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Protests Continue in Northern Syria against Normalization Efforts between Ankara, Damascus

A protest against normalization between Ankara and Damascus is seen in Afrin. (X platform)
A protest against normalization between Ankara and Damascus is seen in Afrin. (X platform)
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Protests Continue in Northern Syria against Normalization Efforts between Ankara, Damascus

A protest against normalization between Ankara and Damascus is seen in Afrin. (X platform)
A protest against normalization between Ankara and Damascus is seen in Afrin. (X platform)

Protests continued on Friday against normalization efforts between Ankara and Damascus in Turkish-held regions in northern Syria.

A huge protest was held in Afrin against the normalization with demands that military decision-making in the anti-regime revolution be removed from Ankara’s control.

Rallies had broken out overnight on Thursday in areas held by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group in the Idlib countryside.

The demonstrators protested against attacks by pro-Türkiye military police against rallies that were held in the Peace Spring Operation areas in Afrin.

The police had fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse the protesters in Afrin.

The people had taken to the streets on Thursday to demand the release of 18 demonstrators who were arrested during protests against normalization.

Protests also broke out in regions of Türkiye's Operation Olive Branch. They demanded an end to Ankara’s control of the revolt and opening new fronts to combat the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Türkiye is keen implementing an agreement reached with Russia to open trade routes with Syria, which has also angered protesters because it is seen as another move to normalize ties with Damascus.

On Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan declared that discussions are ongoing over normalization.

Türkiye is ready for a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Assad, he added.

The time and place of the meeting have not been set yet.

He made his remarks shortly after a round of discussions held between Turkish officials with an American delegation in Türkiye.

The talks focused on reaching a political solution to the crisis in Syria in line with United Nations Security Council resolution 2254.

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Syria: Elaborate Military Tunnel Complex Linked to Assad's Palace

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration carries the decapitated head of an equestrian statue of Bassel al-Assad, brother of toppled president Bashar al-Assad, removed from the abandoned Republican Guard base on Mount Qasyun. Bakr ALKASEM / AFP
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration carries the decapitated head of an equestrian statue of Bassel al-Assad, brother of toppled president Bashar al-Assad, removed from the abandoned Republican Guard base on Mount Qasyun. Bakr ALKASEM / AFP
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Syria: Elaborate Military Tunnel Complex Linked to Assad's Palace

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration carries the decapitated head of an equestrian statue of Bassel al-Assad, brother of toppled president Bashar al-Assad, removed from the abandoned Republican Guard base on Mount Qasyun. Bakr ALKASEM / AFP
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration carries the decapitated head of an equestrian statue of Bassel al-Assad, brother of toppled president Bashar al-Assad, removed from the abandoned Republican Guard base on Mount Qasyun. Bakr ALKASEM / AFP

On the slopes of Mount Qasyun which overlooks Damascus, a network of tunnels links a military complex, tasked with defending the Syrian capital, to the presidential palace facing it.
The tunnels, seen by an AFP correspondent, are among secrets of president Bashar al-Assad's rule exposed since the opposition toppled him on December 8.

"We entered this enormous barracks of the Republican Guard after the liberation" of Damascus sent Assad fleeing to Moscow, said Mohammad Abu Salim, a military official from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the alliance that overthrew Assad.

"We found a vast network of tunnels which lead to the presidential palace" on a neighboring hill, Salim said.

During Assad's rule, Qasyun was off limits to the people of Damascus because it was an ideal location for snipers -- the great view includes the presidential palaces and other government buildings.

It was also from this mountain that artillery units for years pounded opposition-held areas at the gates of the capital.

An AFP correspondent entered the Guard complex of two bunkers containing vast rooms reserved for its soldiers. The bunkers were equipped with telecommunications gear, electricity, a ventilation system and weapons supplies.

Other simpler tunnels were dug out of the rock to hold ammunition.

Despite such elaborate facilities, Syria's army collapsed, with troops abandoning tanks and other gear as opposition fighters advanced from their northern stronghold to the capital in less than two weeks,.

On the grounds of the Guard complex a statue of the president's brother Bassel al-Assad, atop a horse, has been toppled and Bassel's head severed.

Bassel al-Assad died in a 1994 road accident. He had been the presumed successor to his father Hafez al-Assad who set up the paranoid, secretive, repressive system of government that Bashar inherited when his father died in 2000.

In the immense Guard camp now, former opposition fighters use pictures of Bashar al-Assad and his father for target practice.

Tanks and heavy weapons still sit under arched stone shelters.

Resembling a macabre outdoor art installation, large empty rusted barrels with attached fins pointing skyward are lined up on the ground, their explosives further away.

"The regime used these barrels to bomb civilians in the north of Syria," Abu Salim said.

The United Nations denounced Bashar's use of such weapons dropped from helicopters or airplanes against civilian areas held by Assad's opponents during Syria's years-long civil war that began in 2011.