The Syrian Arab Republic has fallen. In its place stands a jihadist proxy regime installed by empire, managed by Turkey, and weaponized by Israel. Now the colonizers argue not over whether Syria should be free—but who gets to control the carcass.

By Weaponized Information
April 12, 2025

“Stirring sectarian tension” is a polite way of saying: Israel is managing the imperial aftermath.

This week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accused Israel of deliberately exacerbating sectarian and ethnic divisions in northern Syria—accusations made at a joint press conference in Beirut, and reported by the South China Morning Post. The language was diplomatic, but the message was crystal clear: the Syrian battlefield is now a colonial negotiation table, and Turkey wants more seats.

Let’s start with the facts: the Syrian Arab Republic as we knew it is gone. Bashar al-Assad has fled to Russia. And in his place stands a U.S.-protected, Turkish-managed, al-Qaeda-descended regime known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). This is not liberation. It’s logistical recolonization dressed in transitional slogans and IMF seminars.

HTS: From Head-choppers to Handshakes

HTS now runs Damascus. Yes, that HTS. The one that was born from Jabhat al-Nusra, which was born from al-Qaeda, which was born from the U.S. war in Afghanistan. HTS was once on terrorist lists—now its representatives are shaking hands with EU diplomats. The difference? They changed their logo, replaced suicide vests with suits, and most importantly: they now serve imperial interests.

They control border crossings, oil fields, security apparatuses, and even media framing through Western-aligned “opposition platforms.” This is not a revolution. It is occupation by rebranding.

Israel’s Role: Not a Rogue Actor, But Empire’s Regional Manager

According to the SCMP article, Israel is deploying intelligence operations to stir “ethnic and religious discord” in Syrian zones previously held together—however tenuously—by Ba’athist centralism. But this is not exceptional behavior. It’s precisely what Israel was built to do.

Zionism has long functioned not just as a settler-colonial project, but as a strategic garrison for Western empire. In times of U.S. overreach, Israel acts as subcontractor—bombing, spying, disrupting, and dividing. In Syria, it has supported factions hostile to the state for years. And now, with Damascus fractured and HTS in charge, Tel Aviv is positioning itself as a regional architect. Not to stabilize—but to ensure permanent instability on terms it can control.

Turkey’s Complaint: Not Innocence, but Exclusion

Hakan Fidan’s condemnation of Israel might sound principled—until you remember Turkey played an instrumental role in building the very Frankenstein now roaming free. Turkish intelligence trained and coordinated with the so-called Syrian opposition. Turkish bases provided the rear logistics. Turkish NGOs laundered the image of jihadists into “liberators.”

So what changed? Simple: Ankara wants a bigger slice of the neocolonial pie. Its complaint isn’t that Syria is being recolonized. It’s that Turkey’s not the only one doing the recolonizing.

The Colonial Contradiction, Weaponized Again

Syria’s partition is not accidental. It is the outcome of a long-standing imperial strategy: weaken all Arab states, prevent regional integration, block Chinese and Iranian access, and ensure Western financial and military hegemony. The U.S. can no longer afford boots on the ground, so it uses proxies like HTS. And when even proxies become inconvenient, Israel steps in as enforcement.

What was once done by gunboats is now done by NGOs, sanctions, and the occasional Mossad operation.

What the SCMP Didn’t Say—But We Will

The SCMP article avoids stating the obvious: that the current ruling authority in Syria is a foreign-installed terror regime, not a national government. It avoids calling out the HTS-Turkey-Israel trifecta that’s managing this “new Syria.” It avoids pointing out that imperialism didn’t fail in Syria—it adapted.

And that’s what Weaponized Information calls imperialist recalibration—not defeat, but reformulation. Not retreat, but repackaging. A colonial order in crisis, still determined to impose control—just with cheaper methods and a better PR team.

Syria Has Fallen, But the Empire Is Still Cracking

Syria has become a cautionary tale. When a sovereign state resists empire long enough, empire doesn’t just attack—it smothers, fragments, and reconstitutes it in its own image. HTS is that image. Israel is the manager. And Turkey is the enabler trying to renegotiate its contract.

But even in its wreckage, Syria’s story is not over. From Gaza to Baghdad to Beirut, the empire may hold the present—but it does not own the future. That belongs to the forces of sovereignty, liberation, and memory.

And we remember exactly who did this.