The Final Declaration of National Salvage Congress

Under the slogan "For civil, democratic and pluralistic Syria ", the National Salvage Congress was held  in Istanbul on July 16, 2011 AD in the presence of national personalities and activists, representatives of the youth and the coordination committees of Syrian revolution and  representative of the national action factions. However, due to the fact that a number of Martyrs have been killed in the neighborhood of Qaboun (Damascus) at the site reserved for the conference that was to be held in Damascus to coincide with the Istanbul one, the Damascus Conference was cancelled. 

The participants started the meeting with a minute of silence and the recitation of Al-Fatiha, in tribute to the martyrs’ souls.  Moreover, the attendees condemned the massacre committed by the regime in the neighborhood of Qaboun, calling for the establishment of International Investigation Committee on this massacre and the previous massacres committed by the regime, and expressed their appreciation for the sacrifices carried out by the youth of the revolution. Further, the participants commended the officers and members of the military who have aligned themselves with the choice of the people for freedom and dignity.

In addition, all the attendees concurred that the killing, the displacement of people and the seize of cities and villages carried out by the regime, made it lose its popular and political legitimacy. Plus, they stressed the right of the people in the revolution to achieve their legitimate demands for freedom and dignity and to ensure a bright future for civil and democratic Syria that is for all its children; and they considered that the National Salvage as a step in this direction and consistent with the sacrifices offered by the Syrian people. 

 The Conference called upon the Syrian people and their national forces to achieve the following objectives: 
1 – The escalation of the peaceful democratic struggle to which all the factions and spectra of the Syrian opposition forces have contributed through long years of struggle and work with all opposition parties to topple the Syrian regime and develop a national political alternative, rejecting any foreign military intervention. 
2 - The peaceful transfer of power to a transitional national government that will disintegrate the security state, establish constitutional life and organize parliamentary and presidential elections. 
3 – The establishment of a pluralistic democratic civil state based on citizenship that originates from a modern constitution that embodies the Syrians’ ambition for shaping a free and safe future and the emphasis on the importance of the role of youth and women in it. 
4 – The emphasis on the full equality of all the sons and daughters of the Syrian people, the respect for their religious and ethnic particularities, the peaceful coexistence and national cooperation between all the Muslim and Christian sects of the Syrian people and the participation of all ethnic groups, including Kurds, Assyrians and Turkish, and all other minorities, in the building of a civil, democratic and pluralistic state that is based on the ideas of social contract and alternation of power and guarantees the rights of freedom and dignity for all.
5 - The emphasis on the full equality of all the sons and daughters of the Syrian people, the respect for their religious and ethnic particularities and the peaceful coexistence and national cooperation between all the Muslim and Christian sects of the Syrian people.

Finally, the conferees in Istanbul have established a national commission made up of 25 members, from across the spectrum of the opposition, and authorized to elect an Executive Office that will consist of 11 members; further, the participants in Damascus will elect 50 members for the National Commission and 13 members for the Executive Office.

The members of the National Commission elected in Istanbul are:

1. Najib Ghadhbian

2. Christina Abraham

3. Adib al-Shishakli

4. Iyas al-Maleh

5. Muhamed Sirmini

6. Eid Abassi

7. Fateh al-Rawi

8. Ahmad al-Jaborri

9. Hamdi Othman

10. Farhad Ahmad

11. Marah al-Buka’i

12. Hassan Hashimi

13. Khalid Khoja

14. Moteea Al-Botein

15. Ali Auzturkman

16. Faraj Hammod al-Faraj

17. Mahmmod al-Faisal

18. Ommar al-Shwaf

19. Jamal Al-Wadi

20. Ahmad al-Asa’ad

21. Mahmmod al-Dughim

22. Marwan Da’as

23. Mariam al-Jalabi

24. Jamal al-Ward

25. Ibrahim al-Hariri