After 13 years of bloody war in Syria, on December 7 the rule of the Assad regime in Syria came to an end. While the mass protests against the regime, which originally began with demands for democracy by a part of the people, were suppressed by fierce fascist attacks, Syria became the battlefield of imperialists and reactionary regional powers. The march of HTS shows that the masses, including even military, have withdrawn all support from Assad. That is also the price he had to pay because his regime also brutally oppressed ethnic/national and religious minorities. Russia, in its strategy for power-political influence in the region, abandoned Syria, not least because of its concentration of forces in Ukraine. Assad fled to Moscow to his close ally. The capital Damascus and other Syrian cities were taken militarily by an alliance led by the Islamist HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) within two weeks. It has roots in Al-Qaeda and is connected to the Jabhat al-Nusra and operates with Erdogan in the background. But the new power holders are also welcomed as “good news” from the US and the EU. This is a reaction to the weakening of the influence especially of Iran and Russia in Syria, which are strongly committed in Ukraine and Lebanon. Immediately after the fall of Assad, troops of Zionist Israel occupied the border zone with Syria, opening a “fourth front”. All this underscores the fact that this is by no means an internal Syrian conflict, but an intensification of the contradictions between imperialist blocs and reactionary, fascist powers of all kinds. The joy of the masses at the overthrow of Assad cannot hide the fact that a democratic people's government has by no means been established. If the HTS presents itself as purified by its break with Al Qaeda and ISIS, we are reminded of the initial assertions of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Their fascist rule is now worse and more misogynistic than ever. But in part, such forces apparently also find themselves forced to present a more moderate course in order to keep or extend their mass base. Above all, however, the struggle for power and influence in Syria and the Middle East between various imperialist and other reactionary, fascist forces will intensify.

In view of the seriousness of the situation and the threat of further escalation, the ICOR declares:

1. ICOR strongly condemns the terrorist groups supported by US imperialism, Russian imperialism, the fascist regime and NATO member Turkey and Zionist Israel, as well as all other involved foreign powers, with which they continue the series of crimes they previously committed to occupy and divide Syria. NO imperialist power will bring lasting peace to the people of Syria. All foreign troops, including those of Russia, the USA, Turkey, Iran and Israel must leave Syria immediately.

2. ICOR strongly condemns the attacks and attempted annihilation against the self-governing Rojava and its democratic autonomy.

3. ICOR condemns the Israeli-Zionist aggression against Syria and the occupation of new Syrian territories. ICOR notes that the imperialist-Zionist focus with its fourth front now also on Syria in this phase of the brutal war of extermination against the Palestinian people further pursues the delusion of a Greater Israel. All this shows that the imperialist powers and fascist regional powers, especially the fascist Turkish state, pursue own interests and do nothing but harm to the peoples of Syria.

4. ICOR considers that opening the war front in Syria and targeting Syria is an additional building block in the project of imperialist reordering of Western Asia/Middle East. It considers that the Turkish state wants above all to thwart the right of self-determination of the Kurdish nation, including the right to its own state, and to destroy the autonomous administration in Rojava.

5. ICOR considers that Islamist-fascist groups are the tool of imperialism. ICOR declares that the interventions are intensifying the suffering of the peoples of Syria, intensifying poverty, exploitation and oppression, especially for workers, women and youth. They are forcing migration and devastating nature. A peaceful Syria for the benefit of all peoples living there can only be the work of progressive and revolutionary forces in Syria itself. ICOR calls upon all communists and revolutionaries around the world to fight against imperialist interventions and to unify in resistance against imperialism and fascism.

Syria’s future lies neither in an Islamist-dominated state nor in a Syria divided to suit the interests of the imperialists and regional powers.

Syria’s future lies in a democratic Syria where the peoples live together in freedom and on equal terms, in which the workers and other toilers hold power.

Syria’s future must be decided by the peoples living in Syria.

Stop the imperialist and Zionist-Israeli aggressions in Syria!

For a free, democratic Syria without imperialist and any reactionary interference!

Strengthen the socialist perspective!

Protect the self-governing, democratic Rojava!

Strengthen the idea of proletarian internationalism and strengthen the ICOR!

Status of the signatories 19.12.2024. Further signing possible.

1. ORC Organisation Révolutionnaire du Congo (Revolutionary Organization of Congo), Democratic Republic of the Congo

2. UPC-Manidem Union des Populations du Cameroun - Manifeste National pour l’Instauration de la Démocratie (Union of Populations of Cameroon - National Manifesto for the Establishment of Democracy)

3. CPSA (ML) Communist Party of South Africa (Marxist-Leninist)

4. PPDS Parti Patriotique Démocratique Socialiste (Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party), Tunisia

5. SPB Socialist Party of Bangladesh

6. SPB(M) Socialist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist)

7. Ranjbaran Hezb-e Ranjbaran-e Iran (Proletarian Party of Iran)

8. NCP (Mashal) Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)

9. RUFN Revolutionary United Front of Nepal

10. CPA/ML Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

11. Krasnyj Klin Gruppa Kommunistov-Revoljucionerov „Krasnyj Klin“ (Group of Communist Revolutionaries “Krasnyj Klin” [Red Wedge]), Belarus

12. БКП Българска Комунистическа Партия (Bulgarian Communist Party)

13. PR-ByH Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina)

14. MLPD Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)

15. UPML Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France

16. BP (NK-T) Bolşevik Parti (Kuzey Kürdistan-Türkiye) (Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey))

17. KOL Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)

18. RM Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands

19. UMLP União Marxista-Leninista Portuguesa (Portuguese Marxist-Leninist Union)

20. RMP Российская маоистская партия (Rossijskaya maoistskaya partiya) (Russian Maoist Party)

21. MLKP Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti Türkiye / Kürdistan (Marxist Leninist Communist Party Turkey / Kurdistan)

22. KSRD Koordinazionnyj Sowjet Rabotschewo Dvizhenija (Coordination Council of the Workers Class Movement), Ukraine

23. PCC-M Partido Comunista de Colombia – Maoista (Communist Party of Colombia - Maoist)

24. PCP (independiente) Partido Comunista Paraguayo (independiente) (Paraguayan Communist Party (independent))

25. PC (ML) Partido Comunista (Marxista Leninista) (Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)), Dominican Republic

26. SUCI (C) Socialist Unity Center of India (Communist)

27. CPPDM Chinese People's Party for the Defense of Mao Zedong

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