On Thursday, the majority of the Parliament of the Netherlands supported a motion by members of Parliament Chris Stoffer and Don Ceder from the Christian conservative party SGP calling on the Dutch government to put pressure on Damascus after attacks on Kurds.

The motion notes that more than 100,000 Kurds have fled Aleppo due to shelling and bombardments, that Kobani has now been cut off from water, electricity, and internet for more than a week, and that ISIS fighters have escaped en masse from prisons.

The motion notes that the Syrian transitional government is currently trampling on the conditions set for European support and normalization of relations. It further recalls that parliament has set strict conditions for EU support to Damascus, including with regard to the treatment of minorities.

The motion calls on the government to exert pressure on the Syrian regime within the EU framework and to take the position that direct financial support to the central government cannot be considered unless the Syrian transitional government demonstrably reverses course. 

It also urges the government to actively promote that EU funds be used exclusively for inclusive and responsible institutional development, and that they must not – directly or indirectly, including through implementing partners – strengthen the regime or contribute to abuses.

Earlier this month, the EU announced that they will grant Syria around €620 million during a visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Damascus.

Dutch MP Eric van der Burg from the liberal VVD party underlined during the debate in the Parliament that “every time the West gets into trouble somewhere in the Middle East, the Kurds generally choose to help the West. When the Kurds themselves get into trouble and the West has another interest in a regime that happens to be in power in that country, then it is the Kurds who pay the price.

“At the very least, know that within the VVD, sympathy for the Kurds is extraordinarily great. If the minister says, ‘I am going to take concrete steps to explicitly help the Kurds,’ he will have the full support of the VVD.”

During the debate, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands David van Weel added that “stalled negotiations lie at the root of the conflict between the Kurds and the Syrian army. It cannot be attributed solely to the Syrian regime that these negotiations have stalled; that too is part of the reality.

“At the same time, it cannot be the intention that the Kurds should end up bearing the brunt of this through the use of force. That is why we are exerting pressure to bring them back to the negotiating table. The stick is that the tap will be closed again. If it comes to that, or if the regime does not respond adequately, we will certainly not hesitate to do so,” he concluded.