Enab Baladi – Hassan Ibrahim

The repeated appearance of Syrian National Army (SNA) factions and officials, who control the eastern and northern rural areas of Aleppo, in sectors far from military life such as education and tree-planting campaigns, has sparked debates about the roles and duties of these factions and their officials. Some consider these actions as unjustified interference and an attempt to improve their image amid the factional chaos prevailing in the region.

This negative perception was further fueled by the state of lawlessness in northern and eastern rural Aleppo and areas like Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain, characterized by unceasing clashes, arbitrary arrests, and reported cases of deaths due to torture in SNA faction-controlled prisons where the Syrian Interim Government (SIG) holds sway.

Education, tree planting, and paving roads

According to Enab Baladi‘s observations, the most notable military involvement in civilian matters occurred in November 2023, when the Minister of Defense in the Interim Government, Hassan al-Hamada, and the Director of the Military Police, Khaled al-As’ad, visited several schools in the cities of Azaz, Afrin, and Jindires to oversee the distribution of 5,000 stationary kits to students and assess the security situation of educational facilities.

On November 19, 2023, the Ministry of Defense launched a tree-planting campaign aiming to plant 100,000 seedlings in public areas and regions at risk of losing their forest nature. Minister Hassan al-Hamada participated in this campaign.

The Ministry attributed this campaign to the devastating effects of battles on nature and climate-change-induced drought in recent years, aiming to expand green areas and combat desertification.

On August 25, the leader of the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade (al-Amshat), Mohammed al-Jassem (Abu Amsha), announced ongoing efforts to expand and repair roads in the town of Sheikh al-Hadid in Afrin to improve infrastructure.

Earlier, it was mentioned that the Joint Force (al-Hamzat and al-Amshat Brigades) collaborates with local councils in the areas they control to improve infrastructure in cities and villages within available resources.

In July 2023, Abu Amsha announced that the campaign to support cancer patients continues in Afrin and its surroundings by the Joint Force.

This military presence in the aforementioned sectors persists despite the existence of civilian bodies managing the region, whether from the Interim Government consisting of nine ministries with affiliated directorates and offices, or from local councils in each area.

Over recent years, human rights organizations have documented violations by SNA elements and factions in the mentioned sectors, including violations against schools and educational staff, logging operations, forcible house takeovers, and setting up military checkpoints and posts within residential neighborhoods.

The National Army comprises three corps, and its exact strength is not known. The opposition’s Syrian National Coalition claimed in 2019 that the force has 80,000 fighters, while a report by the Middle East Institute in October 2022 estimated its size at 50,000 to 70,000 fighters.

“Natural intervention needs coordination”

The involvement of the military in civilian life has always been a contentious issue, where their influence—whether positive, negative, or neutral—is a complex phenomenon, and society often holds a negative view of such interventions. This topic has been discussed by many thinkers.

Niccolò Machiavelli opined that “a soldier cannot be a good man,” while Voltaire considered the military as “an embodiment of brute force in a rational form.” Both Gerasimos and Adams believed that while the military is necessary, it always poses a threat to people’s freedoms.

Nawar Shaban, a researcher at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, stated that when military institutions intervene in daily life details, voices condemning this intervention arise, as everyone prefers that military governance remains separate from social life. This is logical in areas that are stable and not in conflict.

He added that military intervention in regions suffering from service shortages or specific sectoral gaps, when these institutions have the capacity to fill these gaps, is a natural intervention that is difficult to criticize due to the existing need.

Shaban noted that such interventions by military factions or personnel in daily affairs should be accompanied by oversight, regulation, and coordination to avoid any underlying agendas, regardless of any entity or name.

The researcher believes that military institutions can continue to support in various aspects but in coordination with other responsible entities, such as local councils and ministries.

Despite the region’s needs, the unclear military doctrine and organizational details of the SNA require these military entities to coordinate with responsible authorities before undertaking any actions to prevent future complications.

Nawar Shaban, Researcher at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies

Northwestern Syria suffers from difficult economic and living conditions, with most sectors in need. According to the United Nations, 5.1 million people live there, 4.2 million of whom need assistance, 3.4 million face food insecurity, 3.4 million are internally displaced, and 2 million live in camps.

In February 2023, when an earthquake hit southern Turkey and four Syrian provinces, the Ministry of Defense requested that all SNA units and formations assist civil defense elements and provide the necessary machinery for rescuing and aiding the injured, instructing checkpoints to ensure the swift passage of ambulances.

National Army violations

According to a report by the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria issued in March 2024, the committee documented violations by the SNA factions, leaders, and elements, along with the Military Police, including but not limited to:

• Detentions and arrests of Arab and Kurdish men and women, ostensibly based on accusations of “terrorism,” affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and alleged collaboration with foreign entities.
• Arrests for extorting money from families, with detainees held for lengthy periods without appearing before a judge and released without charges after families paid thousands of dollars.
• Torture and mistreatment of detainees in several detention centers in Afrin, Azaz, Ma’rata, Raju, and Hawar Killis.
• Illegal detentions and actions amounting to war crimes, including torture, cruel treatment, and looting.
• Isolated incidents of sexual violence and gender-based violence by SNA individuals, including threats of sexual violence against female detainees.
• Confiscation of portions of farmers’ olive crops, imposing taxes and levies on farmers.
• Seizure of lands owned by absentee owners and establishing control over them.
• Imposing taxes on humanitarian cash assistance and requiring families to surrender half of the aid amount to the faction.
• Forcible eviction of internally displaced families from newly constructed houses built by an NGO in the village of Maabatli to make them homes for the al-Amshat Brigade members.

Institutionalization of the National Army

In recent years, the Interim Government has taken several steps to organize and restructure the SNA. Starting in October 2022, they launched a plan to activate the role of institutions and unify factions, following a series of meetings held by the Ministry of Defense with various military and security forces.

In January 2023, the SNA announced the beginning of implementing a plan to hand over all security checkpoints to the Military Police in its controlled areas.

On March 20, the Ministry of Defense urged non-affiliated groups in the region to join the ministry under the standards and criteria of the SNA, aiming to “entrench institutional work and improve the security situation in the region.”

On May 29, the Ministry of Defense in the Interim Government opened a military academy in Afrin to provide modern military training to 500 personnel initially, stating that the establishment of the academy is part of a project to transform the SNA into a regular army.

In June, the United Nations signed an Action Plan with the SNA aimed at “ending and preventing the recruitment and killing and maiming of children in line with Security Council Resolution 1539 (2004) and subsequent resolutions.”