By Atakan Çiftçi, a leader of IDP Turkey and the IWU-FI
Originally published on 29 December 2024 at https://www.gazetenisan.net
Following the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December, events in Syria are moving at a breakneck pace. Despite HTS’s current political dominance, interim head of state Jelani (Ahmad Al Sharaa) hosts frequent delegations. Jelani’s new look distracts from the real question: this process’s future development.
The political “transition”
After the fall of the Assad regime, HTS formed an interim government without including representation from other opposition sectors. Under Jelani’s pragmatic leadership, they attempted to integrate the Ba’athist bureaucracy as much as possible instead of completely dismantling it. Mohammed al-Bashir, head of Idlib province, became prime minister of the Syrian interim government and announced general elections for March 1, 2025. Jelani declared he will hold a National Dialogue Conference to include other political and social sectors.
The most decisive issue of the coming period will undoubtedly be political democracy. Will they guarantee the rights of religious and national minorities, as well as those of women? Regarding: Freedom of organisation and expression: will it be established? Will political parties be able to take part in the elections under equal conditions? The conformists merely complain, assuring that HTS will not fulfil these objectives while hiding their heads. For our part, we revolutionaries, aware that all these points are part of a political struggle, are preparing to fight in this direction. We have no expectations of any leadership from HTS or any other bourgeois leadership. We rely solely on the determination of the people, who, with a heroic struggle, have overthrown a barbaric dictatorship, and are mobilising to build a revolutionary political alternative.
Economic reconstruction
The Assad regime left not only a humanitarian catastrophe but also massive economic devastation in Syria. In its final years, the Assad regime allowed the drastic devaluation of the Syrian pound, rendering the currency practically worthless. Over 90 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty, and even the social sectors favoured by the regime were left without access to food and energy. Attracting “foreign investments” from imperialist countries will not solve this disaster, but it will with an anti-capitalist program that prioritises the needs of the people.
Urgent measures include nationalisation without compensation of all assets of the Assad oligarchy, cancellation of debts to Iran and Russia – the main responsible for the devastation of the country, expropriation without compensation of companies related to these countries, suspension of payment of public debt and the use of these resources under centralised planning to meet the immediate needs of the people.
Golan, Gaza, and Yarmouk
Another development that has marked this new period is the increasing aggression of the Zionist state. Shortly after the fall of Assad, Israel launched dozens of air strikes, destroying key infrastructure and almost all Syrian air and naval forces. In addition, it extended its occupation beyond the Golan Heights, capturing strategic areas such as Mount Hermon and the Lebanese-Syrian border crossings. In the Yarmouk Valley, Israeli forces fired on civilians protesting against the occupation, injuring one person.
So far, the HTS leadership has limited itself to issuing low-key statements in the face of Israeli attacks. Jelani justified this stance by stating that “the depleted situation in Syria after years of conflict does not allow for new confrontations.” It could be argued that Syria’s current situation does not allow for open military confrontation with Israel. However, large sectors of the Syrian people have always stood by the side of the Palestinian people and have never forgotten the Zionist occupation of the Golan Heights. The Syrian people have always opened their doors to Palestinian refugees who had to flee the massacres of Zionism, and Palestinians have lived in various parts of Syria for many years, especially in the Yarmouk refugee camp. The current Israeli attacks have also generated deep anger among the Syrian people. Israeli aggression can only be stopped by politically mobilising this anger. Therefore, the political and diplomatic stance of the HTS leadership in the face of Israeli aggression is not due to the “exhaustion of the Syrian people”, but to its own conciliatory, collaborative and pragmatic policy. Those who see this whole process as a US-Israeli conspiracy have presented Israel’s attacks and military advances in Syria as proof of this. This interpretation is based on the assumption that there is an “axis of resistance” in the region consisting of Iran, the Assad regime, Hezbollah and Palestinian organizations. However, as we have pointed out in many other places, the Assad regime has not fired a single bullet in the last 50 years against Israel, nor did it go beyond its rhetoric, while Zionism has never been in favour of overthrowing Assad since 2011.The Syrian Air Force, destroyed by Israel, has not conducted a single raid to retake the Golan Heights or to prevent genocide in Gaza. It has, however, organised countless operations to massacre the Syrian people. After the revolution, the regime itself destroyed Yarmouk because it was not on the side of the Assad regime. After the fall of the regime, 630 Palestinian prisoners were released from Sednaya prison alone. As a Syrian revolutionary said, “Freedom is the common destiny of Gaza, Yarmouk, and the Golan”.
When the dictators fall…
The fall of the Assad dictatorship was not good news for the region’s dictators, monarchs or authoritarian leaders. The most disgruntled among them are undoubtedly Ayatollah Khamenei and Putin. Iranian militias and Russian troops have almost completely withdrawn from the country. Russia has even begun to withdraw its fleet from Tartus, which could mean the total loss of its military base in that region.
Egyptian dictator Sisi is another of the most disgruntled. Aware of the contagious nature of revolutions from previous experiences, Sisi fears a new wave of protests in Egypt. His decision to arrest Syrians who attempted to celebrate the fall of Assad is undoubtedly a result of this fear. His statement to those close to him, “Don’t worry, because my hands are not stained with blood” could be interpreted as a verbal slip born out of this same concern.
The oil monarchies are concerned about the possibility of the emergence in Syria of a democratic political regime based on popular sovereignty that could serve as an example, above all, for their own populations and for the region. As for the Erdoğan government, its major concern lies in preventing the Kurds from achieving permanent autonomy or, at least, ensuring that this process takes place under its tutelage and control.
Democratic reforms, worker-focused planning, refugee return, and ending foreign interference define Syria’s new period. How these dynamics strengthen will depend on the struggles to be waged in the political arena. This is precisely why building a socialist political alternative becomes a vital priority. Social movements, including recent protests, signal a growing socialist option.
