Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Historical Materialism Istanbul: From Catastrophe to Struggle: Rethinking Capitalism amid Wars and Disasters, İstanbul, Türkiye, 3 - 05 Nisan 2026, (Yayınlanmadı)
The
Assad regime’s violent suppression of the 2011 Syrian popular revolt produced
not only a massive humanitarian catastrophe but also a profound economic
collapse. After roughly fourteen years of revolutionary upheaval and civil war
and the fall of a fifty-four-year political dynasty, a provisional government
was formed under the leadership of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which had been
controlling the Idlib region. One of the central issues of this “transition
period” has been how to carry out “economic reconstruction.”
This
paper begins by examining Syria’s economic conditions in the final years of the
Assad regime and then analyzes the economic and social policies pursued by the
provisional government after taking power. It focuses on the tensions and
contradictions between these policies and the urgent needs and demands of the
poor and popular sectors of society. What are the core elements of the
provisional government’s economic strategy? What are the fundamental economic
and social needs of Syria’s working classes and popular sectors? What kinds of
antagonisms have emerged between government policy and popular needs, and what
types of social and political developments might these conflicts trigger in the
near future?
Drawing
on field observations from visits to several Syrian cities after the fall of
the regime, interviews with both younger and older generations of left, labor
and human right activists, and systematic news monitoring, this study argues
that the provisional government’s current economic policies risk shifting Syria
from its previous status as a semi-colony of Russia and Iran toward a new
dependence on Western imperialist powers and Gulf states. It contends that
these dynamics may ignite new waves of mass mobilization driven by economic and
social grievances.