🧵Part 2: From Thesis to Warfare

🎓 1999: Thesis
🕵️‍♂️ 2010–2023: Execution

As a cadet Fidan discussed his thesis as a theoretical vision, as a MIT chief during the Syrian CW, he put it into practice-- building a bloody transnational instrument of hegemony. ⬇️

https://twitter.com/karimfranceschi/status/1927311056357007474

2/ In his thesis, Fidan praises the CIA for mastering covert empire-building; citing regime change, propaganda, and economic sabotage as successes worth copying.

In the same breath he accuses Syria, Greece and Iraq of using the PKK in their own covert actions.

🧵1/ I managed to get my hands on Hakan Fidan’s 1999 master’s thesis. Erdoğan’s projected successor.

He laid out his strategic doctrine long before his meteoric rise. A roadmap for a new Turkish empire built through intelligence, surveillance, and covert operations. ⬇️ 2/ The thesis, titled "Intelligence and Foreign Policy: A Comparison of British, American and Turkish Intelligence Systems", was submitted at Bilkent University. Written in English, it’s shockingly candid about Turkey’s strategic ambitions after the Cold War.

🇸🇾 🇨🇳 [Thread] How China seized Syria’s most strategic port—without firing a shot.

A 30-year deal.
A French shipping firm as front man.
And two weeks later, Trump reverse policy, lifts sanctions and calls the former al Qaeda chief “handsome.”

Here’s the story no one’s telling: 2/ May 1st: headlines said a French giant was taking over Syria’s Port of Latakia.

After some digging it turns out CMA CGM is French in name only: In 2013, China dropped €400 million for 49% of CMA’s terminals. Another $1 billion in loans turned it into a Belt & Road weapon.

ENDGAME 🧵
A 10-day ultimatum has been issued. the SDF must submit to Damascus, or dissolve. Today, clashes erupted near the Tişrin Dam; just kilometers from Kobani.

This isn’t just a skirmish. This is Clausewitz culminating point of attack: the moment where offensive force must achieve decisive victory or collapse under its own momentum. 1/ I’ve written many threads tracing how Ahmed al-Sharaa (Jolani), now declared interim president of Syria with the endorsement of key actors in the imperial core, is navigating the passage from insurgent to head of state.

🧵1/ Macron is about to welcome Syria’s “new president,” Ahmed al-Sharaa, to Paris.

You might know his name. Not his body count.

Meet al-Jolani, “former” al-Qaeda Emir. While the West cashes in, Syria bleeds — its worst sectarian massacre in a decade. 👇 2/ You know that trope where the villain shaves, puts on a suit, and suddenly he’s in charge?

That’s literally what happened.

Ahmed al-Sharaa is Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, ex–al-Qaeda, ex–jihadist warlord, now rebranded as “Syria’s hope” after Assad’s fall.

Tomorrow, Brussels hosts the 9th #Syria Conference, one of the most shameful moments in European diplomacy; @vonderleyen’s DEI appointees, are about to roll out the red carpet for jihadists—days after they orchestrated a massacre of Syrian minorities.

Europe has fallen—🧵 2/ The EU claims this conference will foster a "Syrian-led inclusive transition." Sounds fine; except the commissioners in charge know nothing about Syria and ignore that this “transition” is supposed to be led by an ISIS offshoot committing war crimes as we speak.

1/ 🧵A massacre is unfolding in Syria. Alawite civilians are being slaughtered; executed, displaced, wiped out. And the world? Silent. Worse, some are justifying it. Let’s break down the lies that make genocide acceptable. ↓ 2/ The killers want you to believe these Alawites are just “Assad remnants.” That’s the cover-up. These are civilians <men, women, children> being murdered because of who they are, not because of any allegiance.

1/ On March 7, 2025, an Alawite hecatomb: humanity butchered in blood-soaked rituals, perpetrators proudly filming their infernal spectacle. Women wailed in horror as children were dragged from homes and slaughtered alongside husbands, fathers, and grandfathers. 2/ Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, absurdly recognized internationally as Syria’s "legitimate security forces," proudly broadcasted their atrocities: civilians forced to crawl, bark, beg—until bullets silenced their pleas; women’s and children’s bodies piled into a grotesque monument.

A thread — 🧵“And all across the land, men looked up at the sky and saw the dragons coming, and they knew their doom.”

Jaramana #جرمانا might have been a meaningless Damascus sub-district, a citadel nobody ever heard of, as unknown as the Druze brigade bearing its name, standing in its defense.

But not anymore.

The self-crowned president may have just set his throne ablaze—trying to take it by force. #Syria 1/
A century ago, European diplomats carved arbitrary lines across the Middle East. Today, we call them the Sykes-Picot borders. We pretend these lines are sacred, while ignoring the people forced to endure decades of war and displacement because of them—people like the Druze of southern Syria.

Today, those borders mean little to the fighters in Jaramana, where Druze gunmen refuse to surrender their district to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the new rulers of Damascus. The battle isn’t just over a neighborhood—it’s about survival in a country that has erased so many minorities before them.

— A Thread 🧵
The U.S. and Russia are negotiating Ukraine’s future—without Ukraine. Zelensky calls it illegitimate, but the truth is far more horrifying.

On sunflower fields abused by monoculture, nitrogen… fertilized by blood and bone. Where men give battle to the death, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

For the deep metabolic rift extends to all of the earth. 2/—
Victory and defeat are mere propaganda frames.

Who sets the terms of peace? The Ukrainian people, or the transnational elites who profit from endless war?

Trump and Putin aren’t negotiating peace—they’re dividing the spoils. While Zelensky fights for relevance.

1/ The U.S. is About to Make a Catastrophic Mistake in Syria
The U.S. Department of Defense is reportedly drafting plans for a full military withdrawal from Syria.

This decision will:
✅ Hand Syria to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaeda and ISIS offshoot.
✅ Give state-grade weapons and funding to jihadist groups.
✅ Open the door for chemical weapons proliferation.

These facts are so unbelievable yet undeniable that I had to rebuild this thread from scratch, using only bipartisan, congressional sources.

📑 All sources are included below. Every claim is backed by declassified U.S. government reports.🧵 2/ The U.S. Presence in Syria is Minimal But Critical
There are currently ~2,000 U.S. troops in Syria. Their role is:

• Supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in counterterrorism operations.
• Preventing ISIS resurgence and terrorist attacks.
• Serving as a diplomatic shield for Kurdish-led forces that sacrificed 11,000 fighters to defeat ISIS.

This is not an "endless war"—it is a low-cost, high-impact deterrent. @CJTFOIR

Source;
📑 [CRS Report: IN12469]

1/ Three days ago, #Turkey's spymaster-turned-foreign minister, Fidan, bragged on Saudi TV about brokering a rapprochement between #Russia and the "new Syrian authority." 2/ Over the past month, almost the entire NATO leadership showed up in Damascus to shake hands with Jolani, once ISIS’s number two, desperately trying to push Russia out of the Mediterranean. But a double game was in motion.

1/ Imagine this: The CIA secretly partners with a group still labeled a terrorist organization. A group with deep ties to al-Qaeda and a bloody history of bombing civilians. Sounds familiar? That’s exactly what’s happening with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in #Syria. 2/ The Washington Post just revealed that the CIA shared intelligence with HTS—yes, HTS—to help thwart an alleged ISIS attack in Damascus. HTS, which once bombed a Damascus shrine in 2017, killing 76 civilians, is now being framed as a partner in stability. How did we get here?

1/ Trump’s fiery call with Denmark’s prime minister over buying Greenland underline deep issues of sovereignty, colonial legacies, and the future of autonomous regions. This wasn’t a joke—it was a threat rooted in global power struggles. 🧵 2/ Greenland is rich in resources, geopolitically crucial, & home to a proud Inuit population. Yet, its status as an autonomous territory of Denmark puts it in the crosshairs of powerful nations seeking control under the guise of “security” and “development.”

1/ Why are the architects of the global economy rebranding a faction born of ISIS, one that holds just 31% of #Syria from Damascus, as the “NEW SYRIAN AUTHORITY”? How did we arrive at a moment where Jolani’s HTS is treated as a legitimate government? A thread. 🧵 2/ In Dec 2024, Assad’s regime collapsed, leaving cities like Aleppo, Homs, Damascus, and Latakia up for grabs. Jolani seized the Baathist institutions as regime forces melted away.

1/ “What’s really driving the chaos in #Syria and #Turkey?” Cemil Bayik, co-chair of the KCK Executive Council, lays it all out in a rare, eye-opening interview. From the Kurdish question’s deep roots to its impact on today’s power struggles. A must-read breakdown of the forces shaping the region’s future. 2/ At the heart of Bayik’s analysis is Abdullah Ocalan, long isolated but central to envisioning a democratized Middle East. His calls for Kurdish rights, gender equality, and decentralized governance aren’t abstract—they are grounded in the material realities of repression and inequality.

1/ THREAD: Debunking #HTS’s “staged” narrative on thwarting an ISIS attack on the Sayyidah Zaynab shrine in #Damascus, as reported by @AP .
As someone who fought #ISIS for years in #Syria, I’ll explain why this entire story is a fabrication. 🧵 2/ HTS’s claims don’t match ISIS’s operational patterns. From 2012 to 2023, ISIS attacks on Sayyidah Zaynab in Damascus used parked vehicles—plastic bags, cars, or motorcycles—with explosives detonated remotely. The only exception was part of the August 2016 suicide attacks.

If Machiavelli’s Il Principe came to life, it would be Hakan Fidan. For #Turkey's spymaster turned Foreign Minister, the ends always justify the means—even aligning with ISIS or enabling genocide.

This is the man shaping #Syria’s future. 🧵 1/ For 13 years, Hakan Fidan ruled Turkey's MIT. False flags, the 2016 staged coup, brutal crackdowns—his fingerprints, everywhere. Turkey’s trajectory is his design. Now, as Foreign Minister, he steps from the shadows to tip the final dominoes he’s meticulously aligned.

This @elonmusk tweet is a blatant attempt to push a xenophobic “white genocide” narrative. By co-opting the Yazidi genocide, he distorts the real story—one that’s far more complex, and deeply tied to Kurdish history and resistance. A Thread👇 🧵 1/ Ready to hear what really happened? Buckle up—because Musk’s clickbait fearmongering totally overlooks how a terrorist-labeled group (the PKK) stepped in where others fled, rescuing thousands of Yazidis from near-certain death in 2014.

On the first night of 2025, an ISIS-inspired Islamist drove a truck into New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, killing 15.

The black flag found at the scene wasn’t just a relic—it’s a rallying cry for terror. Let’s break down what it means. 🧵

#TerroristAttack 1/ The FBI photographed the ISIS flag found at the site of the New Orleans attack on Jan 1, 2025. This flag is more than just an Islamic symbol. It’s ISIS’s signature, representing their global jihadist ideology. Let’s break down what it means and why it matters.

How the SDF Could Reverse Engineer #Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2: A Step-by-Step Guide 🧵 1/ The Opportunity
At approximately 1:00 PM today, the SDF shot down a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 near Qara Qwzaq Bridge. The drone is reportedly intact, except for its tail. This is a rare chance for reverse engineering one of the most impactful drones of modern warfare. Let’s break down how it could be done.