[D66] An introduction to Syria – its history and its present revolutionary struggles

[J.N.]

https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/08/23/an-introduction-to-syria-its-history-and-its-present-revolutionary-struggles/


an introduction to syria – its history and its present revolutionary
struggles

before discussing syria in its present state, we must first acknowledge
that what we see today is a result of a 48-year-old dictatorship, not a
4-year-old revolution.

brief and basic history:

the ba’ath party staged its first military coup in syria in 1963. in
1966, hafez al-assad participated in the second military coup, which
brought salah jadid to power. from 1950-1970, hafez al-assad was a
lieutenant in the syrian air force, the head commander of the syrian air
force, and the minister of defense. then in 1970, hafez al-assad led the
third military coup to topple salah jadid, finally forcing himself into
power. hafez al-assad actively used sectarianism as a method of
consolidating and maintaining his power – he greatly increased alawite
dominance in the regime’s security and intelligence branches, though his
elite class was of all sects. the core of the assad regime, however,
consisted (and still consists) of assad family members/relatives who
control everything from the army to the economy

so to begin, there has been an emergency law in syria since the ba’ath
party came into power. basically, an emergency law suspends all
constitutional rights of civilians. this emergency law has been in place
since 1963 and was only lifted in 2011 (in actuality, it was never
lifted and was only said to be lifted to silence the people’s demands –
you cannot simultaneously lift an emergency law -and- shoot peaceful
demonstrators, but i’ll get to this later).

besides not having basic human rights (freedom of speech, freedom of
protest, freedom of assembly, freedom of choice, etc. etc.), hafez
al-assad and his forces committed countless civilian massacres, many of
which were sectarian by nature. one of the biggest massacres in syria’s
history took place in the city of hama. in the first hama massacre of
1981, 400 men were accused of anti-regime sentiments and summarily
executed. a year later, the syrian army committed the hama massacre of
1982. in only a couple weeks (feb. 2nd – feb. 28th), assad’s forces
(under the command of hafez al-assad and his brother rifa’at al-assad)
massacred 20,000-40,000 syrian civilians (the numbers vary greatly
because there were limited resources for documentation and because,
immediately after the massacre, the army buried the martyrs in mass
graves and built governmental parks/structures over them). many of my
friends still don’t know what happened to their family members who
disappeared that day – there was no closure, no bodies, no nothing.

the massacre was committed as a fear tactic, as hama was known
throughout the country as a city of dissent. the regime commonly used
imprisonment and torture as additional fear tactics. any individual who
was suspected of being anti-regime was detained for years and years.

two of my uncles were detained and tortured for more than a decade under
hafez al-assad’s rule, but other dissidents are still detained to this
day. those imprisoned were usually charged for being in the muslim
brotherhood (not to be confused with egypt’s muslim brotherhood);
however, with that said, there are many accounts of non-muslims who were
charged for being in the muslim brotherhood as well. besides that, many
communists were also imprisoned, as well as -any- individual who was
suspected of anti-regime sentiments. torture methods were indescribable
– sexual abuse as a form of torture is one of the most common methods
used by assad forces, both then and now. it was common for the regime to
kill detainees in cold blood – in 1980, the tadmor prison massacre took
place, in which 1,000 prisoners were executed and buried in a mass grave
under the command of hafez al-assad and his army officials.

the assad regime, during both hafez al-assad’s rule and bashar
al-assad’s rule, silenced and threatened poets, writers, intellectuals,
and journalists. because the regime controlled all modes of syrian
cultural production, it was able to suppress syrian literature and
revolutionary thought. tal al-malouhi (now 23 years old) was a syrian
blogger from homs. in december 2009, she was taken from her home by
security officers because of her poems about palestine and her social
commentary online. she was accused of being a US spy and has not been
heard of since. this is not uncommon today, as many young people are
detained for their anti-regime sentiments on social media. anti-regime
syrians living directly under the brutal rule of the assad regime are
constantly at risk; however, non-syrians are also threatened and
violently attacked if they criticize the regime in any way. one example
is salim al-lawzi, a lebanese journalist, who was executed by the
regime’s intelligence agency for critiquing the regime and its politics
in his articles. he was found shot and tortured to death – his right arm
dislocated, his fingers blackened from acidic substances, and his
abdomen and intestines stabbed with pens.

while hafez al-assad was revered for being one of the “protectors of
palestine” and a “protector of minorities”, nothing could be farther
from the truth. besides the ill treatment of palestinian and
syrian-palestinian refugees in syria, the regime remains passive in
regards to israel and the occupation of the golan heights. the syrian
golan heights is a region that has been occupied by israel since 1967.
both hafez al-assad’s regime and bashar al-assad’s regime have
negotiated with israel and traded the land for political benefits. in
regards to minorities, the dom people in syria are greatly discriminated
against, both structurally and socially. they live in extreme poverty
and are denied work, education, healthcare, and housing. their total
population is nearly 40,000 people, yet the assad regime has done
absolutely nothing to aid these groups of people who are homeless and
stateless. in addition to injustices against the dom people, hafez
al-assad’s regime has committed some of the greatest atrocities against
the kurdish people – 120,000 kurds were stripped of their syrian
citizenship. the kurdish language, the kurdish flag, kurdish culture,
kurdish businesses, and kurdish names were banned – children with
kurdish names were rejected from school enrollment. kurdish people were
denied employment and healthcare. in march 1986, a couple thousand kurds
– dressed in kurdish clothing – gathered in damascus to celebrate
newroz, until regime forces interrupted the gathering and threatened
that kurdish dress is illegal under the state. what began as a
celebration, ended with the police firing on the crowd and killing one
person. it wasn’t until the syrian revolution that the kurdish flag
began to be held and flown during revolutionary protests.

in 2000, hafez al-assad died of natural causes (unfortunately) and his
son, bashar al-assad, inherited power. although the syrian constitution
stated that a president needed to be at least 40 years old, it was
amended within hours to the age of 34 and the 34-year-old bashar
al-assad was *~lawfully~* able to inherit the seat.

bashar promised many reforms to make syria ~less~ of an authoritarian
state. because he was an ophthalmologist, and not a military man like
his father, people assumed that his rule would be different – so,
immediately after bashar assumed power in 2000, there was a period known
as the damascus spring where individuals and groups began organizing
towards a more democratic country, demanding the removal of the
emergency law (among other very important things).

“On January 1, 2001, a group of Syrian lawyers demanded a complete
reform of the constitution, the lifting of emergency laws, and the
concession of full civil liberties. Shortly thereafter, a group of
activists published the founding charter of their civil society
committee—better known as the “Declaration of the 1,000.” The following
day, the Jamal Atassi Forum for Democratic Dialogue was established with
the participation of communists, Nasserites, socialists and Baathist
critics of the regime, and on March 7, authorization was given to create
independent organizations for the defense of human rights as well as
cultural and social associations made up of moderate Muslims.

In just a few months, two hundred discussion clubs and forums were
created. Reacting to the proliferation of spaces where the future of
Syria was being freely debated, the regime pushed back, fearful it might
lose its monopoly on power. Invoking a need to maintain national unity
in the face of external threats, beginning in September 2001, the regime
arrested deputies Riad Saif and Mamoun al-Homsi, economist Arif Dalila,
lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, and Atassi Forum spokesman Habib Issa, followed
in short order by Kamal al-Labwani and Haitham al-Malih.[4]All were
sentenced to between three and twelve years in jail on charges of
“weakening national sentiment” and “inciting sectarian strife.” Other
important figures were forbidden to leave the country including Radwan
Ziyyade, director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies, and
Suhair Atassi, director of the Jamal Atassi Forum.”

the emergency law remained and nothing changed as far as human rights
went – if you were suspected of being anti-regime, your family was put
in danger and you were immediately intimidated, threatened, and at risk
of being killed or detained, regardless of age, gender, or sect.

syrian revolution

the syrian revolution began in march 2011, after 9-15 year old kids were
inspired by the uprisings in the MENA. the first protests began in
dara’a, syria – several children graffitied anti-government slogans on
their school wall and were taken by assad’s forces, interrogated, and
tortured (they were severely beaten and their nails were removed). on
march 15th, the children’s families and the community responded by
protesting for the children to be returned; however, not all the
children were released. this sparked the beginning of the revolution.
(the walls of the revolutionary school in dara’a today)

(the revolutionary walls of school in dara’a today)

on friday march 18th, cities throughout syria collectively united in
solidarity with dara’a, but security forces immediately responded by
firing bullets on the peaceful demonstrations, killing 6 people on the
very first day. after march 18th, syrians went out to protest every day
(the ba’ath flag was used by demonstrators for nearly a year and a half
before the independence flag that we see today was fully adopted). it’s
important to note that at first the revolution’s demand was for mere
reforms, but after experiencing the regime’s hostile and vicious
response, the people demanded the downfall of the regime in its entirety.


the revolution remained completely peaceful for the next 8 months.
syrian activists began organizing themselves into local councils and a
revolutionary collective identity was formed. the revolution is not a
sunni revolution and it is not a sectarian revolution. anti-sectarian
revolutionary groups and committees, such as the nab’d coalition, were
vital to protect collective unity in revolutionary spaces. most of the
peaceful demonstrations ended with massacres and thus many massacres
were named after demonstrations. despite the non-violent protests, the
assad regime continued to fire on the peaceful crowds using bullets,
tanks, warplanes, barrel bombs, and more. assad forces would also use
chlorine bombs, SCUD missiles, chemical weapons, and indiscriminate
shelling in areas known for revolutionary dissent. those injured during
shelling or during the massacres were unable to go to state hospitals in
fear of torture and imprisonment, so revolutionaries established field
hospitals to care for those injured and those on the brink of death;
however, field hospitals are extremely understaffed and under-equipped,
at times operating with no power and with nothing more than pain killers.


immediately after the uprisings, the regime swept revolutionary cities
and detained thousands and thousands of men and women who showed even
the slightest bit of dissent. in detainment, the regime uses unthinkable
methods of torture, violently assaulting and sexually abusing both men
and women in countless ways. assad forces commonly use rape and
molestation as a weapon to incite fear and terror in dissidents, their
families, and their communities. thousands of documented political
detainees have been tortured to death at the hands of assad forces.
recently, a defected regime photographer, who goes by the pseudonym
“caesar”, leaked 55,000 images of over 11,000 tortured civilian
detainees. many peaceful revolutionaries, such as the civil activist
giyath matar and the palestinian activist and filmmaker hassan hassan,
have been tortured to death in syrian prisons. revolutionary artists,
such as ali ferzat (an anti-regime alawite political cartoonist), are
also abused, detained, and tortured for their anti-regime activist work.
a renowned protest singer from hama, ibrahim qashoush, was kidnapped by
regime thugs and found near a river with his throat cut open and his
vocal cords pulled out – these types of draconian torture tactics serve
as a chilling message from the regime to revolutionaries regarding their
voice of dissent. torture as a weapon did not emerge after the
revolution began – on the contrary, it has been continuously used by the
assad regimes, both under hafez al-assad and bashar al-assad.


the regime’s brutality against innocent civilians was unprecedented. as
i mentioned earlier, the emergency law was lifted in april as an attempt
to silence protesters – but what good is passing an empty bill to lift a
draconian law, if the regime itself is authoritarian and ruthless? since
the beginning of the revolution, the regime continues to massacre
innocent civilians, execute dissidents, shell protests, bombard
residential neighborhoods, torture detainees, and more. the regime
commonly detains young children (which is no surprise, as the revolution
began due to the detainment of young boys). in may of 2011, hamza
al-khateeb was detained by assad forces during a protest. his body was
tortured and delivered to his family with burn marks, gunshot wounds,
and severed genitals.

along with the regime’s display of individual tortured bodies as a fear
tactic for others, the assad regime collectively punishes entire
neighborhoods and cities for demonstrations and dissent through
indiscriminate airstrikes, shelling, sieges, and starvation campaigns.
this method of punishment has been used since the very beginning of the
revolution. countless cities, such as al-houla, al-moadamiyeh, and the
yarmouk palestinian refugee camp, among other areas, are experiencing
suffocating sieges that continue to lead to deaths due to starvation and
malnutrition.

bashar al-assad and his regime continue to implement collective
punishments. a few of the largest massacres that the regime committed
(before and after the arming of the revolution) include: the houla
massacre, in which 116 civilians were killed, many slaughtered with
knives (including 49 children and 34 women); the darayya massacre, in
which 700 civilians were killed (and 1,755 civilians detained) within 5
days; the jdeidet al-fadl massacre, in which 450 civilians were killed
(including 85 who were summarily executed); the bayda and banias
massacres, in which nearly 700 civilians were killed (including children
and women who were slaughtered with knives); the helfaya massacre, in
which 94 civilians were killed after assad warplanes deliberately
targeted a breadline; and the ghouta chemical weapons massacre, in which
the regime attacked the city with sarin gass – 1,429 civilians
suffocated to death (this took place exactly a year ago from today).

after 8 months of peaceful protests, many groups in the revolution
decided that it was necessary to protect the protests and respond to the
regime’s brutality with an armed resistance – and so, the free syrian
army was established. it consisted mainly of syrian regime army members
who defected (many defected with their weaponry), but also men (and
women) who chose to defend the demonstrations from regime attacks. it
was not until later on that the free syrian army began its operations.

it’s important to always acknowledge that despite the existence of FSA,
peaceful activism remains alive in syria today. peaceful resistance is
the core of the syrian revolution, and while the media chooses to
highlight armed resistance, peaceful activism is what keeps
revolutionary ideology alive. in my opinion, armed resistance is
necessary in the face of a brutal, authoritarian state that is clearly
capable of the most unthinkable atrocities, but it’s important to
remember that anti-FSA sentiments and pro-revolution stances are not
mutually exclusive. unlike the assad regime (and its supporters) who
refuse any form of critique or dissent, the revolution allows for
criticism and opinions of any group (including the FSA). the revolution
is diverse in its resistance groups, yet all are working towards the
same goal: the downfall of the regime. it is also important to
differentiate between islamists and islamist extremists in the
revolution’s opposition. there are many different types of brigades in
the FSA (kurdish brigades, all-woman brigades, chrisitian brigades,
alawite brigades, etc.), although the most common brigade is a mix of
all syrians of different ethnicities and sects. the FSA is not
well-organized and severely underfunded – in fact, many FSA factions are
independent of one another and this leads to many inevitable mistakes
that may not always represent the ideals of the revolution. critiques of
the FSA are common in revolutionary spaces – the FSA is not the revolution.

now, when discussing foreign fighters and jihadists in syria, we must
recognize that the regime played a large role in paving the way for
islamic fundamentalism. in 2011, assad released around 1,000 political
prisoners – many anti-regime groups assumed that this was some kind of
concession; however, it was not until later that we discovered that most
of the detainees who were released were actually salafist activists who
were imprisoned during the time of the iraq war. so while peaceful civil
activists remained in assad’s prisons indefinitely, armed salafist
activists roamed free. some of the most prominent salafist commanders
released by the regime included: abu muhammad al-joulani (founder of
jabhat al-nusra), muhammad haydar zammar (a top AQ recruiter), zahran
alloush (the leader of the army of islam), hassan aboud (leader of ahrar
al-sham), and abu eesa (the leader of suqour il sham). releasing these
salafist activists allowed assad to 1. legitimize his claim that the
peaceful demonstrators who began the revolution are in fact “islamic
terrorists and infiltrators” and 2. assert that the islamic
fundamentalists we see in syria today are the only alternative to him,
thus causing the international community to dismiss peaceful syrian
revolutionaries who began the syrian revolution for freedom and
autonomy. in addition, many jihadist groups collaborate with the regime.
jabhat al-nusra, for instance, sells oil to the syrian government and is
fairly open about it. so, it is clear that the release of these
extremist was a tactical move by the regime and that the regime itself
benefits from the presence of these groups.
(the revolutionary city of kafranbel, idlib during a anti-regime and
anti-IS protest)


ISIS is caused by Assad, and the solution is eliminating the cause,
rather than solely stopping the effect.

“ISIS is a result of assad, and the solution is eliminating the cause,
rather than solely eliminating the effect.” – revolutionary city of
ma’arat al-nouman, idlib

IS (ISIS) is now considered the second enemy of the syrian revolution.
besides anti-ISIS and anti-regime protests that take place across syria,
revolutionary groups continue to publish statements (and other works)
against the IS. in fact, in a recent statement, the FSA declared it is
now fighting two fronts: the assad regime and IS. kurdish YPG factions
are also fighting alongside the FSA against IS extremists. IS is
counterrevolutionary, as are any jihadist groups on the grounds of
syria. they do not represent our revolution. IS continues to detain the
same activists that were detained by the regime during the revolution –
IS also continues to occupy the liberated cities of northern syria.
while some cities were able to organize and force IS out, other cities
are in a more difficult situation. for instance, the city of raqqa
remains occupied by IS, and while the regime continues to shell and
strike areas and neighborhoods, it has not once attacked the IS
headquarters in raqqa (a large, recognizable building). again, this is
not a coincidence – it’s clear that the regime is more threatened by
peaceful activists and revolutionary neighborhoods and cities than it is
by fundamentalists.

the regime is primarily supported by russia, iran, and hezbollah, both
materially and physically. russia supplies the regime with heavy
weaponry, warplanes, and SCUD missiles, which are then used to kill
innocent syrian civilians and destroy entire neighborhoods. hezbollah
and iranian religious fundamentalist militias enter syrian cities and
ethnically cleanse neighborhoods (we saw this in homs, yabroud, banias,
etc.). as “leftists” and self-proclaimed “anti-imperialists” denounce
the revolution in “hands off syria” protests, one wonders where they
were in the beginning of the revolution? where were the protests against
hezbollah, russia, and iran, and their direct involvement in syria?
imperialism is not limited to the US. our demands regarding
international support for the revolution mary vary in different
revolutionary spaces; however, i stand by these demands wholeheartedly:

– No to all forms of imperialist intervention, whether by the US or Russia!
– No to all forms of reactionary sectarian interventions, whether by
Iran or the Gulf countries!
– No to the intervention of Hezbollah, which warrants the maximum of
condemnation!
– Down with all illusions about the imminent US military strike!
– Break open the arms depots for the Syrian people to struggle for
freedom, dignity, and social justice!
– Victory to a free democratic Syria and down with the Assad
dictatorship and all dictatorships forever!
– Long live the Syrian people’s revolution!

the assad regime in syria has forced mass displacements of its own
population. today there are 2.5+ million (documented) refugees according
to UNHCR, and 9 million internally displaced civilians (half of which
are children). their situations are unbearable. those who live in
refugee camps in syria and in different countries live in makeshift
tents (and use makeshift bathrooms). they are forced to eat, at the
most, two meals a day and share meals with at least one other
individual. many children in the refugee camps have died from
hypothermia during the winter. civilians who struggle from certain
sicknesses and diseases are unable to receive proper medical care – they
are at risk of dying due to the lack of medical supplies and medical
attention in the camps. the conditions of the refugee camps are
extremely unsanitary and unbearable. these are not the conditions of
living! those who desperately escape conditions in neighboring countries
and try traveling abroad on boat are forced to risk the common danger of
drowning (this has occurred several times). groups that are able to
afford living abroad experience racism, discrimination, a severe lack of
work, and countless unthinkable struggles.

the bottom line is that what we see today in syria is a direct result of
assad’s refusal to step down from his presidency. that’s the absolute
bottom line. the revolution is not a conspiracy – it is a popular
uprising against a 48-year-old junta. the assad regime has killed more
than 190,000 civilians, has displaced half of the population, has
tortured innocent people through violence and sexual abuse, has caused
young syrian students (elementary, middle, high school and college
students) to abandon their education in state schools, and more… he has
destroyed homes, mosques, churches, historical sites, and livelihoods
for power. he has orphaned thousands of syrian children, leaving them
with no families and no homes. any individual who supports such a
ruthless regime (through neutrality or direct support) is undeserving of
an opinion until they have lived through torture in assad prisons,
bombardments and airstrikes in revolutionary neighborhoods, and
starvation in areas under siege.

it is necessary to keep our humanitarian stances above our political
stances. these are real people suffering real horrors.

i have left so much out of this post – HR reports, articles, videos,
short films, interviews, personal accounts, artworks, revolutionary
cultural productions, solidarity actions, donation sites, etc. if you’d
like to explore the syrian revolution and learn more, visit this
archive: https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/archive/.