On March 6-7, videos of violence in an around Latakia emerged, showing armed men patrolling the streets in pickup trucks, as well as other more disturbing scenes. This is the deadliest flare-up of the situation in Syria since the coup in December.
Latest news from Syria
In his first public statement since the fighting from March 8, a pre-recorded speech, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that government forces will “continue to pursue the remnants of the fallen regime”. He called on ‘Assad-loyalists’ to lay down their arms “before it is too late”.
Rudaw reported on March 8 that at least 340 field executions of Alawites have already been documented since the beginning of clashes; 120 total combatant deaths were reported. The number of actual deaths, however, is much larger, estimated at more than 1,000.
The clashes have led to thousands of people, mostly Alawites and Christians, fleeing their homes out of fear for their lives. Several hundreds, mostly women, children and the elderly, have also sought refuge at the Russian Hmeimim military base.
Alawite Muslims make up about around 10% of the current population of Syria and their numbers are mostly focused in the coastal areas of the countries (mainly in the Latakia and Tartous Governorates), however significant numbers also live in Damascus and the Homs and Hama Governorates. Notably, Bashar al-Assad is from al-Qardaha, a town in the mountains of the Latakia Governorate with a primarily Alawite population.
Sectarian violence comes as no surprise
Considering Ahmed al-Sharaa’s past (nom de guerre Muhammad al-Jolani) and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham*, which grew out of Jabhat al-Nusra*, which in turn spawned from al-Qa’eda*, the continuous persecution of minorities (this is, first and foremost, Alawites, Christians and Druze) in Syria comes as no surprise. During the war in Syria (i.e. since 2011), large-scale persecution of Christians and Alawites by Sunni radicals was reported and documented, including execution, torture, sexual slavery, destruction of holy sites etc. The most notorious perpetrators of this violence during the war were Jabhat al-Nusra* and ISIL*. Let me remind the reader that the current interim president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was previously the leader (the emir) of Jabhat al-Nusra* (he joined al-Qa’eda* in Iraq before the US invasion and created Jabhat al-Nusra* around 2012 with support from al-Qa’eda*). The fact that his beard has been trimmed, and his military uniform replaced by a suit does not erase this preposterous fact.
Following the coup, there have been multiple waves of dissatisfaction within Syria, protesting, both physically and online, division among sectarian lines. One such example was a video of a Christmas tree being burned. This video was quickly circulated around the internet and led to heavy criticism, an eruption of protests and fears of persecution of Christians and other minorities. There have since been debates as to the facts of the story and what exactly happened, however one thing is certain: one short video was enough to ignite deep fears of persecution and discrimination of minorities in Syria. There have also been multiple videos of churches being looted.
Many sources, including Al Jazeera, The Guardian and CNN, reported that the clashes are going on between pro-Assad loyalists and regime security forces. Although this is probably partially true, it is more than a stretch to call all of the representatives of one side ‘pro-Assad loyalists’, especially considering the fact of collective discrimination against an entire group as a prominent feature of Syrian history, as well as the high number of young civilians murdered. It is no secret that Alawites are a minority in Syria; in addition to this, they are also currently being stigmatised in their entirety for their connection to Hafez and Bashar al-Assad, which surrounded themselves with a significant number of Alawites.
It is also likely that it was not exclusively regime security forces that participated in the clashes. Considering the multitude of state and non-state armed actors active in Syria since 2011, Syrians have become used to ‘taking matters into their own hands’ at times. Many Sunnis strongly support Ahmed al-Sharaa and prejudice against Alawites, to some degree or other, is to be expected.
Christians in the Middle East: an often-forgotten group
The discrimination against and, furthermore, mass emigration of Christians from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries is a massive and largely underreported issue. The emigration rates for Christians, in comparison with other groups in the Levant, are disproportionately high, a trend that has been seen for several decades (more than a century, rather). There are many reasons for this, including various forms of persecution (including ethnic cleansing) and discrimination on a religious basis, which is only exasperated by conflict. There are currently significant Arab Christian diasporas in the United States, Canada and Europe. As an example: before the outbreak of hostilities in Syria in 2011, the estimated number of Christians was 1.5-2 million (approximately 10% of the total population). By 2020, their number had dropped to about 450,000, with most having fled to North America and Europe. It difficult to produce an exact number, but it could currently be as low as 300,000.
Calling the current massacre – and it is exactly that, a massacre – of Alawites and Christians a ‘brave operation to root out anti-regime saboteurs’ is outrageous.
To state the obvious, the Middle East is the birthplace of Christianity, which emerged more than 600 years before Islam; before the Islamic invasions and conquests, the majority of the Middle Eastern population (Copts, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Armenians, Nubians, Arameans etc.) was Christian. Somehow this fact is seemingly forgotten in the context of Christian persecution and the anti-Christian rhetoric of certain radical groups. There are some places in the Middle East where different religions and confessions co-exist, for example Lebanon. This balance, however, is extremely fragile – one only has to recall how different groups slaughtered each other during the civil war in the country (1975-1990). Such things are not easily forgotten and continue to plague new generations. Ethno-confessional issues are, unfortunately, always central to the Levant and must be carefully studied (instead of limiting oneself to the weak justification of blaming everything on the confrontation between Sunnis and Shia’s).
***
In conclusion, let me point out the irony of the current situation: the new Syrian authorities, which have never missed a chance to criticise and blame Bashar al-Assad for disproportionate use of violence against civilians, including the government’s harsh response of cracking down on protests at the beginning of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011-2012, are acting in the exact same matter. The hypocrisy is glaring.
* Organisation banned in the Russian Federation
Vanessa Sevidova, post-graduate student at MGIMO University and researcher on the Middle East and Africa
