CSI has obtained exclusive testimonies from Syrian Alawites and Christians living through the current crisis. These firsthand accounts offer a window into the lived experience of minorities following a wave of horrific massacres that has swept through Syria in recent days, claiming the lives of over 1,000 civilians, primarily Alawites, a Muslim minority, alongside a number of Christians. In response, Christian Solidarity International has issued a formal Genocide Warning for Syria.
Fields in Qardaha, Syria, burning in the wake of sectarian massacres by pro-government militias. Source: X
As the international community grapples with how to respond to what CSI has now officially labeled a potentially genocidal situation, the experiences of Syria’s religious minorities reveal both the immediate dangers and long-term concerns facing religious freedom in post-Assad Syria.
The initial reaction among many Christians to Assad’s fall was cautious optimism. Despite the protection Assad’s regime claimed to offer to religious minorities, many Christians recognized and stood against the oppressive nature of the dictatorship.
“When the fall (of Assad’s regime) first happened, we were very happy, sincerely from all our hearts,” explains Wakil, a Syrian Christian. “Of course, I mean the majority because you can’t generalize. Some elderly people and party members, in particular, are terribly afraid of change.”
This sentiment echoes what Fr. Bajhat Karakach, a Franciscan friar in Aleppo, previously noted: Christians were “completely exhausted by living under the regime” where there was “no development, no economic growth.”
The transition initially seemed to progress smoothly, with Wakil recounting: “A few days before Assad’s fall, all Christian militias laid down their arms without firing a shot, and the religious leadership expressed support for the new state.”
Whatever cautious optimism existed collapsed in early March 2025, when pro-government forces aligned with President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s transitional government unleashed what CSI has described as “an orgy of targeted killings, accompanied by dehumanizing hate speech” against Alawite communities.
The violence began on March 7, after the interim government’s call for volunteers to fight “remnants of the regime” on the Syrian coast. What followed were systematic attacks on Alawite areas. Perpetrators were heard shouting slogans such as “These are the Alawite pigs,” as they conducted their killings. While primarily targeting Alawites, the violence has also claimed Christian lives, particularly in mixed neighborhoods, and heightened fears among all religious minorities.
The systematic nature of the violence was particularly alarming. According to CSI, “pro-government forces went door to door, demanding to know the religious identity of the residents, and killing Alawite men and sometimes whole families.” By March 10, over 1,000 civilians – primarily Alawites – had been killed, with some estimates placing the number much higher.
As a result, on March 10, Christian Solidarity International issued a formal Genocide Warning, stating: “Conditions for genocide continue to exist in parts of Syria controlled by Ahmed al-Sharaa’s HTS (Organization for the Liberation of the Levant).”
For Christians like Natalie, a 35-year-old from Homs, the sectarian violence confirms long-held fears about HTS, the group now leading Syria’s transitional government under President al-Sharaa.
“Many Christians feel threatened because of the presence of jihadist groups, which we previously knew when they were under the banner of Jabhat al-Nusra,” she explains. “These groups were behind the attack on Maaloula [in 2013], where they kidnapped monks and killed some Christians.”
Natalie describes a pattern of persecution: “Christians were subjected to forced displacement, discrimination, and sometimes physical persecution, especially after Abu Muhammad al-Jolani entered Idlib. His fighters looted Christian homes, converted some into military headquarters, or gave them to their members, while the slogan was clear: either submit to their rules and laws or leave.”
Even in areas where outright violence hasn’t occurred, worrying signs of religious intolerance have emerged. Wakil notes incidents “from breaking alcohol bottles to openly preaching Islam in Christian neighborhoods, to separating women from men in transportation, and breaking crosses in graves. It’s true that all the incidents were immediately addressed, but people are truly afraid.”
Christians interviewed expressed deep skepticism about the promises of moderation and religious tolerance from HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who now goes by the name Ahmed al-Sharaa, as president of the transitional government.
“Jolani tries to promote himself as a ‘moderate leader’ to the West, but he hasn’t changed anything in the core of his doctrine,” argues Natalie. “What he’s doing is just waiting for the right moment to consolidate his power and lift sanctions against him, and then he will remove the mask of ‘Ahmad al-Sharaa’ and return to his true role as the emir of the organization ‘Abu Muhammad al-Jolani.'”
This skepticism is shared by academic experts on Syria. In a recent interview with Les Clés du Moyen-Orient, Fabrice Balanche, professor and research director at the University of Lyon 2, who has studied Syrian politics for decades, directly challenges the narrative of al-Sharaa’s moderation: “One has to wonder how someone who spent 20 years in a terrorist group, who has certainly broken with al-Qaeda tactically but not really ideologically, can deradicalize overnight and become a democrat?” When asked about al-Sharaa’s supposed moderation in Idlib, Balanche is equally skeptical: “I don’t think so. In Idlib, the population is Sunni, very conservative, there’s no need for a morality police, it’s embedded in society… Al-Sharaa ended up [protecting Christians] because it’s part of his communication strategy toward Westerners.”
The testimony of Aliyah, a 44-year-old Alawite woman from Jableh, serves as a chilling warning for what Christians may face if sectarian violence continues unchecked.
“I was born in the coastal city of Jableh, which belongs to Latakia governorate, in a neighborhood with various sects and communities. I never felt like a stranger in that place despite my family belonging to a Muslim minority (the Alawite sect),” she explains. Contrary to common perceptions, she notes, “We did not have privileges in the state as is commonly believed among people. We suffered like most people in Syria from the consequences of the authorities’ monopoly on power, but at the same time, we did not feel afraid because we were Alawites.”
She adds: “I can say that every Alawite is considered a regime remnant until proven otherwise, so openly belonging to the sect has become a cause for death.” She explains that, “before these events, there was arbitrary dismissal of employees, which greatly impoverished people, and now the choice is either to die of hunger or to die because of your sectarian affiliation.”
This systematic discrimination based on religious identity resonates with the concerns expressed by Christian leaders. On March 8, the Christian patriarchs in Syria issued a joint statement condemning the “dangerous escalation of violence, brutality, and killings,” and called for “an immediate end to these horrific acts, which stand in stark opposition to all human and moral values.”
Despite the growing fears, Syrian Christians maintain a clear vision for what they hope Syria should become. Almost unanimously, they express a desire for a secular, civil state where religious freedom is protected.
“People dislike religious taboos,” explains Wakil. “People are afraid and do not know where we are heading, of course, in terms of laws and economy. They want a civil constitution and prefer a secular civil constitution that gives freedom to everyone without the interference of religion and Islamic law.”
Aliyah, an Alawite, echoes this sentiment: “The solution lies in establishing a state for all Syrians where everyone participates, in addition to cultivating awareness among people and rejecting hate speech that ignites strife and incites killing.”
These aspirations, however, faced a significant setback on March 13, 2025, when Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa signed a temporary constitution that will remain in force for five years. The document has alarmed religious minorities by stipulating that the head of state must be a Muslim and by establishing Sharia law as the main source of jurisprudence. For Christians who had hoped for a secular state with equal rights for all citizens, these provisions present a worrying formalization of religious discrimination at the highest levels of government.
Despite the bleak current situation, some Christians maintain a fragile hope for Syria’s future. As Natalie puts it, hope lies “in the decline of these groups’ influence with the retreat of external support for them, and with the increasing awareness of local communities of the danger of these ideologies, which have brought nothing but destruction.”
Yet this hope is tempered by fear. “The biggest fear remains that these groups will be recycled and used in new political deals, which prolongs their life at the expense of civilians,” she adds.
For now, Syrians remain at a crossroads, caught between the memory of an authoritarian past and the reality of a violent present and an uncertain future.
This article draws on testimonies from Syrian Christians and Alawites collected in March 2025 exclusively for CSI, alongside reports from Christian Solidarity International and other human rights organizations. Some names have been changed to protect individuals’ safety.
