Syria

Teetering on the brink of wider war

The drone attack that killed three US troops in Jordan on 28 Jan has led to an escalated US response to Iranian-backed militias. The US says it has hit 85 targets in Iraq and Syria in early February. Especially given how long it has taken the US to respond, this will have been far from a decisive blow against the militias and their arms caches. Since 7 October, there have been over 160 attacks on US troops in Syria and Iraq. 28 Jan was the first resulting in soldier deaths, which meant the US was almost certain to respond. The targets are the local militias, but the message it sends is to the...

Statement by Têkoşîna Anarşist

This is a statement from Têkoşîna Anarşist, a "revolutionary anarchist collective working in NE Syria (Rojava) with a focus on people's self-defense." It is reposted from its Twitter/X page, here. Workers' Liberty does not share or endorse all the views expressed in statements we repost. For our own statement on the war, click here . After an unprecedented attack organized by armed groups of Hamas in Israeli territory, Netanyahu declared war against Gaza and its population. Since then, IDF started a massive military operation, once again bombing and massacring Palestinian people. Palestinians...

Rojava: bombings, millions without electric and water

Turkey has stepped up its bombing campaign of both Iraq and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, more commonly known as Rojava. This is in response to a suicide bombing in Ankara carried out by the PKK on 1 October, which injured two police officers but killed no-one other than the attackers themselves. The attacks have targeted civilian infrastructure, and at least 48 civilians have been killed so far. Erdoğan’s recently appointed Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, claims that the PKK members came from Syria, and that Turkey would be counting “all infrastructure, superstructure...

"Solving the Palestinian and the Kurdish question": statement by the PKK

This statement was published by the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The PKK, through its Syrian organisation the Democratic Union Party (PYD), has been the leading political force in establishing the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava. It is reposted from their website, here . We are not sharing their statement because we consider the PKK to be part of our movement or political tradition. We have previously criticised the PKK for their authoritarian record, and their organisation as a cult-of-personality around their leader, something which is...

New revolt against Assad in Syria

Protests against the Assad regime began in late August across the south of Syria and continue. Druze majority areas in Sweida are the centre of the new movement. Those protests have raised the flag of the Syrian opposition, not seen in the regime-controlled areas since the "Arab Spring" days in 2011.

Refugees under attack in Turkey

The three to four million Syrian refugees in Turkey face increasing racist attacks and exploitative bosses. More and more refugees have been dying while trying to cross to Greece, and many fear forced repatriation to Syria. In Turkey, a campaign on social media has offered bounties for maimed or killed Syrians, and there is a constant stream of videos of Syrians and Afghans being harassed and attacked in public. Last year a more consciously neo-Nazi group gained some attention, the Ataman Brotherhood (ATK). Their aesthetic borrows heavily from European and American neo-Nazi terrorist groups...

Turkey reaches out to Assad

Idlib Turkey is considering establishing normal relations with the Assad regime in Syria. A meeting in December orchestrated by Russia has now led to a further trilateral agreement with the Russian, Syrian and Turkish foreign ministers. Since 2011 Turkey has supported, funded, and helped arm factions and militia hostile to Assad. The Free Syrian Army and the remnants of former Al-Qaeda affiliates and others relied on Turkish support. A shift towards Assad, whom Turkey’s president Erdogan has previously called a terrorist, would change a decade-long policy. The driver seems to be Kurdish issues...

Syria: how Assad defeated the democratic revolt

A bit over ten years since the first protests against the Assad regime broke out in Syria in March 2011, and thanks to the active support of Russia and Iran, Assad has control across the bulk of the country. He controls all six main cities and 12 million people out of an estimated population of 17 million. At Assad's low point, in spring 2013, he controlled only a fifth of the country. The majority of the population are living in poverty, with at least 60 percent food insecure. The United Nations World Food Programme reports that food prices increased by 376 percent between October 2019 and...

Punishment without trial

The UK Supreme Court has upheld the government’s removal of citizenship from East London woman Shamima Begum, who went to Syria six years ago to support Daesh / ISIS. The court said that Begum has a right to contest the decision, but the government has a right to bar her from re-entering the UK, which means she cannot exercise the right to contest it. Begum devoted herself to supporting a monstrous, blood-soaked ideology and movement (though she was only 15 when she went). But the removal of her citizenship is a setback, not a victory, for human rights. Since 2002 the UK government’s legal...

Syria: Assad, Iran, Russia, no democracy

Elections were held on 19 July in regime-controlled areas of Syria, now over 70% of the country. Assad has been in power for over 20 years. This, the third election since the start of the protests in 2011, was postponed because of Covid-19. As in all the others, there was no real opposition to Assad’s Ba’ath party. Even the opposition that is tolerated by Assad boycotts the elections. Karam Shaar, an expert on Syria at the Middle East Institute, was quoted by Al-Jazeera just before the election results. “The al-Assad regime uses parliamentary elections to reward loyalty. This time around...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.