Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, accompanied by General Intelligence Service Director Hussein Al-Salama and Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra, meets with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Ankara, Turkey, Aug. 13, 2025. Photo: Turkish Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

Turkey will provide weapons systems and logistical tools to Syria under a military cooperation accord signed on Wednesday, a Turkish Defense Ministry source said, adding that Ankara would also train the Syrian army in using such equipment if needed.

Turkey, a NATO member, has been one of Syria‘s main foreign allies since the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad last year. It has vowed to help train and restructure Syria‘s armed forces, rebuild the country and its institutions, and support efforts to protect Syrian territorial integrity.

In a first step towards a comprehensive military cooperation accord that they have been negotiating for months, Turkey and Syria inked a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday after meetings between their foreign and defense ministers, and intelligence chiefs.

“The memorandum aims to coordinate, plan military training and cooperation, provide consultancy, information and experience sharing, ensure the procurement of military equipment, weapon systems, logistical materials and related services,” the Turkish Defense Ministry source told reporters on Thursday.

Last month an official at the Turkish Defense Ministry told Reuters the Syrian army was in need of restructuring after years of conflict, citing shortcomings in discipline, training, organization, and modernization.

Turkey has been growing impatient with what it calls the lack of implementation of a March deal between Damascus and the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to integrate the SDF into the Syrian state apparatus.

Ankara has warned of military action against the SDF, which it considers a terrorist organization and has targeted in past cross-border operations. It expects the Syrian government to address its security concerns but says it reserves the right to mount an offensive if needed.

‘PROVOCATIVE AND SEPARATIST’

Turkey has also said that clashes between the SDF and Syrian government forces earlier this month and a conference held by the SDF calling for a review of Syria‘s constitutional declaration threatened the country’s territorial integrity.

The Turkish Defense Ministry source said the SDF had not met any of the conditions of the March deal and reiterated Ankara’s accusation that its “provocative and separatist” actions were undermining Syria‘s political unity.

“Our expectation is full compliance with the agreement that was signed and its urgent implementation in the field,” the source added.

Turkey still has troops stationed in northern Syria, where it controls swathes of land along their shared border after a series of military operations against the SDF in the past.

The SDF, which Ankara views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, controls much of Syria‘s northeast. While the PKK has been engaged in a process of disbandment and disarmament, the YPG militia – spearheading the SDF – has said the decision to disband does not apply to it.

A drone view shows the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

War crimes were likely committed by interim government forces as well as by fighters loyal to Syria’s former rulers during sectarian violence that culminated in a series of massacres in March, UN investigators said on Thursday.

Some 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were reported killed during the violence in coastal areas that primarily targeted Alawites, and reports of violations such as abductions continue, according to a report by the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry.

“The scale and brutality of the violence documented in our report is deeply disturbing,” said Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, in a statement released with the report.

Murder, torture, and inhumane acts related to the treatment of the dead were documented by the UN team, which based its 56-page report on more than 200 interviews with victims and witnesses as well as visits to three mass grave sites.

Most victims were Alawite men aged between 20-50 but women, and children as young as one, were also killed, the report said. Sometimes the killers, who went door to door looking for members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, filmed the executions themselves, it said.

Perpetrators were members of the interim government forces as well as private individuals operating or in proximity to them. Fighters loyal to the ousted Assad government also committed violations, it said.

The report is not all-encompassing since incidents in Homs, Latakia, and Tartus are still being investigated by the commission, set up by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011.

The incidents along the coast were the worst violence to hit Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last year, prompting the interim government to appoint a fact-finding committee.

“The Syrian Arab Republic values these efforts and reaffirms its commitment to incorporating the recommendations into the ongoing process of institution-building and the consolidation of the rule of law in the new Syria,” Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani said in a letter responding to the report, which it said aligned with its own findings.

There was no immediate public comment from former Syrian officials, many of whom have left the country.

US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack welcomed the report and said it was a “serious step” towards assessing responsibility for violations. The administration of President Donald Trump is gradually lifting Syria sanctions dating back to Assad’s rule.

A Reuters investigation last month found nearly 1,500 Syrian Alawites had been killed and identified a chain of command from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria’s new leaders.

New Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has previously denounced the violence as a threat to his mission to unite the country and promised to punish those responsible.

The commission acknowledged in its report the commitment of Syria’s interim authorities to identify those responsible but said the scale of the violence warranted further steps.

“Guarantees of non-repetition of the violations should be at the heart of Syria’s transition,” the report said.

A pro-Hamas demonstrator uses a bullhorn during a protest at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on March 11, 2025. Photo: Daniel Cole via Reuters Connect.

If I walked into a room tonight wearing a glittering crown and greeting people in Spanish, would anyone truly believe I was the Queen of Spain?

If I strolled down the street in a police uniform, flashing a badge I bought online, should I be trusted to enforce the law? If I wore a designer jacket from a market stall in Istanbul, could I claim to be wealthy?

Unfortunately, when it comes to Israel, the global conversation works on exactly that kind of shallow logic: appearances are enough, as long as they match the story people want to tell.

Truth becomes irrelevant. Verification is optional.

Every few weeks, new images emerge online: children with sunken cheeks, presented as evidence of mass starvation in Gaza. Some are genuine, hunger exists in every conflict zone. But many of these photos are recycled from Syria, Yemen, or decades-old African crises. And yet they spread unchallenged, often accompanied by videos featuring “witnesses” surrounded by well-fed adults.

The world doesn’t stop to ask obvious questions. If Gaza were truly experiencing the scale of famine some claim, how are so many people visibly healthy? Why are there Instagram accounts for Gaza restaurants, showing upscale food? Why are Hamas leaders, living comfortably in Qatar, not using their millions to feed their people?

Because outrage, not accuracy, is the goal. The narrative is set: Israel must be blamed, no matter the evidence.

The Hamas Commander in a Press Vest

Consider the story of Anas Al-Sharif, eulogized by Al Jazeera as a “fearless journalist” killed near al-Shifa Hospital. Within hours, international outlets repeated the claim. Social media turned him into a martyr of press freedom.

But the Israel Defense Forces produced detailed evidence — rosters, training logs, internal communications — proving that Al-Sharif had been a Hamas operative since 2013, responsible for advancing rocket attacks. His press vest was not a shield of neutrality; it was camouflage.

The response? Al Jazeera called the evidence “fabricated.” The Committee to Protect Journalists refused to acknowledge the documentation at all. Not because the proof was lacking, but because accepting it would dismantle their preferred storyline.

This is Israel’s perpetual reality: the sentence is decided before the trial begins. Facts are filtered through bias. Documentation is dismissed as “propaganda.” Meanwhile, Hamas has perfected the art of Western emotional manipulation.

The aim is always the same — inflame emotions before facts can catch up. And too often, it works.

Rewarding the Playbook

The tragedy is not just in the lies, but in how the world rewards them. France and the UK recently agreed to recognize a Palestinian state, even as Hamas openly declares its intention to repeat the October 7 atrocities “again and again.”

It’s an absurd moral inversion: terrorists commit the massacre, and Israel is punished in the court of global opinion.

If no amount of evidence will change the world’s mind, then Israel must stop fighting on an uneven playing field. Defend without apology. End the war decisively. The accusations will be the same no matter what Israel does.

This issue isn’t just about Israel’s reputation; it’s about the survival of truth in a world that increasingly prefers the crown over the queen, the costume over the character, and the lie over the evidence.

The real tragedy is not that Israel is hated. The real tragedy is that the truth has become optional.