Azaz City Agreement between Ahrar al-Sham (AAS) and Jabhat al-Sham

• Country/entity

  Syria
  
• Region

  Middle East and North Africa
  
• Agreement name

  Azaz City Agreement between Ahrar al-Sham (AAS) and Jabhat al-Sham
• Date

  13 Nov 2016
• Agreement status

  Multiparty signed/agreed
• Interim arrangement

  Yes
• Agreement/conflict level

  Intrastate/local conflict ( Syrian Conflicts (1948 - ) (1976 - 2005) (2011 - ) )
• Stage

  Implementation/renegotiation
• Conflict nature

  Inter-group
• Peace process

  Syrian Local Agreements
• Parties

  Harakat Ahrar al-Sham;
  Jabhat al- Shamiyya
• Third parties

  President of the Central Court – Azaz, [illegible]
• Description

  Following a dispute over a checkpoint in the City of Afrin between Harakat Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Shamiyya, the Central Court in Azaz ruled that Harakat Ahrar al-Sham owes an apology to Jabhat al-Shamiyya and that control over the checkpoint return to the Central Court according to the previous rulling on 25/7/2016.

• Agreement document

  SY_161114_Azaz City Agreement Between Ahrar Al-Sham and Jabhat al-Sham_EN.pdf | Download PDF
• Agreement document (original language)

  SY_161114_Azaz City Agreement Between Ahrar Al-Sham and Jabhat al-Sham_AR.pdf | Download PDF

Local agreement properties

• Process type

  Formal structured process
  
• Rationale

  -> Local issues only; external support mechanism; culture of signing The agreement deals with an issue that has previously been solved by a Central Court between the two parties. There is thus a culture of signing and an external judicial mechanism to support the resolution of the conflict. The issue at stake, that concerns a checkpoint in the city of Afrin, is apparently persistent.
• Is there a documented link to a national peace process?

  No
• Link to national process: articulated rationale

  No link to the national peace process in Syria is mentioned in the agreement, neither it can be inferred from further research. First, the agreement does not involve local governance actors; and the signing parties themselves are not official state representative. Second, the parties to the dispute share a Salafi ideology and reject the national peace process, as it would maintain Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian government in power.
• Name of Locale

  Afrin
• Nature Of Locale

  Smaller
• GPS Lat/Long (DD)

  36.509973, 36.860288
• Participant type

  Local state actor
  Local armed group
  
• Mediator, facilitator or similar

  Mediator or similar referred to
  Mediator (references)

  Central Court of Azaz
  Type of mediator/facilitator/similar

  Local state actor

Local issues

In the name of Allah the Merciful

Statement

[Illegible]

Council of [illegible]

The present Central Court in Azaz has entered the conflict situation that has arisen between Harakat Ahrar al-Sham [The Movement of the Free Men of the Levant] on the one side and Jabhat al- Shamiyya [The Levant Front] on the other side concerning the dispute that arose by the major traffic checkpoint in the city of Afrin.

The solution of the situation was that the Central Court will supervise the situation in Azaz by overlooking the conduct of the affairs of the checkpoint and crossing to the city of Afrin by removing the two sides from the management of the checkpoint.

The Central Court will take over [the management].

The checkpoint of the National Hospital will be subject to supervision and management standards.

This was agreed on 25/7/2016.

On Wednesday 9/11/2016, members of Harakat Ahrar al-Sham, under the lead of Abu Hussni Ahrar, came to the mentioned checkpoint, dismissed the members of the court and took over the checkpoint with the force of weapons on the grounds that the court will not ban the passage of cars from the Bab al-Salama crossing towards the city of Afrin.

Despite the request of the Central Court to Abi al-Waleed Ahrar al-Sham, Deputy Commander of Harakat Ahrar al-Sham in Azaz, to implement the agreement according to its wording, he did not do so.

He did not take the incident of the checkpoint seriously, stating that 80% of the resources of the checkpoint belong to Harakat Ahrar al-Sham.

In order for the Central Court in the province to follow its principle of neutrality in dealing with general issues, the Court has decided that:

There will be an apology for dismissing the implementation of the mentioned agreement between the two sides.

The elements of the judicial control and its official documents will be withdrawn.

(Allah be behind our intention)

President of the Central Court – Azaz

[illegible]