Reports | 25 05 2020
In mid-December of last year, the Syrian regime’s armed forces opened the door for citizens to voluntarily join what they termed “Volunteer Brigades.” According to the proclamation issued by the armed forces, volunteers would receive all the financial and material benefits they receive in their current jobs, plus an additional 50% of their salaries, and a monthly compensation of 10,000 Syrian pounds.
Although the proclamation states that joining the brigades is voluntary, and it introduces it as a fulfillment of “people’s desire and demand to help defeat terrorism in their country,” reality proves differently. Government workers in all Syrian provinces are pushed to join these brigades, and those who refuse to are subjected to the possibility of being dismissed from their jobs. The Governor of Tartus, Sulaiman Abu Saada, for example issued a statement in which he threatened that government workers under the age of forty who did not join the brigades would be dismissed from their jobs.
Even Fifty Year-olds Must Join
Although the proclamation set the age limit at 40 years, it seems that in reality, it includes those who are 50 years of age as well.
“I wish they had committed to the age limit listed in the proclamation. I have heart issues, and underwent surgery before. I provided them with my health record, but they did not care, and they insisted that I should join to protect my home country,” said Samer Saad, a 50 year-old government worker from Anaaz in Wadi al-Nasara.
After passing the military training session in Shamsin Camp in rural Homs, Samer now serves at a checkpoint in the city of Homs. “I was forced into it. They did not give me any other choice. I had to join, because I am only three years away from my early retirement, and I do not want to lose my job and my benefits,” Samer said. According to Samer, many of those who serve with him are his age or older, and they were also forced into joining the brigades.
Clerics
Although the Syrian regime claims to provide clerics with special treatment, especially when it comes to serving in the military, pastor Estefanos Mansour, for example, had to join the brigades as well. According to Samer, the pastor looked out of place in his black cassock when joined the other recruits at the Shamsin Camp.
In addition to being a cleric, Mansour has been working for years as an engineer at the municipality of Marmarita in Wadi al-Nasara. Although Mansour tried by various means, and used all of his connections in the church, it took him months to get exempted status from this obligatory type of volunteering.
No Early Retirement: Escape is the Only Solution
The regime's arbitrary actions against its own employees, and failing to follow its own laws and resolutions has led many workers to do whatever it takes to avoid joining the voluntary brigades.
Naeem is a 28 year-old man from al-Zahraa neighborhood in Homs, who works at the state’s energy utility. Although Naeem is exempted from military service, he is scared that the regime’s officers might capture him at a checkpoint and force him to join the brigades. “I applied for early retirement, but my request was rejected. I have to escape to Lebanon. I have no other choice,” he told Rozana. “No one knows what is next. They might, in a month or so, send me to fight the Islamic state,” he added.
People’s Opinions
“They should have chosen any different term. Calling them “Volunteer Brigades” is ironic. Who do coercion and dismissing people from work align with volunteer?” Ahmad told Rozana. “Since when does the regime care about people’s demands? It seems that the Syrian regime decides what people’s demands are, and then forces them to comply with them,” he added.
Nevertheless, those who disapprove of the government policies support the regime’s recent step, since it is time, as they believe, for government workers to do something with their time, instead of sitting behind their desks, doing nothing, and receiving salaries from the government.
Following their online posts, many activists believe that the regime’s step is an official recognition of the severe shortages in its ranks. They further surmise that its new need for men is an effort to cover the new territory that Russia has helped regain, while others believe that this is a preemptive step to prepare for potential military intervention from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.