National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change

NKKDP logo

The National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change ( Arabic: هيئة التنسيق الوطنية لقوى التغيير الديمقراطي ) is a Syrian opposition organization formed in June 2011 ^{[1] by} 13 left - wing parties, three Kurdish parties, and independent political and 2 youth groups.

Among these parties are the Arab Revolutionary Workers Party, the Democratic Arab Socialist Union, the Communist Party of Labor, the Arab Socialist Movement, the Marxist Left Assembly, the Baath Democratic Socialist Arab Party (representative - Ibrahim Mahus ), “Together for a Free and Democratic Syria,” the Syrian Democratic People’s party, Syriac Union Party and left Kurdish Democratic Union (leader - Salih Muslim Muhammad ).

The chairman of the committee is Hassan Abdel Azim, leader of the Democratic Arab Socialist Union. His deputy and foreign coordinator is Heitam Manaa, who lives in Paris.

The first meeting of the NCCAP was held in September 2011 in Doha ^[1] . In October of that year, all Kurdish parties except PYD left the NKKDP to join the Kurdish National Council .

In September 2012, the NKKDP organized the “Syrian Rescue Conference” - an open meeting of the opposition in Damascus, which was authorized by the authorities ^[3] . The statement adopted by the participants calls for:

• to a change of regime and the abolition of all its symbols, the construction of a civil democratic state;
• the rejection of a split between Sunnis and Shiites;
• non-violent resistance and, at the same time, recognition of the Free Syrian Army as “one of the components of the revolution”;
• to the liberation of the Syrian army from the clutches of the regime;
• to achieve the goals of the revolution;
• to protect civilians;
• to a democratic solution to the “Kurdish national issue”;
• to preserve the territorial and social integrity of Syria.

Although the NKKDP recognized the Free Syrian Army on September 23, 2012, the FSA and other major organizations of the Syrian opposition refuse to recognize the NKKDP because they believe that its members are collaborating with the government of Bashar al-Assad ^{[4] [5]} .

The main differences of the NKKDP from other Syrian opposition groups:

• The NKKDP is strongly opposed to foreign military intervention in the Syrian conflict ;
• The position of the NKKDP in relation to the armed overthrow of the Syrian government is rather pacifist.

The New York Times considers the NKKDP "the most moderate group in the Syrian opposition." ^[6] On March 11, 2013, a delegation of the NKKDP visited Russia to conduct negotiations with representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, S. V. Lavrov and M. L. Bogdanov ^[7] .