SYRIA Individual Views of Commissioners Gary L. Bauer, Anurima Bhargava, James W. Carr, Frederick A. Davie, Nadine Maenza, Gayle Manchin, Tony Perkins, and Nury Turkel The recommendations to the U.S. government for Syria have strong bipartisan support among USCIRF’s Commissioners. Many independent organizations, including Amnes t y International, Human Rights Watch, and even the United Nations, have produced reports documenting the atrocities that the Turkish military and its Islamist militias are committing against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities in the areas Turkey has invaded and occupies in northeast Syria. Those atrocities include killings, kidnappings, rape, extortion, and forced conversion, among other crimes. By contrast, the areas governed by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) have produced remarkable religious freedom conditions allowing all to practice their faith freely, even Islamic converts to Christianity, otherwise unheard of in the region. Our recommendations to give political recognition to AANES as a legitimate local government and to lift sanctions on just the area it governs would reward it as a government that supports religious freedom—in a way that is consistent with how USCIRF recommends sanctions for those that commit religious freedom violations. We are hopeful these actions would allow AANES to continue to be a refuge for Yazidis, Christians, and other religious and ethnic minorities. 46 U S C I R F | A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 2 1