CHRONICLE WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH FRENCH COLLECTIVE/MEDIA “CONTRE ATTAQUE“
We can’t talk about Syria without mentioning Palestine. At a time when Israel is reluctantly accepting a ceasefire in Gaza, having repeatedly violated the one in effect in Lebanon, it seems that its colonial ambitions have simply shifted the front line towards Jenin in the West Bank and Quneitra in Syria.
In our last chronicles, we mentioned the complicit silence of Syria’s interim president al-Sharaa, but rather than complicity, it would seem more accurate to speak of a “non-hostile stance”: the transitional government and Syrian society simply cannot assume a new war with Israel and its allies. Especially after Israel destroyed 80% of Syria’s military arsenal in its massive bombardment campaign (over 600 rockets) of the country’s military sites in the hours following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
But Israel shows no signs of stopping there. Since last week, Israeli tanks have invaded seven new Syrian villages and, after boasting of stealing military armaments in Syria, Israel bombed a convoy of the new Syrian authorities for the first time, killing two HTS security personnel and the mukhtar (mayor) of the village of Deir al-Bustan, where they had come to collect weapons in circulation as part of the country’s demilitarization operations. For the first time, the HTS foreign minister condemned Israeli aggression and called on the international community to put an end to Israel’s violations. But who can and will stop Israel?
Meanwhile, HTS brought together the Palestinian factions in Syria (PFLP-GC, Fatah-Intifada, Al-Sa’iqa, Jerusalem Brigade, Free Palestine Movement and Palestine Democratic Movement), in the presence of Hamas, to negotiate the terms of their surrender. HTS arrested several of their members on charges of committing crimes alongside the Assad regime, while their main leaders fled to Lebanon. At the same time, the Palestinian embassy in Damascus and most Palestinian civil and charitable organizations in Syria have been able to continue or resume their activities. As this chronicle is being finalized, a spontaneous popular demonstration against the Israeli invasion and in solidarity with Gaza is underway in Damascus, something that has never happened in fifty years under the Assad regime. For news on the Palestinians in Syria, visit https://www.actionpal.org.uk/
With regard to the security situation in Syria under HTS control, it has to be said that numerous crimes against civilians are being committed, making it impossible to distinguish between individual acts of vengeance, the cleansing of former Assad regime elements and ordinary crime, which continues to develop against a harsh economic backdrop. In particular, drug trafficking to Jordan has resumed, with Jordan bombing several houses south of Suwayda on January 15 under the pretext of targeting drug traffickers.
The military command of the transitional government launched a new campaign of arrests in the Homs region, where six Alawite civilians were executed and their homes burnt down on January 14 by unidentified individuals. Violence and demonstrations also continued in the coastal region of Latakia, where the population accused HTS of committing crimes against civilians and demanded the expulsion of foreign fighters, notably those from the Islamic Party of Turkistan. In Jableh on January 14, a pro-Assad armed group kidnapped seven HTS members and published a video threatening to execute them, before being intercepted and their hostages released. HTS also arrested a local figure, leading to further demonstrations in Jableh on Friday. Finally, HTS is accused of violently searching the premises of the Kurdish “People’s House” in Zour Ava, Damascus, but no arrests were reported.
While the conflict between the pro-Turkish forces of the SNA and the Kurdish-Arab alliance of the SDF-YPG continues unabated at the Tishrin dam between Manbij and Kobane, horrifying news of crimes committed by SNA-affiliated militias, notably the Suleiman Shah (“Al-Amshat”) and Hamza Division (“Al-Hamzat”) groups, continues to be transmitted daily to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Among other crimes and petty theft, these groups are accused of robbery and looting, as well as kidnapping for ransom in the Afrin, Aleppo and Manbij regions, for sums ranging from $850 to $2,000 per hostage. The Suleiman Shah group is also responsible for recruiting hundreds of fighters sent to Niger, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh to defend Turkey’s interests in exchange for a pitiful monthly pay of 1500 Turkish Liras.
On the political front, the transition process continues slowly, with signs as contradictory as ever. While freedom of expression and assembly is a reality, with many public demonstrations able to take place without hindrance, all Syrians’ senses remain on alert. Posters advocating male/female segregation and condemning blasphemy, for example, have been seen plastered on transport in Homs and Damascus, while a famous actor, Abdel Men’am Amayri, was accused of blasphemy and violently beaten in the street by HTS men. While these elements are not sufficient to draw hasty conclusions on the future evolution of Syrian society, they are nevertheless indications that all Syrians should consider serious enough to keep a close eye on Al-Sharaa and HTS during the crucial three-month period leading up to the opening of the National Transition Conference.
In an interview, al-Sharaa notably uttered words that don’t bode well, claiming that for HTS the revolution was accomplished and that “a revolutionary state of mind can overthrow a regime but cannot build a state”, betraying his desire to retain full control over the country’s political transformation, without necessarily letting pluralism get in the way of his ambitions. The Syrian revolution of 2011 seems to him to be part of a frivolous past that now needs to be left behind, as he never took part in the Syrian demonstrations at the time, too busy fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq…