thank you assad for being useless!

Since the market creator isn’t active, I’m going to resolve the market as a moderator. After reviewing it and consulting with others, it does not require the source articles to use the word “coup”, but merely to refer to an act that is sufficiently close to the market’s definition of a coup. There are more than sufficient sources, shown in other comments, that do this, including two sources that explicitly refer to it as a coup. Given this preponderance of evidence, I’m resolving the market to YES.

So, as already found by @Gabrielle, we have CNN and the BBC who explicitly call it a "coup":

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4r6n7nld0o

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/syria-civil-war-12-08-2024/index.html

And here the BBC quotes a "Western diplomat" who again calls it a "coup" (and the BBC does not indicate that they view it differently):

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kv582lpnro.amp

And if you consider RT an official government source of Russia (which I do 😉), then we have the third source:

https://www.rt.com/news/608993-iran-syria-relations-revolt/

@JonasSourlier US, UK, and RU source! Well done. Thanks.

"A coup d'etat refers to the unlawful, unconstitutional overthrow of a government, typically by a faction within the country's political, military, or governmental structure."

I don't know how this could be any more plain. This did not occur in Syria and no news or government sources are reporting the fall of the Assad regime as such. The Yes criteria simply have not been met.

Here is an example of a coup d'etat. The Ba'ath party rises to power with an illegal military takeover.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_Syrian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

Some of the yes holders here are arguing that every regime toppling that has ever occurred can be thought of as an internal coup d'etat. Nonsense!

@gamedev CNN refers to it as a coup, as well as several other reliable sources (that unfortunately the market creator didn't choose as options). The Syrian opposition is quite literally an internal policial faction. How you believe that Syrians themselves are external is beyond me. Not to mention, the creator said that it is "typically" done by those groups, so even if you were right that it wasn't (you're not), it still wouldn't help your case.

This change in government is unconstitutional, there is no clause in the former Syrian constitution that says that rebels can militarily take over the government, therefore this is an unconstitutional takeover

@gamedev If the word typically was not there I would agree with you.

Just gonna leave this here:

https://chatgpt.com/share/67569e1f-d62c-8001-80f7-4a7a81cb5b8c

@PeterNjeim The disagreement is about whether the otherthrow needs to be a 'coup' in the sense of coming from inside the Syrian government, with loyalists turning on Assad to betray him (which is not how his regime fell), or external, and being toppled by rebels fits the definition. Assad was not overthrown by internal factions acting illegally so even your ChatGPT analysis would imply this should resolve NO!

@gamedev look up "coup" on Wikipedia:

is typically an overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership.

Noone says it has to be "from inside".

But even if you insist on that, the speed at which HTS conquered this huge land certainly implies a lot of complicit elements within the regime.

So far the only source of the required ones that I have found refer to it as a coup is CNN: https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/syria-civil-war-12-08-2024/index.html "...in his first public remarks since the rebel-led coup..."

This BBC article also possibly counts: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4r6n7nld0o "The Daily Express headline says there is "delight in Syria", saying refugees in neighbouring Lebanon hailed the coup.", but it is referring to the Daily Express' use of the word.

I haven't found any official government sources, but those are harder to search.

So far I don't think the strict market conditions have been met.

@Gabrielle I'm not sure how to respond to this. The market conditions aren't strict in the slightest, and have been fully met. Nowhere does it mention that a source needs to verbatim use the term "coup". The description plainly describes what a "coup" means for the purposes of this market. @NathanpmYoung was pinged earlier but hasn't responded yet. Nathan, can you please share how you plan to resolve this?

@Gabrielle I agree with Peter. The ousting of Assad was certainly unlawful and unconstitutional - based on the law and consitution that was in place during Assads regime.

@Gabrielle Does it satisfy you if a source uses the word "overthrow" or "oust", as that's how "coup" is defined in this market's description?

@Gabrielle This should resolve YES even if they don't refer to it as a coup. This isn't wikipedia we don't have to outsource our judgment to reliable sources.

@Gabrielle A collection I made:

BBC ("coup" direct quotation): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kv582lpnro

BBC ("coup" indirect quotation): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4r6n7nld0o

BBC ("takeover"): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99x0l1d432o

BBC ("overthrow"): https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cj90138ejrdt

CNN ("coup"): https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/syria-civil-war-12-08-2024/index.html

Reuters ("topple", "overthrow", "fall"): https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syria-rebels-celebrate-captured-homs-set-sights-damascus-2024-12-07

Reuters ("oust"): https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-syria-rebels-stars-aligned-assads-ouster-2024-12-08

Reuters ("ousted"): https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/with-assad-ousted-new-era-starts-syria-world-watches-2024-12-09

Al Jazeera ("overthrow"): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/8/us-caught-surprise-syria-overthrows-al-assad-analysis

United States ("collapse"): https://www.state.gov/the-syrian-people-finally-have-a-reason-for-hope

France ("fall" ("chute" in French)): https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/dossiers-pays/syrie/evenements/actualites-2024/article/syrie-chute-du-regime-de-bachar-al-assad-08-12-2024

Seems difficult. A side winning in a civil war is not usually defined as a coup.

@Pjfkh while that's true, this market luckily defined what a coup means, so we don't need to guess. A coup is an "[...] unconstitutional overthrow of a government [...] by a faction within the country's political [...] structure."

The government takeover that just occured in Syria isn't one of the officially sanctioned methods of changing presidents, and thus is a coup by this market's definition

@mods resolves YES

@NathanpmYoung Assad getting overthrown counts right?

@Shai "ousting, arrest, or death of a current leader and the subsequent installation of a new leader without a legal or constitutional process" certinaly what appears to be happening

@Riley12 but by hostile rebels and not the internal Syrian government, which is what makes a coup a coup and not just an overthrow. Syrian military seems to have been mostly just running away up until this point

@gamedev It says "typically" by internal forces. For this market it does not have to be someone internal.

@Riley12 I guess we will have to see if any of the listed international news or government sources report this as a 'coup', per the resolution criteria

@gamedev my belief is that the source does not have to use the word "coup" it just has to detail "but not limited to the ousting, arrest, or death of a current leader and the subsequent installation of a new leader without a legal or constitutional process"

Why would the creator describe that out if it just resolved based on news source wording, and why did they not explicitly say so.