Eurasia Press & News
A delegation from the Syrian government arrived on Saturday, February 21, at Qamishli International Airport, in a move aimed at completing its operating procedures and putting it into service again, as part of a package of accelerated administrative and security movements in the province of Al-Hasakah in recent days.
According to local sources in Enab Baladi, the delegation, headed by the director of internal security in the province, Marwan al-Ali, in addition to officials from the Civil Aviation Authority and technicians arrived accompanied by technical devices through a civil aircraft belonging to Syrian Airlines to the airport.
The delegation began coordination meetings inside the airport upon arrival to discuss the necessary technical and security arrangements to reactivate flights, after a period of limited and intermittent operation that has been linked over the past years to the security and political conditions in the region.
A vital facility at the heart of transformations
Qamishli Airport is one of the most vital facilities in northeastern Syria, as it was during the years of the conflict a focal point for civilian and military air transport, and it was a basic gateway for the travel of civilians and the transfer of staff and materials, especially in light of the difficulty of ground movement in some periods.
Over the past years, the airport has been subject to special security understandings, which kept the presence of the former regime within it, at a time when most of the joints of the local administration in the province of Hasaka were managed by the “self-administration”.
However, the recent developments in the province earlier this year have rearranged the administrative and security scene and pushed for the expansion of the presence of Syrian government institutions in a number of vital facilities.
The arrival of the delegation of the Internal Security Forces today, linked to the announcement of the Governor of Al-Hasakah, Noureddine Ahmed, yesterday, the opening of roads leading to the city of Al-Hasakah as of Sunday, after the completion of procedures related to ensuring the safety of traffic, in a move aimed at easing the restrictions imposed by military and security developments during the past period.
Package of administrative procedures
On Friday, the governor announced a number of measures he said were aimed at “strengthening service and administrative stability and facilitating the affairs of citizens,” including the resumption of land trips between Hasaka and Damascus, which contributes to enhancing communication and facilitating the movement of citizens and goods.
He also pointed to the supervision of a specialized committee on the merger in the General Organization for Grain Trade and Processing, in addition to the return of dismissed employees to their work in accordance with due process, as part of a broader path to restructure public institutions in the province in line with the laws and regulations in force in the Syrian state.
In a parallel context, the governor announced the directive to release a batch of prisoners, without revealing their numbers or the nature of the cases associated with them, in a move interpreted as an attempt to create calmer climates in light of the ongoing transformations.
Implementation of the January Agreement
These developments coincide with the continued implementation of the terms of the agreement concluded on January 30 between the Syrian government and the SDF, which provided for the integration of civil and service institutions within the structures of the central ministries in Damascus.
On February 18, باشرتthe committee tasked with following up and implementing the procedures for integrating the health sector with the structure of the Ministry of Health began its work in the province of Hasaka, in a practical step to implement the agreement, amid talk about discussing the mechanisms of integrating the education sector and the establishment of an emergency and disaster management directorate in the province.
These movements come after weeks of field and administrative developments in large areas of northeastern Syria, which resulted in the control of the Syrian army on the eastern and southern countryside of the province; while the said agreement was reached, which led to a limited redeployment of government security forces in a number of vital centers within the cities of Hasaka and Qamishli, and the start of a gradual transition of institutions to the supervision of the relevant ministries in the Syrian government.
The re-operation of Qamishli Airport represents one of the most symbolic and practical steps in the integration path, due to the sovereign and service implications of the airport, and the facilities it may provide for the movement of employees and technical staff that are expected to flock to the governorate in the framework of reactivating the various sectors.
Expected Reflections
The operation of the airport is expected to ease the travel burden for residents of Hasaka, who in previous periods had to travel by long distance to reach other airports, amid challenges related to cost, time and security conditions.
The resumption of road trips and the opening of roads will also reflect positively on the movement of trade and the transport of goods, in a governorate that is one of the most important agricultural areas in Syria and constitutes a center for the production of grain and livestock.
On the other hand, the mechanisms of implementing integration in the sectors of education, health and other services remain unsettled, especially in light of the need to regularize the situation of thousands of workers and unify the administrative and financial systems, after years of work according to different structures.
With the arrival of the delegation of the Internal Security Forces to Qamishli airport, the indicators of the gradual transition of the management of vital facilities in Al-Hasakah to the supervision of the Syrian government are devoted to a path that officials say aims to reunite the administrative and service structure in the province, while the people are waiting for the reflection of these steps on their living and service reality in the next phase.
