One year after the massacres of Alawites in Syria (March 7) – Humanitarian situation alarming

On the first anniversary of the massacres of Syria's Alawite population on March 7, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is publishing a travel report by its Middle East consultant Dr. Kamal Sido. He visited Alawite towns and villages in April 2025, about a month after the new Sunni Islamist regime began its attacks on the Alawites.

On March 7, 2025, the ruling terrorist militia Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) attacked the Alawites on the Syrian Mediterranean coast and called for jihad. Other Islamist militias and radical Sunni civilians participated in the massacres. This was preceded by alleged attacks by Alawite Assad supporters on troops of the new regime on March 6, which served as a pretext for the attacks. “The aim of the attacks was to wipe out the Alawites as a group. Tens of thousands of armed men from all over Syria responded to the calls,” reports Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP's Middle East consultant. Eyewitnesses told the STP that the attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar” and “Jihad” as they drove into the Alawite area. There, they murdered civilians for weeks, set houses on fire, abducted and raped women. The STP speaks of attempted genocide.

The STP estimates that since Assad's fall, 30,000 to 60,000 Alawites have been killed, injured, or displaced—and the attacks continue. “Every day, Alawites are murdered or abducted. Alawite women in particular are at risk of being kidnapped and raped by Islamists,” Sido emphasizes. According to the STP, the figures published by the regime on the massacres are significantly too low. "All investigations conducted with the permission and support of the regime in Damascus are not credible. It is currently not possible to collect reliable and independent data on the number of people killed. Many bodies were burned or thrown into the sea. The fate of tens of thousands of Alawites remains unclear to this day," says the human rights activist.

To draw attention to the ongoing threat to the Alawites and to commemorate the victims of the massacres, memorial events will be held worldwide on March 7. In Neuss, an international conference of the Association for Human Rights in Syria (AHRS) will be held on the anniversary, which Dr. Kamal Sido will also attend.

"The humanitarian situation in the Alawite areas is alarming. Alawites are suffering from hunger. Many have lost their jobs. Men have been abducted or killed, others are in hiding or fleeing for fear of being killed in the streets,“ says Sido. ”Druze and Kurds are also being targeted. If the regime in Damascus does not take steps to protect all minorities, there is a risk of a new civil war and permanent fragmentation of the country," warns the STP's Middle East consultant.

The STP calls on the German government and the international community to continue supporting the Islamist regime in Damascus only if it ends the attacks on all ethnic groups and guarantees the right to self-government for Druze, Alawites, and Kurds. "Alawite, Druze, and Kurdish areas must be granted autonomous status. Sharia law must not be introduced there. And there must be no Islamist militias acting as police or army," Sido emphasizes. The STP calls on the German government to combat the causes of flight instead of cooperating with the Islamist regime of al-Sharaa (al-Jolani) to enable deportations. “As long as the regime in Damascus persecutes and murders minorities and critics, more Syrians will seek protection in Germany, not fewer.”

The report on Dr. Kamal Sido's research trip to Syria, Israel, and Jordan is available here as a PDF in German.

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.