Sovereignty Support Movement Sovereignty for West Asia
In the summer of 2012, a loose network of social justice activists in the Middle East, Europe and North America that had worked together in previous projects related to Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt began to discuss forms of action with respect to the crisis in Syria. They were concerned that nearly all the discourse in the West was in favor of military conflict and imperialist interests. One of them, Eva Bartlett, created a list serve, [email protected] to provide a means of sharing information and discussion.
In August, some of the activists met at the Anti-Imperialist Camp in Assisi, Italy and formed a small delegation that went to Syria soon after. For the remainder of the year, they made plans for a larger international delegation to go to Syria on a solidarity and fact-finding mission in order to bring back informed recommendations and a different narrative for promulgation.
Simultaneously and independently, the Syrian Mussalaha (“Reconciliation”) movement, which had formed in December, 2011, began taking its message to the West, largely through the efforts of Mother Agnes-Mariam of the Cross, Mother Superior of the Monastery of St. James the Mutilated near Qara, Syria. She made contact with Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, and did speaking tours of Australia and Ireland, and by the end of 2012, they, too, were making plans for an international delegation to Syria.
The Mussalaha delegation eventually took place in May, 2013, under the leadership of Mairead Maguire, with Mussalaha as the host organization, with Mother Agnes-Mariam as their representative. Following the delegation, a number of subscribers to the nosyriaintervention list serve decided to try to create a North America speaking tour for Mother Agnes. They therefore formed a nonprofit organization to sponsor the tour and, more generally, to provide alternate Syrian views of the crisis, to study alternate means of resolution and to pursue an end to the crisis, based upon principles set forth in the mission statement of the new organization.
On this basis, the Syria Solidarity Movement formed a Steering Committee, which designed and implemented the Mother Agnes-Mariam North America speaking tour. Since then, we sent factfinding and solidarity delegations to international conferences in Syria, participated as international observers in Syrian elections, and established a humanitarian aid project intended to partially compensate for the damage caused by onerous US and international economic sanctions inflicted upon the Syrian people. During this time, the US and its allies waged a proxy war composed almost entirely of mercenaries against the Syrian government, designed to impose a puppet regime and end the independent exercise of Syrian sovereignty. We also changed our name to the Syria Support Movement, to distinguish us from groups that supported the mercenary groups.
After 2018, the Syrian Republic remained fragmented, though the hot war was mostly won. We had a delegation in September of 2019, and the Syrians were very hopeful at that time. We initiated a small charity that chose projects inside Syria on an ongoing basis to make the lives of ordinary people better. However, the institution of the Caesar Sanctions by the United States at that time severely undermined the capacity of the Syrian state for economic recovery, while the U.S. continued to support and encourage a remaining group of Al Qaeda militants in Idlib province. A couple of years later there was a serious earthquake in the region. We were able with much difficulty to continue, and even increase our aid, but it was a drop in the bucket while little international support broke through the barrier of the sanctions outside the U.S. exception for the Al Qaeda group in Idlib. The Syrian Republic now struggled with the aftermath of a vicious 8 year war and a deadly earthquake, still with only small individual sources of aid like ours.
After thirteen years of national Syrian resistance to such forces, and despite hundreds of thousands of Syrian deaths, loss of half the Syrian population as refugees, and devastation of the economy and infrastructure by NATO/CIA armed and trained Al-Qaeda and ISIS proxies, the Syrian government finally succumbed in December, 2024. The invading forces then began slaughtering the religious minority populations in Syria that they considered undesirable, including Yazidis, Druze, Christians, Shia and Alawi. Although SSM could no longer operate freely in Syria under the new regime, we partnered again with Mother Agnes-Mariam to bring $25,000 of relief supplies to mainly Alawi victims of a massive pogrom by the invaders along the Syrian coast in early 2025, thanks to the generosity of our donors and to a grant from our fiscal sponsors. We also provided additional funds to help refugees who fled to Lebanon and other areas. These are described in postings for this time period.
During this time, we began to modify our mission. We recognized that the problems of Syria were regional, and applied to the rest of West Asia, including Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and potentially other countries. Those problems all related to the issue of national sovereignty – the right of every nation to self-determination and to decide its own economic and foreign policy, free from interference from and exploitation by imperialist powers. We therefore changed our name again, to the Sovereignty Support Movement with a regional mission and we seek to implement it through advocacy, acts of solidarity, and provision of humanitarian aid to affected areas. With the help of our supporters, we hope to continue to keep building bridges of friendship, solidarity and cooperation.
