Tag: Syria

Turkey is using Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to seek a green light for a new invasion of autonomous, Kurdish-led regions of Syria.  Such an invasion would not only bring further death and displacement to the Kurds, but destabilise the region and deepen the gulf between Nato and Russia, Kurdish politicians have told Declassified. Ankara has […]

Britain has quietly resumed arms exports to its NATO ally Turkey, whose brutal operation in Syria targets the UK’s key Kurdish allies fighting Islamic State (ISIS). Turkish-backed militias are complicit in human rights abuses and include former members of ISIS

Tony Blair’s government believed Bashar al-Assad had “increased the momentum for reform” in Syria after claiming 99.7% of the vote in a presidential election in which he was the only candidate, documents obtained by Declassified reveal. The Syrian dictator came to power in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez, who had ruled the […]

“We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies,” Lord Palmerston famously told the British parliament when he was foreign secretary in 1848. Over a century and a half later, during the so-called war on terror, Britain has abided by Palmerston’s morally ambiguous approach towards international relations, with disastrous results.  The head of […]

A controversial Whitehall body — the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund — has used large amounts of money from the British aid budget to support the opposition in Syria. Declassified outlines the extent of this funding for the first time.

Newly-discovered documents show how UK covert operations in Syria helped ‘shape perceptions’ of the war. The British government effectively ran Syrian opposition groups’ media offices and created publicity material aimed at Syrian and UK audiences, challenging the idea the UK has played a small role in the conflict.

Britain’s national press consistently portrays Britain as a supporter of noble objectives such as human rights and democracy. The extraordinary extent to which the public is being misinformed about the UK’s foreign and military policies is revealed in new statistical research by Declassified UK.

The United Kingdom is fighting at least seven covert wars