An Ideological Odyssey Spanning Two Decades of Incarceration: How the Syrian ‘Mandela’ Riyadh al-Turk (1930-2024) Went from Stalinist Communism to Social Democracy

In these times of unrest and turmoil, it comes as no surprise that the passing of who some called Syria’s beloved “Cousin,” the Syrian dissident Riyadh al-Turk, feels like a farewell to the last of a fleeting generation of Arab heroes. Titles such as the “Sheikh of the Syrian Opposition” and the “Mandela of Syria” just barely skim the surface of the oppositionist’s almost-mythological role in the struggle against tyranny throughout the last century. It is not just Riyadh al-Turk’s survival of torture, sacrifice, and solitary confinement throughout over two decades of political imprisonment under the Assad regime, father and son, that has made him a revered figure, but also his unbending will and devotion to his ideals. The Syrian opposition leader fiercely pushed for national democratic change and served as the secretary-general of the Syrian Communist Party’s Political Bureau branch, later renamed the Syrian Democratic People’s Party, from 1973-2005.

 

Though Turk may have been physically absent from the political scene during his time in Assad’s prisons, his presence remained. His name was frequently spoken within leftist intellectual circles in Syria, and his supporters boldly displayed democratic slogans in the streets, calling for the release of political prisoners. Despite several attempts to silence him, his voice against tyranny rang loud and relentless. In the same way, Turk’s absence now with his death does not diminish his presence or legacy. As Ayman Jezzini writes in Assas Media, “He, and people like him, only die in the flesh... His death is an obituary with many values, stages, and large, broad titles. With his departure, a leftist era unfolds, which was hoped for over a century ago.”