The Tlass Family And Their Historical Links To The French Far Right

Yesterday I blogged about the links between Manaf Tlass and the French far right, and it now appears that the links between the Tlass family and French far right go back much further than a 5 day visit to Syria. 

The French language contresubversion blog has been keeping an eye on the Tlass family over the past year and has come across some very interesting links between the Tlass family and members of the far right in France.  Frédéric Chatillon, who I've previously mentioned as recently founding the InfoSyrie site, leader and long term associate of the far right Groupe Union Défense, and close friends with Jean-Marie Le Pen, has a communication agency called Riwal.

Riwal was created in March 1995 and it is primarily engaged in communication consulting, direct marketing, book publishing and magazines and mail order, mostly of the far right variety.

After a raid on the GUD pro-Hamas posters were discovered that were linked to Damascus, and allegedly paid for by the Syrian Ministry of Defence, which as the time was led by Manaf Tlass's father, General Moustafa Tlass.  The Tlass family themselves have links to publishing, as they own the publishing house Dar Tlass, which published anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial literature.  In addition to the previously mentioned posters produced by Riwal Damascus also funded the production of anti-Semitic revisionist texts that were translated into Arabic.

According to the conresubversion blog the links between the Tlass family and French far right go back nearly two decades, if not more

The first contacts between Chatillon and Tlass dating from October 1994: Frédéric Chatillon, during a visit to Damascus, had met to discuss general assistance that it could bring to his movement.

What this shows is that the 5 day visit to Syria I reported on yesterday wasn't just a one off event between the far right and Tlass family, but part of an ongoing relationship between the Tlass family and major figures in the French far right.  These links need to be exposed at a time when it's rumoured that Tlass will be promoted by the French to be part of any Syrian transitional government.

Many thanks to Stephanie Lamy for all her help.

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

UPDATED - Manaf Tlass And His French Far Right, Voltaire Network, Pro-Assad Friends

It's been widely reported today that Manaf Tlass, son of former Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass, part of Assad's inner circle, and commander of an elite unit in the Syrian army has fled Syria to Turkey.  Joshua Landis noted in his blog that he was a close confidant of Bashar al-Assad, and offered this possible reason for his defection

The word is that Manaf had been told to solve the Harasta and Duma problems (the growing uprising on the outskirts of Damascus). He did a good job by negotiating with the opposition leaders in both suburbs, agreeing that both government forces and opposition would pull back.

The Alawi leadership said "no, that is not how we are going to do this." They pushed him aside and came down like a ton of bricks on the opposition in both neighborhoods, in an effort to assert state authority and crush the uprising through military means.

Manaf supported a policy of negotiation, flexibility and compromise. He was overruled by the military leadership and has since looked for a way out.

Hama Echo pointed me in a direction of a couple of picture of Manaf Tlass which may indicate that this defection is more about saving his own skin than any ideological differences with the Assad regime. In August 2011 the French anti-fascist website Reflex posted an article about members of the far right in France, including Frédéric Chatillon, founding a new website, InfoSyrie, to correct what they stated was the gross misrepresentation of facts by the Western media in the pay of the US and Israel.

The article goes on to describe links between the far right in France and the Alawite and Assad regime members in Syria, and describes a visit arranged by Chatillon for his associates, that include Thierry Meyssan, chairman of the  Voltaire Network; Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, a anti-Semitic political activist; essayist Alain Soral; Ahmed Moualek, president of La Banlieue S'exprime (LBS); and Marc George to Lebanon in 2006, via a 5 day stop over in Syria, where it's alleged Chatillon initiated links with some “second level” regime personals.

A future visit to Syria in 2008 with the same group, reportedly largely financed by the Tlass family, included hotels, sightseeing and drivers for their far right friends, including this meeting with Manaf Tlass (and other family members) pictured second from the left

Other individuals in this picture include Thierry Meyssan on the far right at the end of the table, and Dieudonné M'bala M'bala with his arm around Manaf Tlass.  Here's another picture from the same evening, showing, from left to far right, Frédéric Chatillon, Manaf Tlass, and Dieudonné M'bala M'bala

No doubt now Manaf Tlass has turned his back on the Assad regime his French pro-Assad friends might not be returning his phone calls anymore.

Read more on the Tlass family connections to the French far right here.

The Syrian website has an Arabic language article on the same subject here, and there's an English translation on the way that I will post once it's ready.

Updated July 9th The Damascus Tribune has translated the above article into English, which you can read here.  Here's the main points:
- The Tlass family was responsible for funding the Voltaire Network International, and a number of other sites, at the behest of the Syrian government.
- Damascus gave Thierry Meyssan the money to relaunch the collapsed Voltaire Network in August 2005.
- The funding of Meyssan and The Voltaire Network International was assigned to Munaf and Firas Tanaf from 2006.
- During the 2008 visit to Damascus Thierry Meyssan recommended Frédéric Chatillon for a pro-Syrian PR campaign, that was also funded by the Tlass family, and led to the founding of RiwalSyria.
- In 2011 Riwal registered and launched infosyrie.net for the benefit of the Syrian regime.

Update July 9th The Syrian has now posted their own English translation.

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The Tlass Family And Their Historical Links To The French Far Right

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com