Syriac political parties in Syria intensify political coordination and demand constitutional guarantees

02/09/2026

BETH ZALIN (QAMISHLI), Syria — Three Syriac (Aramean-Assyrian-Chaldean) political parties in Syria have intensified efforts to coordinate their positions on the future of their people and its political, cultural and linguistic rights, as the country witnesses accelerated discussions over the future form of the state, its institutions, and upcoming political and administrative arrangements.

The Coordination and Consultation Committee of the National Syriac Parties held a meeting bringing together representatives of the Syriac Union Party (SUP), the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), and the Assyrian Democratic Party (ADP). The meeting discussed the situation of the Syriac people and the challenges they face, as well as ways to unify positions on upcoming political and national developments. The meeting included Sanharib Barsom, Co-Chair of the SUP in Syria, Bashir Saadi, Deputy Head of the ADO, and Ninos Esho, Head of the ADP.

Discussions focused on the need to move from situational political coordination toward a joint action program that would include a series of meetings across the Gozarto (Jazira) region, with the aim of developing a unified vision on issues affecting the Syriac people and strengthening its presence in discussions concerning the country’s future.

The move comes amid a political phase in which Syria is witnessing a reorganization of relations between Syrian government institutions and the dissolved Democratic Autonomous Administration of the Region of North and East Syria (DAARNES), accompanied by discussions over the future of security, military and administrative institutions in northeastern Syria. In this context, the three parties stressed the need to ensure the representation of the Syriac people in the ongoing integration processes, so that their participation extends beyond social and cultural representation to include the institutions and bodies that will shape the future of the region and the state.

The Committee’s efforts were not limited to the Gozarto region. The participants discussed the need to intensify political outreach across different parts of Syria, with particular attention to Daramsuq (Damascus), through meetings with government and official bodies to directly present issues concerning the rights of the Syriac people. The move reflects an attempt by the parties to elevate their demands from the local to the national level, at a time when discussions are underway over the constitutional and political framework of a future Syria.

At the forefront of these demands is official recognition of the Syriac language, alongside guarantees for the national, cultural and linguistic rights of the Syriac people in Syria’s future constitution. The parties believe that incorporating these rights into the constitutional text would provide a legal basis for protecting the community’s cultural and linguistic identity and ensuring its participation in public life.

In a parallel move, a delegation from the Coordination and Consultation Committee held two meetings with prominent church leaders in the Gozarto region to broaden dialogue over the future of the Syriac-Assyrian community. The delegation visited Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Gozarto and the Euphrates Mor Maurice Amsih, and Archbishop of the Assyrian Church of the East’s Archdiocese of Gozarto Mor Ephrem. The visiting delegation included representatives of the SUP, ADO, and the ADP. The meetings addressed the situation of the Syriac people and their role in the current and coming stages, both in Gozarto and across Syria as a whole.

Participants in the two meetings stressed the importance of ensuring that the Syriac people have an effective presence in government institutions and bodies and participate, alongside the other components of Syrian society, in building state institutions and determining the country’s future.

The discussions also focused on the need to unify political, cultural and national demands, with particular attention to the Syriac language as one of the most prominent elements of the community’s cultural identity.

The two archbishops welcomed efforts to strengthen coordination among Syriac political parties and forces, expressing their support for these efforts and their readiness to contribute to initiatives that serve the unity of the community’s demands and protect its rights and interests.

Taken together, the meetings reveal an attempt by Syriac political forces to develop a more cohesive position at a stage when the political and cultural representation of Syria’s various communities may be subject to negotiation and redefinition.

For these parties, the issue is not only securing representation in state institutions, but also establishing national, linguistic and cultural rights within the constitutional framework that will define the nature of the future Syrian state.

Turning these demands into constitutional and institutional rights, however, will require not only unified positions within the Syriac people’s forces, but also the ability to establish effective channels of negotiation with Syrian institutions and other political and community forces.

The Coordination and Consultation Committee therefore appears to be seeking to make the coming stage a test of joint political action: first unifying demands, then taking them to Daramsuq and other decision-making centers, in an effort to ensure that the future of the Syriac people is not something decided by others, but rather forms part of the discussion over the shape of a new Syria.