Syria Situation pt. III
Jolani Regime Takeover
In December of 2024, the Turkish and Israeli backed proxy paramilitary, Hayat Tahrir ash Sham, took over Syria in a 1 week siege. The former president Bashar al Assad fled the country, and has disappeared. The HTS was created out of the remnants of the An Nusra front, a takfiri Jihadist regime affiliated with Al Qaeda in Syria. It receives foreign monetary support from Turkey and Qatar, and medical support from Israel. The HTS was nearly wiped out, but held on to parts of North-West Syria along the illegally occupied Alexandretta/Hatay province.
Sectarian Anti-Minority Violence
Upon taking power, the HTS regime and affiliated "general security" militants began to commit acts of terror against the country's Alawi minority population. Primarily concentrated in the coastal mountainous regions, particularly the city of Latakia (Ladociea), the Alawis have been persecuted for hundreds of years. The proto-salafist scholar Ibn Taymiyyah called for their persecution and destruction in the 13th and 14th centuries. The current HTS government mimics his teachings. Alawis were shot dead in summary executions, accused of being "regime remnants", Alawi women and children were kidnapped and disappeared. Alawis have been forced to convert to Sunni Islam, and their religious practiced are not allowed in public. These tactics of violent terror have also been waged against Syria's small Shia community. This persecution peaked in February/March of 2025, but is ongoing.
Christians have also been targeted by the HTS regime. During the month of Ramadan, Christians were forced to take down crosses in their Churches, and public Lent celebrations (Lent took place during Ramadan) were banned. Public fasting was enforced, and HTS affiliated militants entered the shops and homes of Christians attempting to solicit conversion to Sunni Islam. Christians have been denied access to medical services if they refused to convert. As more videos continue to come out, this persecution is also ongoing.
In As-Sweida, a region near the occupied Jolan region, with a sizable Druze community, has been bombarded by both the IOF (who have set up a military installment in Al Quneitra and Mount Hermon), and HTS affiliated Bedouins. Druze are being attacked and massacred by HTS militants, to which the Jolani regime has done nothing. Druze, like Alawis, are being killed solely for being Druze. Druze women and children are being kidnapped and disappeared by the HTS Bedouins. HTS militants have been recorded shaving the mustaches off of Druze men (to humiliate them) and extracting forced conversions to Sunni Islam.
Why is this happening?
In short, the HTS regime is a proxy tool of Ottomanist Entity Turkey, The Zionist Gulf States of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and the Zionist entity itself. The HTS regime was created to destabilize the former regime, which had been a large military supplier of the resistant, and the sole state power in the region providing military assistance. (Iran is much further away). King Abdullah of Jordan met with Assad after the ceasefire in Lebanon, and attempted to convince Assad to join what the State Department calls the "Moderate Arab Camp" a group of Arab majority states that seek to normalize relations with Israel (Jordan, Gulf States, Egypt). After Assad's refusal, the HTS insurgency began attacking from the North in full swing, leading to the fall of Syria within a week. The Ottomanist-Zionist axis of evil seeks to balkanize Syria along ethnic and religious lines, so that any opposition to Ottomanist and Zionist imperial ambitions in West Asia is eliminated. US Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack (who has referred to himself as the "New Sykes Picot") clarified the US's role as well, seeking to establish what will be known as "David's Corridor". David's Corridor will run through a balkanize Syria, through As-Sweida and the Kurdish administered part of Iraq [potentially also Syria's AANES], through Turkey, and then through the illegally seized Zangezur corridor in Armenia's Syunik province, to ultimately end in the capital of the Zionist entity's greatest supplier of oil, Baku, Azerbaijan. This will facilitate the shipment of Oil and weapons from the Mediterranean ports of Ceyhan in occupied Anatolia (administered by Turkey) and Haifa in occupied Palestine (administered by Israel), to Baku on the Caspian. This will allow the Ottomanist-Zionist axis to expand closer to the boarders of their main geopolitical rival, the Islamic Republic of Iran. This alliance benefits the United States, Israel, and Turkey in expanding their imperialist and colonial ambitions in the region. By creating terrorist groups in Syria, the O-Z axis is attempting to force minorities to seek independence for self protection, thereby creating a Balkanized disunited Syria. This will cripple the resistance, harm Iran, annihilate religious minorities, and help build imperialism in the region. As principled Marxists, we must oppose this, and combat disinformation surrounding it.
Promotion of Sectarian Anti-Minority propaganda by self proclaimed Marxists/Leftists
Unfortunately, diaspora organizations and leftist organizers in the West have failed to properly address this. They have either been completely silent, or outright supported the HTS takeover of Syria. PYM has refused to make any statement against the HTS, or the anti-Alawi massacres, or the siege of Sweida. Various SJPs across the country have taken different stances, some in outright support of the HTS, ( a local case involved an SJP board member calling Alawi people "Settlers in Syria", likening them to Zionist settlers in Occupied Palestine), others producing weak fence sitting statements condemning "violence". As Marxists and those seeking liberation from imperialism, we should immediately critique this analysis. Not all violence is equal. Violent resistance is something we unequivocally support. This same condemnation of "violence on both sides" is the same line the Entity uses to condemn the resistance in Occupied Palestine. Perhaps the most egregious was the statement put forth by the national leadership of SJP, NSJP. NSJP put forward a statement that condemned the Jolani regime, without providing much analysis, but did criticize his role in facilitating Zionist imperialism in the region. In response, pro-HTS diasporans repeatedly harassed them in the comments, and eventually NSJP pulled the statement within 2 days, with no public comment. Are we going to let Zionists bully us into retracting analyses? Are we pro-liberation or pro-Ottomanism? This failure to take a principled stance demonstrates a lack of unity, and a base that is not properly politically educated on the situation. When the masses do not understand the situation, it falls on organizers to provide that education. PYM and NSJP have failed severely in this department. As a result, Shias, Druze, Christians, Alawis, Kurds, and other victims of Zionist and Ottomanist violence are actively discriminated against and pushed out of organizing for their own liberation. This disturbing trend originates from the constant centering of Sunni Arabs as the sole victims of Zionism. We must examine why figures like Bashar Assad, Hezbollah and Ali Khamenei are demonized within the base, but Abdelfattah and King Abdullah get a slap on the wrist. The KSA, Turkey and Qatar are barely even mentioned! This is a form of Chauvinism. It must be rooted out of the base, through comprehensive political education. So how do we do this?
Countering the Reactionary Sunni Chauvinist Narratives
As we have stated numerous times, to both SJP/PYM organizers and the broader base, the solution is to properly educate surrounding the geopolitical situation. RRC will launch a reading group surrounding this specific subject. We will also begin conducting outreach in the communities that have been marginalized from the broader movement. Ultimately, with a broader and more educated base, the effectiveness and principles of liberation will be properly upheld. Chauvinism will not be tolerated. The base should not include people who claim "Hezbollah killed Children" in Syria. It should not include people who advocate for a Neo-Ottomanist regime in the Levant. It should not include supporters of Takfiris. It must be a non-sectarian liberatory movement centered on the indigenous people's of the region, whether they be Sunni, Shia, Christian, Alawi, or Druze. Whether they are Arab, Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian, Persian, or Yezidi. A balkanized Syria is not liberation. An Ottomanist Levant is not liberation. A defeated Iran is not liberation. Only through a non-sectarian struggle can we achieve true liberation.
Sources
Killings of Alawites: https://news.snhr.org/2025/03/17/daily-update-extrajudicial-killings-in-the-wake-of-events-in-the-coastal-region-from-march-6-to-march-17 [Eng] https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacred-1500-alawites-chain-command-led-damascus-2025-06-30 [Eng] https://www.syriahr.com/en/356628 [Eng] https://www.syriahr.com/en/358714 [Eng] https://www.syriahr.com/أكثر-من-ألفي-مدني-وعسكري-ضحـ-ـايا-فتنة/753476 [Arabic] https://www.syriahr.com/en/358387 [Eng] https://burathanews.com/arabic/levant/457284 [Arabic]
Anti-Christian Violence https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/508376/Syria-s-Christian-crisis-under-the-rule-of-HTS [Eng] https://globalchristianrelief.org/christian-persecution/stories/religious-minorities-persecuted-christians-in-syria-under-attack [Eng] https://www.opendoors.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/WWL-2025-Persecution-Dynamics-Syria.pdf [Eng] https://www.almayadeen.net/news/politics/711729/المرصد-السوري-المعارض---النصرة--تستولي-على-منازل-المسيحيين-ف?utm_ [Arabic]
Siege of As-Sweida and Anti-Druze Violence https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250502-israel-demands-druze-protection-with-strikes-near-damascus-presidential-palace [Eng, transl. from French] https://www.syriahr.com/9-حالات-إعدام-ميداني-و92-قتيلا-خلال-الاشت/759406 [Arabic] https://hawarnews.com/en/overview-of-security-tensions-in-rural-damascus-as-suwayda [Eng] https://www.syriahr.com/en/360974 [Arabic]
Geopolitical Ambitions of the Ottomanist Zionist axis https://thecradle.co/articles/davids-corridor-israels-shadow-project-to-redraw-the-levant [Eng] https://dearborn.org/preview/davids-corridor-the-ambitious-israeli-project-and-its-regional-and-lebanese-repercussions-69001 [Eng, with some Arabic maps] https://www.newarab.com/news/what-israels-davids-corridor-plan-partition-syria [Eng] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rLiVEA2Uzg&t=3380s [Video, Eng] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlsJxYnII_k&t=3112s [Video, Eng]
HTS origins in Al Qaeda, and creation by Turkey, Israel and Qatar https://web.archive.org/web/20170211001547/https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/02/hayat-tahrir-al-sham-leader-calls-for-unity-in-syrian-insurgency.php [Eng] https://web.archive.org/web/20170210104907/http://henryjacksonsociety.org/2017/02/06/analysis-al-qaeda-reshapes-the-insurgency-in-northern-syria [Eng] https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/15/trump-will-regret-changing-his-mind-about-qatar [Eng] https://www.syriahr.com/9-حالات-إعدام-ميداني-و92-قتيلا-خلال-الاشت/759406