http://themilitant.com/2017/8101/810104.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 1 January 2, 2017
(front page)
Workers in Syria face catastrophe as Moscow, Assad seize Aleppo
Aleppo Media Center
Crushing of resistance to Assad regime in Aleppo opens new stage in war
devastating working people in Syria. Above, residents of eastern Aleppo
prepare to be evacuated in mid-December.
BY NAOMI CRAINE
Tens of thousands of civilians and fighters opposing the Syrian
dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad are being evacuated from the city of
Aleppo. Thousands of Syrian rebels faced a brutal defeat at the hands of
Russian airstrikes and ground troops from Assad’s army, Iran and
Tehran-backed Shiite militias from Lebanon and Iraq, as Washington and
the European imperialist powers stood aside, seeking to pursue their
interests without being drawn into a ground war in Syria.
Those leaving the city are the latest wave in a catastrophe for working
people that has left over 400,000 dead and more than half the country’s
population driven from their homes.
These events register shifts in relations among some of the main
capitalist ruling classes intervening in Syria to advance their
competing interests — particularly the growing alliance of the
governments of Russia, Turkey and Iran. And they highlight how
Washington, for decades the dominant imperialist power in the Middle
East, has been increasingly pushed aside.
Since crushing popular protests for democratic rights in 2011, the Assad
regime has a well-earned reputation for carrying out bloody reprisals
against opponents of his rule.
Assad’s repression led to over five years of civil war. The regime
suffered reverses, losing territory — including large parts of Aleppo —
and found it increasingly difficult to recruit troops. But Iranian
troops, Lebanese-based Hezbollah forces and Moscow air power tipped the
balance against the rebellion. Because of Washington’s reluctance to
offer any substantial military aid, opposition forces faced massive
bombings, artillery attacks and increased ground forces with hand
weapons and little else.
Ankara seeks deal with Moscow against Kurds
For years the Turkish government funded and armed many of the groups
fighting Assad’s rule. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
shifted Ankara’s strategy, dropping efforts to depose Assad in favor of
collaboration with Moscow. Ankara’s goal? To win Moscow’s backing for
its attacks on Kurdish forces in Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
Turkish-backed groups pulled back from the fight in Aleppo, and instead
are fighting alongside Turkish troops in northern Syria against the
Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow Dec. 20,
“leaving the United States on the sidelines as the countries sought to
drive the conflict in ways that serve their interests,” the New York
Times said. They agreed to broker talks in Kazakhstan to try to reach a
broader cease-fire “between the Syrian government and the opposition and
to become its guarantor,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Both Moscow and Ankara took pains not to let the meeting be derailed by
the assassination in Ankara of Andrei Karlov, Russia’s ambassador to
Turkey, the day before by an off-duty cop who shouted, “Allahu akbar”
and “Don’t forget Aleppo.” Turkish authorities are seeking to link the
gunman to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who
Ankara accuses of orchestrating an attempted coup in July. Tens of
thousands accused by Erdogan of being agents of Gulen have been fired,
jailed and “disappeared” in a brutal crackdown since.
As of Dec. 20, at least 25,000 people had been bused out of eastern
Aleppo since the Russian and Turkish governments brokered a cease-fire,
with many more waiting to evacuate. Most are being taken to Idlib
province, which is controlled by government opponents. The dominant
forces there are Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which was formerly the
al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and other Islamist groups. Idlib is “not a
popular destination for fighters and civilians from east Aleppo, where
nationalist rebel groups predominated,” Reuters said Dec. 15.
Opposition in Idlib: ‘easy prey’ for regime
“Assad and his allies will have corralled much of Syria’s insurgency and
its supporters into a small mountainous patch where they will be easy
prey,” Faysal Itani of the Atlantic Council wrote in the Times Dec. 14.
Some Ankara-backed opposition combatants are being rerouted to join
Turkish forces in their “Euphrates Shield” offensive against the YPG’s
drive to unify Kurdish-controlled areas north of Aleppo.
The military operation was launched in August, ostensibly against
Islamic State but with the open aim of preventing the YPG from extending
and connecting regions under its control. Its current objective is to
drive Islamic State out of al-Bab, a city 25 miles northeast of Aleppo,
before the Kurds can do so.
In 2012, the Barack Obama administration threatened that any evidence
Assad was using chemical weapons would cross a “red line” and Washington
would intervene. But when the Syrian regime used those weapons against
opposition forces in Damascus, killing nearly 1,500 people, including
400 children, the U.S. government didn’t respond. Since then,
Washington’s priority in Syria has been the defeat of Islamic State.
President-elect Donald Trump has said he is not interested in increasing
Washington’s military intervention, preferring efforts for a deal with
Moscow.
Washington is supporting Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with
airstrikes and special operations troops in the current push to retake
Raqqa from Islamic State, over the Turkish government’s objections.
At the same time, U.S. officials have made clear they don’t intend to
recognize any form of Kurdish sovereignty in Syria. Kurds “should not
seek to create autonomous, semi-autonomous zones,” State Department
spokesman Mark Toner said.
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home