For many years, the Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad constructed his energy on a single, relentless narrative of survival: The regime introduced itself as the one protect towards annihilation for the Alawites, the ethno-religious minority that makes up a couple of tenth of Syria’s inhabitants and has lengthy understood itself to be threatened by the nation’s Sunni majority.
Supporting Assad, himself an Alawite, was a matter not of loyalty or politics for this group, the regime insisted, however of selecting between existence and extinction. This narrative, and the concern of Sunni extremist teams such because the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, saved many Alawites certain to Assad at the same time as the fee grew to become insufferable.
With Assad gone, Syria’s new authorities has an opportunity to show that his rule was not solely vicious however constructed on a lie. The truth that Alawites have been sustained in a state of concern doesn’t excuse the complicity of these amongst them who supported the regime’s crimes, which included mass incarceration, torture, extrajudicial killings, and assembly peaceable protests with deadly power. However Syria’s future will hinge on its potential to refuse the temptation of collective punishment for odd Alawites—and its willingness to as an alternative assure their security.
Rising up Alawite in a household and group loyal to the Syrian authorities, I witnessed firsthand the implications of standing up towards the regime. I joined the rebellion when it began. My Alawite background allowed me to go by checkpoints, and amongst different acts of protest, I helped transport help and medical provides to medical doctors who handled wounded demonstrators in underground clinics. In my group, opposing Assad was not simply seen as a political stance; it was a near-religious betrayal. I used to be an Alawite who had turned her again on the security of her individuals, a traitor.
In 2012, my father, household, and group disowned me. I fled to rebel-held areas, the place I grew to become a contract photojournalist and author. I finally immigrated to america in 2014 to pursue my schooling. Wanting again, I now perceive why many within the Alawite group supported the federal government through the early years of the battle—and why, over time, they grew to become deeply disillusioned with the regime they’d as soon as staunchly defended.
Within the coastal metropolis of Jableh, the place I used to be raised, and within the surrounding Alawite mountains, activists have estimated that tens of hundreds of younger males died combating in Assad’s military, significantly in battles towards opposition forces beginning in 2011. By some estimates, as many as 60 to 70 % of younger Alawite males in sure villages and cities have been both killed or wounded through the battle; some studies counsel that Jableh alone has misplaced hundreds. In late 2016, I interviewed an outdated neighbor who had misplaced a leg within the battle. He acquired no state assist or official recognition for his sacrifice. “I misplaced a leg, however at the least I didn’t lose my complete household,” he mentioned. Sons, brothers, and fathers had gone off to struggle on the entrance traces—for the very existence of their group, they have been advised. They returned solely as posters on the partitions. Jableh grew to become often known as “the town of martyrs” amongst authorities loyalists and throughout pro-regime social-media networks—the lack of its younger males justified, even celebrated.
However because the battle dragged on, cracks started to type within the regime’s narrative, even for Alawites. Associates who nonetheless resided in Jableh advised me that some die-hard loyalists—those that as soon as chanted, “With our blood and souls, we sacrifice for you, Bashar”—started to quietly tone down their assist over time. Whispers become questions: Have been those that fought for Assad actually combating for survival, or have been they pawns in a recreation that served solely the highly effective? The regime circulated movies of Assad and his spouse, Asma, visiting injured troopers. However a lot of these combating noticed such gestures of solidarity as hole. “None of these individuals within the movies acquired a single lira,” one soldier advised me. “Not a single profit got here from these conferences. It was all a present.”
Braveness and sacrifice appeared to imply nothing with out proximity to energy. Even surgical procedures and prosthetics have been reportedly reserved for individuals with connections to the regime’s elite. Households who had given their sons and their future to the regime survived on bread and tea whereas Assad’s internal circle and different excessive officers flaunted their wealth on Instagram—luxurious automobiles, seaside mansions, extravagant weddings. “Whereas we struggled to economize for marriage, they have been posting photos of banquet tables, non-public jets, and designer garments,” a buddy who had spent 9 years within the military advised me. “I by no means understood who they have been making an attempt to impress. It felt like we have been those who needed to die for the nation, so they may reside.”
As Assad regained management over a lot of the territory misplaced to the rebels, Syria slid additional into poverty. The regime blamed the financial collapse on sanctions, the value Syria needed to pay for standing as much as overseas powers. But sanctions appeared to not contact those that rose to wealth through the battle: looters, smugglers, and battle profiteers protected by the regime. Syria grew to become the world’s provider of captagon, an illegally trafficked psychostimulant that it manufactured and smuggled by intensive regional networks. Kidnappings for ransom grew to become widespread, and checkpoints operated as money grabs for native thugs.
The earthquake of 2023 lastly introduced down what was left of the regime’s facade. In Jableh and different coastal cities, households pulled our bodies from the rubble with their naked arms and shared what little they’d with each other to outlive. In the meantime, studies of arbitrary help distribution and theft grew to become widespread; officers and regime-affiliated organizations have been implicated in diverting help to individuals with connections or for private acquire. Later, the federal government detained locals who dared to publicly criticize the corruption.
Emotions of disillusionment and betrayal eroded the regime’s most basic base of assist. For a lot of Alawites, the concern of staying with Assad ultimately outweighed the concern of leaving him. When the battle of 2024 started, Alawite troopers fled their positions with a pace that shocked even their enemies.
The victorious insurgent group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), provided troopers keen to give up a easy deal: Lay down your arms, and you may be protected. In a determined try to salvage loyalty, the regime introduced a 50 % wage enhance for troopers. However this got here too late. Many Alawite troopers noticed the HTS provide as a refuge. What had saved them combating for Assad was not loyalty however concern, and as soon as that concern was gone, so was their allegiance.
Immediately, the chums I discuss with in Jableh specific reduction that Assad, who couldn’t muster the decency to acknowledge their sacrifices earlier than boarding his airplane to Moscow, is now gone. They’re additionally relieved that the battle, for now, has ended. However reduction shouldn’t be the identical as peace. Many Alawites fear that one nightmare will merely give strategy to one other—that the insurgent teams’ revenge would be the reply to their unrequited loyalty to Assad.
Syria has a possibility to beat this bind. Fears fed by many years of sectarian propaganda received’t dissipate abruptly, however the brand new authorities might help assuage them by holding insurgent teams accountable and guaranteeing that justice is distributed by lawmakers somewhat than by armed teams with scores to settle. Civil society can construct belief by working with Alawite communities to reveal and tackle acts of state violence or corruption.
Justice will certainly appear elusive after a lot bloodshed, in a rustic the place all sides declare their fallen as martyrs and blame the others for the carnage. But when Syrians are to interrupt the nation’s cycle of violence, they should acknowledge each other’s ache and discover a strategy to grieve collectively. The battle’s scars can function reminders not of what divides Syrians, however of why we should rebuild collectively, and of the horrible value of concern.