Since al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) conquered Damascus with the help of Turkey in December 2024, HTS fighters and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militants have committed massacres against religious minorities in the country. Social media posts show Alawite or Christian men, women, and children barbarically shot at close range. And the death toll is increasing.
The Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and all the East, John X, said during a sermon on March 9th:
The bloody events taking place on the Syrian coast left many dead and wounded. … In many cities, towns, and villages, their houses were burnt, and their properties have been stolen. The targeted areas were the places of Alawites and Christians. Many innocent Christian victims were also killed. Residents of some of those places were forced to leave their homes. Then they were shot and killed. Then their houses, property, and cars were stolen.
On the invitation of Patriarch John X, Greek MEP Nikolas Farantouris, who is a member of the Security and Defense Committee, the Constitutional Affairs Committee, and the Budgets Committee of the European Parliament, paid a two-day visit to Syria’s capital, Damascus, on March 8-9.
In a statement Farantouris made following his visit, he said:
Reliable data indicate 7,000 massacres of Christians and Alawites and unprecedented atrocities against civilians. Christian and other communities with a presence in these parts for over a thousand years are at risk of extinction. The new Islamic regime is leading Syria into an Islamic state and is claiming that it cannot control the paramilitaries and their affiliated gangs who attack innocent civilians.
I call on the Greek Government and the entire political world of the country, the European Institutions and the governments of the Member States, to act NOW. Neither Greece nor the EU can continue to show tolerance and limit themselves to ceremonial visits and courtesies with the Islamic regime for investments and ‘business’ while thousands of civilians are being massacred under its tolerance if not its guidance.
In an interview with Greek Kontra TV, Farantouris said, “The situation [in Syria] has spiraled out of control. The West is watching the atrocities of the new Syrian regime as if nothing is happening. Actions are needed here and now. The slaughter of hundreds of civilians continues.”
Approximately 500,000 Christians currently live in Syria. Most are of Greek descent and have inhabited the country for millennia.
In the “Valley of the Christians,” Marwan Shahda, chief of the Christian village Mazraa, was found slaughtered with a machete on March 8th. On March 11th, a Christian man, Elias Michel Asaad, was found executed with a shot to the head after being kidnapped two days prior in the city of Homs. On March 13th, Johnny Al-Sayegh, a Greek Christian from the village of Burj Balamana in Tratous, was shot to death. He was riding his motorcycle with his fiancée on the Baniyas Road. News regarding the murders of Syrian Christians by Islamists is regularly posted on social media monitoring the ongoing violence in the country.
A Levantine Christian source told europeanconservative.com: “Right now the Alawites and Christians in Syria are deathly afraid of speaking to the press.”
According to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, for an act of violence to be defined as genocide, it should be committed with “intent to destroy,” in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.
Numerous videos have surfaced on social media showing HTS militants expressing their genocidal intent towards the Alawite community. A senior HTS regime commander, for example, filmed himself as he called for the whipping of all Alawites, including children. “Do not leave alive any Alawite, male or female,” he said. Many social media videos clearly demonstrate the perpetrators are violently targeting their victims over their religion.
In addition, mosques under al-Sharaa’s control have reportedly made announcements such as “Allahu Akbar, onwards to Jihad.” These announcements included violent incitement against Alawites, along with demonstrations calling for violence.
Former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras condemned the ongoing massacres in Syria and called on Greece to take the lead in urging the EU to reinstate sanctions on the Syrian regime. He said:
What is happening in Syria is neo-Ottoman-inspired and is implemented by the terrorists of Ahmed al-Sharaa, who did not change because he wore a tie. After all, a Turkish proverb says, ‘if you put horseshoes on a donkey, it does not mean that it becomes a horse’. Assad’s overthrow was welcomed by Europe and the West because it represented an authoritarian regime. However, the EU and the West ought to know that when you substitute evil with evil, then you inevitably lead to massacres of thousands of civilians and scenes of barbarism that humanity cannot bear in the 21st century.
In addition, Greek MEP of the Hellenic Solution Party, Emmanouil Fragkos, submitted a request for a European Arrest Warrant on Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and al-Sharaa to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In his statement to European prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi, Fragkos said:
Following the massacre, primarily of Alawites, but also of Christians in Northwestern Syria, we urge you to immediately investigate the incident, as we believe it falls under the category of a ‘Crime Against Humanity,’ as defined in Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
However, the European Commission has been only too eager to support Syria’s new jihadist regime. The EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas, participated in the December 14th Aqaba meeting; the French and German foreign ministers made a joint visit to Damascus on January 3rd, followed by the Italian foreign minister on January 10th and the EU commissioner for equality, preparedness, and crisis management on January 24th. In this last visit, commissioner Hadja Lahbib announced a “humanitarian assistance package” of €235 million to Syrians, in other words, al-Sharaa’s Islamist regime.
Kallas also obtained an agreement in principle at the January 27th EU Foreign Ministers Council to eliminate part of the EU sanctions on Syria.
Before forming HTS in 2017, al-Sharaa fought in the ranks of ISIS (Islamic State) and was the head of the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, also known as Jabhat al-Nusra. In 2011, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—then the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), previously known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)—sent Ahmed al-Sharaa (who was then called Abu Mohammed al-Jolani) to spearhead his group’s entry into Syria.
The U.S. State Department designated al-Sharaa as a terrorist in 2013. Through its “Rewards for Justice” program, the department offered $10 million for information on him, noting that “he remains the leader of [the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra], which is at the core of HTS.”
The UN Security Council designates HTS as a terrorist group due to its links with al-Qaeda and ISIS. The designation has been transposed to EU law and should be followed by all 27 EU member states.
The EU Executive must remember that al-Sharaa, to whom they have recently pledged to send millions of euros, was the leader of ISIS’ Syrian offshoot, Jabhat al-Nusra. Wearing a tie and a suit does not wipe away Sharaa’s past and present crimes. The EU Commission must take action to help stop the ongoing massacres targeting Alawites and Christians and help create a safe haven for those persecuted minorities in Syria.
