Rojava urges Damascus to respect protesters, avoid use of force

Rudaw

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) on Wednesday condemned escalating violence against civilians and peaceful protesters, urging Damascus to respect the people’s will. The statement follows rare Alawite protests and clashes in Druze-majority areas.

“Syria is currently witnessing a new wave of tensions, especially along the [Alawite-majority] Syrian coast, where civilians are being directly targeted,” said the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) in a statement.

The DAANES warned that “targeting peaceful Syrian demonstrators” threatens to “push the region into a new spiral of violence,” and constitutes “a direct threat to civil peace,” affirming its “support for the aspirations of the Syrian people wherever they are, and for their right to peaceful demonstration to demand democracy, justice, and equality.”

Alawite protests

The Rojava administration’s remarks come amid rare protests by Syrian Alawites across four provinces - the coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces, and the central Hama and Homs provinces - on Tuesday. Demonstrators carried banners calling for federalism, political decentralization, the release of detainees, and an end to violence against minorities.


In Latakia, videos circulating online purportedly showed Damascus-affiliated forces attacking locals. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that “supporters of the Syrian regime attacked properties belonging to citizens from the Alawite sect,” vandalized homes, and “insulted the Alawite sect and its symbols” near the city center’s “agriculture roundabout.”

Meanwhile, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted Abdulaziz Hilal Ahmed, head of internal security in Latakia, saying their units “were subjected to direct gunfire” in the same area - a claim denied by Alawite locals, according to SOHR.

Tuesday’s demonstrations came a day after Syria’s top Alawite religious leader, Ghazal Ghazal, on Monday urged “Sunnis, Alawites, Druze, Kurds, Christians and anyone capable of speaking a word that can extinguish falsehood and uphold righteousness” to take to the streets.

The call came against the backdrop of unrest in Homs, sparked by the killing of a man and his wife, reportedly from a Sunni Arab Bedouin tribe. In the aftermath, the Alawite religious leadership said neighborhoods in Homs “had been subjected to a barbaric armed attack carried out by groups of Bedouins supported by elements of the de facto [interim] authorities.”

Clashes in Suwayda

In parallel, the Druze-majority province of Suwayda in southern Syria saw new breaches of the ceasefire between government forces and local fighters - including reported drone attacks - on Tuesday.

In a statement on X, Syria’s interior ministry condemned what it called a “terrorist attack” on a security checkpoint in Suwayda’s western countryside, blaming “outlaw gangs” for the assault. One security officer was killed and two others injured, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, SOHR reported that the casualties resulted from clashes between “forces aligned with the transitional government” and members of Suwayda’s “National Guard,” a Druze paramilitary group formed under spiritual leader Hikmat al-Hajri. The latter is a prominent critic of Damascus advocating for Druze self-determination.

The war monitor further reported that “one civilian was killed and five others wounded in two separate attacks along the Atil-Suleim road north of Suwayda city,” including an attack on a chicken transport vehicle by a drone and a heavy machine-gun assault.

Call for democracy

The DAANES on Wednesday called on “the interim government in Damascus to respect the will of the people” and “to fully refrain from using violence or weapons against peaceful demonstrators.”

It condemned “the attacks on civilians and peaceful demonstrators in Homs, the coast, and Suwayda represent a blatant violation of human and national values, serving only those who seek to drag the country into chaos.”

The Kurdish-led administration in Rojava further warned of “the involvement of certain factions and armed groups under various names such as 'Tribal Support,' 'Tribal Forces,' and others, backed by external parties aiming to undermine the solidarity and cohesion among Syrians of all components and sects.”

It urged “genuine and constructive national dialogue” as a way forward to “build a pluralistic and democratic Syria for all its citizens without exception.”

“Our choice has been and will remain: peace, dialogue, Syrian unity, and the building of a new decentralized and democratic Syria,” the DAANES concluded.