PLEASE SUPPORT A DEMOCRATIC SYRIA

UPDATE, Tuesday, December 10, 2024, 11:00 AM ET: In the midst of the chaos in Syria, Turkey has carelessly opened up another front in the war, attacking our democratic, US-allied region in 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.

We are the US Mission of the Syrian Democratic Council. The region includes Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs, Turkmen, Christians, Muslims, Alawis, and Yazidis. We are the political representation of northeast Syria, the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. 

We have 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, for over a decade. We have been excluded from international negotiations on the future of Syria. 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. As we speak, we are doing this again in the Badia desert, as ISIS takes advantage of the moment to regroup. 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 a threat to them. We are not. 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.

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.