Syria

According to Mustafa Karasu, the AKP-MHP regime is trying to hide the catastrophic reality in the earthquake zones.
Bill Fletcher Jr. convenes Ukrainian historian and social activist Vladyslav Starodubtsev, Syrian-American activist Ramah Kudaimi, and Rafael Bernabel of the Puerto Rican Senate to discuss solidarity with Ukraine from parts of the Global South.
Will Turkey's Syria policy take the form Erdoğan wants by the time of the elections? What position will be taken when Iran comes into play, and what does this situation mean for the Kurds? Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP Hişyar Özsoy, co-spokesperson of the party’s Foreign Relations Commission, addressed these questions.
In view of the Turkish wave of attacks on Rojava and the Medya Defence Zones, the Kurdistan Women's Freedom Party (PAJK) said: "No power will achieve its goal by shedding Kurdish blood. The Kurdish people will not give up their struggle at any price."
A collection of statements from Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), Women's Defense Units (YPJ), YPG/YPJ International, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Union Party (PYD) condemning the latest wave of Turkish attacks on North-East Syria and northern Iraq.
Ebru Günay, spokesperson for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), spoke at a press conference in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) about Turkey’s continued attacks on northern Syria and speculation about a rapprochement between Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad.
Hints of a meeting between AKP leader and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, as well as ministerial contacts, have revealed a change in Turkey's Syria policy in recent weeks. But what really changed? Erdoğan continues his attacks and invasion preparations against northern and eastern Syria unabated. The Turkish president sought a "green light" from Russia and Iran. Putin told Erdoğan to clarify this issue with Assad. Erdoğan then changed course. The question now is whether Turkey will be able to reach an anti-Kurdish agreement to invade northern and eastern Syria this way, or whether it will launch an invasion on its own initiative without getting the "green light".
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Syria After the Uprisings: the political economy of state resilience
By Joseph Daher
Pluto Press, London, 2019

Reviewed by Chris Slee

January 13, 2020 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — This book is a comprehensive account of the rebellion against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In it, Joseph Daher explains the reasons for the rebellion, which began in 2011 as a response to political repression, corruption, economic inequality and poverty, and why it has failed to overthrow Assad.

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By Bulent Gokay and Lily Hamourtziadou

October 11, 2019 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — On October 6, the White House declared US troops would be withdrawn from northern Syria and no longer be in the immediate area ahead of a Turkish military operation. It also added the US would not support or be involved in the operations, and that Turkey would now be responsible for the fate of all Islamic State (IS) fighters captured during the last two years (totalling 12,000 men and 70,000 women and children) and currently held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias.