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34-716: The Kurdish Future Movement was founded on 29 May 2005 by Syrian Kurdish politician Mashaal Tammo pursuant to the Syrian Committee for the Revival of Civil Society , and the Bedir Khan Cultural Forum of Qamishli . Earlier than most of the other Kurdish parties, the party established a relationship with the Syrian Arab opposition. In August 2008, Tammo was arrested and charged with "committing aggression and arming Syrians to start civil war,"

68-544: A Kurd, will take over for three months after Burhan Ghalioun was forced away. Plagued with internal conflict, the SNC on 13 March 2012 saw three prominent members resigning, giving as their reason that the SNC "had not gotten very far in working to arm the rebels,". The three were Haitham al-Maleh, a former judge and long-standing dissident, Islamist-leaning liberal and opposition leader Kamal al-Labwani and human rights lawyer Catherine al-Talli. Their reasons for resigning were that

102-588: A Security Council resolution, the international intervention scenario is unlikely to unfold. As a result, in the context of increasing defections in the military and the escalating violence in Syria, the SNC and the Free Syrian Army struck a deal in January 2012, recognising the units of anti-government rebels fighting in Syria. The SNC said that it was the duty of the opposition "to assist the rebels." While

136-601: A charge he denied. In June 2011, inmidst the 2011 civil uprisings , Tammo was released from prison. Having represented the party on an Istanbul meeting of the Syrian opposition on 16 July, he took part in the foundation process of the Syrian National Council (SNC), making the Future Movement the only Kurdish member party actively committed to the SNC. Tammo however withdrew his party's support from

170-625: A conduit by which the hopelessly factionalised Syrian opposition attracted and distributed money and arms from foreign sponsors. Prior to joining the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces , the Syrian National Council had been recognised as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people by several UN member states. On 6 March 2013, the Syrian National Coalition

204-538: A funeral procession for him. Security forces fired into the crowds, killing five people. Tammo's son, Fares Tammo, has urged Syria's Kurds to throw their support behind the revolt, telling the New York Times: "My father's assassination is the screw in the regime's coffin. They made a big mistake by killing my father." The Syrian government blamed "armed terrorists" and an "international Conspiration against Syria“. The Kurdistan Workers' Party , however, accused

238-762: A meeting in Istanbul called by Turkey and Qatar. Despite the National Coordination Committee not attending and the Kurdish delegation as well as an unnamed senior dissident walking out, the BBC reported from the meeting that "[a]ll but one of Syria's disparate opposition groups have agreed to unite behind the Syrian National Council." The SNC, despite having had a Kurdish chairman, does not have Kurdish nationalist members. The only Kurdish party from inside Syria to have declared itself an affiliate of

272-587: A succession of meetings in Turkey and elsewhere. Its intended purpose is to "represent the concerns and demands of the Syrian people." The creation of the SNC was celebrated by the Syrian protestors since the Friday protest following its establishment was dubbed "The Syrian National Council Represents Me". Yaser Tabbara , the council's spokesman at that time, said the membership of the council would include 115 to 120 members from all Syrian opposition groups, including

306-413: Is because they are peaceful. These will be supported by businesses and others who are afraid of the costs of war. Peaceful methods are generalizable." However, the SNC came to review its position on the peaceful nature of the uprising. According to the SNC, the opposition is now faced with two options: "greater militarization of local resistance or foreign intervention." With China and Russia veto impeding

340-823: The Air Force Intelligence Directorate to assassinate Tammo. At least two Syrian Kurdish Free Syrian Army units adopted names in honor of Mashaal Tammo: The small Mashaal Tammo Brigade under Osama Hilali unsuccessfully fought against the YPG during the Battle of Ras al-Ayn ; while a unit in eastern Ghouta was known as Martyr Meshaal Temmo Brigade until its ideology changed to radical Islamism , whereupon it changed its name to Mujahid Osama bin Laden Brigade . A "Martyr Mashaal Tammo Brigade" under Abu Maryam al-Hasakawi also took part in

374-749: The Kurdish Future Movement suffered from internal leadership battles. On July 6, 2012, the party split in two when some twenty people convening a general assembly in Qamishli declared the chairman Rezan Bahri Shaykhmus to be deposed and replaced him with the successor Jangidar Muhammad . As Shaykhmus' supporters didn't recognize the elections, there are currently two parties known as the Kurdish Future Movement in Syria. On its October 17 to 19, 2014 congress in Istanbul ,

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408-571: The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces , commonly named the Syrian National Coalition, with the SNC having 22 out of 60 seats. On 20 January 2014, the Syrian National Council announced that it was leaving the Syrian National Coalition in protest at the decision of the coalition to attend the Geneva II Conference on Syria . The Syrian National Council stated that participating in

442-741: The Syrian National Transitional Council or the National Council of Syria , is a Syrian opposition coalition, based in Istanbul , Turkey , formed in August 2011 during the Syrian civil uprising (which escalated into civil war) against the government of Bashar al-Assad . Initially, the council denied seeking to play the role of a government in exile , but this changed a few months later when violence in Syria intensified. The Syrian National Council seeks

476-631: The Turkish military operation in Afrin in 2018 as a subunit of the Sultan Murad Division before the al-Hasakawi was arrested and his grouped renamed as the 213th Brigade, though it is not known if this unit is related to the aforementioned two. Syrian National Council The Syrian National Council ( SNC ; Arabic : المجلس الوطني السوري , al- Majlis al-Waṭanī as-Sūri , French : Conseil national syrien ), sometimes known as

510-517: The Kurds . Tammo was released in 2010 after spending more than three years in jail. Founding the liberal Kurdish Future Movement party he angered both the government and rivals in the Kurdish community. His outspoken vision towards a pluralistic democratic Syria, in which Kurds would take part just the way all other Syrians do, dismissed any kind of regional autonomy as demanded by most other Kurdish parties. This even led him to dissociate his party from

544-536: The SNC asserted that it would not provide arms directly to the Free Syrian Army, it will provide funds to "keep the Free Syrian Army afloat." For this reason, donations can be made on the SNC website. Marc Lynch , a Professor of Political Science in the United States, is cited from his April 2016 book The New Arab Wars: Uprising and Anarchy in the Middle East as describing the Syrian National Council as

578-467: The SNC expressed worries about the Libyan scenario (with the violent overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi ) being reiterated in Syria. It warned against a militarization of the conflict and insisted that the revolution was not sectarian but included all factions of the Syrian society. It also put its hopes in the multiplications of acts of civil disobedience as they "can be generalized, developed and expanded. This

612-508: The SNC is corrupt, a liberal front for the Muslim Brotherhood and had not made significant progress in arming the rebels. One secular member of the SNC claimed that more than half of the council are Islamists . On 27 March 2012, the recently resigned members, including Maleh and Labwani, agreed to rejoin the SNC, under the condition that SNC would agree to be more democratic and expand, although Labwani expressed doubts whether

646-553: The SNC is the Kurdish Future Movement under the leadership of Mashaal Tammo , who was assassinated shortly after the announcement in the northeastern city of Qamishli . Abdulhakim Bashar , Secretary-General of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria , claims the SNC is too "much influenced by Turkey" and demanded guarantees for the Kurds in Syria by the SNC and says that Turkey would, in turn, be obliged to grant full rights to Turkey's Kurds. On 28 October 2011,

680-628: The Shaykhmus-wing of the Kurdish Future Movement elected the previous European representative Siamend Hajo chairman. The party also decided to create a military wing in order to protect civilians in the Kurdish regions. Otherwise the party decided to work covertly in Syria in order to avoid persecution by the Assad government and the PYD . Rasheed Muhammad, a member of the Future Movement,

714-592: The Syrian Kurdish political scene. When he met with representatives from the major Kurdish parties in Syria following his release from prison, he announced to them that "he did not belong to the Kurdish movement, but was a part of the Syrian revolution." When the other politicians asked him to reconsider, he refused to do so and withdrew the Future Movement from the Kurdish Patriotic Movement umbrella alliance. Though he later tried to rejoin

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748-478: The Syrian National Coalition. The Syrian National Council withdrew from the Syrian National Coalition on 20 January 2014 in protest at the decision of the coalition to attend the Geneva II Conference on Syria . When the Arab Spring broke out, Syrian protesters began consolidating numerous opposition councils. The SNC's formation was announced in the city of Istanbul, Turkey on 23 August 2011, after

782-530: The alliance, the other parties blocked any such action. He was also a member of the executive committee of the newly formed Syrian National Council , a broad-based front bringing together opposition figures inside and outside the country in an attempt to unify the deeply fragmented dissident movement. In the turmoil of the 2011 Syrian uprising , Tammo was assassinated by masked men who burst into an apartment and gunned him down on 7 October 2011. The next day, more than 50,000 mourners marched through Qamishli in

816-447: The end of Bashar al-Assad's rule and the establishment of a modern, civil, democratic state . The SNC National Charter lists human rights , judicial independence , press freedom , democracy and political pluralism as its guiding principles. In November 2012, the Syrian National Council agreed to unify with several other opposition groups to form the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces , commonly named

850-485: The founding conference's final declaration, given that it didn't recognize Syria's Kurdish people . The Kurdish Future Movement has strong relations with Kurdish youth groups and has been actively involved in dissident demonstrations and protests since the beginning of the uprising. In fact, members of the Kurdish opposition have accused the Kurdish Future Movement of focusing excessively on the revolution, while failing to uphold and defend Kurdish interests. In contrast to

884-419: The government in Turkey of carrying out the assassination stating that "this assassination against a Kurdish politician [was] carried out by Turkey. Turkey already has a very profound history record of political assassinations on the Kurdish people and other ethnic backgrounds, both in Turkey and in the region." In October 2012, Saudi-owned TV channel Al-Arabiya claimed that Bashar al-Assad himself had engaged

918-432: The majority of Kurdish parties in Syria, the Kurdish Future Movement does not see the Kurdish question as a regional matter. It doesn't call for Kurdish self-determination but for full participation in the new government based on proportional representation, and it demands recognition of the Kurdish people as a main, rather than second, ethnicity in Syria. Having survived a first assassination attempt in August, Mashaal Tammo

952-403: The now defunct National Council of Syria. It has so far unveiled the names of 71 members, mostly living outside Syria. On 2 October 2011, the council formally declared its organisational affiliations and structure, to include a general assembly, a general secretariat and an executive board. In November 2012, the Syrian National Council agreed to unify with several other opposition groups to form

986-408: The opposition would be able to hold together, but said that for now their accord will help Arab and Western governments make Assad stop his brutal repression. Abdual al-Haj of the SNC said that "now the international community no longer has an excuse to withhold support for the revolution, help arm the Free Syrian Army and establish safe zones to protect the civilian Syrian population." This happened at

1020-568: The talks would go backwards on its stance "to not enter negotiations" until president al-Assad left office. The SNC's membership includes many members of the exiled Syrian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and is supported by the Damascus Declaration 's exile wing. The SNC itself claims to represent approximately 60 per cent of the Syrian opposition. Adib Shishakly is a founding member. Paris-based Syrian academic Burhan Ghalioun has served as its most prominent spokesperson and

1054-403: Was also a member of the local council in the town of Darbasiya, Hasaka Governorate. On 1 April 2017, he was arrested by PYD-led self-management forces. Mashaal Tammo Mashaal Tammo , also Mash'al Tammo ( Arabic : مشعل تمو Mashʿal Tammo , Kurmanji : Mişel Temo ; 1958 – October 7, 2011) was a Syrian Kurdish politician and activist who supported the interests of the minority of

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1088-559: Was granted Syria's seat in the Arab League . On 27 February 2012, Haitham al-Maleh and Kamal al-Labwani along with 18 other members of the SNC formed a sub-group called the Syrian Patriotic Group. The leading activists of the SNC consider many of the SNC members to be too slow in taking action, and so the group is designed so that while still remaining SNC members, the 20 leading activists would speed up "backing

1122-565: Was however killed on a second attempt November 11 in Qamishli. Rezan Bahri Shaykhmus , chairman of the party's Office of General Communications, blamed the Syrian intelligence services having killed founding leader Tammo, and indeed in October 2012, TV network Al Arabiya published leaked files indicating that Tammo was assassinated by the Air Force Intelligence Directorate and upon presidential order by Bashar al-Assad . Since Tammo's death,

1156-565: Was named in September 2011 as chair of the council. Former Muslim Brotherhood leader Ali Sadr el-Din Bayanouni stated that Ghalioun was chosen because he "is accepted in the West and at home and, to prevent the regime from capitalising on the presence of an Islamist at the top of the SNC." On 10 June 2012, a new leader for Syrian National council was elected. Swedish based Abdulbaset Sida ,

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