More than 1,000 civilian minorities — many of them Christians, as well as Kurds and Alawites — have been murdered in Syria over the past week in the worst spasm of bloodshed since the days of the Islamic caliphate and the ISIS genocide against the Christians.
Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al Sharaa — who used to be an ISIS leader — says he will put an end to the violence.
But early reports indicate that it’s his loyalists — radical Islamist terrorists who hated the regime of former President Bashar Al Assad with a vengeance — that are engaged in the attacks and many fear they are doing so with Al Sharaa’s tacit blessing.
Dr. Martin Parsons, an expert on Christian persecution, told Premier Christian News in the UK over the weekend, “There is now an armed insurgency in the coastal region that is dominated by Alawites that was the Assad heartland. There were also Christians living there. There was fighting between government fighters and this insurgency, which is led by a former Brigadier in Assad’s forces, and large numbers of Alawites and Christians fled. We also know that there were targeted attacks on civilians.”
Before the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, an estimated 1.3 million Christians lived in Syria.
Since then, the number has dropped to about 300,000 and many are still trying to flee the country trying to.
Many Syrian Christians were supporters of the Assad regime because they felt he kept them safe from the Islamist radicals.
Now they say they’re being targeted not just for their faith in Christ but because of their loyalty to Assad.
“The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday.
“The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities — including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities — and offers its condolences to the victims and their families. Syria’s interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.”
The three Patriarchs of the Orthodox churches in Syria issued the following statement.
In recent days, Syria has witnessed a dangerous escalation of violence, brutality, and killings, resulting in attacks on innocent civilians, including women and children. Homes have been violated, their sanctity disregarded, and properties looted—scenes that starkly reflect the immense suffering endured by the Syrian people.
The Christian Churches — while strongly condemning any act that threatens civil peace — denounce and condemn the massacres targeting innocent civilians, and call for an immediate end to these horrific acts, which stand in stark opposition to all human and moral values.
The Churches also call for the swift creation of conditions conducive to achieving national reconciliation among the Syrian people. They urge efforts to establish an environment that facilitates the transition to a state that respects all its citizens and lays the foundation for a society based on equal citizenship and genuine partnership, free from the logic of vengeance and exclusion.
At the same time, they reaffirm the unity of Syrian territory and reject any attempts to divide it. The Churches call on all concerned parties within Syria to assume their responsibilities, put an end to the violence, and seek peaceful solutions that uphold human dignity and preserve national unity.
We pray that God may protect Syria and its people and that peace may prevail throughout the land.
John X is the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.
Mor Ignatius Aphrem II is the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church.
Youssef Absi is the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.
