Syrian opposition (disambiguation)

Syrian opposition is typically referring to the operating alliance of political and military groups opposing the Ba'athist government and the Islamic State during the Syrian Civil War and supported by Sunni Arab States and Turkey. Syrian opposition may also refer to the following:

Internal opposition within Syrian Ba'athist ruling party

• Popular Front for Change and Liberation: Coalition of Syrian political parties and is currently the leader of the political opposition in the People's Council of Syria.^[1][2]
  • People’s Will Party: Syrian political party that is part of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation. Qadri Jamil is the founder of the political party.^[3]
• Syrian Social Nationalist Party: Founded in Beirut in 1932 as a national liberation organization hostile to French colonialism, the party played a significant role in Lebanese politics and was involved in attempted coup d'etats in 1949 and 1961 following which it was thoroughly repressed. It was active in the resistance against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon from 1982 to 2000 while continuously supporting the Syrian presence in Lebanon. In Syria, the SSNP became a major political force in the early 1950s, but was thoroughly repressed in 1955. It remained organised, and in 2005 was legalised and joined the Ba'ath Party-led National Progressive Front.
• A new law on political parties was enacted along with constitutional reforms in 2012, allowing for new parties outside the National Progressive Front and thus officially permitting opposition to the government.^[4] New parties were subsequently licensed: the National Development Party, Al-Ansar Party, People's Party, Solidarity Party, Syria the Homeland Party (Souria al-Watan), Democratic Vanguard Party, Syrian Democratic Party, Syrian National Youth Party for Justice and Development, Syrian National Youth Party, and Arab Democratic Solidarity Party.

Historic and defunct anti-government parties and movements in Syrian Arab Republic

• Hizb ut-Tahrir
• National Democratic Rally: a banned opposition alliance formed in 1980 and comprising five political parties of a secularist, pan-Arabist, Arab nationalist and socialist bent; Democratic Arab Socialist Union, Syrian Democratic People's Party, Arab Revolutionary Workers Party, Movement of Arab Socialists, Democratic Socialist Arab Ba'ath Party. In 2006 the Communist Labour Party joined the coalition. The Rally originally signed the Damascus Declaration, but most members later split from the group. Among the Rally parties, only the SDPP is active in the SNC as of 2015, while most others have joined the NCC, a rival opposition alliance.
• National Salvation Front in Syria: founded in 2005 by former vice-president Abdul Halim Khaddam who was exiled to Belgium, not a member of the SNC but supportive of its goals.

Other factions during Syrian Civil War

Defunct

• Syrian Islamic Front (became Islamic Front (Syria))
• Syrian Islamic Liberation Front (mostly merged into Islamic Front (Syria))

Operating

• al-Nusra Front (ANF), an al-Qaeda associate operating in Syria
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
• Kurdish Supreme Committee - a governing body of Kurdish-held regions in Syria founded by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and Kurdish National Council following cooperation agreement between the two sides, signed on 12 July, in Erbil under auspice of the Iraqi Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani.^[5]
  • Kurdish Democratic Union Party
  • Kurdish National Council

References

1. Russia Bids to Unite Syria’s Fractured Opposition, RIA Novosti, 26 April 2012
2. Why reforming Syria's public institutions is the 11th Five-Year Plan's top priority., Syria Today, January 2011
3. Syrian Parliamentary Elections: Cynicism Wins The Day, Al Akhbar (Lebanon), 7 May 2012
4. Syrian Arab News Agency: SANA, Damascus Syria - syria news. "Syrian Arab news agency - SANA - Syria : Syria news ::". Sana.sy. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
5. Kurdish Supreme Committee in Syria Holds First Meeting