Syriac Union Party ܓܒܐ ܕܚܘܝܕܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ حزب الإتحاد السرياني في سوريا | |
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| President | Ishow Gowriye[1] |
| Founded | 1 October 2005 (2005-10-01) |
| Security wing | Sutoro |
| Military wing | Syriac Military Council |
| Female military wing | Bethnahrain Women's Protection Forces |
| Ideology | Assyrian/Syriac Interests Syrian federalism[1] Dawronoye[2] |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| National affiliation | National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change |
| International affiliation | Mesopotamia National Council[2] |
| Colors | Red, yellow |
| Democratic Council | 3 / 43 |
| Website | |
| Facebook http://www.syriac-union.org | |
Syriac Union Party in Syria (Syriac:ܓܒܐ ܕܚܘܝܕܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ,romanized: Gabo d'Ḥuyodo Suryoyo,Arabic:حزب الإتحاد السرياني في سوريا,SUP) is a secularAssyrian political party inSyria that represents the interests ofAssyrians in Syria and is committed to theDawronoye modernization ideology.[2] Established on 1 October 2005, since the start of theSyrian Civil War it has positioned itself on the side of secular, democratic, socialist and federalist Kurdish forces inRojava, skeptical of both theBa'athist Syrian government ofBashar al-Assad and theNational Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.
With the start of theSyrian Civil War in 2011, the Syriac Union Party aligned itself with the KurdishDemocratic Union Party (PYD), with which it shares asecular, pro-modernization anddirect democracy based ideology.[2] It has three deputies in theSyrian Democratic Council, the legislature of theAutonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
The Syriac Union Party has set up theSyriac Military Council militia as well as theSutoro police force to protect Assyrian communities in their settlement areas in northeast Syria.[5] Sutoro are integrated with the generalAsayish police force ofJazira Region of theDemocratic Federation of Northern Syria, however the Qamishli branch later broke away to align itself with the Assad government under the name ofSootoro.[6] TheSyriac Military Council has co-operated closely with the mainly KurdishPeople's Defense Units (YPG)[7] and later became part of theSyrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Deputy Prime Minister of the region is Syriac ChristianElizabeth Gawrie.[8]
The Syriac Union Party has been subject to continued repression by the Assad government during the civil war, despite being part of the nonviolent and officially-tolerated domestic oppositionNational Coordination Body. On 6 June 2013, government forces raided the Qamishli home of SUP Executive Committee member Rubel Gabriel Bahho, arresting and subsequently imprisoning him.[9] On 12 August 2013, security forces apprehended SUP vice-president Sait Malki Cosar—the father of Sutoro leader Johann Cosar—as he disembarked atQamishli Airport following a visit toSwitzerland, where he holds dual citizenship.[10] After being detained in Qamishli for several days, Cosar was transferred to a prison nearDamascus and contact with him was lost.[11] Neither party official is known to have been formally charged or tried in court, and neither has been released or heard from since their imprisonment.[12] Their fates remain unknown as of February 2014.
Cosar is rumoured to have died under shadowy circumstances while in custody.[11] The government produced adeath certificate for Cosar that stated he died in Damascus of supposed "cardiac arrest" at either 10:00[13] or 10:25[10] PM on the day of his arrest, even though his flight did not even land in Qamishli until 10:30 PM.[10] But despite requests from both the SUP and Cosar's family, government officials have refused to release his body.[11] Cosar's relatives reportedly managed to track down the doctors in Damascus who signed the death certificate, who told them that the government frequently forces doctors to sign death certificates for detainees without allowing them to even see a corpse.[10][13] Friends, family members, and party colleagues alike believe that Cosar may still be alive,[10] and have alleged that the government is trying to conceal the fact that he has been tortured in custody.[13]
On 15 August 2012, members of Syriac Union Party stormed the Syrian embassy inStockholm in protest of the Syrian government. A dozen of its members were later detained bySwedish police.[14]
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