Archbishop Boutros Marayati of Syria’s second city, Aleppo, told his congregation last week the city’s Islamist conquerors provided “assurances” Christians and other religious minorities could “continue living normally.”
A week later, with dictator Bashar Assad in exile, Syrian Christians are holding their breath and hoping those promises are kept by the country’s new rulers.
Aleppo’s Armenian Catholic Saint Barbara Church was able to hold services a few days after the city was taken by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the al-Qaeda splinter group that came roaring out Syria’s hinterlands to conquer a string of cities and then take the capital, Damascus, in just eleven days.
“Do not fear, dear brothers. We have received assurances from all parties. Continue living normally, and everything will remain as before, even better,” Archbishop Marayati told the church community, which is much smaller than it was before the Syrian civil war began in 2011. Christians made up about ten percent of Syria’s population in 2011, but have declined to barely two percent today.
Christians were understandably nervous when the jihadi insurgency began racking up victories against Assad, who became vulnerable after his patrons in Russia and Iran were weakened by the wars they started in Ukraine and Lebanon, respectively. Christians have long been seen as Assad supporters, not because they were terribly fond of the murderous autocrat, but because he offered them a measure of protection against even more bloodthirsty jihadis like the Islamic State.
“Syria is home to the world’s most ancient Christian communities, who still live in trauma after over a decade of frequent occupations, and persistent persecution by Islamist terror groups,” said @indefchristians executive director @richghazal.
— In Defense of Christians (IDC) (@indefchristians) December 6, 2024
Ghazal said that humanitarian…
HTS and its leader, former al-Qaeda member Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, hastened to reassure Christians and other minority groups that HTS was running a more inclusive jihad and had no interest in persecuting Syria’s numerous minority groups. Jolani directly appealed to Christian residents not to flee their homes as his fighters approached.
The early word from Aleppo has been surprisingly good, as residents said HTS and its allies continue to insist their only quarrel was with Assad and his goons. Nothing like the Islamic State’s savage abuse of religious minorities has been reported so far. Representatives from the insurgent coalition made a point of visiting Christian religious facilities to promise they meant no harm.
Syria’s Christians are not completely out of danger yet. Charmaine Hedding, founder of the Shai Fund humanitarian organization, said on Monday she is working overtime to deliver aid to Christians, Druze, Yazidi, Kurds, and other minorities fearful of what HTS and its allies might do after they consolidate power.
Hedding added there was good reason to fear Turkey and its coalition of militant Syrian allies, the Syrian National Army (SNA), because they are violently opposed to the Kurds and Christians living in Kurdish areas are in the crossfire.
“Turkey wants to eradicate the Christians and Kurds and religious minorities from this area. That’s Erdogan’s stated goal, and he’s using the SNA to do it,” she said, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Hedding was deeply skeptical of Jolani’s claim that HTS offers a kinder, gentler version of Islamist rule. She advised Western leaders not to take anything the insurgent leader says at face value.
“Pray that this is not going to be like what the Taliban did, when they said they were the ‘Taliban 2.0’ and the Biden admin was telling everyone they had evolved, but look what happened – they reverted back to exactly who they are,” she pointed out.
“We’re already getting messages of people being beheaded, of massive human rights violations in the Shabha region. We’re already getting messages that Jihadi groups are telling people not to upload human rights violations to their phones or social media like Hamas did because then the world will know who they really are,” she cautioned.
Similar warnings were issued over the weekend by In Defense of Christians (IDC), a U.S.-based advocacy group. IDC said it has heard reports of assault and vandalism against Christians, including the bombing of a Franciscan complex at Terra Santa College during the battle for Aleppo.
The identity of these attackers and vandals could not easily be determined in the chaos of Aleppos’ fall. Even if Jolani and other HTS leaders are sincere about keeping religious oppression to a minimum to win support from the international community, they may not have full control over the more aggressive Islamists in their insurgent alliance.
A Greek Levantine activist, who wished to remain anonymous for his safety, told The European Conservative on Monday that Greek Antiochian Orthodox Christians took no chances and tried to flee before the insurgent onslaught, taking refuge in a safe area known as the “Valley of Christians.” The insurgents moved faster than anyone thought possible, however, and they overran the Valley of Christians on their way to Damascus.
The Greek Levantine activist echoed the warning from the Shai Fund’s Hedding that Turkey and its Syrian allies might be the greatest danger faced by Syrian Christians right now because they hope to seize Aleppo and carve out a large slice of Syria to become a “vassal state” for the Turks. He urged the European Union to use whatever leverage it could muster with Erdogan to keep Turkey at bay.
“Christians in Syria need urgent help. For now, it seems they are still alive, but the last time the city of Aleppo was besieged, they were targeted and killed. I believe evacuation and humanitarian aid should be the priority at this point,” he said.
