December 2022 recap: Turkey and the SNA
December 2022 recap: Turkey and the SNA
Turkish-Syrian reconciliation, anti-reconciliation protests, SNA news, and more
For events in December relating to the Islamic State and the SDF/Coalition campaign against it check out this post. For other events in December occurring in AANES territory see here.
Turkish-Syrian reconciliation
On December 28th, Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and head of MIT Hakan Fidan met with their Syrian counterparts at a meeting in Moscow arranged by Russia. This summit marked “the first official engagement between Damascus and Ankara after more than a decade,” and came following statements from Turkish President Erdoğan expressing his willingness to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Asad.
The summit did not result in any dramatic decisions or immediate to changes to Turkish, Syria, or Russia policy, but the parties involved agreed on establishing joint committees to meet in the near future and described the talks positively.
News of the summit drew widespread condemnation from Syrian opposition organizations and civilians, though many of the former avoided naming or blaming Turkey in particular. Reminiscent of scenes this summer, large “We will not reconcile” demonstrations were held in cities and towns across HTS and Turkish/SNA-controlled northwestern Syria [see thread below]. Dissident SNA commander Abu Khawlah Muhassan (from Deir ez-Zour but not to be confused with the SDF’s Deir ez-Zour Military Council Commander Abu Khawlah) spoke to the crowd at the al-Bab rally, while in Tell Abyad members of the Civil Police attempted to disperse the crowd with gunfire.
For more on the talks and the Russian-Turkish relationship:
“Normalization between Syria and Türkiye … Putin’s Gift to Erdogan,” Ibrahim Hamidi, Asharq al-Awsat [also this Al-Monitor podcast with Hamidi]
“Turkey’s Russian Red Light in Syria,” Sam Heller, War on the Rocks
General News
12/15/22: The Syrian Turkmen Council elected Muhammed Turk Han as its president during the organization’s sixth general session, held in al-Ra’i. The seat had sat empty for the last two years after previous president Muhammed Wajih Jum’ah resigned in May 2020, leaving the organization largely defunct. Another Turkmen political entity calling itself the “Joint Political Command for Syria’s Turkmen” and representing nine smaller organizations published a statement denouncing the election process on the grounds of it being secretive (presumably in terms of candidate selection) and non-representation of the community as a whole. The Syrian Turkmen Council is coalition of ethnic Turkmen parties and organizations that formally represent the community within Etilaf.
12/14/22: A young girl named Jilan Hussein Khalil was killed in the village of Fafertin by shelling reportedly fired from the nearby regime-controlled village of Sheikh Aqil.
12/17/22: Hamzah Ramadan Muhammed al-Khalaf, a member of SNA faction Division 20, was murdered along with his wife and five of their children. The murder was reportedly carried out by al-Khalaf’s brother who was later arrested by public security forces and turned over to the SNA Military Police.
12/17/22: SyriaTV published an in-depth look into the ongoing dispute between the A‘zaz Local Council and AK Energy, the Syrian-Turkish company contracted by the former to supply electricity to the areas it administers. Despite the (ten year) contract signed in 2018 stipulating 24 hour energy provision, AK Energy recently began to ration power several hours a day. According to the company’s general manager this cut in services due maintenance and issues related to theft, as well as to the financial issues facing AK Energy caused by lack of payments from the Kilis provincial government for services provided to various Turkish and Turkish-supported facilities in the region. Additionally there are ongoing lawsuits in Syrian and Turkish courts over the companies failure to submit financial statements to the A’zaz Local Council, as well a lawsuit regarding copyright violations from an unrelated Turkish energy company named Akenerji. AK Energy is contracted by the A’zaz, al-Bab, al-Ra’i, Jarabulus, Ras al-’Ain and Tell Abyad local councils, while electricity in the Afrin, Mare’, Sawran, and Akhtarin areas run by “STE enerji,” another Syrian-Turkish company similarly contracted by local councils.
12/22/22: Afrini lawyer Luqman Hamid Hanan died at Afrin Security Directorate building, following his arrest two days prior. A photographed copy of his forensic report found the cause of death to be cardiac arrest, however photographs of Hanan’s corpse showed signs of torture. According to “The Human Rights Organization - Afrin,” Hanan was arrest by Turkish Intelligence in front of his house in Afrin city’s al-Mahmoudiyah neighborhood after being accused of working with the Autonomous Administration by a member of SNA faction Furqat al-Sultan Murad engaged in a housing dispute with Hanan. The claim that Turkish Intelligence was involved is plausible given that the Security Directorate is a joint Turkish-Syrian institution. According to the victim’s brother, he had been kidnapped, tortured, and ransomed several times by various SNA factions in the past.
Luqman Hanan 
Members of the Civil Police undergo training in front of the Afrin Security Directorate building - 36.509548, 36.858910 (source) 12/24/22: The body of Hasan ‘Ali Hasan, a 47 year old man from the Sheikh al-Hadid subdistrict of Afrin, was returned to his family after Hasan died a prison run by the regime’s Air Force Intelligence. Hasan was arrested two months prior, while traveling from Afrin to Aleppo city to seek diabetes treatment. According to SNHR, Hasan’s body was only returned after relatives paid a ransom sum to regime officials. Seemingly due to the lack of (semi-)official crossings between the regime/SDF al-Shahba’ region and Afrin, the body was first sent to Manbij where it then crossed into the SNA-controlled Euphrates Shield region adjacent to Afrin
Hasan ‘Ali Hasan (source)
Syrian National Army
12/13/22: The SNA’s Third Legion returned to several bases in the towns of Qatmah and Kafr Jannah it had vacated in October during Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) invasion of Afrin. This move was reportedly facilitated by Turkey though apparently not consented to by HTS who mobilized forces nearby in response though eventually appear to have backed down.
12/23/22: Seven subfactions within the Third Legion announced they were merging under the name “al-Furqah 50 - Ahrar al-Tawhid.” Most of the factions involved were at one time affiliated with the Liwa’ al-Tawhid rebel group from the Mare’/Tell Rifa’at area that dominated northern Aleppo in the early years of the war (the core of which went on to form al-Jabhah al-Shamiyah and later the Third Legion).
12/26/22: Six members of Faylaq al-Sham were reportedly killed in an attack on the town of Basoufan, located in SE Afrin near the front lines with regime and SDF controlled territory. It appears that the attack was carried out by Hêzên Rizgariye Efrînê (HRE), the pro-SDF insurgent group active in the area, who published a statement and video two days later claiming a series of night time raids on several positions in the area.
12/27/22: Ahrar al-Sham published a video showing fighters undergoing a live fire training course at Ain Dara archaeological site. This is not the first time the group has filmed itself engaged in such activities, as a video from 2019 showed fighters firing rifles and throwing grenades into the famous Syro-Hittite temple itself. The Ain Dara temple was struck by Turkish guided munitions during 2018’s Operation Olive Branch while the grounds around it have undergone significant excavation via bulldozer since then.
(0:55) An Ahrar al-Sham fighter firing at Tell Ain Dara during the training exercises. The remains of the neolithic temple can be seen on the right side of the summit 12/31/22: Furqat al-Hamzah field commander Hammoud ‘Abdullah Ma‘rawi was assassinated on the street in al-Bab city before dawn by unknown gunmen. According to Baladi News, Ma’rawi was the Hamzah commander responsible for the al-Daghlabash sector located on the front lines with the SDF and regime west of the city.
12/31/22: The recently established SNA “Military Advisory Council,” consisting of the Syrian Interim Government Minister of Defense Hassan al-Hamadah and the commanders of the three SNA legions, appointed a number of figures to new positions within the Ministry of Defense and the Military Police. All the individuals appointed are defected officers of the SAA, most of whom are affiliated with individual SNA factions. The creation of the Military Advisory Council and these new positions is part of most recent attempt at institutionalizing the SNA, triggered by HTS’s invasion of Afrin in October 2022 and the intra-SNA competition that abetted it.
Other
“The Gangs of Northern Syria: Life Under Turkey’s Proxies” - quite in-depth report by Elizabeth Tsurkov on the “Syrian National Army,” and the relations of the component factions with one another, with Turkey, and with the civilian population of areas under their control.
Aerial photograph of the Cathedral of St. Simeon Stylite (western Aleppo), March 1935
(source)
