Druze and Kurds on the difficult path of unity with Damascus, while the Alawites await
Kurdish and Druze conditional reintegration is an important sign for Ahmed al-Sharaa's Syria, despite great fragility. However, the draft constitution recognises Islamic law as the basis of legislation. Meanwhile, Israel tries to temp Druze in Suwayda. Alawite massacres cast a dark shadow.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Divided into zones of influence by 13 years of civil war, Syria is laboriously rebuilding its original unity. The gradual and conditional rallying of Kurds and Druze to the nascent republic is the most recent peaceful sign of this, despite last week's acts of violence against Alawites (and Christians).
The bloodshed that plunged the Alawite stronghold into mourning after an insurrection by supporters of Bashar al-Assad is a brutal sign that the game is not yet over.
Observers see a new promise of reunification in the new draft constitution, made public yesterday by the government, which consecrates the principle of the separation of powers, a pillar of any democracy, but also asserts that Islamic law remains "the main source" of legislation and that Islam is the religion of the president. The Kurdish administration has already expressed reservations about this text.
The Kurdish community and the SDF
The main step towards unity came from the Kurdish community when the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed to become gradually integrated in the institutions of the new republic by the end of the year.
The surprise agreement between the Syrian interim president and SDF leader Mazloum Abdi must be credited to the Trump administration. Turkey, conversely, is not entirely reassured. It fears the formation of military units manned entirely by Kurds.
Marginalised and repressed under the Assad regime, the Kurds were denied the right to speak their own language for decades and celebrate their holy days. Many were even denied Syrian citizenship.
After civil war broke out in 2011, an autonomous administration was set up in the north-east of the country, with its own educational, social and military institutions. With US support, it came to control vast territories in northern and eastern Syria, and is rich in wheat, oil and gas, crucial resources for Syrian authorities in this period of reconstruction.
Its armed wing has played a key role in the fight against the Islamic State group, which was defeated in its last stronghold in 2019.
Welcomed by the Kurds of Syria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the agreement comes nearly two weeks after a historic call by the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey, Abdullah Öcalan, for the dissolution of the party and the abandonment of the armed struggle.
In Syria, Kurds represent about 10 per cent of the population, but they are scattered between Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and even Armenia, numbering 30 to 35 million.
Druze too
With the Druze population of Suwayda (Sweida) and Jabal al-Druze, too, the trend is towards integration, after the interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Druze notables from the governorate reached a memorandum of understanding in Damascus. The latter provides for the complete, but gradual, integration of this region bordering Israel into the institutions of the Syrian state.
It stipulates that the security forces of the Governorate of Suwayda will be attached to the Syrian Ministry of the Interior and that the local police forces will be drawn from the population of the province. However, the Syrian government will appoint a governor and a police chief who will not necessarily be from the province. What applies to the Jabal al-Druze also applies to the city of Jaramana.
Of course, there are still some questions marks, especially about Israel's real intentions, which continues to woo the Druze community, offering agricultural work to its members and dangling the benefits of Israeli citizenship.
On Friday, a delegation of dozens of Syrian Druze clerics travelled to Israel on Friday for a religious pilgrimage, a first since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, AFP reports. But this visit has met with “strong opposition” from Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, the spiritual leader of the Druze in Syria.
“Israel is playing a pernicious game, it is mercantilism in exchange for values," said MP Martwan Hamadeh speaking to AsiaNews, for whom the Druze “are and will continue to be the champions of Arabism”.
The recent progress was overshadowed by a short-lived insurrection by supporters of former dictator Bashar al-Assad in the cities of Latakia, Tartus, Jableh, Banias and Qardaha, on Syria's Mediterranean coast.
Following clashes between local militias and the forces of the new Syrian regime, retaliatory massacres were committed by uncontrolled groups that belong to the ruling coalition.
Nearly 1,400 people, mostly Alawites, who constitute the majority in the region, fell victim to this murderous madness, which also claimed a dozen victims among Christians.
It will take time for the region to recover from this shock and its consequences, like the exodus of Christians from Syria. Nearly 10,000 Alawites have found refuge in Lebanon, according to the security services.
These developments touch two key issues: first, the challenge to Ahmad al-Sharaa by the most radical fringes of his supporters; second, the number of armed Assad supporters still hiding in the country.
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15/09/2021 13:55
