SYRIA USCIRF–RECOMMENDED FOR COUNTRIES OF PARTICULAR CONCERN (CPC) KEY FINDINGS I n 2020, as in the prior year, religious freedom in Syria remained under serious threat, particularly amid the country’s ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis. The regime of President Bashar al-Assad brutally enforced its authority over populations under its control, including its efforts to solidify an iron grip on religious affairs. In beleaguered Idlib Province, radical Islamist al-Qaeda affiliate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—which the U.S. Department of State designated as an “entity of particular concern,” or EPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) in December—continued to vie with other local factions within and outside of its so-called Syrian Salvation Government for political and military dominance over civilian areas. Meanwhile, Turkish armed forces maintained control over territory inside northern Syria that they had captured in three invasions between 2016 and 2019, endangering religious minorities in areas that included the vicinity of Afrin as well as a swath of land extending roughly 75 miles from west of Tel Abyad to east of Ras al-Ayn. In regime-controlled areas, the Syrian government continued to brutalize communities and individuals that it perceived as having participated in or supported political or armed opposition movements. In areas over which it retained or regained control, the government continued to solidify its hold on all aspects of political, economic, and religious life. President Assad, for example, persisted in framing his rule in Islamic terms—alongside his standard Ba’athist-Arab Nationalist approach—and he has progressively shifted religious authority away from the traditional, marginally independent cadre of Sunni Muslim scholars (ulama’) in favor of the regime-controlled Ministry of Endowments. Despite the government’s indifference toward houses of worship and other sites of importance to religious minorities throughout a decade of conflict, it continued to present itself as the sole defender of these communities—implicitly in exchange for their quiescence and support. Indeed, the regime largely left alone members of such minorities in regime-controlled territories if they had no specific record of opposition participation, essentially implementing the self-fulfilling prophecy it has long spun. Even so, it showed no change in its rigid rhetoric and control over such communities. For example, the Ministry of Justice reaffirmed in December—although not publicly announced until February 2021— its de facto classification of Yazidism as an Islamic “sect” rather than a separate religion, thereby subjecting Yazidis to Islamic law and denying the community the right to self-identify as a distinct religion. Meanwhile, as in prior years—and in stark contrast to other parts of Syria and most of the wider region—north and east Syria remained a uniquely promising area in terms of positive religious freedom conditions. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) fostered these conditions through its political foundation in the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) and military support from the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It continued to allow Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, and others to practice openly, express, and even change their religious identities—while facing significant peril due to threats from Turkey, Turkish-allied militias, regime forces, and remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT • Designate Syria as a CPC and redesignate HTS as an EPC for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by IRFA; • Impose targeted sanctions on Syrian government agencies and officials, HTS principals, and the leadership of militias within the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA) responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ assets and/or barring their entry into the United States under human rights related financial and visa authorities, citing specific religious freedom violations; • Exert pressure on and engage with Turkey to provide a timeline for its withdrawal from all territory that it occupies as a result of cross-border operations into north and east Syria, and in the interim demand that it order armed factions under its control or influence to cease all activities negatively impacting religious and ethnic minorities in that area; • Recognize the AANES as a legitimate, local government, and accordingly expand U.S. engagement with its institutions, lift sanctions from all areas it governs, and demand its inclusion in all activities KEY USCIRF RESOURCES & ACTIVITIES • Hearing: Safeguarding Religious Freedom in Northeast Syria • Op-Ed: U.S. Leaders Must Stand against Turkey’s Atrocities in Northern Syria (in Newsweek) 44 U S C I R F | A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 2 1 pursuant to United Nations (UN) Resolution 2254, including Geneva-based talks to resolve the Syrian conflict “as the basis for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition”; and • Contribute to efforts in AANES-governed territory to fund and develop local programs to promote religious tolerance and pluralism; strengthen school curriculum to meet the needs of local families, including addressing the unique concerns of religious and ethnic minorities; and advance religious freedom and related rights.