On 8 December 2024 Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship fell, and the rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took control of the country. However, the conflict between supporters of the former regime and the new ruling forces continues, resulting in hundreds of casualties from their ongoing rivalry. What began as skirmishes between Assad loyalists and forces supporting the new Syrian leadership quickly escalated into widespread communal violence.
The most significant violence since the new regime erupted on Thursday, 6 March, in Western Syria’s Alawite-majority regions, when supporters of former president Bashar al-Assad took up arms and launched attacks against the security forces of the new regime. Assad, who was overthrown the previous year, is part of the Alawite sect, a Shia Islam minority in Syria, and the targeted area had long been a stronghold of his regime.
Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, deployed reinforcements to the region to restore order, but the situation only deteriorated. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the clashes have resulted in over 1,200 civilian deaths, in addition to hundreds of Syrian security personnel and pro-Assad fighters killed. In cities such as Latakia and Tartous, most shops and nearly all restaurants have shut down due to the ongoing violence. Fighters from the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have slaughtered entire families, with an increasing number of civilians among the victims, including women, children, and the elderly.
‘These attacks threaten not only Christians but Syrian society as a whole’
The massacres in these Syrian regions impose huge risks on the Syrian Christian community. Homes have been looted, sacred sites desecrated, and entire communities destroyed by the HTS. These attacks threaten not only Christians but Syrian society as a whole. HTS and its affiliates are not engaging in random violence; they are deliberately targeting and eliminating Christian and Alawite communities in a coordinated campaign. This group represents a rebranded version of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, operating under a different name. According to reports, young Christian men have been abducted by the militants and subjected to forced conversion to Islam, while Christian workers are being starved as part of an effort to push them out of the country. These acts of violence constitute a clear and systematic persecution.
Although religious cleansing is taking place in Syria, the international community has yet to take significant steps to address the crisis. At the same time, aid organizations working in the region are urging Western governments to support persecuted communities through diplomatic pressure and humanitarian aid.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Szijjártó Péter of Hungary has also urged the international community to act in the case of the Syrian crisis. ‘I simply find it unacceptable that the international community turns a blind eye to this mass killing, which is why I asked the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs to bring this issue to the agenda of the EU Foreign Ministers’ Council meeting on Monday. She agreed with my proposal, and the case will be on the agenda,’ Szijjártó said.
The Minister also emphasized that Hungary, a Christian nation with a thousand-year-old Christian statehood, supports persecuted Christians and other people in need in the region. Hungary supported the Syrian Christian community on numerous occasions, helping with the operation of their schools, the maintenance of their monasteries, and implementing their humanitarian activities. Recently, Hungary provided an emergency fund of ten million forints to the families of the victims. Szijjártó Péter ensured that ‘the Christian communities in Syria can count on us in the long term as well.’
‘The international community expected the new Syrian regime to be better’
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade also expressed that although the international community at the end of last year expected the new Syrian regime to be better than the previous one, ‘Hungary approached this issue with caution’. Unfortunately, those who chose this approach were right since brutal military attacks against civilians and the mass killings showed that the new regime was not better than the Assad regime.
According to Péter Szijjártó, learning from the situation in Syria is crucial. ‘One clear lesson is that the safety of minority religious communities is not guaranteed at all, so the international community must put pressure on the new Syrian regime to ensure the rights and safety of religious communities,’ he concluded. The Minister also expressed Hungary’s support for the victims and stated that Hungary strongly condemns the mass killings committed by Syria’s rebel forces. ‘We expect the transitional Syrian authorities to fully investigate what exactly happened and provide justice for the victims and their families,’ he stated regarding the new regime of the Middle Eastern country.
Hungary has long supported Syrian victims through the Hungary Helps Program. Over the past seven years, Hungary has provided approximately nine billion forints of assistance to various religious denominations in Syria. Although the support has aimed to support Christian communities, it has been extended to the entire population, regardless of religious affiliation.
‘Now, the future of Christians is extremely uncertain’
The new Syrian regime initially emphasized that respect for individual rights is the foundation of building a civilized nation and made a commitment to provide guarantees for the protection of fundamental rights. In Idlib, where the Islamist group HTS led the uprising, many Christians were denied the opportunity to reclaim their property, land, and real estate that they had left behind while fleeing the war. Additionally, the non-Muslim population was forced to pay a special tax, the so-called ‘jizya’. In areas where Islamist rebels gained control, Christians faced challenges and have regularly been accused of being beneficiaries and supporters of the Assad regime.
Two millennia ago a Syrian Christian community commissioned the Apostle Paul on a missionary journey, whose work established the roots of Judeo–Christian culture and thought in Europe and Hungary. Now, the future of Christians in the same area is extremely uncertain.
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