While EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini was delivering a speech about the plight of the Syrian people at an EU event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week, there were other concerns, calculations and plans in the minds of the leaders of countries involved in the conflict. “There is no winner in this war. There might be military victories but there is no winner in this war — certainly not the people of Syria, who are paying the highest price,” Mogherini said at the event, which was attended by a large number foreign ministers, including those from Turkey, Russia, Lebanon and Jordan. “Nobody will win, neither the war nor the peace, without a negotiated political solution. Too often we discuss of Syria but not with Syrians,” she added. This is sadly the ugly truth. The discussions about Syria are concentrated more on the regime and the sphere of influence of other countries with vested interests rather than the Syrian people. History provides a long list of examples, including the experiences in Libya and Iraq, that show no one can truly win a war when innocent people are affected. Even if one day the conflict ends, those who have been affected by years-long bloodshed will never be considered as winners, rather the losers in an unwinnable war. Though the prospects of peace seem distant at the moment, there is still hope for a political solution in Syria, but not one based on models applied to other war-torn countries in the past. Since the beginning of Syrian war, several models have been proposed, such as a “Dayton-Type solution,” a version of the American-brokered peace accord that ended the Bosnian War in 1995, or a “Kosovo-Type” agreement. History provides a long list of examples, including the experiences in Libya and Iraq, that show no one can truly win a war when innocent people are affected. Sinem Cengiz However, a tendency to oversimplify and misread the causes of Syrian conflict based on inaccurate comparisons does not help the Syrian people. The country needs its own unique solution, a recipe prepared in its own kitchen and served to all segments of Syrian society sitting at the same table — a solution based on a united and inclusive Syria. Beside the issue of the need for a political solution, as underlined by Mogherini, the matter of Syrian refugees is also at the top of the agenda at the UN General Assembly. The ongoing Syrian conflict has created what the UN describes as one of the worst refugee crises since World War II. More than 6 million Syrians are internally displaced, and a further 6 million have fled to other countries, mostly Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The experiences of these three countries with refugees have been similar but they have taken different approaches to the crisis, and as a result, the living conditions differ significantly in each. Unfortunately, there has not been a comprehensive comparative study of the status and conditions of refugees in these three countries. This month, Russian President Vladimir Putin, an ally of the Syrian regime, and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a supporter of the opposition forces, agreed to establish a demilitarized buffer zone in Idlib province to prevent a planned regime attack on the city. More than 3 million people live in the opposition-controlled province, raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe if an assault goes ahead. Given that there remains this risk of a major increase in the flow of refugees should the Idlib agreement collapse, a study examining the integration policies of the three countries, the local responses to the refugees and how these nations will handle another influx is vitally important. Peace is at stake. It is hard to predict how the agreement will affect developments in Syria and the Syrian people. We can only hope it does not collapse, otherwise, we will once again take a step back from a political solution toward another refugee crisis likely to cause a humanitarian catastrophe of immense proportions. The situation is not only unpredictable in Syria but also unprecedented in the region. It would not be wrong to argue that for the first time since World War II, almost all countries stretching from Iran to Libya are involved in conflicts, whether militarily or politically. This has not only raised the degree of uncertainty but also complicated further the understanding of alliances and enmities in the region. Because we do not see a direct war in Syria where one state is attacking another, but rather a proxy, ideological and sectarian war, the eventual loser will not be any specific state — it will be the Syrian people, sadly. Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkey’s relations with the Middle East. Twitter: @SinemCngz Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view