Since the severe earthquake in southern Turkey and northern Syria, calls for the lifting of sanctions against Syria have become louder on social media. But are these views justified?
This man sits in front of the ruins of his house in Djinderes, Syria
The young Syrian has tears in her eyes. “We have no electricity, we have no gas, we have nothing,” she yells angrily at the camera. “And then the earthquake came. Nobody tried to help us. Don't let the media fool you,” she pleads, holding up a graphic of the airspace over Syria for the camera.
On the graphic It can be seen that one day after the devastating earthquake that hit northern Syria and southeastern Turkey on February 6, no planes have landed with relief supplies for the survivors in their homeland.
Syria needs Help, the young woman emphasizes in her video. She introduces herself as Patricia, a student from Damascus.
The TikTok video with the air traffic graphic has since received over five million views and more than 240,000 mostly favorable comments. However, the graphic had already gone viral on all social media platforms before Patricia's video, mostly with the hashtag #StopSanctionsOnSyria or a variation of it.
Are sanctions delaying help?
This widely shared TikTok video is a good example of how many questions and emotions surround the topic of sanctions against Syria. As frustration mounted over delays in the arrival of aid and equipment in Syria's earthquake-stricken areas, many observers have questioned whether sanctions are partly to blame for the delay in aid. Some want to know how they can help. Others say that the authoritarian Syrian regime of dictator Bashar Assad is cynically exploiting the natural disaster for its own purposes.
Researchers at the Syrian Archive, which tracks and documents war crimes in Syria using online verification, have observed a surge in hashtags related to sanctions against Syria after the earthquake. “But there is no certainty as to whether these hashtags were created intentionally (editor's note: and thus part of a government-sponsored campaign) or organically,” a spokesman for the Syrian Archive told DW. “The general desire to help has led many people to get involved. But it is also clear that this type of campaign is welcomed by the Syrian government.”
Syria: Aid deliveries are slow at
“The regime and its supporters are using the earthquake as an excuse to demand the lifting of all sanctions against Syria,” Andrew Tabler, senior fellow and Syria expert at the US think tank Washington Institute, told DW. The area in north-west Syria, which was hardest hit by the earthquake, is actually not affected by the sanctions – and yet the people there have probably paid the highest price for the delay in terms of aid.
“These areas have been not controlled by the Assad regime for a decade,” said Tabler. They are predominantly under the control of Islamist militias from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, which in turn emerged from the Al-Nusra Front.
Missing context
In her video, Patricia also does not mention the revised cybercrime law that the Syrian government introduced in April 2022. This has made it even more dangerous for Syrians to post criticism of the Syrian government on the internet. This type of context is missing from a lot of content on social media. In her TikTok video, for example, Patricia from Damascus does not talk about why there are international sanctions against Syria at all.
After the Assad regime triggered a war by brutally cracking down on peaceful demonstrations for freedom and democracy in 2011, the EU and the US imposed sanctions on Damascus. Twelve years later, the Syrian government, which now controls a large part of the country again, wants to polish its image and regain access to international markets.
The air traffic graphic that Patricia and many others have shared online is partially misleading. As a result of the war, the airspace over Syria has been closed to most civil airlines since 2015. Air traffic over Syria looks the same almost every day, whether earthquake relief is arriving or not.
In Northern Syria the insufficiently equipped local volunteers, the White Helmets, did the search and rescue of the victims alone
The impact of the sanctions on Syria
Many governments that have imposed sanctions on Syria emphasize that humanitarian aid has always been exempt from sanctions.
“I categorically reject the allegations that EU sanctions have an impact on humanitarian aid” , said the Slovenian EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, shortly after the earthquake.
The German Foreign Office also stressed that the sanctions never affected humanitarian aid, not even heavy machinery used to clear rubble could be used.
“Don't fall for the narrative being put out by certain actors who are trying to advance their own interests in these very difficult times,” a Foreign Office spokesman warned at a recent press conference. “The current catastrophic situation is being exploited politically.”
Sanctions in a gray area
“I do not question that sanctions have negative impacts on human rights,” said Karam Shaar, political economist and Syria sanctions expert. “Nobody can deny that. But we should also talk about the context and the rest of the story.”
The Syrian government under dictator Bashar al-Assad insists that all humanitarian aid is routed through Damascus. Cross-border aid to north-west Syria has become a political bargaining chip in recent years, with Russia using its permanent seat on the UN Security Council to to support the Assad regime and extort concessions from other Security Council members. Since 2020, due to this pressure, the UN Security Council has only allowed aid to be transported through a Turkish-Syrian border crossing. Two other crossings were not opened for humanitarian aid until just over a week after the quake. In addition, one of the biggest problems for many Syrians inside and outside the country is, for example, the problem of sending money to and from Syria. The sanctions are intended to cut off the Assad regime from international banking, but in practice they have also made life difficult for Syrian citizens.
Two more border crossings from Turkey to northern Syria were only opened more than a week after the earthquake
On February 9, shortly after the earthquake, the US government issued General License 23, which “permits for 180 days all transactions related to earthquake relief that would otherwise be prohibited by the Syrian sanctions provisions”.
This week, the US Department of Commerce also said it would help expedite exports to Syria, which could help with reconstruction efforts. These include, but are not limited to, telecommunications and medical equipment, portable generators, and equipment for water treatment or sanitation.
On February 15 there were also two new decrees from Great Britain. “UK sanctions do not target humanitarian aid, food or medical supplies,” the British government said. However, she recognized that some aspects of the sanctions could pose problems in a crisis. The new decrees would make it easier for aid agencies to work in Syria without violating sanctions targeting the Assad regime.
According to several reports, EU member states have also been discussing temporary changes to sanctions.
Since the earthquake of 6 February Anger grows over the late arrival of aid supplies in northern Syria
Keeping a closer eye on sanctions
Experts Shaar and Tabler, but also other analysts, agree that sanctions and derogations need to be monitored more closely and evaluated regularly.
“The problem is not the sanctions as a policy tool, but the way they are being implemented in Syria and other countries and the lack of resources to make them effective,” argued Shaar in a post for the think tank Atlantic Council in January.
According to Tabler, if the new US exemption General License 23 is not carefully evaluated, this could lead to problems. It is valid for six months instead of the usual three, and the definition of “earthquake aid” is very broad.
“The Assad regime has had a terrible track record in diverting aid funds,” Tabler said in an interview with DW. “I know the unintended effects sanctions can have, and I also know that people are suffering and that we need to help them. But such openness allows for abuse,” said former US State Department special adviser on Syria.
< p>Tabler therefore suggests carefully assessing and then ensuring the earthquake damage and reconstruction needs. The newly enabled flows of money to Syria should then actually flow in this direction and not be siphoned off by the Assad government, which could either enrich itself or finance further attacks on its opponents.
The countries, the sanctions impose have the technology and capability to perform this type of monitoring, Tabler said. “But the question is whether the political will exists.”