Alawites and Christians Killed in Syria by Sunni Islamists and Criminals (NATO Turkey)
Alawites and Christians Killed in Syria by Sunni Islamists and Criminals (NATO Turkey)
Kanako Mita, Noriko Watanabe, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other Sunni Islamist forces – some backed by NATO Turkey – took control over most of Syria. Hence, Islamists backed by NATO Turkey are keen on taking on the Kurds on the auspices of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Reports claim that approximately 150 Alawites (a minority Muslim sect in Syria) have been killed by Sunni Islamists and criminals since the collapse of the government of Bashar al-Assad.
Arab News reports, “Since Assad’s ouster, violence against Alawites, long associated with his clan, has soared, with the monitor recording at least 148 killings.”
Only recently, four Alawite clerics were killed. Accordingly, the reality that befell the Christians and Yazidis in Iraq now awaits the Alawites, Christians, and the Druze in Syria. Shia Muslims were also the prime target of various Sunni Islamic forces (al-Qaeda to Islamic State) in Iraq.
Three of the murdered Alawite clerics were killed on a road connecting Tartus to Damascus. The other murdered Alawite cleric was killed in the countryside of Hama. The killers – Islamists or criminals – also killed his wife.
The Washington Post reports, “A sense of euphoria in much of Syria has been tempered by dread in areas like Khirbet al-Hammam, where most residents are Alawites, the Muslim sect Assad belongs to. As the country’s new Sunni Islamist rulers embark on a hunt for former government figures, Alawite districts are gripped by terror and confusion, as reports spread of killings, disappearances, beatings and sectarian harassment.”
Sunni Islamists often declare “Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the grave.”
UN News reports, “The UN human rights office, OHCHR, has urged restraint in Syria, amid reports that some individuals from the country’s Alawite community and other minority groups have been targeted and killed.”
NATO Turkey under Erdogan supported Azerbaijan in cleansing Armenian Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh. As usual, NATO powers did little to oppose the ambitions of Erdogan. In history, millions of Armenian, Assyrian, and Pontic Greek Christians were killed in the first few decades of the 20th century by Turkish Muslims (the Kurdish Muslims also assisted the Turks in killing Christians).
Turkey, under Erdogan, is constantly involving itself in foreign conflicts. This includes the utilization of Islamist terrorists (mercenaries) from Syria in the conflicts of Libya, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenian Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh were cleansed by Azerbaijan with the assistance of Turkey on several fronts). NATO Turkey also attacks the Kurds in Iraq and Syria – often killing Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities.
In December, two Christians were killed – including one male being beheaded. This happened in the Greek Orthodox village of al-Jamasliyye (Wadi al-Nasara).
If Iraq is a harbinger of Syria (Islamic State still holds Yazidi slaves), then religious minorities and secularists have much to fear.
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