Invitation to press conference (October 2)

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is inviting journalists to a press conference with Samer M., a Druze living in Göttingen, on Thursday, October 2, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. He was stranded for months in the Druze region of al-Suwaida in southern Syria, which has been cut off from the outside world by a blockade since July 2025 and is repeatedly attacked by Islamist militias. In September, the Göttingen resident managed to return to Germany. During the press conference, STP's Middle East expert, Dr. Kamal Sido, will provide context on the events in Syria, report on the devastating situation of minorities, and make demands on German politicians. The press conference will take place at the STP's federal office in Göttingen, Geiststraße 7. Please register to attend at presse@gfbv.de.

“I really want to talk about my experiences because, like many other Druze, I have faced death. I want German politicians and the public to know what the Druze are going through under the new Islamist regime,” says Samer M.

Samer M. traveled to Syria in mid-July after the fall of the Assad dictatorship to visit his parents, whom he had not seen for a long time. A few days after his arrival in his home village of Al Mazraa in the west of the province of al-Suwaida, it was attacked by troops of the Islamist regime in Damascus and other radical Islamist militias and partially set on fire. The entire population was forced to flee. Samer and his family found refuge in the provincial center of al-Suwaida. He was initially unable to return to Germany because the access roads to the Druze region are blocked. It was not until mid-September that he was able to leave Damascus by air via Qatar. He is now back in Göttingen and has been able to resume his work as a media designer.

Despite the tense situation in Syria and targeted attacks on minorities by the Islamist regime, the self-proclaimed president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa (al-Golani), was invited to the UN General Assembly in New York last week. Al-Sharaa is the former head of the Syrian branch of the international terrorist network Al-Qaeda. In New York, he was courted by Western politicians, but also by Islamist regimes such as Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. "It is scandalous that al-Sharaa was allowed to enter the US, even though he had been wanted for years by the US authorities as the head of a terrorist group and has been responsible for the murder, abduction, and rape of thousands of Alawites and Christians since he came to power. Other minorities such as Yazidis, Ismailis, and Kurds are also being systematically persecuted," says Kamal Sido, the Society's Middle East expert.

This press release was translated from German to English using AI. If you come across errors or ambiguities, please contact us at presse@gfbv.de.