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An analysis of the political and media reactions of “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham – HTS” regarding the new Turkish diplomatic approach towards Assad regime
Summary:
- The Moscow meeting between the Turkish Minister of Defense and the Minister of Defense of the Assad regime led to a wide wave of reactions among the Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, meanwhile, “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-HTS” have responded to this change in several ways and at different levels.
- The “Political Affairs Department” – which is linked to HTS- issued two statements about the new Turkish track. The two statements reflected a “balanced” political discourse that expresses HTS’ current position. HTS is trying to positioning as a local faction affiliated to the Revolutionary and Syrian Opposition Forces, simultaneously, it appears that Al-Julani (HTS leader) is working on presenting the “Department of Political Affairs” as a new political platform that can be developed into a Ministry of Foreign Affairs affiliated to HTS later.
- “Al-Julani” commented on the news of the Moscow meeting through two levels. He appeared in the first level using light level of “jihadist discourse” with an enthusiastic / populist feature, trying to exploit people’s feelings and taking advantage against the other Revolutionary Forces as they are not able to record the same position of rejection, which appears as an attempt to increase his political capital. This included in his speech the option of continuing the military fighting against Assad and even making promises to control Damascus.
- In the second level, “Al-Julani” appeared in a more formal and diplomatic manner, marketing himself as a local leader who is closely connected to his community, interested in clarifying the facts to the elites and hearing their concerns as representatives of the local people. He also implied to the weakness of the other Syrian Opposition Forces, blaming them for bad situation of the Syrian Opposition.
- Many indications appeared in the second meeting reflect the level reached by HTS in its journey towards presenting itself as a local actor belonging to the Syrian Opposition, far from their previous “jihadist” background, where the terms “judging by Sharia and jihad ” are absent from the current discourse even during the criticism of the Constitutional Committee, the Syrian National Coalition, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, where the criticism has focused thematically on political mistakes, not on the contradiction of the political path against Sharia law as it is common in the “Jihadist” ideological discourses.
- In parallel with al-Julani’s official speech, there were comments by “Abu Maria al-Qahtani”, who is the influential Iraqi figure within HTS. His comments were more populist and far removed from diplomatic and official norms. Perhaps this is due to the absence of any official title of “Al-Qahtani” despite his being one of the most prominent “Sharia Ulama” of HTS.
مؤسسة بحثية سورية تسعى إلى الإسهام في بناء الرؤى والمعارف بما يساعد السوريين على إنضاج حلول عملية لمواجهة التحديات الوطنية المشتركة وتحقيق التنمية المستدامة
