Upheavals in Syria (II)

Syria’s ‘new strong man’

Abu Muhammad al Julani, born Ahmed al Sharaa in Riyadh in 1982 and grew up in Mezzeh, a relatively affluent suburb of Damascus, from 1989. In 2003, he went to Iraq, joined the Al Qaeda organisation there. He took part in battles against the US forces until he was interned by the Americans in, among other places, Camp Bucca near the Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr.[1] Released again in 2008, he became active for the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). The terror organisation sent him to Syria in August 2011, where he set up the jihadist Jabhat al Nusra group. Over time it developed into one of the most powerful jihadist organisations in Syria, carrying out numerous terrorist attacks. Julani’s organisation broke away from the ISI in April 2013 to gain greater autonomy for itself and placed itself under Al Qaeda leadership. Still headed by Julani, the group renamed itself Jabhat Fatah al Sham in July 2016, now breaking with Al Qaeda in turn. In January 2017, the organisation merged with other groups to form Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), which means Organisation for the Liberation of the Levant. HTS ultimately succeeded in seizing power in the Idlib governorate. Idlib was the last stronghold of the insurgents, which the Syrian armed forces were never able to conquer thanks, in part, to Turkey’s protection and its strong support for HTS.

Children ‘on the path to martyrdom’

Ideologically, HTS has retained its old jihadist orientation. However, the organisation refrains from ordering terrorist attacks on Western targets. In Idlib it has concentrated on building a society modelled on its goals. A glimpse of its ideology is offered in a study by Aaron Y. Zelin, published two years ago by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in which Julani is reported as declaring, in May 2020, to a group of children on the occasion of the Eid al Fitr holiday that, “We are all on the path to martyrdom.”[2] He then gave a small child a toy pistol. In Idlib, HTS did take systematic action against the rival Islamic State (IS) fighters, but it has also allowed other jihadist groups to operate. These included Jamaat Ansar al Islam, Katibat Imam al Bukhari and Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad. HTS has continuously waged war on the Syrian armed forces. Militiamen from the organisation have fired missiles into government-controlled civilian residential areas of Damascus. HTS has also encouraged child soldiers, forcing children to undergo military training in its camps. The organisation funds itself by controlling parts of the financial, energy and telecommunications sectors in Idlib and managing the borders.

Women without rights

The government in Idlib, which has been operating under the name of the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) since 2017, is effectively run by HTS under Julani. Although ministers and the members of an advisory body, the Shura Council, are elected, the candidates are hand-picked in advance by the Idlib leaders. As for suffrage, only men who are deemed worthy are allowed to vote, while women are denied any right to vote on principle. Women are also subject to harsh restrictions in daily life. A report by the UN Human Rights Council documents numerous cases in which women were arrested for allegedly dressing inappropriately or for travelling in public without a male relative.[3] Christians, as Zelin describes in his study, are given a status (mustamin) with inferior rights that is accorded to non-Moslems residing in Islamic territory. Members of Alawite and Druze communities are considered apostates from Islam. HTS had, by 2022, already confiscated at least 550 properties previously belonging to Christians. Numerous Druze have undergone forcible conversion to Islam. According to Zelin, an organisation of Uyghur jihadists, Katibat al Ghuraba al Turkestan, is notorious for occupying Druze-owned properties and openly abusing Druze.[4]

Torture and murder

Criticism of HTS is unwelcome in the Idlib governorate. The UN Human Rights Council referred in the above report to numerous cases of activists and journalists who have been arbitrarily detained. It identified 64 people who have been “disappeared” by HTS.[5] There is a record of HTS members murdering two opposition journalists in November 2018. A lawyer from Idlib told Zelin that death sentences were carried out in secret prisons without trial. Residents who oppose the views of HTS are, according to the UN Human Rights Council, regularly tortured in detention centres. They are beaten, put in narrow boxes (‘coffins’) or hung by their limbs – sometimes for days on end. There is also evidence that detainees have had their fingernails pulled out or their arms and legs broken. Male prisoners reported being sexually abused, having their genitals electrocuted or being raped. Cases of women being raped in HTS detention centres are also documented. Summing up the dire record of the Idlib-based Islamists, Zelin dryly poses the question that arises for policymakers in Washington: should they overlook all this like they do with other allies in the region?[6]

‘Moderate and conciliatory’

That question is posed today more than ever. Not only are HTS fighters currently patrolling the streets of Damascus to enforce stability. The Prime Minister of the HTS-controlled Syrian Salvation Government in Idlib, Muhammad al Bashir, who has been in office since January, has just been appointed Prime Minister of the new Syrian transitional government. And HTS leader Julani, who is regard as the mastermind behind current developments in Damascus, is to be a leading figure in any future regime. While there is talk of Syria’s “new strongman”, the Western media are also claiming Julani has reformed as he developed from an ISI terrorist to the real ruler of Idlib governorate. German public-service broadcaster ZDF say he “uses a language of reconciliation and tolerance”, having undergone a “transformation ... from jihadist to moderate and conciliatory fighter.”[7]

Ready to cooperate

Berlin has reacted in two ways. First, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared, in a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, his willingness to “work together with the new rulers” in Syria, which should be done “on the basis of fundamental human rights” and the “protection of ethnic and religious minorities”.[8] Second, politicians from the CDU/CSU parties have been quick to urge fast repatriation of Syrian refugees. Former health minister Jens Spahn, who is now deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, suggests, “How about the federal government saying: for anyone who wants to return to Syria we will charter planes and give them a thousand euros to get started.” [9] Bavaria’s state premier, Markus Söder, has said there must be urgent consideration of “how stronger repatriation” could be initiated.[10] In Hesse, the state’s interior minister, Roman Poseck (CDU), has been quite explicit, “We have a strong interest in returning refugees to their home country, either voluntarily or through forced deportations.”[11] This “home country” means Syria in the wake of the Islamist HTS’s triumph.

More on this topic: Upheavals in Syria (I).

[1] Charles R. Lister: The Syrian Jihad. Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency. London 2015.

[2] Aaron Y. Zelin: The Age of Political Jihadism. A Study of Hayat Tahrir al Sham. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Washington, May 2022.

[3] United Nations Human Rights Council: Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. 11.03.2021.

[4] Aaron Y. Zelin: The Age of Political Jihadism. A Study of Hayat Tahrir al Sham. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Washington, May 2022.

[5] United Nations Human Rights Council: Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. 11.03.2021.

[6] Aaron Y. Zelin: The Age of Political Jihadism. A Study of Hayat Tahrir al Sham. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Washington, May 2022.

[7] “Er nutzt eine Sprache der Versöhnung und Toleranz”. zdf.de 08.12.2024.

[8] Bundeskanzler Scholz telefoniert mit dem französischen Staatspräsidenten Macron. bundesregierung.de 09.12.2024.

[9] Opposition dringt auf rasche Beschlüsse über Flüchtlinge. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10.12.2024.

[10] Neue Töne aus der Union zu Syrien-Rückkehrern. tagesschau.de 10.12.2024.

[11] Sonja Süß: Kritik an Posecks Vorstoß zu Syrien-Abschiebungen. hessenschau.de 10.12.2024.