WE CALL FOR A DEMOCRATIC SYRIA

UPDATE, January 27, 2025: Our people celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad, and look forward to being a part of a unified, democratic Syria. But our people cannot celebrate when they are worried about attacks from the Turkish military. In the midst of the chaos in Syria, Turkey has carelessly opened up another front in the war, attacking our region, the democratic, US-allied North and East Syria. As of this writing, our forces are once again fighting back attacks from Turkish-backed militias, and fending off Turkish airstrikes in the north. We are now fighting for our lives and the existence of our pluralistic, multiethnic, democratic region. We call on the international community to demand that Turkey cease its operations against the Syrian Democratic Forces immediately. Syria does not need more violence right now.

At the same time that we are defending our people against Turkey in the north, we are also negotiating with the new party in power in Damascus. We call for a future in which all Syrians are respected, a Syria based on human rights, decentralization, and equality under the law. We seek full representation on the Constitutional Committee to draft a social contract that will work for all Syrians, and we seek status as a party to any and all negotiations on the future of our country.

The US Mission of the Syrian Democratic Council in Washington DC represents the interests of northeast Syria in Washington DC, United States of America. We are the political representation of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES). The region includes Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs, Turkmen, Christians, Muslims, Alaawis, and Yazidis.

The DAANES has been successfully governing the northeast of the country since 2014, providing security for our people, while implementing a governance system based on direct democracy, gender equality, religious freedom, and pluralism. Despite our democratic governance of over one-third of Syria, we have been excluded from international negotiations on the future of Syria due to pressures from bad actors. This status quo cannot continue. We call on the international community for help.

We need your help and acknowledgement now. Our forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are fighting Turkish-backed militias as we speak, are a multi-ethnic military coalition of over 100,000 soldiers. We are now in control of 40% of Syrian territory. We fought and defeated ISIS, for the world, alongside a global coalition. Turkish attacks are distracting our forces from being able to counter ISIS. At the same time, Turkey is attacking us with militias full of former ISIS members. 

Turkey justifies their attacks against our region by claiming that we are Kurdish separatists, and that we are a threat to them. We are not a threat to Turkey, but Turkey remains the most significant threat to us. Ongoing Turkish attacks are in continuous violation of the 2019 ceasefire brokered by the first Trump Administration. Our forces have never initiated any attacks in violation of this ceasefire.

We are a multi-ethnic coalition that believes in one democratic Syria, for all Syrians. We are US allies and US military partner forces who host a US military base in our region with 900 US troops. At this point, more than half of our SDF fighters are Arabs. We have been implementing democratic, pluralistic principles in our region for over a decade, with no attempts or desire to separate.

North and East Syria must not fall. We call on our allies and the democratic people of the world to support us, as we seek to build a Syria that works for all Syrians.

The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) was established in 2015 as a leading coalition in Syria. The SDC is the political leadership of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which liberated most of North and East Syria from the Islamic State in partnership with the United States and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. The U.S. Mission of the SDC views the United States as a key ally in supporting democracy in Syria and as a partner for peace and security in the country.