Text of Legal Agreement: Terms on the Departure of Armed Factions from the Remaining Eastern Neighbourhoods of the City of Aleppo

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Country/entity: Syria
Region: Middle East and North Africa
Agreement name: Text of Legal Agreement: Terms on the Departure of Armed Factions from the Remaining Eastern Neighbourhoods of the City of Aleppo
Date: 13 Dec 2016
Agreement status: Multiparty signed/agreed
Interim arrangement: Yes
Agreement/conflict level: Intrastate/local conflict
Syrian Conflicts (1948 - ) (1976 - 2005) (2011 - )
The agreements relate to three different conflict contexts. Israel-Syria and Syria-Lebanon. The Syrian-Israeli conflict was a key factor for the Syrian intervention during the Lebanese Civil War, with Syrian-backed Palestinian Liberation Army units intervened in 1976 against the Palestinian/Leftist militias. Following a massacre at Tel al-Zaatar that year, Syria was forced to accept a ceasefire at a meeting of the Arab League. However, the Arab League also mandated an Arab Deterrence Force, consisting of mostly Syrian soldiers with token contributions from other Arab League states, thus further legitimizing the Syrian presence in Lebanon. During a second bout of fighting that began in 1989, caused by the formation of rival Lebanese regimes in East and West Beirut, the Syrian-backed regime won and in 1991 the ‘Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination’ was signed to legalize the Syrian occupation as a means to ensure the security of Syria. Syrian forces were forced to withdraw in 2005 following possible involvement in the assassination of Lebanon’s President Hariri.

Syria-internal. In 2011, domestic upheaval following a wave of protests across the Arab World soon led to violent repression of protestors by Syrian government troops. The violence progressed steadily and by July 2011 the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was formed consisting of defected military units and new recruits. The FSA and rebel umbrella group known as the Syrian National Council represented the first attempt at coordinating rebel factions in late 2011. However, a steady influx of foreign fighters and increased sectarianism radicalised opposition groups, which relied on foreign funding. The nature of the conflict changed drastically in late 2013 as infighting among the opposition groups increased. One of the more significant developments was the split between the al-Qaeda outfits the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS), and Jabhat al-Nusra in early 2014 in addition to the intensified targeting of other rebel factions by ISIS fighters in particular, including the Kurdish Peshmerga, the FSA and other jihadist outfits. Since the summer of 2014, the conflict was further internationalized when ISIS announced the formation of an Islamic state eroding the state line between Iraq and Syria and also in mid-2015 when Russian forces intervened on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad government in Damascus.
Stage: Implementation/renegotiation
Conflict nature: Inter-group
Peace process: Intra-Syrian Process (state/non-state)
Parties: Representative of the Syrian Government;
Representative of the Russian Government;
Negotiating part from the State;
Negotiating part from the opposition (Sheikh ‘Amr al-Rahmun);
Third parties: -
Description: -

Agreement document: SY_161213_Text of Legal Agreement Terms on the Departure of Armed Factions_EN.pdf (opens in new tab) | Download PDF
Agreement document (original language): SY_161213_Text of Legal Agreement Terms on the Departure of Armed Factions_AR.pdf (opens in new tab)| Download PDF

Local agreement properties

Process type: Isolated example
Rationale: -> Local issues only; no external support mechanism; no culture of signing The signing of the agreement was triggered by the military advance and the threat to commit a massacre formulated by the Syrian government, which unleashed popular discontent at the local and international level. No mechanism supported the negotiation. The agreement deals with highly localised issues as it concerns the evacuation of some neighbourhoods of Aleppo.
Is there a documented link to a national peace process?: Yes
Link to national process: articulated rationale: The agreement involves representatives from the Syrian and the Russian governments. Although it does not mention any link to the national peace process, it seems that this agreement was supported by the local and international community as a means to defuse current and future tensions between the Syrian president and Syrian citizens. It seems that this agreement ensured that national peace could be reached at a national level in a near or distant future.
Name of Locale: Eastern Neighbourhoods of the City of Aleppo
Nature of Locale: Smaller
GPS Lat/Long (DD): 36.210292, 37.094510
Participant type: Central state actor
Domestic religious organisation/leader or other elder
Mediator, facilitator or similar: No mention of mediator or similar

Local issues

Ritual/prayer and process (including use of scripture): No specific mention.
Grievance List: Although the agreement does not refer to specific causes of the conflict, it lists four provisions to address local grievances.

Page 1,
Number 1: Only the gunmen with individual weapons will pull out.
Number 2: The gunmen and the civilians who want to depart from Aleppo towards West Aleppo will depart.
Number 3: The Syrian and Russian forces will ensure that they will be guaranteed a peaceful departure, according to the Raqqa agreement. The gunmen and their workers will get off and the buses will return.
Number 4: The two sides have pledged to have a ceasefire during the departure of the gunmen. This has been guaranteed by the negotiating part, represented by Sheikh ‘Amr al-Rahmun.
Cattle rustling/banditry: No specific mention.
Social cover: No specific mention.

Text of Legal Agreement Terms on the Departure of Armed Factions from the Remaining Eastern Neighbourhoods of the City of Aleppo

On the date of 13/12/2016

Number 1:

Only the gunmen with individual weapons will pull out.

Number 2:

The gunmen and the civilians who want to depart from Aleppo towards West Aleppo will depart.

Number 3:

The Syrian and Russian forces will ensure that they will be guaranteed a peaceful departure, according to the Raqqa agreement.

The gunmen and their workers will get off and the buses will return.

Number 4:

The two sides have pledged to have a ceasefire during the departure of the gunmen.

This has been guaranteed by the negotiating part, represented by Sheikh ‘Amr al-Rahmun.

Representative of the Syrian Government

Representative of the Russian Government

Negotiating part from the State

Negotiating part from the gunmen