Communist party briefing nine BACKGROUND TO EVENTS IN Syria
go to communistparty.org.uk June 2014
War turns in favour of Syrian government but US continues to arm Free Syrian Army. Following relatively small ‘Arab spring’ pro-democracy’ protests in 2011, significant armed resistance began in 2012. It was mainly financed by Qatar (spending $3 billion in 2012), channeled through Turkey and principally conducted by mercenary forces. These military operations had US support. For the US the removal of the Assad government represented a major blow against the crescent of anti-US Shi-ite countries led by Iran and stretching through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. Israel also saw this Shi-ite alliance, which included Hamas in Gaza, as its major strategic enemy. By the beginning of 2013 the Assad government had lost control of the border areas with Turkey and Iraq and much of Western Syria: 100,000 Syrians had been killed and three million sought refuge in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. In 2013 the course of the war turned.
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By the Spring of 2013 the mercenary forces of the Free Syrian Army (politically under the leadership of the Syrian National Council) began to lose ground to the jihadist and Al Quaeda linked and externally recruited volunteers of the Al Nusra Front and ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). This alarmed Israel and the US. In June 2013 Rouhani won the presidential elections in Iran and opened a dialogue with the US – gravely alarming the Saudi Arabian regime, already seriously concerned at the increasing dominance of ‘modernising’ Moslem Brotherhood governments in Turkey and Egypt and their support from Qatar. In July 2013 Saudi Arabian backed politicians ousted Qatari supporters from the Syrian National Council. Saudi Arabia then gave financial and military backing to Al-Nusra and more moderate jihadists in the Islamic Front. Also in July the Moslem Brotherhood government in Egypt was overthrown and replaced by army rule with some financial backing from Saudi Arabia. In Syria fighting broke out between the Islamic Front, the Free Syrian Army and ISIS. August 2013 saw the US make a final attempt to rescue the situation by proposing direct armed intervention by US and allied forces. The 30 August vote in the House of Commons against intervention put an end to this bid.
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By spring 2014 the war had moved strongly in favour of the Assad government. A presidential election was held June 2014. There was a 74 per cent turn out in elections declared free and fair by observers from 30 countries including Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela, Russia and India. El-Asad secured over 10m votes against 500,000 for his nearest rival. On 22 May 2014 Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council motion moved by France with US and UK backing which sought to refer the Syrian government to the International Criminal Court: the Russian Ambassador said the resolution aimed to lay the ground for further outside military intervention. US continues to provide lethal and non-lethal aid to the Free Syrian Army through Turkey including anti-tank rockets and machine guns.
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POPULATION 22,530,746 ETHNIC GROUPS Arab 90%, Kurds 9%, Armenians and others1% RELIGIOUS GROUPS Sunni Muslim 74%, Alawites 12%, other Muslims, Shia Druze etc5%, Christian (various denominations) 9%
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POLITICAL FORCES Pro-Government National Progressive Front is dominated by the Ba’ath Party. Its subordinate allies are mostly Arab nationalist (such as Nasserist) or Arab socialist parties, ideologically close to the Ba’ath’s pan-Arab vision. It also includes the country’s two communist parties. Members: Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, Arab Socialist Movement, Arab Socialist Union, Syrian Communist Party, Syrian Communist Party (United), Social Democratic Unionists, Socialist Unionists, Democratic Socialist Unionist Party, Arabic Democratic Unionist Party, National Vow Movement.
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Ba’athism Ba’athist philosophy, namely that the Arabs belonged to a single nation and needed a single state in which to realise their “eternal mission”. It defined the Arab nation as stretching across all Arabic-speaking areas, including Africa. It supported full citizenship for women and promised to eradicate class distinctions arising from the unjust distribution of wealth. Citizenship could be extended to a non-Arab living on Arab soil provided he “detached himself from any racial grouping”. While Ba’athism used non-racist and non-religious criteria to define Arab citizenship and could thereby appeal to Sunni, Shia, Christian and others alike, the obvious weakness was its lack of appeal to the many minority non-Arab communities living within the Arab world, in particular the very substantial Kurdish population. , the Ba’athist version of socialism avoided concepts of class struggle focused on the idealist notion of a culturally based Arab spirit and so was opposed to “materialistic” communism.
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Syrian Communism The split in the Syrian Communist Party in 1986 had the backdrop of perestroika, with the Faisal wing essentially sympathetic and the Bagdash wing opposed. Differences also centred on inner party democracy (the last three general secretaries of the SCP in order have been Khaled Bagdash, his widow Wisal and now his son Ammar). Both parties have expressed criticisms of the ruling Ba’ath (within permitted limits) with the SCP focusing on economic changes and the SCP (U) on political and democratic reform.
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Anti-Government National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces – formed in November 2012 with the Syrian National Council at its core. This was originally organised and funded by the US and its NATO allies, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and until Summer 2013 dominated by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Free Syrian Army – an umbrella term used by various militias al-Nusra Front for the People of the Levant - an al-Qaida-inspired terrorist group, denounced by the West but embraced by the SNC and FSA Kurdish Democratic Union Party – Kurdish nationalist party, linked to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Strongly opposed to foreign intervention, especially by Turkey. National Co-ordination Committee for Democratic Change – domestic opposition alliance mostly secular and leftist. Opposed to regime but generally against use of violence and outside intervention.
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ASSESSMENT DECEMBER 2013 The first phase of the war through 2012 and into early 2013 saw the main thrust of the military campaign carried forward by mercenary forces under the general leadership of the Free Syrian Army, largely financed and armed by Qatar (Financial Times 18 May 2013 cited a cost of $3 billion) and politically aligned to the Moslem Brotherhood. Significant areas of territory along the Turkish border and, to the south, along the Jordanian border were captured and major enclaves established in Aleppo and some areas north of Damascus. But by early 2013 a military stalemate had been reached and over the following six months many of these gains were lost. This was the result of conflicts among the rebel groupings on the ground in the context of a major regional split between supporters and opponents of the Moslem Brotherhood: Saudi Arabia, Jordon and most of the Gulf states opposing and Turkey and Qatar supporting.
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In July-August pro-Qatari MB office holders were displaced from the leadership of the armed rebel umbrella group, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, and replaced by Saudi nominees led by Ahmed Jarba. Over the same period fighting broke out on the ground between the Ahfad Al Rasoul brigade and the Jihadi and Al Qaeda linked forces of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq. Conflict also erupted between Kurdish forces and ISSIS. In November a third split appears to have emerged with the consolidation of a new armed grouping, the Islamic Front, supporting Sharia law, incorporating the Al Qaeda linked al Nusrah brigades and opposing any negotiations. The National Coalition now seems to be backing negotiations – as also is the internal, non-armed opposition, the National Coordination Committee.
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US policy appears to have vacillated. In early summer it appears to have contemplated armed intervention to salvage the waning military fortunes of the (then MB and Qatari-aligned) National Coalition – and drive back Al Qaeda forces (using Turkey as a base). This met opposition in Europe, Russia and China. Then, over the summer the Moslem Brotherhood lost control of Egypt and in Syria of the National Coalition. At the same time Iran, the Syrian government’s main military supplier, initiated moves to resolve differences with the US. This resulted in an interim agreement in November – angering both Saudi Arabia and Israel. On the same day, the US negotiator Kerry also announced the full resumption of arms supplies to Egypt and made an attempt to distance the US from its earlier support for the MB in Egypt (apparently concerned at increasingly close links between Egypt and Russia).
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TIMELINE 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France agrees on share of Ottoman Empire provinces 1918 Ottoman Empire collapses after WW1 defeat; Arab Revolt sees proclamation of the first independent Arab government in Damascus 1920, General Syrian Congress declares a United Kingdom of Syria, covering undivided Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. 1919-1921 Alawite uprising 1923 Treaty of Lausanne confirms French rule over Syria-Lebanon territories 1925-27 Great Syria Revolt against French rule 1943 Syria and Lebanon become separate states 1944 Syrian Muslim Brotherhood founded 1946 French colonial rule ends 1947 Arab Ba’ath Party founded in Damascus 1948 Partition of Palestine, creation of Israel, First Arab-Israeli War 1952 Arab Ba’ath Party merges with Arab Socialist Party to form Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party.
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1949 Three different military coups. Adib al-Shishakli eventually takes power 1954 Democratic revolution overthrows Adib al-Shishaklidictatorship. Elections see first Communist MP in Arab world
1958 Nasser oversees creation of Egyptian-dominated United Arab Republic (UAR) comprising Egypt and Syria. Communist opposition leads to repression of CPS
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1961 UAR breaks up acrimoniously 1963 Ba’athists take power first in Iraq and then on March 8 in Syria. 1964 Muslim Brotherhood supporters launch armed uprising in city of Hamas, quickly crushed. 1967 “Six Day War” Surprise Israeli attacks see Israel take parts of Syria’s Golan Heights, Egypt’s Sinai, and Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. 1966 Radical Ba’athist leader Salah Jadeed takes power, turns Ba’ath regime sharply to left. SCP emerges from underground 1970 Hafez Assad leader of the Ba’ath centrists takes power from the Ba’ath left 1972 Ba’ath creates the National Progressive Front, SCP joins. 1973 Arab-Israeli War Egypt and Syria attack Israel to regain lost territories. Syria loses larger area of Golan Heights. 1979 Armed Islamist group Fighting Vanguard massacres military cadets in Aleppo, begins terrorist campaign of bombings and assassinations 1982 Syrian army crushes Islamist rising in Hama. Thousands killed. 1986 Syrian CP splits. Both wings initially keep SCP name. Respective leaders are Yusuf Faisal and Khaled Bagdash 1991 First Gulf War Syria opposes Iraq; Faisal SCP unites with other groups to form SCP (United) 2000 Hafez Assad dies, power passes to his son Bashar 2000-2001 “Damascus Spring” Brief period of open debate and dialogue 2011 Popular protests over legitimate grievances met with violence from government 2012-2013 Armed conflict erupts