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Fri, 04 Apr 2025 07:53:02 -0700
zerosugar from private IP, post #14985323
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What Are Uyghurs Doing in Syria?
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/04/uyghurs-tpd-syria-fighters__trashed/
They helped overthrow Assad, but potential terrorist ties complicate the
community's future in the country.
DAMASCUS—On a recent Friday afternoon at the Umayyad Mosque in Syria’s
capital, Uyghur fighters joined thousands of other worshippers for weekly
prayers as just another group of rebels in uniform. Since the fall of dictator
Bashar al-Assad, Uyghurs have become increasingly visible around Damascus, but
their future in the country is tenuous and could prove an obstacle for a new
government in Syria seeking to assure global powers that it can keep foreign
fighters from threatening those beyond its borders.
Over the last decade or so, thousands of Uyghurs made their way to Syria from
China via Turkey. Today, Uyghur leaders in Syria say their community numbers
around 15,000, including 5,000 fighters. Most live in the rebel-held city of
Idlib or in enclaves near the city of Jisr al-Shughur. The “Turkistanis,” as
many Syrians refer to them, have opened schools and operate gas stations and
restaurants. At neighborhood bakeries, they churn out traditional round, thick
flatbreads, which some of their Syrian neighbors have developed a taste for as
well. The vast majority do not have passports, but like others in the rebel-held
areas, they have ID cards, and hundreds are enrolled in Idlib University, where
the interim government has announced they, like local Syrians, can attend
tuition-free.
The interim Syrian government has included them in its official military
structure as well, a nod to the role their fighters played in toppling Assad—a
war that Uyghur leaders say cost around 1,100 Uyghur lives. In January, hundreds
of military commanders dressed in uniform assembled to hear Syrian leader Ahmed
al-Sharaa give his first speech since toppling Assad, and among them was
Abdulaziz Davud Hudaberdi, an ethnic Uyghur from a village near Aksu in China.
Hudaberdi came to Syria in 2012 and leads the local branch of the Turkistan
Islamic Party (TIP), a group that most of the Syrian Uyghurs belong to. As the
head of the rebels’ 133rd Division, he was instrumental in helping to end the
Assad regime and was rewarded with a position as a brigadier general in the
Syrian army, along with two other Uyghurs who were appointed colonels. There are
about half a dozen foreign fighters who have been given such ranks in the new
Syria.
The TIP’s presence in Syria could prove consequential for the future of the
country as it looks to have international sanctions against it lifted. Hayat
Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the charge against Assad and has since been
dissolved and folded into the new government, is listed as a terrorist
organization by the United Nations. China has indicated the presence of groups
such as the TIP continue to dissuade it from supporting any change in that
designation.
Beijing’s views on the TIP, though, run up against concerns about how it
treats the Uyghur minority at home, sparked by reports of mass incarceration and
allegations of a state-led effort to erase the ethnic group’s religious and
cultural distinctiveness. China’s policy in Xinjiang—or East Turkistan, as
some Uyghurs refer to it—has garnered the ethnic minority sympathy among
Western governments and emboldened some in the Uyghur diaspora to openly call
for independence from Beijing, even if that means fighting for it. For the
Uyghur diaspora globally, the TIP is the first successful fighting force their
cause has had.
#News #Politics
Fri, 04 Apr 2025 08:03:53 -0700
zerosugar from private IP
Reply #14929309 This article is a good one. China
are trying to rid themselves of these people or moderate them if moderation is
possible. Meanwhile, Jolani (calling him the name he chose for himself as an Al
Qaeda terrorist not al Sharaa) allowed them to enter Syria to murder Syrians and
is now even allowing them in the Syrian military yet the USA criticized Assad
for his help from Russia. Shame! My friend’s family have to see these guys
with beards enter their villages harassing people. These Uyghur guys became
terrorists because they had their religion oppressed for years and maybe there
is some justification in their extremism, but they have no right to enter Syria
and murder populations that were in Syria well before Islam made its way to
Syria. Let’s face it, Islam is from Saudi Arabia. It’s not indigenous to
the Levant. People who want to live in an Islamic state should go to Saudi
Arabia or even Qatar not murder innocent people. The U.S. government should
encourage Saudi Arabia to take all these people and Jolani should have went
there too instead of terrorizing people for 14 years. Biden’s last gift of
making Damascus and Assad fall will be the “gift” that keeps giving once
they start attacking outside of Syria.
I thought Obama, Hillary, and Biden wanted a free Syria for Syrians. Instead an
all Syrian army was replaced with Uyghurs and terrorists from worldwide. Assad
who was a Western educated Alawite doctor replaced with a Sunni extremist zealot
who was once in Al Qaeda who rewrote a constitution and was let in without an
election and without even a real coup. Assad’s government was not sectarian
even if dictatorial.
Fri, 04 Apr 2025 08:17:58 -0700
zerosugar from private IP
Reply #10523864 I realize many may not read this
post and it may be of no interest to westerners who oftentimes have never
traveled to such places, but in the event some of the lurkers do, watch this
video from 1982 when Hafez defeated the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s so so
powerful. Even if you don’t know Arabic, there are subtitles and you just feel
the energy in his voice. Everything he is saying rang true. If only Bashar would
have been as strong as Hafez. Bashar leaves behind a terrible legacy. Fighting
for nothing for 14 years to get on a place to Russia and leave his people to be
slaughtered. He should at least make a podcast from Russia or at least his
brother should say something. At the same time, we don’t know if he was
kidnapped by Russia or if he is even free to speak. He would have been better
off fighting for an Alawite and Christian state on the coast and leave all these
Jolani fanatics and Uyghurs in a land locked country or he could have
transitioned to give the government so somebody who wasn’t nuts or supported
federalism which would have offered greater protection to the Alawite people.
https://youtu.be/UqlhqI8c2To?feature=shared
Fri, 04 Apr 2025 14:54:36 -0700
whiteguyinchina from private IP
Reply #13088075 This is a top zerosugar post
Very interesting, thanks for sharing
Fri, 04 Apr 2025 16:47:49 -0700
zerosugar from private IP
Reply #19177553 @whiteguyinchinaTest Thank you!
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