Syrians Demonstrate in Gaziantep to “Correct Path of Interim Government”

Enab Baladi Issue # 123 – Sun, June. 29, 2014

Mohammed Safi

Syrians civil youth organization started a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the Syrian interim government in the Turkish city of Gaziantep under the name of “dignity sit-in” on Wednesday the 25^th of June. This sit-in was calling a number of organizations to participate in this event and to raise slogans calling for reforms within the interim government and other slogans that defame the corrupted people who are working against the ethos of the government.

The sitters had several demands to “correct the path of the government” according to what they say. The first and the foremost of these demands is to “cap the wages of the ministers and the staff, increase the salaries of employees who are doing dangerous and sensitive missions inside Syria such as, national defence, doctors, teachers and nurses. Also, they asked for recognition and an acceptance of the censorship committee that is formed inside Syria in which two-thirds of them are named directly while the remaining third is named by the rest of the revolutionary factions that are working inside Syria. Relevant people sign the recognition immediately. Other demands involved moving all the headquarters of the interim government to the borderline of the Turkish side, establishing caravan’s camp that has to manage the Syrian crisis from the Syrian border directly and giving the ministers and the employees of this government the freedom to live nearby the camp”. The Prime Minister of the interim government, Ahmed Toma, met the agreed upon Committee by the protesters and listened to their demands.

On the problem of the high salaries of the employees in the ministry, Toma said “we are in the process of forming a special committee to discuss capping the wages according to certain categories”. Toma stressed that he “received congratulations from a Turkish figure saying that the Turkish government agreed that the certificate which is granted by the interim government is recognized” responding to a query about the future of the Syrian students.

The Committee asked Toma a list of questions and the most notableone “Is the interim government a national government or a revolutionary government or quotas government?” and Toma’s answer was “this government is not a quotas government and he explained that the ministries are distributed on the basis of blocs”.

The Committee inquired about the role of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Promise political stream in the interim government; however, Toma answered surprisingly “who is the Promise political stream… in this government we do not have any employee or a minister who is representing the political Muslim Brotherhood or the Promise stream, and if we find any… they will be fired”.

Regarding the happening of employing the Minister of Justice after he defected from the regime’s side for 18 days, according to the committee’s claim, Toma said “This is not true… follower of the incident of his defector know this”.

Toma explained that the employee’s salary in the civil defence is $150, and any increase of the salaries “depend on the donators and not on the abilities of the government”.

When the committee asked Toma about the salaries of ministers in the government, he refused to mention any number and he only said “each Minister has a different salary from the other”. At the end of the meeting, the Prime Minister promised that he will be working on “reforming the government” during a short period of time that is estimated a month.

The committee presented the outcomes of the meeting to the people saying that “the Prime Minister does not know what is happening in his government”. The committee promised to “follow up the previous demands so either reforming the government or shutting it down with the red stamp”.

In their turn, the Prime Minister and his deputy approved the formation of this committee in which it is independent from the Syrian interior problems to check on the corruption issues and to discharge the corrupted people from the government. Meanwhile, the committee will submit a detailed report on each corrupted employee in the interim government.

Translated by: Ruba Al Jarf