SYRIA - September 30th, 2018
UIT and its Turkish party IDP, ridding the coat-tails of Erdogan and the Sunnite generals of the FSA, which are to disarm the resistance in Idlib and impose rendition
On September 12th, the Party of the Workers Democracy (IDP) in Turkey, member of UIT, released a statement entitled “Syria: Assad and his allies prepare the final assault in Idlib”, which was later reproduced by Socialist Left of Argentina a week later.
This statement warns of an imminent attack of Al Assad to Idlib, the last stronghold of the Syrian resistance. It is affirmed that “… the simple and hard plan of Assad and his allies: first, to concentrate the remnants of the opposition in Idlib, recovering the control of the rest of the country and later carry out the last attack on this region, to begin the ‘transitional period’ with a strong arm in order to guarantee the future of the regime.”
Of course that UIT claims to be against this attack to Idlib, although they affirm this without a program to confront and defeat Al Assad, because such attack denounced by UIT cannot be stopped simply with a statement denouncing it and “rejecting” it.
However, this is not the only problem of that statement. It covers up completely the true role of Turkey and the FSA generals under its command, which are to disarm the masses from within and impose rendition in Idlib (as it is mentioned in the statement of the paper of the Syrian socialists, The Truth of the Oppressed, 20/9).
For UIT, the only existing problem in Idlib are the “radical islamist groups” such as “Tahrir-al-Sham, which is composed of al-Nusra Front and connections with Al Qaeda” and “the Syrian Front of Liberation, the coalition of several salafist groups”, which “make a systematic effort to destroy the local committees”. However, the true coordination committees that worked with direct democracy were already destroyed by the generals of these army-parties that they denounce and also (mainly) by the FSA generals. The few institutions that are still remaining under the name of “local committees” are bodies of lawyers, doctors, businessmen and other boss politicians that answer whether to FSA or to Tahrir al Sham or any bourgeois army-party. It is exposed that they are totally servile to the FSA, which is not new, it has been so since 2011.
The IDP of Turkey denounces the “jihadists” like al-Nusra. But it seems that for them, the bourgeois generals of the FSA, those servants of the Turkish bourgeoisie that sold out, one by one, the rebel cities of Syria from within, would be a “democratic” faction of the resistance. This is a lie.
Both military apparatus, which are under a bourgeois military leadership, whether al-Nusra or the FSA, are the true obstacle for the masses to retake the path of setting up the Coordination Committees of workers and soldiers, as it happened at the beginning of the revolution in 2011-2012, as we said.
These two bourgeois factions are the limit to defeat Al Assad and re-launch a major offensive. One of them is the FSA, openly linked and financed by the Turkish bourgeoisie and with financial and trading businesses with them, and the other one is that of al-Nusra, a classic national bourgeoisie.
Against both factions that were disputing Idlib and the checkpoints with violent fratricide military clashes, the masses took to the streets at the war cry: “let the brigades be opened and the fronts be opened” some months ago, when Al Assad and Putin started their offensive on Ghouta and Douma. Thus, the exploited stopped that miserable dispute for the business deals that those Sunnite bourgeois gangs made in Idlib.
The manu-militari control imposed by al-Nusra in some regions and sectors of Idlib depends on the degree of the action and mobilization of the masses they want to control.
The same is done by the FSA with its reactionary troops that took over Euphrates and Afrin under the command of the Turkish officers, who didn’t enter to those regions and cities throwing flowers but shooting bullets, to disarm and control the masses. Let’s not forget that Al Assad was the one that handed over Afrin to Turkey, after he received the keys of the city from the Kurdish PKK, whose forces were later pulled back to Rojava.
The whole statement of the IDP and UIT is to white-wash the face of Turkey and the FSA. They give Erdogan and Al Assad the excuse to attack and massacre the rebel fractions that are under the military and political control of al-Nusra. They provide coverage for this massacre that is upon them, which won’t be against the bourgeoisie of al-Nusra (as it wasn’t against the “businessmen” of ISIS) but against the masses and the cities they control.
Let’s not doubt that the role that Al Assad cannot play today, afraid of being defeated if he comes back to Idlib, will be played by Turkey with its “democratic” generals of the FSA.
This is what the Geneva Conference, with its branches in Astana and Sochi, is about. It is a true conspiracy against the revolutionary masses. The fascists Al Assad and Putin massacre broadly. In the areas that they bombed, Gurkha troops entered with the PKK to take over Raqqa and Deir ez Zor under the direct command of US imperialism, with Shell and Exxon keeping all the oil wells in northern Syria. Bashar the dog does the “dirty work” on account of all, while different factions of the Sunnite bourgeoisie manipulate the masses, they disarm them and sold out the rebel cities from within, as we said.
What comes out of the note of the Turkish IDP is that there’s a veil to hide the counterrevolutionary role of Turkey in the region. It seems to be a lie, but in that statement they affirm that Turkey sends “humanitarian aid” to Idlib, which is a total lie. The same thing said the PTS about Putin, claiming Russia was taking “humanitarian aid” to Syria, when its warplanes destroyed half of the country.
What is this “humanitarian aid” from the butcher Erdogan that UIT-CI talks about, when he has closed the borders and killed with live ammunition every Syrian that wants to cross to Turkish territory? It is no different of what the imperialist bourgeoisies in Europe do against the Syrian refugees.
Further, Turkey receives 2500 million euros from the EU to contain the refugees within its borders.
As we see, the mentioned statement of UIT states that, on the aforementioned attack of Al Assad “The current priority of the Turkish government is to keep the new immigration wave inside the Syrian border and fulfill its EU gendarme role as it can do it best.” This reaffirms what we are saying.
The fact that Turkey has its army in Idlib and is surrounding that governorate with 12 checkpoints is not skipped by the authors of this statement. But they affirm that this is only to contain the refugees, or to advance against the Kurdish areas in Syria and there is no class program against the occupation, as we’ll see later.
They cannot lie so that much! Turkey invaded Idlib and the “demilitarize zone” of 25 kilometers, which it took over in the borders of that governorate, implies to sell out rebel cities such as Maraat al Numaan, Jeser al Shughuor and Khan Sheikhoun. There are troops of the FSA that have said they are willing to hand them over, but the mobilized people won’t allow. Not only they will stop the FSA but also the trading Sunnite bourgeoisie of al-Nusra, which quickly they’ll try to disarm the masses and sell them out once the door is opened to keep their business deals in the future government of the Syrian protectorate. The statement of the IDP has lost every kind of view of the class character of the civil war in Syria now.
IDP (the author of the aforementioned statement) deliberately hides that the rebel cities such as Daraa, Aleppo, Homs or Ghouta were sold out by the FSA generals under the Turkish command. They don’t mention the fact of the sellout of the entire heavy weaponry and the fact that these generals are dressing Al Assad’s army uniform today. For them, the rebel cities fell as a consequence of Al Assad attack and his “operation sweep”, and they denounce that now they come for Idlib… when Idlib was occupied by the Turkish army and with the FSA they intend to disarm it from within.
The authors of that statement, members of UIT, may affirm that it was written before the Sochi agreement between Erdogan and Putin, under Trump’s command. But Erdogan had been expressing this policy from before, in several international meetings of the Astana conference (whose existence is not ignored by the statement of the IDP) and this was skipped. Not only this, but Socialist Left, also a member of UIT, reproduced this statement on September 19th, after Sochi meeting and when the plan was underway.,. and yet this fact did not posed any adjustment to the statement, not even a mention… for which we understand that this is the official position of UIT for Syria today.
This policy of UIT servile to the pro-Turkey Sunnite FSA bourgeoisie ended up in a support of Erdogan. It is so, than in the aforementioned statement, even when it was written by a “leftist” party in Turkey, there’s no program for the Turkish workers to confront the Turkish army occupation of Idlib. The war cry of the Turkish working class should be “the enemy is at home” and confront Erdogan and his gang, calling the soldiers that are occupying Idlib to turn the gun around and what’s even better, to give their weapons to the fractions of the Syrian resistance that are in favour of putting the guns under the control of the people in the streets. The Turkish occupation of Idlib, as the evil plan plotted with Putin and Al Assad, can be hit hard from Turkey by the very working class… the Turkish, Kurdish and Syrian as well, in a joint fight. But this is ignored by UIT.
There are 20 million Kurdish exploited in Turkey and there are also 3 million refugees in that country. They are the true allies of the Syrian masses that resist in Idlib. The Syrian question poses the need of a unified struggle to defeat Erdogan and his plans to impose rendition in Idlib and keep that Syrian governorate after the crushing of the revolution. That’s why it is necessary a call to the Kurdish people in Syria to break the pact imposed by the PKK with Al Assad and the US, and to re-establish the front of the revolution to defend Idlib and, together with the Turkish working class and the Kurdish people in Turkey, confront Erdogan. It is also needed a call to the workers in Russia to march against Putin and his white army that invades Syria… such as the Iranian exploited are doing, that they have risen against the Ayatollahs and among their slogans they cry “Get out from Syria!”.
An international fight of the workers of the world together with the Syrian revolution is needed. The world working class has the chance to stop the massacre in its hands. However, in the aforementioned statement, there is no call to the working class of Turkey, Russia or the world… let alone a program for the Kurdish working class to confront PKK, that sold it out in a pact with Al Assad and USA.
We are before a true statement that covers up the entire action of the Turkish government… one of the legs of the conference of Astana and Geneva to finish defeating the Syrian revolution. So, we see that this statement has as a title a proclamation in defense of Idlib but it just supports those who are preparing to surrender it from within, Erdogan and his lackeys of the Sunnite bourgeoisie of the FSA, with the gun to the head of the masses of the fascists Al Assad and Putin.
Paper “The Truth of the Oppressed”
Of the socialists of Syria and Middle East
