Ahmad al-Khalaf: Misconceptions used by regimes to divide Syrian components

Ahmad al-Khalaf, Co-Chair of the People’s Democratic Council in al-Tabqa Canton, spoke about the false concepts that the former regime, alongside several regional regimes and states, worked to instill among Syria’s components in order to pit them against one another and keep them preoccupied with internal conflicts—conflicts from which those regimes benefited to entrench themselves and advance their projects at the expense of Syrian lives.

Al-Khalaf said: “The false concepts among the components of Syrian society are a reality that Syrians lived with before the crisis, during it, and that still continues today.”

He believed these concepts are the result of a systematic policy pursued by the former regime, along with a set of regional and international intersections and global intelligence agencies, in an attempt to keep Syria and the region in a state of constant dispersion, fragmentation, and chaos, so that targeted societies remain subordinate to those powers.

Al-Khalaf pointed out that the Baath regime directly contributed to dividing society by promoting false concepts among the components, exploiting social fragmentation to tighten its grip and ensure its survival. It implemented projects that reinforced these misconceptions—such as the Arab Belt project, which was used to drive wedges between Arabs and Kurds and stir strife between them.

He explained that during the Syrian crisis, the idea was promoted that the Kurds were seeking to secede from Syrian society. However, the July 19 Revolution proved that it was a revolution of peoples’ brotherhood, coexistence, and civil peace. All the region’s people—Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, and Syriacs—participated in managing society, overcoming those false concepts, which contributed to the success of the Autonomous Administration experience.

Al-Khalaf noted that misconceptions were not limited to relations among components, but extended to disputes between residents of different areas, and between city and rural populations.

As the crisis evolved, regional states such as Iran and Turkey entered the scene of planting false concepts among Syria’s components, exploiting the crisis to deepen alienation and conflict among sects, religions, and components. These states worked to spread discord, pushing the country toward sectarian, ethnic, and religious war that led to the killing of thousands of Syrians and entrenched sectarian and confessional notions.

He expressed hope that these concepts can be overcome in the next phase through learning about the culture of the other component, considering that the greatest role lies with the media.

He added that the media previously portrayed the rights of components as limited to folklore and culture, obscuring the fact that these components are an integral part of society. The image it presented of their cultures was confined to folkloric troupes, without showing the deep cultural richness of these communities.

He also pointed out that Baath-era media distorted the image of entire regions—such as the eastern regions—by portraying their residents as backward, shepherds, and uneducated, unable to keep pace with civilization, leaving a deep negative impact. Therefore, today’s media is required to produce awareness-raising and participatory programs that study the cultures, customs, and traditions of components and sects and present them accurately.

Al-Khalaf believed that integrating Syrian society requires components to learn about each other’s cultures through coexistence and civil peace. He considered the Autonomous Administration model in North and East Syria a living example of genuine partnership among different groups, nationalities, and ethnicities.

The Autonomous Administration has moved to a more advanced stage through the Co-Chair system between men and women, and between Arabs, Kurds, Christians, and Muslims—governing society away from race, religion, and sectarianism—an approach that has proven successful and whose proponents seek to generalize it across all Syrian regions.

He stressed that Syrians today are required to overcome and reconsider these false concepts, viewing them as one of the tools of capitalism to divide peoples under the principle of “divide and rule,” and to serve the interests of figures in power seeking to strengthen their influence.

Al-Khalaf noted that Syrian society in general has managed to overcome many of these concepts and did not fully succumb to them. There is still room to reintegrate communities and reach a Syria that embraces its religious, social, and ethnic diversity, to build a pluralistic, democratic, decentralized Syria.

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ANHA