#al jolani

[skylark03]

Though I've always been pretty familiar with the general conflict of Syria, I've never known all the moving parts and forces involved. I feel like it's the same for a lot of people, so here's what I've learned:

Bashar al-Assad is bad because of the whole putting children and innocents in prison - that one is pretty cut and dry. His reign was terrible and countless Syrians had to flee the country - it's with great celebration that he has fled to Moscow and Syrian refugees can return to their homes (though a lot of those homes are reduced to rubble in light of the conflict). Seemingly, his power only remained as long as Hezbollah and Russia supported him; with both forces were busy with the Ukraine and Israel respectively, he lost a lot of his defensive power. Armenia, who initially backed the Assad regime (which has a lot to do with Assad recognising the Armenian genocide and siding against Türkiye) has pulled their embassy out of Damascus as Iran's embassy in Damascus was stormed by rebel groups (though it may have reopened a few hours ago as of writing???).

Erdoğan's motives and by extension the TFSA (Free Syrian Army) is shady because of Türkiye and their tendency to casually commit genocide (re: Armenian genocide and Kurdish cultural cleansing); though Erdoğan has put blockades on Israel in light of October 7th, it's unclear how much of that is because Israel is allies with Armenia (Armenia gets 4.8% of its imports from Israel, while Israel receives 7.1% from Armenia) as opposed to earnestly siding with the Palestinians. Türkiye's involvement in NATO and the UN means that a lot of the time it's acting in Western interesting (AKA, the USA) and Western interest in the Middle East is NEVER A GOOD THING!!! In other words, Erdoğan is likely not acting with the interest of Syrian liberation in mind - just that he doesn't like Assad (and is aligning himself against Iran, Russia and Armenia) and doesn't like the prospect of an independent Kurdistan region in Syria.

Another player in the game is Kurdistan - the Syria Defense Force or SDF or the US-backed People's Defense Units (YPG) - which might be the most complicated to me tbh. They are considered a terrorist group by Türkiye; though of course Türkiye has a complicated relationship with Kurdistan - having a strong trade relationship with the autonomous region in Iraq, yet fighting against the YPG (since Türkiye doesn't want an autonomous Kurdish nation on their border) and PKK (who fight against Kurdish oppression in Türkiye). Kurds in general, but specifically the Kurdish Region in Iraq just sorta want autonomy - though to get that autonomy they have aligned themselves with Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel is the only country in the region to recognise Kurdistan as an independent state, though many others of Kurdistan - especially in Syria - have also expressed support for Palestine as an independent state, acknowledging that the Palestinian genocide is the same which Kurds experienced in Turkey. Hafez al-Assad of Syria has also supported certain Kurdish rebellions in the past, specifically in Iraq, and the SDF also allied itself with Bashar al-Assad and Putin against Türkiye, an alleged "painful compromise" to protect the Kurdish population of Syria - even though Assad would never recognise Kurdistan as autonomous (especially not within de facto Syria).

It'd be remiss not to mention Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham or the HTS which toppled Assad and looks like Abu Mohammad al-Jolani is in charge of Syria atm as the transitional government. He has stated he will lead Syria "moderately", and he has cut ties with al-Qaeda. Despite the look, I am not reflexively against a person just for having ties to al-Qaeda (fuck it, even the Taliban or any other Islamic fundamentalist group in the region) because while I disavow these groups and what they stand for, it's hard to do the same for the people part of and supporting those organisations (the whole 'be kind to individuals, but be ruthless to institutions' schtick). Simply put, there's a lot of complicated parts to how terrorists groups like these form in the first place - including the simple fact that you can't bomb your way into peace, as the continued bombing of civilians and residential areas and upheaval of peaceful civilian life only festers radicalisation and anti-USA sentiment and has only bolstered support for terrorist groups who 'protect' civilians from Western bombs at the very least (I know Medhi Hasan has written a few essays on how extremist groups form and how to counter them which cuts through Western propagandic Islamophobic bullshit, if you wanna read into it more). Jolani pretty much said as much himself in an interview with PBS Frontline in 2021: [Jolani] "This issue needs a closer look, we need to consider the recent history of the region. […] We're talking about a region ruled by tyrants - by people who ruled with an iron fist. And this region is surrounded by numerous conflicts and wars. There are thousands who joined al-Qaeda. But why did they join al-Qaeda?" [Jolani] "We were against killing innocent people. I wasn't alone, many of us with a conscience and a true understanding of Islam were against the killing of any innocent person." [Martin Smith] "Americans would say they came to liberate Iraq, and had you not resisted - constant car bombings, IEDs, snipers - there would not have been so much bloodshed." [Jolani] "And if there was no American presence, there would not have been resistance." A lot of his political radicalisation came from the Israeli invasion of the Golan Heights and Julani wanting to "[Defend] a people who are oppressed by occupiers and invaders." Also according to this documentary, Julani, or at least the HTS, has a bit of a history with brutal methods including the torture of prisoners, not to mention his involvement with the Jihadist movement spells uncertainty for Syria's Druze, Christian and Catholic population.

Netanyahu of course is another factor. Immediately after Assad fell, Israel started striking Damascus and invading the buffer region in the Golan heights, exploiting the instability for their own expansionist goals. The UN has protested against this invasion, but like usual they will do nothing to stop it, like even Germany who has held steadfast support of Israel is like "bro wtf". Just yesterday, news broke that Israel dropped a bomb on Syria that was picked up on the fucking Richter scale because the blast was enough to cause a seismic earthquake.

Lemme know if I missed or misrepresented anything (i'll correct the post n' everything) - the conflict is still unfolding n' all and some things are unclear. Whatever happens next, hopefully it'll be at least a little better for the Syrian people, and if not for them then for their children.

[like-tears-in-rain-storms]

Syria’s Alawite Community Under Attack as Gunmen Kill Ten in Hama

Syria police investigate attack on Greek Orthodox church in Hama as new mass grave found near Damascus

Three massacres committed by Turkish occupation in two days in NE, Syria

Northeast Syria: Apparent War Crime by Türkiye-Backed Forces

@speciesbarocus (in case you are interested)

[girlactionfigure]

A-Sham.

[eretzyisrael]

by Orli Peter

The terrorists exploit Western values by weaponising our emotional empathy. Through graphic imagery and tales of victimhood, they provoke “pain empathy”, the visceral emotional reaction to witnessing suffering. Our brains are wired to respond more deeply to the image of a single suffering child than to statistics about millions of people, a phenomenon known as the “identifiable victim effect”. Studies reveal that small charities can raise more money than bigger ones simply by showcasing such poignant imagery. These images involuntarily affect our brain functioning. With exposure to these images, we respond with emotional empathy. The more emotionally empathic we already are, the more vulnerable we are to its weaponisation.

Hamas and its sympathisers skilfully exploit pain-empathy circuits in the brain, flooding the media with real or manipulated images of dead children, even misrepresenting gruesome scenes from other wars – including the Shoah in cases of “Holocaust inversion” – as Palestinian casualties of Israel. Terror leaders have openly stated that higher death tolls benefit their cause. They work to increase civilian casualties by broadcasting messages in mosques and on social media, instructing Gazans to ignore Israeli evacuation warnings, and by physically blocking evacuations through roadblocks or even shooting those attempting to flee. In a blatant display of its anti-humanitarian values, Hamas increases civilian casualties in order to weaponise Western pain-empathy to gain support for their agenda.

But while the militants centre their narrative around victimhood to promote pain-empathy in Western audiences, they simultaneously promote a narrative as victor to excite their base. For example, militant propagandists sent the Western media images of Gazan suffering, while Hamas broadcast GoPro videos of torture and murder to their supporters to invigorate them. They highlighted their victimhood and suffering under the “occupation” of the “colonisers”. They played it brilliantly.

During the 2008 war in Gaza, the international media focused on gruesome and graphic coverage of casualties, sometimes called “war porn”, and transformed a complex conflict into a global emotional spectacle. CNN and the BBC amplified sympathy for Hamas, illustrating the devastating effectiveness of such psychological strategies.

While emotional empathy fosters connectedness, it can also have negative consequences, such as lying to benefit our group, prioritising our group’s interests over principles of justice and connecting so much to another group’s priorities that our empathy is self-destructive.

The ability to truly empathise – combining emotional resonance with cognitive understanding – requires a nuanced, fact-based model of others’ motivations. Without this balance, our empathy becomes a tool for manipulation. What can we do? We must refine our cognitive frameworks to resist propaganda, anchoring our emotional responses in accurate understanding. While individual stories of suffering evoke deep empathy, they must be rescaled to reflect the true scope of the issue. Similarly, the compelling imagery of “blazer-wearing” revolutionaries for peace must be critically examined within the broader context of extremist violence and manipulation.

[tomorrowusa]

Vladimir Putin backed Syria's bloodthirsty dictator Bashar al-Assad for almost the entire quarter century he has ruled Russia. Putin placed Russian bases in Syria and used his military there against civilian populations.

Now that al-Assad has fled to Moscow and the Russia bases in Syria are emptying, Ukraine sees an opening.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha paid a visit to Damascus for talks with Syria's new leader. Ukraine, a major agricultural power, has already sent hundreds of tons of food to Syria since the fall of al-Assad.

Syria’s de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa held talks on Monday with a senior Ukrainian delegation led by Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, the Syrian state news agency (SANA) reported, as Kyiv moves to build ties with the new leadership in Damascus. SANA provided no immediate details about their talks, held in Damascus, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last Friday his country had sent its first batch of food aid to Syria, which is traditionally a close ally of Russia. Zelensky said that 500 metric tonnes of wheat flour were already on their way to Syria as part of Kyiv’s humanitarian “Grain from Ukraine” initiative in cooperation with the United Nations World Food Programme. Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, has said it wants to restore relations with Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad and his flight into exile in Russia. [ ... ] The ousting of Assad by al-Sharaa’s Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has thrown the future of Russia’s military bases in Syria – the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia and the Tartous naval facility – into question.

[choppedcowboydinosaur]

Two things can be true at once. Assad was a brutal dictator. The Syrian rebel factions are not necessarily any better.

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

Manosphere is gonna be in utter disarray.

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

Western nations face a PR crisis as reports suggest there is a rush in Washington to remove HTS and Jolani from the terrorist list after backing their overthrow of Assad.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/antiwar/from-terrorist-to-freedom-fighter-how-the-west-rebranded-al-qaedas-jolani

#TheFreeThoughtProject

[kirstythejetblackgoldfish]

Seriously? Sharaa declaring himself president and then having the gall to demand reparations and admissions of guilt / mistake making from Moscow? Oh, and he wants Moscow to give up Assad to him too, all for one or two naval bases if that? What a clown. If he cared about reparations he would demand them from the powers that instituted Syria's economic destruction - US, UK, Europe, Turkey, even the Gulf States, the US especially. I pray someone knocks him off his high horse one day.

Russia might soon learn that betraying Assad because he wouldn't reconcile with Turkey or meet Erdogan was a terrible mistake

Russia won't give up Assad to literal terrorists (if they'd got him, it would've been worse than what happened to Gaddafi, and that is saying something) but people are worried that Russia will give him up to The Hague if an ICC arrest warrant is issued

[menalovers]

AI fantasy. Sort of like a Syrian western film. I love Grok. It’s still not perfect, but pretty good. I wanted it to draw Assad on a horse on the way to Damascus and Jolani aka Ahmed al Sharaa on a horse on the way to Damascus. It still doesn’t know how to draw Jolani and drew him distant, but I think Assad is perfect. Looks so much like him!

[daniel-nerd]

so... censoring germany's foreign minister because she didnt wear hijab to the meeting with the jihadist regime in syria is bad, but jolani sending suicide bombers to markets filled with civilians, or managing underground torture dungeons, or working with isis, or going after and murdering any non sunni muslim in syria, these are all fine?

[euginemicah]

Kurdish forces fight back against Turkish-backed rebels amid clashes in northern Syria

The SDF launched a counter-offensive against the Turkish-backed SNA to reclaim areas near Syria’s northern border. Clashes have intensified since Bashar al-Assad’s fall. ADVERTISEMENTThe Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a counteroffensive Tuesday against the Ankara-backed Syrian National Army to take back areas near Syria’s northern border with Turkey.Since the fall of the…

[ohsaynationsposts]

Podcast "Oh Say Nation with Marilynn Stark" — a new episode is here. Please watch, like if you like, and subscribe. Thank you.

[kristinhelberg]

Interview SWR1 Leute 19.12.2024

(41´48 Min.)

[feminariden]

It's kinda funny that HTS' reaction to Israel welcoming them with bombings was "i didn't know Israel's Lebensraum would include us too", my dudes thought they were going to be "good ones" 🙄

[poliphoon]

The Syrian theatre of so many players

The Assad Drama in Syria is a shining study of how great teamwork can get the results. For the outside world, it was the Syrian rebels who were responsible for Bashar al-Assad fleeing the country. The reality is that they were just a part of a grand cast that played its role to perfection from behind. How they all together toppled Mr Assad and his government is a study in seamless co-ordination…