Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said the transitional government’s new parliament would be “a platform for truth and justice” during the opening session of Syria’s newly formed People’s Assembly on Sunday.
“Syria is writing a glorious history that reflects its heroism, and we face the responsibility of building both the nation and the individual,” he said.
The Assad regime fell in December 2024.
Syria spent 2025 trying to unite the country and begin its complex process of appointing parliament members. The final members were recently chosen by Sharaa after a form of voting took place last year. The voting was done by electors, so the parliament still does not reflect a widespread vote.
Nevertheless, this is a major step for Syria.
New Syrian parliament is more diverse, including many female, minority representatives
Many online commentators compared the Assad era, when President Bashar al-Assad would receive a dictator’s round of applause, with sycophants in the rubber-stamp parliament applauding him – with today, when there was no cheering for Sharaa.
Instead, the new Syria has a more diverse parliament. For instance, Fasla Yousef, a female representative, wore traditional Kurdish clothes. She is a senior member of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS) and represents Hasakah along with Ibrahim Mustafa al-Ali and Omar Issa Hais.
Five Kurds won elections that were held in Kobane, Hasaka, Qamishli, and Derik, bringing the total number of Kurdish representatives in the interim parliament to at least eight, including three elected in Afrin last October, Kurdistan Region-based news channel Rudaw Media Network reported.
In other signs of diversity, one female representative wore a full veil, and Syrian actress Rozina Lazkani, 36, was selected as one of Sharaa’s 70 appointees earlier this month.
Among the men representatives, there are Alawites, Druze, Kurds, Christians, Sunnis, and others. There are said to be six Christians, five Alawites, and three Ismailis in the new parliament.
“I went through the resumes of all 210 members, starting with the 140 whose backgrounds show how the parliament was born of the 13-year war, not of party life,” Abdullah Al-Ghadhawi reported in New Lines Magazine. “The overwhelming majority of members come largely from no declared party and [they] ran on no institutional platform.”
“Instead, they rose through the social and political networks that Syrians built after 2011, including the opposition movement and its local armed factions, Sharia councils and local councils, relief organizations and field hospitals, free professional unions, civil defense groups, reconciliation committees, town notables and Kurdish parties,” he wrote.
Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), Syria’s official news agency, said Sharaa “called on members of Syria’s newly formed People’s Assembly to make the legislature a model of responsibility, competence and institutional governance, urging lawmakers to promote dialogue, uphold the rule of law and help build a modern Syrian state.”
“President al-Sharaa said humanity had long sought the best way to govern public affairs, stressing that consultation and consensus remained the most effective means of achieving the common good,” the report said, adding that “There is no better path than consultation and consensus... mutual acceptance is essential to overcoming division, resolving differences and reaching sound judgment.”
Syria is entering a new chapter, said Sharaa, who last week hosted French President Emmanuel Macron in Damascus and met US President Donald Trump in Ankara on the sidelines of a NATO summit.
New parliament begins work amid cautious optimism
The Syrian People’s Assembly, which was supposed to be convened last week, elected Member of Parliament Abdul Hamid Akil al-Awak as its speaker. He secured a majority of 99 votes during the parliamentary session, SANA reported. Moayad Hayel al-Qablawi and Mohammad Ramez Koraj had sought the position.
Awak was born in 1966 and received a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Aleppo in 1990. He is considered to be a legal expert from the Hasakah Governorate.
A total of 140 members of the new parliament were chosen through an election by a limited number of electors in each area of Syria. Sharaa appointed 70 members of the new parliament.
Only the Sweida region did not engage in the process, as it is run by a Druze leadership that is seeking autonomy or independence and does not recognize the new government in Damascus. Nevertheless, Laith Al-Balous, a pro-government Druze figure, was appointed to the new parliament.
The “new parliament will serve a 30-month term and is expected to review previous decrees, pass legislation and begin drafting a new constitution,” Rudaw Media Network reported. “The assembly’s composition has drawn criticism from some Kurdish politicians, who argue that Kurdish representation falls well below the community’s share of Syria’s population. Only a handful of Kurds are among the presidential appointees, while nine Kurdish lawmakers were elected from northeast Syria, known as Rojava.”
Several Kurdish members from the ENKS, or KNC, parties were appointed.
“Senior Kurdish National Council (ENKS) official Sulaiman Oso previously said he hoped Kurdish lawmakers would effectively represent their constituents” and said, “We wish them success, and I hope that they are the voices of our people in the Syria parliament, and obtain Kurdish rights in the new constitution, and work to make Kurdish the official language in Kurdish areas,” Rudaw reported.
Poll highlights public skepticism toward new parliament
Turkey’s Special Envoy to Syria Nuh Yilmaz said: “The Syrian People’s Assembly opens today. I congratulate all the Syrian people. Syria waited for decades to regain its popular sovereignty, gave hundreds of thousands of lives, and hundreds of thousands of people wasted away their lives in prisons. Syria has more than earned this.”
The Syria in Transition magazine reported that a poll of Syrians regarding the new assembly found that only 14% of respondents said it was representative, and only 10% felt it would influence decisions.
Many respondents said they did not know what would come next. The poll indicates that many Syrians are either skeptical or are taking a wait-and-see approach. Having lived under the Assad regime since the 1970s, and then through 13 years of civil war, when much of the country was destroyed, and millions had to flee abroad, it is no surprise people are skeptical.
Levant24 quoted Sharaa as saying: “Since the beginning of humanity, people have searched for the best way to manage their interests. Acceptance and consensus are a means to overcome disagreements... We are partners in building responsibility, and the council today is a platform for truth and justice… I call on you to make this council a model of responsibility and competence, and to contribute to strengthening the culture of dialogue, the rule of law and respect for institutions.”