We applaud the overthrow of Syria’s brutal Assad Dynasty (1971-2024), which has brutally oppressed the Syrian people and has engaged in crimes against humanity during Syria’s civil war which has killed an estimated 600,000 people and displaced over half of Syria’s 23 million people. We are encouraged by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s prohibition of the forced wearing of the hijab, its favorable statements towards press freedom, and conciliatory statements towards ethnic and religious minorities. Yet we are wary of premature announcements of the victory of freedom and democracy. HTS is a designated terrorist organization consisting of former al-Qaeda affiliates. Nor does merely occupying Damascus provide legitimacy to govern all of Syria.

Russia has used Syria as a training ground for crimes against humanity, reducing Aleppo and other major cities to rubble with scorched-earth techniques devastating the civilian population and infrastructure. Russian terror tactics developed and refined in Syria were applied in the siege of Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities. Russia’s Syrian bases have exported terror to Africa, including Mali, Sudan, Libya, and the Central African Republic, and in consolidating the power of Niger’s military junta. We are concerned at Russia’s attempts to negotiate an ongoing presence in Syria, or of Russian war criminals being guaranteed safe evacuation instead of being prosecuted for their crimes.

The overthrow of the Assad Regime has been used as cover by the Turkish government and its Syrian National Army (SNA) proxies to assault Syria’s only major democratic group, the Kurdish-majority Syrian National Forces (SNF). The Turkish and Syrian states have engaged in long-term systemic oppression and discrimination against the Kurds, including ethnic cleansing, denial of Kurdish identity, and mass atrocities. Tens of thousands of ISIS detainees who participated in war crimes and genocide remain in SNF detention camps, even as jihadists have pledged to “liberate” them.

Turkish president Erdogan’s ominous statement that “we cannot allow Syria to be divided again from now on” with the announcement of invasion of Kurdish lands signals the intent to subjugate Syria’s only democratic regions with its Islamist proxies. The US Administration’s warnings to the SNA and Turkiye not to attack the SNF or cross the east bank of the Euphrates have been ignored. Turkiye has engaged in unrelenting artillery and airstrikes against the SNF. The SNA has taken the historically Kurdish city of Manbij and is assaulting the Kurdish-majority Kobane region. Turkish drones have damaged the Tishrin Dam, leaving tens of thousands without electricity or heat. Civilians have been killed, thousands have been displaced, and infants and elderly have died from cold with no shelter. The SDF’s appeals for US assistance have gone unanswered. Aggression against the Kurds has gone scarcely mentioned in the Western press, and Turkey has experienced no accountability.

We call for the Syrian government and the international community to promote key human rights priorities pursuant to the fall of the Assad regime: 

1. Ensuring the protection of all people and ethnic groups, especially the long-persecuted Kurdish, Yazidi and Christian minorities that have been subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing. 

2. Establishment of a robust constitutional democracy which provides self-determination as well as protections against oppression of minority groups by a ruling majority. 

3. Immediate closure of all Russian military bases and seizure of Russian assets, and the detention and trial of Russian military personnel who participated in crimes against humanity in Syria, Ukraine, and Africa.  The complete closure of Russian bases in Syria must be a non-negotiable prerequisite for the recognition of any legitimate Syrian government.