File image.
Thousands of Alawites took to the streets on the Syrian coast, the heartland of the community, on November 25 to protest against discrimination and violence, in the first such move since a deadly crackdown by the country’s Islamist-led Interim Government eight months earlier.
The government crackdown in March came in response to an armed uprising by members of the community, which former President Bashar al-Assad belongs to. It ended with a series of massacres that claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Alawite civilians.
Killings and forced disappearances have continued since then, albeit at a lower pace, against Alawites on the coast, as well as in Homs and other areas in central and western Syria.
A wave of violence targeted the community in Homs after a Sunni Muslim Bedouin couple were killed just two days earlier, with sectarian graffiti found at the site. Health officials in the central governorate announced that 18 people were wounded by the violence, but Alawite activists said that two members of the community were killed. Later, authorities said that the murder of the Bedouin couple was not sectarian in nature.
The protests came in response to the violence in Homs, upon a call from the Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad.
While the largest of the protests were in Tartus and Latakia on the coast, many gatherings were also reported in Alawite-majority areas in Homs and Hama. Many of the protesters held banners demanding “federalism” and “the liberation of prisoners,” as well as for the end of sectarian violence.
In Tartus, frictions with security forces were reported, and dozens of supporters of the government gathered in another part of the city.
The situation in Latakia was even more tense. Protestors fought with government supporters in the city itself, as well as in Jableh to the south in the governorate. Videos from the governorate show casualties, gunfire and vehicles attempting to run over the protestors.
RT reported citing local sources that five people were killed in Latakia, three in al-Zera’a Street and two others at Al-Azhari roundabout.
The Alawite council, which is headed by Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, later announced the end of the protests, saying in a statement that what happened was “the first spark of a phase in which neither humiliation nor marginalization will be tolerated.”
Following the end of the protests, Tartus and Latakia both saw mass deployment of security forces. Even military units armed with armored vehicles and anti-aircraft guns were spotted moving inside both cities.
In a statement to the state-run al-Ikhbariya TV, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba warned people on the coast against falling for “schemes” aimed at sowing discord, and cautioned against sectarian slogans. This was the only official reaction to the protests.
Since the fall of the Assad regime close to a year ago, Alawites have been largely excluded from the government structure on both the lower and higher levels, with no representation for the community whatsoever in the military and security forces.
The exclusion of the Alawites, and the massacres that followed pushed both the Kurds, represented by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in northeastern Syria, and the Druze in al-Suwayda in the south to take a very cautious stance from the government.
These fears were magnified by the battle of the al-Suwayda in July, which saw the government attempting to take over the governorate by force only to be confronted by an Israeli intervention. Over 3,000 people were killed in the span of a few days, with Druze civilians making a large chunk of the number. Since then, al-Suwayda remains out of government control, and clashes with the SDF in Aleppo and Raqqa have become more frequent.
The government is not engaged in any serious talks with the Alawites, and the situation with the Druze is not that different.
Talks are, however, ongoing with the SDF, likely due to pressure from the United States which is the main backer of the group.
SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi has recently called for the inclusion of Druze and Alawite representatives in upcoming meetings with the government. This could, of course, provide a way out for the country from the ongoing tensions. The government will not likely agree, however.
The protests on the coast, which the government thought it subdued once and for all with the March crackdown, is a sign that Syria is sliding into a new war.
If the government continues to exclude the minorities, regional and international powers could take advantage of this to further their interests in the country. This is already the case with the U.S.-backed Kurds and the Druze who are de-facto protected by Israel. Still, the influence of radical Islamists within the government seems too strong to allow for any power sharing whatsoever. Even the talks with the SDF will likely collapse by the end of the year.
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it is no surprise that syrians any including alawites seek release from the barbarians that forced unwanted rule upon their nation. barbarians only take plunder. americans and other nations populations are just beginning to see the price they for these conflicts they are forced for subside.
americans once rallied behind words like ” liberty or death” to free themselves from the bank of england. the nation has submitted to the central banker barbarians. usury destroys freedom
they didn’t submit jpmorgab created the reserve and did so in a manner which seemed to them to be saving them from economic ruin they were deceived that made him richer than the entire rothschild extended family it made him the richest banker in history and the most powerful man in america they ommit his role in their telling of the story .
yes and it was he who when tesla discovered that the earth is an induction coil generator naturally producing unlimited free clean safe electricity without needing any fuel whatsoever and how to harness it to provide wireless free electricity to the world ,then he,morgan ,had tesla ostracised from society and cut off from funding. .
http://whale.to/c/new_mediterranean.html
emperor charlemagne of france was not a barbarian but he legalised usury and was rewarded by earning from the vatican the title of holy roman emperor. .you would call them barbarians.
btw england said very plainly clearly publicly that they would conquer america’s independence using commerce .if you went to primary school you would have learnex the basic facts by grade 4 .
you have no idea liberty is a legal term .if they wanted to say freedom they would .
liberty is not freedom , it’s meanings are either naval ,maritime admiralty law ,whereby it’s shore leave hence the statues on an island. meaning a transfer of power from admiralty law of the sea ,to law of the land .it’s not what you assume.
and other wise liberty means to be promiscuous to take liberties
submission implies an understanding and a choice when a people are totally deceived then it’s not submission it’s entrapment.
this was also the case among the chetniks, ustashas, partisans, and later among the hos and milošević’s army, who were happy to shoot their traitors. sometimes, suspicion alone was enough to make them ready to shoot their own brother or mother without hesitation. the druze and alawites are branches of shia islam and both believe in reincarnation. why? one life is enough! it is rumored that ghassan alian (idf commander and druze) wanted to forcibly free syrian druze captured by hts.
it surprises me that they want to save people who gave their weapons to the enemy. why the hell do they want people who committed high treason back? i think this is high treason for which even within the chetniks, partisans, ustashas, and later hos, they themselves shot their own people? what’s wrong with these arabs? are they born weird or do they become weird later because of islam?alawites and druze are a type of shiite islam, and the druze in their sweida want their traitors back.
culpa do putin que trocou a síria pela ucrânia.
don’t expect a democrat to not return to the white house. then the land purchased through the betrayal of syria will be forcibly torn off from russian hands.
that whole surrender to your enemies strategy didn’t work out so well.
who surrendered ?
assad, alawites.
though, i disagree with the crunge.
assad fled to london .
i wish the minsk 3 agreement would also fail and that putin’s successor would forcibly mobilize all assads into the russian army.
the western countries like france and england try to resist their government by protests over years but they just get ignored .hardly even any press coverage and what there is is totally dismissive.evidence of hypocrisy .
and it’s plain as day who is really ensuring the widespread disruptions and provocations to induce ww3.
here’s a former head of the imf trumpeting china as the hero of the new world order and blaming america trump specifically for impeding communisms takeovers…..” i worked at the imf i helped build the brics bank, here’s the truth …” . you tube
one bank under one law , cashless on block chain, using cbdc and acting as if multi national. great 👍 just what everyone wanted
and the bottom line is this if the west didn’t want to reclaim america and need to drag them down in order to do that ,just exactly like they dragged the bourbons down the romanoffs the habsburgs the chinese emperor down to remove competition , them none of this would be happening .
none of it and selling a ” dream ” is the oldest trick in the book just like their hitler fronted nazi party of socialists . imo
allegedly .
just as the bloodthirsty joo vampires want.
putin loves isis… you can thank him for everything.
jewtin loves jews (khazars), especially chabadniks
this only happened because the traitorous putler is a jewish pig.
he has already put russia onto block chain and is making it cashless . i think its good in the right hands but potentially unbelievable bad in the wrong and once its set up will be very difficult to remove ever again . unfortunately he seems to have forgotten that history demonstrates repeatedly that megalomaniacal psychopathic narcissists are drawn to seeking powerful positions, not nice people who are kind and fair.
isis can be viewed as the statue of liberty . they have one in switzerland too . switserland isis. ss . its a symbol of egypt ,the 7 pointed crown represents 4 cardinal points of earth wind fire and water and the other three represent a pyramids triangle shape the 4 and 3 together are egyptian code.its colours red and white together like the red cross etc . . .
i want a democrat in the white house in three years. so that the ukrainians will try to liberate their land. just so that the alawite traitors people like maher al assad, bashar al-assad and his sons would be forcibly mobilized into the russian army. why? if they didn’t want to defend their homeland, they should be forced to defend russia.