The revolutionary wave that toppled dictators in Tunisia,Egypt and Libya is continued by those fighting to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad inSyria. Like Gadaffi in Libya, Assad tried to prevent uprisings by bribing different parts of the population and playing Syria’s many religious and ethnic minorities against each other.
We know that the Kurds, who make up around 10% of the population, were bribed with Syrian citizenship – but this citizenship forced them to identify as Syrians, denying their true Kurdish heritage. The Kurds are a powerful force in parts of Syria, with many links to Kurdish communities in Iraq and Turkey which are fighting for an independent homeland.
By granting some autonomy and privileges to them, Assad hopes that they will side with him against the revolutionaries. Kurds, Assyrians and Azeris have long been the target of Assad’s Alawite gangs, but now he has made his main target Syria’s Sunni Muslims.
According to the UN, Syria’s death toll has exceeded 7,500 since the rising started in 2011. The true figure is probably several times higher, with thousands ‘disappeared’ into the regime’s torture camps, and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes.
Kofi Annan’s “master plan” to make UN members and Syria commit to peaceful negotiations failed because China and Russia are locked into astruggle for influence in the region with the big western powers.
Assad and his family are the loyal servants of Russian and Chinese imperialism… just as Mubarak and Gadaffi were the puppets of US, French and British oil interests in north Africa.
The Assad family have rule Syria with an iron fist fordecades – surviving by acting loyally on behalf of one or other of the great powers.
Previously in power was Bashar’s father, Hafez Al-Assad. Hafez was recognised as a man of genocide, killing thousands in places such asHoms which is also being targeted today. It’s true when they say, like father like son, huh?
On May 25 this year a total of 108 people were butchered in the Houla Massacre; the toll included 34 women, and 49 children. Militas known as Shabiha (translated to thugs in Arabic) were responsible and obviously, this incident only strengthened peoples’anger and determination to rid their country of Asad and all his supporters.
You may think, why is the West not intervening with Syria?Why can NATO murder a dictator but not even take a glance at Syria? It is such a shame that the world we live in revolves around money and oil – David Cameron continues to “mourn” for Syria, but would rather lay back and watch the Arab Spring boil right under his feet.
Syria shows that ‘humanitarian intervention’ by the imperialists is never about humanity. Indeed, in Libya British warplanes didnot drop humanitarian aid, but instead delivered death from a mile high at thespeed of sound, dropping thousands of tons of high explosive on Libyan homes.
The Western imperialists would certainly like to have areliable puppet government in Syria, like they do in many other countries – butthey don’t want a military confrontation with China and Russia.
The most important thing is that Syrian revolutionaries and their supporters win the revolution. This can be done by demanding weapons without strings attached from those who claim to support them, and building real links with the Kurds and other oppressed minorities, for example bysupporting and fighting to make the Kurdish demand for an independent homeland a reality.
This will only happen if the workers and youth overthrow Assad themselves – the interference of NATO and Russian imperialists has only brought decades of bloodshed and tragedy to the peoples of the Middle East.
