Syriac Union Party (Syria)

The Syriac Union Party (Syriac: ܓܒܐ ܕܚܘܝܕܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ, romanized: Gabo d'Ḥuyodo Suryoyo, Arabic: حزب الإتحاد السرياني في سوريا, SUP) is a secular Assyrian political party in Syria that represents the interests of Assyrians in Syria and is committed to the Dawronoye modernization ideology. Established on 1 October 2005, since the start of the Syrian Civil War it has positioned itself on the side of secular, democratic, socialist and federalist Kurdish forces in Rojava, skeptical of both the Ba'athist Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad and the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. As of 2013, it was a member of the Syriac National Council of Syria (SSNC).

Political role in Jazira Canton of Rojava

With the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, the Syriac Union Party aligned itself with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), with which it shares a secular, pro-modernization and direct democracy based ideology. It has three deputies in the Syrian Democratic Council, the legislature of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

The Syriac Union Party has set up the Syriac Military Council militia as well as the Sutoro police force to protect Assyrian communities in their settlement areas in northeast Syria. Sutoro are integrated with the general Asayish police force of Jazira Region of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, however the Qamishli branch later broke away to align itself with the Assad government under the name of Sootoro. The Syriac Military Council has co-operated closely with the mainly Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) and later became part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Deputy Prime Minister of the region is Syriac Christian Elizabeth Gawrie.

Persecution by the Assad government

The Syriac Union Party has been subject to continued repression by the Assad government during the civil war, despite being part of the nonviolent and officially-tolerated domestic opposition National Coordination Body.