombs indiscriminately on fellow humans? Does he believe he is defending his country? Is he watching those children whose eyes become itchy as tears suddenly start gushing; whose mouths drool and froth; visions blur; mucus in their noses flush upper airways; who vomit and soil as they die, their frail bodies twitching? Sovereignty does not mean a licence to murder by weapons of mass destruction.
In 2005 “the world” stipulated that “each individual State has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.” This became a political committment adopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly. It is still much debated not to mention abused. Yet, it is there alongside other bans against indiscriminate murder. Does the pilot know that his use of chemical weapons is one such crime? Or the commanders who razed the city of Aleppo to the ground and were probably gearing for the same in Idlip? The Turkish medical teams rushed in across the border to provide urgent assistance. But, no help could be fast enough for those who are exposed to fatal levels of the gas. The victims died within minutes. Humanitarian teams saved those who could be saved.
It may be true that for the first time ever in history people die more due to overeating than under-nourishment; or from old age than infectious diseases; or more are killed due to suicide than by crime, terrorism and war added together. As Yuval Noah Harari, the writer of Sapiens and Homo Deus, two exceptional must-reads, stated “of all the people in the world, you are most likely to be killed by yourself.” Not in Syria.
That is true in a sense for the international community. We, more than mother nature and not yet machines or extraterrestrials, undermine humanity by our own actions or inactions. Last week I listened to the UN Secretary General Guterres rightly talk about the need for a shift of focus in the UN from resolution of conflicts to their prevention. He was speaking at the Friends of Mediation group co-chaired by Turkey and Finland, which are leading the way to help Guterres strengthen UN’s mediation capacities. Mediation is traditionally a method for peaceful resolution of acute conflicts. There are two bitter adversaries already in conflict and an outsider who mediates. I would argue, however, that mediation should be conceptualized simultaneously as a preventive method. That means developing local and regional mediation capacities to utilise before tensions spiral out of control. Mediation is already used as such in several countries. UN, regional organizations and states can help expand mediation’s application globally, including by helping train able community, insider and peer mediators. Technical jargon!
The bottomline is that prevention is the right emphasis, because we are horribly ineffective in peacefully resolving bloody conflicts, many of which are due to human follies. I had promised myself not to write about Syria. But then I turned on my tv and saw the tormented children and then the tomahawk missiles punishing the Syrian airbase from which the chemical attack was launched. And, this article is not about Syria. It is rather about humanity and our tireless endeavours to do good in the face of our endless capacity to do harm; of our limited wisdom and our seemingly endless inanity. And about our hope!
Burak Akçapar
Turkish ambassador, scholar and author
Follow him on Twitter @akcapar