Latest news with #Maenza
Rudaw Net
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Displaced Kurds, Yazidis fear return to Afrin: Activist
Also in Interview Iraqi PM Sudani to lead major list in November elections, eyeing second term: PM advisor Rojava official says no more hostile actions from Turkey Iran, US both genuine about nuclear talks: Crisis Group Peshmerga park to be inaugurated in Paris before next Newroz: Deputy mayor A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurds and Yazidis displaced from the Kurdish city of Afrin in northwest Syria are afraid to return as militia members accused of atrocities control the area, a prominent American religious freedom advocate told Rudaw. 'There's no way they [Kurds and Yazidis] could stay if they were under these Islamists. They had to flee from the Syrian National Army [SNA] when they invaded Afrin. So all those IDPs are looking and saying, 'wait, we've done this before. It didn't go so well,'' Nadine Maenza, president of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Secretariat and former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), told Rudaw on April 23. Maenza highlighted that Syrian minorities are concerned about the centralized rule of Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government. In 2018, Turkey and its allied Syrian militias seized control of Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in northwest Syria. Thousands of Kurds fled, many moving to the nearby Shahba region, and families displaced from elsewhere in Syria moved into Afrin. 'The Syrian National Army, some of the very people that were committing the atrocities against the Yazidis, Kurds, Christians that were there and had to flee, are now, instead, he [Sharaa] couldn't get rid of them. It seems like they were put in positions, some government positions,' Maenza lamented. International organizations have recorded numerous human rights violations against Afrin's Kurdish population since 2018, including killings, kidnappings, looting of agricultural crops, cutting down olive trees, and imposing taxes on farmers. Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Afrin in mid-February and met with locals, the majority of whom were Kurds. He pledged to remove armed groups and put an end to the violations, a representative from the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC), who attended the meeting, told Rudaw. Maenza said dozens of Yazidi families remain unable to return to their homes in northwest Syria, citing fears of living under officials accused of 'committing atrocities', according to her meetings with Yazidis. 'Dozens of families can't go back because they wouldn't feel safe being governed by people that committed atrocities against them. It would be like saying, you know, ISIS is now going to be the governor of your, or the mayor of your city,' she said. Maenza stressed that locals must govern their own communities and that the SNA must not be in charge of Afrin. In March, ENKS Afrin local council head Ahmed Hassan told Rudaw that more than 600 settler families have left Afrin, while 400 Kurdish families have returned to their homes. The ENKS is a coalition of Kurdish political parties that is considered the main opposition in northeast Syria (Rojava). Kurds have been increasingly returning to Afrin since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime. These Kurds had been displaced to other parts of Syria after Turkey-backed militia groups invaded the Kurdish-majority city. With the militants losing their grip on Afrin to Damascus-affiliated forces, many have been able to return. No official Syrian government decision has been made to support the return of Afrin's residents. Some families come back on their own, while others return through aid from the ENKS Maenza stressed the difficulty of removing Turkish-backed militias given Turkey's support for interim president Sharaa, despite some apparent differences between them, particularly regarding Afrin. She noted that under Assad, Yazidis were legally classified as Muslims, marginalizing their identity and leaving them vulnerable to being labeled as 'apostates'. 'Because their ID card says they're Muslims, but they're claiming to be [Yezidi]. So it just makes them all the more vulnerable to these extremists,' she said. Regarding the international community's reaction to Syria's potential centralization under Sunni dominance, Maenza believes that it will be unlikely for sanctions on the conflict-hit country to be lifted. 'If he's [Sharaa] going to push away the minorities and say, nope, we're Syrian Republic, everyone else move aside, only the Sunnis sit at the front table, everyone else at the back table, it's going to send all sorts of messages to the international community. I don't see them being willing to lift sanctions anytime soon in that scenario,'she said. Maenza stated it is in Syria's best interest to maintain sanctions with conditions, arguing that lifting them unconditionally would leave the government without justification for making reforms, risking backlash from its base. Several Western countries have warned that the lifting of some sanctions imposed on Assad's regime is conditional on the new authorities forming an inclusive government.
Rudaw Net
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Damascus could learn from Rojava to build social cohesion: American activist
Also in Syria DEM Party delegation arrives in Rojava to attend intra-Kurdish conference French FM meets SDF chief, urges respect for Kurdish rights in Syria UK lifts sanctions on Syrian ministries, intelligence agencies Kurdish forces arrest 20 ISIS affiliates, foil mass escape attempt from al-Hol camp: Asayish A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Nadine Maenza, a prominent American advocate for religious freedom, expressed her surprise at the unity among the various religious and ethnic groups in the Kurdish-held region of northeast Syria (Rojava). She further noted that the interim government in Damascus could benefit from Rojava's experience in fostering social cohesion across the rest of the country. Maenza, president of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Secretariat and former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), arrived in Rojava on April 14. During her one-week trip, she met with top officials and representatives from various ethnic and religious groups, including Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - de facto army of Rojava. 'Everyone is listening to each other. The one thing that struck me about this visit in particular is the unified voice from every person in northeast Syria,' the American rights advocate said during an exclusive interview with Rudaw English in Erbil on Tuesday. She added that even opposition groups like the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC), Christian groups previously affiliated with the Turkey-backed Syrian opposition and religious leaders once aligned with the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad 'are all supporting the autonomous administration in northeast Syria, and they are wanting to see it preserved at least mostly preserved as it integrates into the Syrian government, especially Alawites.' Rojava's ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the ENKS have been rivals for nearly a decade, but they have recently resumed unity talks that had been stalled for years. The two sides are set to hold the first intra-Kurdish conference in Qamishli on Saturday, with the goal of building Kurdish unity in Syria. When asked if the Rojava model of social cohesion is applicable to other parts of Syria, Maenza responded, "Absolutely." 'It might not be exactly like what they did in northeast Syria. I'm not suggesting that's a perfect fit for every place in the world. But what we can learn from them is how they prioritize building social cohesion,' she noted. 'I mean, you go into a city that is majority Kurdish, for instance. And if you look at who the co-chairs and vice co-chairs and all the people involved in the governance, you're going to see every religion, ethnicity represented in a position in government. And so you have that tapestry of everyone's voice and they've all worked together every day to solve each other their problems so that they have that trust and you have that community,' she further noted. The Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (DAANES), the official name of the Kurdish-held region, was established more than a decade ago after Assad's forces withdrew from Kurdish-majority areas to defend the regime strongholds in other parts of the country as opposition fighters gained territory. Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, spearheaded a coalition of jihadist rebel groups in late November, toppling Assad's regime on December 8. The country is navigating a transitional phase. Sharaa was named the interim president of Syria in January. He vowed at the time to form an 'inclusive transitional government that would reflect Syria's diversity.' He has, however, faced domestic and international criticism that he has marginalized minority communities. In March, he approved a constitutional declaration that centers on Islamic jurisprudence and cements central authority. He also appointed a cabinet that includes four members of minority groups. Ethnic and religious groups claimed they were not consulted in the appointment process. The new cabinet also includes individuals blacklisted by the United Nations and the United States over alleged ties to extremist armed groups. Maenza said religious minorities do not feel safe in Damascus-held areas in Syria. 'I spoke to an evangelical leader just a couple of days ago in northeast Syria that had just been in Damascus. And he was telling me he saw for himself a car drive through a Christian neighborhood. You know, with the loudspeakers saying that women need to wear hijabs, that men and women couldn't walk together. These are the kind of things going on that are scary to all of the different religious communities, including the Sunnis that don't want to be under Islamist rule, too,' she stated. She blamed the Western countries for not putting enough pressure on the transitional government, noting that for these countries 'often the interests are always their first priority.' Several Western countries, primarily Germany and France, have been actively engaged in the new phase of Syria's conflict, with their top diplomats visiting the war-torn country. They have warned Damascus that the recent lifting of some sanctions previously imposed on Assad's regime is conditional, and that Sharaa must form an inclusive government. Maenza said the interim government should build social cohesion to maintain the support of Western countries and ensure a better future for Syrians. 'If you don't have social cohesion in a society as diverse with such a violent history as Syria's had in recent decades, then how are we going to have the kind of long-term peace and stability that really is in the best interest of all the international players?' she asked. Maenza added that if Western countries are 'looking at Syria in a long-term way, they should be prioritizing social cohesion, they should be prioritizing building a society that has equal citizenship over, say, their economic interests because if in fact they do that, then Syria has a better chance of being stable that will then be a better economic partner.'
Rudaw Net
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Whole families wiped out in Syrian violence, says religious freedom advocate
Also in Interview Stable Erbil-Baghdad ties 'critical' for US objectives in the region: Expert Declining Iranian influence, Kurdish unity could reshape Iraq's future next elections: Analyst PKK dissolution to make politics easier for Kurds: Politician TotalEnergies targets full operational readiness for $27 billion Iraq project by 2027 A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - What happened last week on Syria's western coast was a 'free-for-all' of indiscriminate killing in predominantly Alawite neighborhoods, a religious freedom advocate told Rudaw on Wednesday. 'They didn't go into the neighborhoods, checking families and doing research,' Nadine Maenza told Rudaw's Dilbixwin Dara, referring to forces aligned with the interim government in Damascus. 'Instead of just going after the insurgents, they slaughtered entire families,' including Sunnis and Christians. Maenza is a global fellow at the Wilson Center and former chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedoms. Violence erupted in the Alawite-majority coastal areas of western Syria after loyalists of ousted president Bashar al-Assad launched attacks on security forces affiliated with Syria's new leadership. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported that around 1,500 people, mostly civilians, were killed, the majority of them by government or government-affiliated forces. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa ordered the formation of a commission to investigate the violence. The commission, which includes five judges, an army officer, and a lawyer, is tasked with examining the causes of the conflict and presenting a report within 30 days. 'I am pleased to see that al-Sharaa has vowed to pursue justice and announced that punishments will follow,' Maenza said. She noted the importance of holding accountable the 'Islamist forces' that targeted communities based on ethno-religious identities or political leanings. She called for these individuals to be removed from the security services to help rebuild trust in the government. 'Arrest them, try them, and show the people of Syria that this is unacceptable. Or there is a possibility that the violence could continue,' Maenza added. She acknowledged the uncertainties surrounding Syria's future under the new leadership, but expressed hope for the sincerity of the government's commitment to inclusivity. 'While there are still concerns about this government and Sharaa's long history of involvement in terrorism, there is hope that the promise of an inclusive government is sincere and that they want to move toward that,' she said. Sharaa was named Syria's interim president in January a month after his Islamist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led rebels in a swift offensive that toppled Assad's regime. Sharaa promised to form an inclusive transitional government that would reflect Syria's diversity, hold free and fair elections, and preserve civil peace and territorial unity. However, Sharaa drew widespread criticism after he signed a constitutional declaration on Thursday that centers on Islamic jurisprudence and stipulates that the president must be Muslim. The declaration also maintains the name Syrian Arab Republic and sets a five-year transitional period. The new constitution has faced rejection domestically, including from the Kurdish and Christian communities. The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) condemned the document, saying it reinforces a 'centralized mindset' rather than advancing a democratic transition. It also criticized the alienation of Syria's diverse ethnic and religious communities. Naim Youssef, pastor of the Christian Union Church in Hasaka province, expressed similar concerns. He told Rudaw that basing the interim constitution on Islamic jurisprudence 'makes all other laws hostage to religious interpretation,' which he said contradicts the principle of full citizenship.
