President Erdogan’s recent speech about the annexation of Palestinian territory by the Zionist Israelis’ is hypocritical, one can’t be distracted from the escalation in Sriya in Jan-Feb when Turkish President set a deadline for the Sriyan forces to leave Idlib. The Turkish forces who were the side of radicals or former Al-Qaeda fighters who are now grouped under the name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(HTS) , or the Sriyan Librarian Committee. The HTS was formed in 2017 out of the remaining Jehadi groups that had gathered in Idlib in 2015.

By Fida Hussain

President Erdogan’s recent speech about the annexation of Palestinian territory by the Zionist Israelis’ is hypocritical, one can’t be distracted from the escalation in Sriya in Jan-Feb when Turkish President set a deadline for the Sriyan forces to leave Idlib. The Turkish forces who were the side of radicals or former Al-Qaeda fighters who are now grouped under the name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(HTS) , or the Sriyan Librarian Committee. The HTS was formed in 2017 out of the remaining Jehadi groups that had gathered in Idlib in 2015. The main Piller of the HTS is the Al Qaeda branch in Sriyan, The Jabhat Fateh al_Sham , & before that the Jabhat Al _ Nusra . One reason why this group keeps changing its name is to try & rebrand itself outside the Al Qaeda orbit. The other groups that joined the Jabhat Fateh Al Sham to create the HTS include the four main omnibus Jehadi groups; The Jabhat Ansar al_Din, The Jaysh Al Sunna, The Liwa Al _Haq and the Haraka Nour al_ Din al-Zenki. These are hardened groups of fighters, many of them coming in & out of each other’s platforms & even fighting each other viciously . .(Source)

Since the 1950s, if not earlier, Syria has been in a permanent state of crisis and emergency. The crisis begins with the first of what we might call Zionist colonial settler wars, beginning with the war in 1948 that produced the Nakba, the disaster of Zionist expulsion of Arabs from their Homeland, through Zionist colonial settler wars in 1956,1967 and 1973, culminating in the settlers occupation of a part of Syria, namely the Golan Heights. Israel with continuous violation of UNSCR illegally occupy parts of Syria, performing military aggression like, continuous bombings and air strikes with impunity.

Since the early years of the war on Sriya, elements that ate now in the HTS had been operating as a Turkish proxy in the northern belt of Sriya that runs Aleppo to Idlib.

Since the early years of the war on Sriya, elements that ate now in the HTS had been operating as a Turkish proxy in the northern belt of Sriya that runs Aleppo to Idlib. As the Sriyan Arab Army(SAA) with Iranian and Russian assistance, beat back the insurgency across the country, the men in these Jehadi groups fled towards Idlib. Later when the SAA captured fighters they transported them to Idlib.

Since at least 2018 , the Sriyan govt. has threatened overrun the city and eject Al Qaeda fighters from Sriya.
In order to get sense of politics of the HTS, it’s worthwhile to look at its spiritual advisories. Abdullah al _Muhaysini, a Saudi Salafi Cleric , is a key figure in Idlib’s religious world and a main source for the creation of the HTS and is close to the Turkistan Islamiist Party, the most extreme group among Chinese Uighurs. For a time it was al_ Muhaysini who tried to create an alliance between the ISLAMIC STATE and the other Jehadi groups. His sectarian statements against the Alawite Community ( to which Sriyan President Bashar_al_ Asad belongs) suggest his genocidal politics. It says a lot about the “ radicals” in Idlib that people like al_Muhaysini are their Spiritual advisory. It continues to propagate the view that the Syrian State must be based on Saharia Law and espouses views that are more in line with Al Qaeda than with Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The general orientation of the 100,000 to 200,000, “radical” fighters inside Idlib is towards Al Qaeda. This is something that is accepted even by the US government which has otherwise used the fighters in its geopolitical ambitions against the govt. in Damascus. The US since World War 2, has sought hegemony in the petroleum rich region, in order to enrich the US oil corporations.

An American analyst once said , if activists and community organizers are genuinely interested in the efflorescence of liberal democratic institutions in Syria, they should work to end the Western aggression that prevents it.
The situation for Syria’s civilian population is perilous. Civilian casualties are bound to rise. A research scholar in Peace and Conflict in the Middle East said that if Turkey, Israel and US has not emerged as champion of this last “radical” redoubt in Syria, for their geopolitical goals, the SSA, with Iran and Russia as allies, would have swept the region long ago.