The Syrian Democratic People's Party () is a

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

, democratic opposition party in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. It is a member of the Syrian opposition, a member of the National Democratic Rally, and a participant in the Damascus Declaration. The party emerged in 1973 from a split within the Syrian Communist Party. Until 2005, it operated under the name Syrian Communist Party (Political Bureau), and was also known as the Syrian Communist Party (Riyad al-Turk) after its founder Riyad al-Turk. In 2005, the party announced its departure from communism and turned to

social democracy Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

. Today, the party is a member of the

Progressive Alliance The Progressive Alliance (PA) is a political international of progressive and social democratic political parties and organisations founded on 22 May 2013 in Leipzig, Germany. The alliance was formed as an alternative to the existing Socia ...

Origins and split from the SCP

The party was formed from a split in the Syrian Communist Party, beginning in the late 1960s with disagreements over

Arab nationalism Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...

and the authoritarian leadership of Khaled Bakdash. Radicals around Riyad al-Turk criticized Bakdash and asked for internal party democracy, as well as a more favorable view towards Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism. They later objected to the Bakdash leadership's decision to join the pro-government National Progressive Front (NPF) in 1972. Essentially the choice facing the Communists then was to submit to the leadership of the

Ba'th Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...

in the NPF, which brought a variety of restrictions, or attempt to function outside the law. The old leadership of the party under Bakdash chose the former option; the more left-wing elements followed Riad al-Turk into opposition, finalizing the split in the party. Turk's faction took the name SCP (Political Bureau), but was also known by the name of its leader, as SCP (Turk).

In opposition

The party was able to operate reasonably effectively at first, although it was never very large, and for some time it negotiated over conditions of joining the NPF. However, Syria's intervention on the side of the

Lebanese Front The Lebanese Front was a coalition of mainly right-wing Lebanese Nationalist parties formed in 1976 by majority Christian groups during the Lebanese Civil War. It was intended to act as a reaction force to the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) ...

militias and the Lebanese government against Arab nationalist and leftist Lebanese and

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

rebels, caused a firm break in relations. The SCP (Political Bureau) publicly and strongly condemned the intervention, provoking a crackdown from the government of

Hafez al-Assad Hafez al-Assad (6 October 193010 June 2000) was a Syrian politician and military officer who was the president of Syria from 1971 until Death and state funeral of Hafez al-Assad, his death in 2000. He was previously the Prime Minister of Syria ...

. The party then engaged in active opposition to the government, and in 1979 participated in the creation of the National Democratic Rally (NDG), with four other leftist and nationalist opposition parties. It also, while itself renouncing violence, advocated dialogue with the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

and other

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

Islamists, who would engage in an armed uprising against the government few years later. This led to a harsh campaign of political repression, culminating in 1980 with the arrest of al-Turk and numerous other party members. Turk was not released until 1998, and became known as one of Syria's most prominent prisoners-of-conscience. Central Committee member George Sabra was arrested during another government crackdown on the party in 1987 and was sentenced to eight years in Sednaya Prison by a state security court.

After the death of Hafez Al-Assad

The party benefitted from the decreased political repression of the last two years of

's rule and after his death, its members were very active in the Damascus Spring, a brief period of intense political and social debate that flourished in the second half of 2000 and in 2001. During this period, George Sabra, a party member since 1970 and Central Committee member since 1985, represented the party in the National Democratic Assembly, a coalition of leftist parties. Riyad al-Turk was arrested as the government stamped out most of this activity in the autumn of 2001, when he outraged the government's sensibilities by remarking on television that "the dictator has died", in reference to Hafez al-Assad. He was imprisoned, but later released following international pressure. In 2005, the party held its clandestine sixth conference at which it adopted new rules and changed its name to the Syrian Democratic People's Party, signalling its adoption of western-style

as its ideology, rather than its previous Soviet-style Marxism-Leninism;Al-Bunni, V.A. (2013) ''An Analysis Of The Syrian Left Realities'', Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung since the early 1980s, it had been highly focused on democracy issues, and the 2005 conference essentially formalized a development long in being. The same year, party activists co-founded the Damascus Declaration, a coalition of parties, human rights groups and pro-democracy activists named for their document demanding the country's transformation from a "security state to a political state" based on regular free elections, a democratic constitution, the rule of law, pluralism, and individual rights. Party leader Faeq al-Mir was arrested in December 2006 after being taped by Syrian intelligence agents calling Lebanese politician Elias Atallah to offer condolences for the death of Pierre Gemayel, Lebanon's Minister of Industry. Al-Mir was charged with "undertaking acts that weaken national sentiment during times of conflict" and "communicating with a foreign country to incite it to initiate aggression against Syria or to provide it with the means to do so" and sentenced to three years in prison.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

adopted him as a

prisoner of conscience A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...

and campaigned for his release. He was still missing in 2015.

During the Syrian Civil War

Pro- Assad forces arrested three prominent members of the party, after the beginning of the popular uprisings in 2011; Ghias Youn Soud, the party secretary general, Omar Kashash, trade unionist from the city of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, and Fahmi Yousef. They were all soon released. The party joined the Syrian National Council in 2011 through its participation in the Damascus Declaration. George Sabra was acting president of the Syrian National Coalition from 2012 to 2013.

References

External links