1 We welcome the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. We congratulate the Syrian people for the final defeat of a dictatorship that had misruled them for over 50 years, killed hundreds of thousands of people, impoverished and displaced millions, and torn the country apart. The democratic and popular revolution of March 2011 has finally been vindicated. 

2 A huge burden has been lifted off the shoulders of the Syrian people. Assad’s fall is an opportunity for them, regardless of religion or ethnicity, to build a new free and independent Syria on the ruins of this murderous dictatorship.

3 The regime responded to the revolution by unleashing the terrible war that devastated Syria during the past decade. Helped by his allies, Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, Assad succeeded in militarily crushing the revolutionary forces. Nevertheless, popular resistance over time so undermined the regime so that, when Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) mounted its offensive, no one was prepared to defend it.

4 The moment of collapse was shaped by intersecting internal and external factors. These included Russia’s distraction in Ukraine, Iran and Hezbollah’s weakening by the Israeli offensive since September, the regime’s refusal to normalize relations with Turkey, its refusal to seek any negotiated political solution, and the decay and collapse of its institutions, particularly the army.

5 The advance by HTS and other opposition militias would not have been possible without Turkey’s approval and support. Major confrontations with regime forces were minimal, with cities falling at an extraordinary pace. Damascus fell after just 12 days. The regime’s forces, including soldiers and junior officers, refused to defend it. Troops abandoned their weapons and returned to their villages and towns. When the masses saw that regime forces had withdrawn, they flooded the streets, chanting for the fall of the regime and liberation. It was following this that forces from HTS moved through the cities.

6 The war had already allowed outside powers to carve out spheres of influence in Syria. This continues despite the flight of the Assad dynasty. Turkey now has a dominant influence. Though the United States and Israel would probably have preferred to keep an enfeebled Assad regime in Damascus, they see its fall as part of the process of ‘reordering the Middle East’ that began with the offensive against Lebanon. Israel has launched massive bombardments designed to destroy Syria’s military capabilities, consolidated its control of the Golan Heights, and occupied new territory. Israel aims to render Syria, which has fought three wars against it, a demilitarized state, regardless of its future governance. The US has also carried out numerous air raids and maintains its own enclave in Syria. These are major threats to the Syrian people’s new freedom.

7 HTS now controls the government in Damascus. It is a jihadi organization that, while disciplined and effective, implemented repressive and social conservative policies in Idlib. It has very little social base, and will struggle to achieve a balance between its own ambitions and interests, those of rival Syrian political forces, and the demands of the outside powers. This a recipe for further instability and conflict.

8 We support all actions to expand and strengthen the possibilities of organizing the working class and the broader masses against Syrian capitalism and against the imperialist and regional predators. We support the demands of our comrades in the Revolutionary Left Current for the rapid construction of a democratic Syria:

9 Turkey must bring an end to all its military operations, military presence and the policies in Syria that create tensions and conflicts between Syrian opposition forces and the Kurdish opposition in Syria. A conflict between Kurds and other peoples in Syria could lead to another civil war and become a severe assault on the Kurdish people's right to exist and live in Syria. Conditions must be created for the Kurdish people, like all peoples of Syria, freely to determine their own destinies, and Turkey must not intervene in such developments.

10 Mainstream politicians and the far right in Europe and Turkey have reacted to Assad’s fall by demanding that Syrian refugees go home. Austria has announced plans to deport Syrians, while Belgium, Britain, France, Greece and Germany are pausing Syrian asylum applications. Syrian refugees are victims of Assad’s oppression and of anti-migrant racism. They have the right to return home if they choose, but they also have the right to decide to stay in the countries where they have rebuilt their lives. It is contemptible that a great democratic victory is being used for yet more racist scapegoating. We welcome migrants and refugees and reject all immigration controls.

The Coordination of the International Socialist Tendency  14 December 2024