Anarchism in Syria emerged as a largely disorganized movement during the authoritarian rule of the Assad government, but following the initiation of theArab Spring has been a particularly notable factor in theRojava conflict during thecivil uprising phase of the Syrian civil war.
In the late 19th century, Syrians were at the forefront of the Arab anarchist movements inEgypt andBeirut, spreading anarchist ideas through the publication the radical periodicalsAl Hilal andAl Muqtataf and organizing radical theatre performances.[1]
Following the independence ofSyria fromFrance at the end ofWorld War II, the newSyrian Republic wasconstituted as aparliamentary democracy. Despite a brief period ofmilitary dictatorship underAdib Shishakli during the early 1950s, parliamentarism wasrestored in 1954. However, power was still largely concentrated in the hands of the military, with the weakness of the parliamentary system leading to the rise of socialist and nationalist ideologies, particularlyNasserism andBa'athism. After briefly uniting withEgypt to form theUnited Arab Republic, acoup d'état restored Syrian independence in 1961. But an unstable political climate led to anothercoup d'état in 1963, which brought Syria under the rule of theArab Socialist Ba'ath Party.[2][3]
A power struggle within the party eventually culminated in theseizure of power by a military faction led byHafez al-Assad, who became thePresident of Syria. Assad oversaw the transformation of Syria into an authoritarian one-party state, gave more space to private property, organized state services along sectarian lines and created acult of personality around himself.[4] When Hafez al-Assad died in 2000, his sonBashar al-Assad succeeded him as president.[3] The new political climate gave way to theDamascus Spring, which called for a number of reforms including an end to the state of emergency that had been imposed since 1963. However, this movement was suppressed by the government,[5] which intensified authoritarian rule in the country and introduced a number ofneoliberal market reforms.[6]
Due to the authoritarianism of the Assad government, the anarchist movement was rather limited in its organizing capacity. Nevertheless, a number of Syrian individuals began to become prominent voices in the wider Arab anarchist movement, includingMazen Kamalmaz,Nader Atassi andOmar Aziz. It wasn't until the outbreak of the civil uprising in 2011 that the Syrian anarchist movement took on a more organized form.[7]
When theSyrian civil uprising first broke out on March 15, 2011, a number of Syrian anarchists were among the participants. The anarchist Omar Aziz, who had recently returned to the country, helped to distribute humanitarian aid in the areas of Damascus under attack by the Assad government. Inspired by the solidarity and mutual aid he had experienced, Aziz publishedThe Formation of Local Councils in November 2011, detailing a vision of self-governance as a route for emancipation from the state. The paper quickly became one of the core theoretical proposals for revolutionary strategy, circulated among Syrians that were rising up against the Assad government.[8] Revolutionary councils subsequently began to form at district and city levels, both in rebel-held and government-held territory, to ensure people were provided with basic services, to coordinate local committees and liaise with the nascent armed resistance, taking over many of the functions that were previously held by the state.[9] From these local organizations, a number of umbrella groups formed to coordinate action on a regional and national level, including theLocal Coordination Committees (LCC) and theSyrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC).
However, with theescalation of the conflict, the grassroots elements of the Syrian civil uprising began to face repression, both by the Assad government and by members of theSyrian opposition. In government-held territory, Omar Aziz was arrested by theAir Force Intelligence Directorate and detained in an overcrowded prison, where he died from health complications in February 2013.[10] In rebel-held territory such asRaqqa,Idlib andAleppo, Islamist groups such as theAl-Nusra Front and theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant began to take power away from the local councils and transferred it into the hands of Sharia courts, to the protest of the local populations.[11]
Nevertheless, local councils continued to grow throughout Syria. In July 2013, 128 local councils were listed by theSyrian Nonviolence Movement.[12] And according to the Local Administration Council Unit, by March 2016, an estimated 395 local councils existed in rebel-held territories.[13] But these newly created councils were largely excluded from political participation by theSyrian National Council, so resolved to form their own national organization.[14]
On January 16, 2011, theMovement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) was established by theDemocratic Union Party (PYD) with the goal of organizing northern Syria along the lines ofdemocratic confederalism,[15][16] a system of self-governance inspired by the libertarian socialist theories ofMurray Bookchin.[17] In July 2012, thePeople's Protection Units (YPG) captured the Kurdish cities ofKobanî,Amuda andEfrin without resistance,[18] after theSyrian Arab Army pulled out of the cities to fight elsewhere,[19] and began to establish a self-governed autonomous region in Northern Syria.[20] On January 9, 2014, the PYD officially announced the autonomy of the cantons in Northern Syria. AnAutonomous Administration wasconstituted and popular assemblies were established by its residents.
On September 15, 2014, theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant launched theSiege of Kobanî,[21] the culmination of a year-longoffensive into northern Syria. But by late January 2015, the YPG-led forces recapture the city, driving ISIL back.[22] Some of the defenders of Kobanî were made up by international volunteers of theUnited Freedom Forces, including the Turkish green anarchist groupSocial Insurrection, which had been founded inTuzluçayır in 2013.[23] The internationalist participation in the battle for Kobanî inspired the formation of theInternational Freedom Battalion (IFB), which united left-wingforeign fighters in support of the Autonomous Administration.[24]
The first of the anarchist detachments to volunteer was theRevolutionary Union for Internationalist Solidarity (RUIS), a Greek anarcho-communist squad founded in April 2015.[25] On March 31, 2017, theInternational Revolutionary People's Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF) was established and affiliated to the IFB, becoming the second international anarchist detachment to volunteer.
During theRaqqa campaign, the RUIS[26] and IRPGF were among the participants on the side of theSyrian Democratic Forces, while some anarchist volunteers were integrated directly into the YPG itself.[27] During the campaign, anarchist detachments fought in theBattle of Tabqa and theBattle of Raqqa, playing a role in the SDF victory on the Raqqa front. After the capture of Raqqa, the IRPGF announced the formation ofThe Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army (TQILA), aqueer anarchist detachment formed in order to combat thepersecution of LGBT people by ISIL.[28][29] TheAnarchist Struggle (TA) was also established around this time, becoming the fourth international anarchist detachment to be integrated into the IFB.[30]
At the beginning of 2018, theTurkish Armed Forces (TAF) and theSyrian National Army (SNA) launched aninvasion ofEfrin. Anarchist detachments including RUIS and TA were among the internationalists that attempted to defend the canton.[31] On February 24, the Icelandic anarchistHaukur Hilmarsson, was killed while fighting as part of RUIS.[32] On March 4, the Turkish anarchist Şevger Ara Makhno was killed, while fighting as part of TA.[33] Despite the resistance, on March 18, the Turkish-led forces capturedAfrin city[34] and pacified the remainder ofAfrin District over the subsequent week.[35]
TA was subsequently transferred to fight in the resumedDeir ez-Zor campaign, in an operation to capture what remained of ISIL's dwindling territories along theEuphrates. On March 18, 2019, during theBattle of Baghuz Fawqani, the Italian anarchistLorenzo Orsetti was killed in an ambush, while fighting as part of TA.[36]
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