Syria Dismantles Assad-Era Counter-Terrorism Court as Kurdish Tensions and Fuel Protests Flare

Syria’s newly formed parliament has voted to officially abolish the Counter-Terrorism Court created during the rule of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad, while simultaneously nullifying all legal consequences resulting from its past verdicts. The legislative measure stands as one of the most prominent institutional actions taken by the country's new assembly as it works to dismantle the judicial mechanisms of the former government.

According to state-run broadcaster Al-Ekhbariya TV, the parliamentary vote formally finalized the dismantling of a tribunal that post-Assad authorities had already treated as defunct. The vote occurred during the opening weeks of the first parliament assembled since the fall of the previous administration, with the chamber having convened for its inaugural session in July before spending its early meetings drafting internal rules and organizing legislative committees.

Established in 2012 under al-Assad, the Counter-Terrorism Court served as a specialized judicial mechanism utilized by the central authorities to prosecute thousands of Syrian citizens for alleged offenses deemed terrorism-related. Throughout the civil conflict, the body operated as an instrument of state control, targeting opposition figures, political dissidents, and civilians under broad security designations.

The court's operating procedures and legal basis had previously drawn strong condemnation from international bodies. In 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Committee determined that the 2012 statute establishing the court failed to provide essential judicial guarantees, raising grave concerns over the widespread use of arbitrary detention, incidents of torture and ill-treatment, and the court's overall lack of institutional independence.

Wednesday’s parliamentary resolution follows a sequence of earlier government steps designed to roll back the tribunal's authority. In March 2025, Syria's constitutional declaration formally called for the abolition of the effects of what it termed unjust rulings delivered by the court, including the mandatory restitution of confiscated property to affected citizens. Later, in June 2025, President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued an executive decree dismissing 67 judges who had served within the body.

These legal reforms come after the sudden conclusion of 53 years of al-Assad family rule on December 8, 2024, following a swift 11-day offensive that caught domestic and international observers by surprise. The overthrow of the regime brought an end to a pervasive police state widely condemned for its systematic employment of torture, arbitrary detentions, and forced disappearances.

While lawmakers in Damascus focus on judicial and legislative restructuring, mounting discontent across northeastern Syria is posing a direct test to President al-Sharaa’s ability to unite a fractured nation emerging from 14 years of conflict. Friction between the central administration and the country's Kurdish population has rapidly escalated over economic policies, language rights, and administrative integration.

Economic tensions peaked on Wednesday when civilian protesters organized a major blockade on the M4 highway near the northeastern town of Tal Tamr. The demonstration successfully blocked transit for hundreds of oil tanker trucks transporting crude oil from the Qamishli and Rmeilan oilfields, with local participants insisting that the road will remain closed until the government reverses recent increases in fuel prices.

The local economic volatility is closely linked to the shifting governance over the region's natural resources. Under the previous autonomous control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), fuel in northeastern Syria was heavily subsidized for local residents. Following the central government's reassertion of authority over the territory and its oil facilities, those subsidies were removed, triggering widespread domestic price surges.

Fuel market pressures intensified on Sunday after the government announced further price hikes of roughly 30 percent for petrol and 40 percent for diesel. Damascus attributed these sharp increases to higher global fuel costs driven by the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran, in addition to scheduled maintenance and repair work at the Baniyas oil refinery situated along the Syrian coast.

The economic fallout from the subsidy reductions and price increases has quickly reached the national political stage. Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir is scheduled to appear before parliament on Thursday to face direct questioning regarding the administration's fuel pricing policies and the resulting public backlash.

Simultaneously, cultural and educational grievances have sparked widespread public demonstrations across the northeast. In recent weeks, large groups of students in the cities of Hasakah and Qamishli have taken to the streets to protest a new government decree regarding Kurdish education. Although the measure makes Kurdish an official language of instruction for the first time in Syrian history, it restricts teaching to only three classes per week.

This limited allocation contrasts sharply with the wartime educational framework established under Kurdish self-rule, which featured an autonomous school system where instruction was conducted predominantly in the Kurdish language. Consequently, local Kurdish communities have grown increasingly anxious about the potential loss of rights and autonomy gained during the conflict.

The ongoing protests coincide with broader efforts to incorporate the region's security forces under state command. In August, Damascus and the SDF minted an integration agreement to absorb the once-powerful Kurdish-led force into the Syrian national army, advancing a process that originated with a January accord that ended weeks of armed hostilities.

While the August integration deal has been widely viewed as a major political triumph for al-Sharaa’s administration, it has generated divided opinions among Kurdish leaders. Some politicians view integration as an essential pathway for Kurds—who comprised about 10 percent of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million—to participate in building the post-war state and enshrine their rights through constitutional processes, while others view the arrangement as the outcome of pressure.

Although President al-Sharaa has promised constitutional guarantees to protect Kurdish political and language rights, the intersection of fuel shortages, cultural disputes, and military reorganization continues to highlight the complex challenges of restoring centralized governance across Syria.