Following The Attacks On The Druze In Syria, Kurdish Columnist Writes On Saudi News Website: The Kurds Are Also In The Crosshairs Of The Terrorist Al-Sharaa Regime, Which Is Supported By Turkey; Askin
Abbas warned that "yesterday's murderers," namely the militias backed by the Al-Sharaa regime that massacred the Alawites and Druze, are already preparing to confront their next target – the Kurds – and that Syria is rapidly sliding into a new civil war, more brutal than the previous one. The only solution, he argued, is to reshape Syria as a decentralized federation that will ensure the rights of all its citizens and stop the bloodshed.
In another article posted the following day, Abbas expressed explicit support for Druze leader Hikmat Al-Hijri's appeal to Israel for help, and rejected the criticism he had incurred for this.[1] Asking Israel for assistance, Abbas said, is not treason but rather an expression of patriotism in its true sense, of defending human dignity. He noted that Assad's former opponents, who are today part of the Al-Sharaa regime, received aid from Turkey and Qatar and were not considered traitors, yet today they hypocritically direct this accusation at those who are hoping for Israeli help. Stating that Israel, despite its reputation, is better than all Middle East regimes in its treatment of minorities, he added that the most virulent hostility in the region is not directed at Israel but rather at 'anything that is not Arab or Muslim' and sometimes even at fellow Muslims.
It should be noted that both these articles by Abbas were later removed from the Elaph website. This is despite the fact that the site was established in London in order to avoid the censorship imposed in Saudi Arabia and give voice to liberal views, especially those opposing religious extremism.
The following are translated excerpts from Kurdish journalist Mahmoud Abbas's articles:
Turkey, The Patron Of The Al-Sharaa Regime, Regards All Of Syria's Minorities As Terrorists; The Syrian Kurds Are Next In Line For Violent Attacks
In his July 18, 2025 article, Abbas wrote: "…[Syria's] former regime scorned the concepts of society and homeland, and sold [its] values in exchange for mass graves. Now Al-Joulani's government has emerged from the womb of the same turgid swamp to peddle [the slogan of] 'the single homeland' while scorning [various] values and sectors and [wearing] an extremist Sunni-Umayyad guise. They have expanded the circle of takfir [accusing others of heresy], so that it is no longer limited to any [particular] political or national [sector] but now also includes [entire] streams and religions, and anyone who is different from them faces various accusations, [such as] 'traitor,' 'infidel' and 'agent'.
"Now they are working to sew together the torn body of the homeland, after they severed the Alawite, Druze and Kurdish regions from the national fold, eliminated the Christian, Alawite and Druze elements from [Syria's] religious reality, and [removed] the Yazidis from the spiritual map and others from the mosaic of Syrian society. [These] elements are eliminated through explicit accusation of heresy, reprehensible racism or political exclusion.
"Al-Joulani – a man of many faces – wears ties in the halls of diplomacy… and a turban in the extremist councils. He deals with organizations that harm Syria's territorial [integrity], knowing that it cannot withstand being torn apart in this manner. Al-Joulani is absent from the streets of the Syrian coast and is forgotten in the alleys of Al-Suwayda, but he is forced to be present, if only formally, in the halls of dialogue with the Kurdish movement and the [Democratic] Autonomous Administration [of North and East Syria].[2]
"Syria cannot survive without the Druze and the Alawites, and it will collapse if the Kurdish people and national movement are denied representation. It will not be a state that serves its people by means of a central government that imposes itself by force and though accusations of heresy. The provinces have become [nothing but] meaningless names, and those who purport to represent the 'Syrian interim government' in them have [actually] been sent to destroy what remains of the homeland, including all of its areas and components.
"They executed the Alawites and now they are starting to execute the Druze… and accuse them of treason and heresy, just as was previously done to the Yazidis and the Christians, whose women were abducted and men were arrested [on false charges]... Anyone who rejects the black [jihadi] flag and the banner of the false caliphate, has become a target for terror groups that continue to harm Syria under distorted slogans.
"…Yesterday's murderers, who massacred Yazidis and abducted Christians, are now reinventing themselves and laying the groundwork for a struggle against the Kurds, using the same ugly pretexts they used to frame the Alawites and the Druze. And every time the truth is exposed, they deny involvement [in the violence] and blame 'criminal' groups that disobey the government.
"What is now happening in Al-Suwayda is a blood-soaked message to the [Kurdish-led] Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF], the Autonomous Administration and the Kurdish people in general, that the trust [they placed in the new Syrian government] was delusional… We charge the SDF to defend the communities east of the Euphrates [i.e., in northeastern Syria] and in the Kurdish region, from Afrin… to the sources of the Euphrates in Iraq – for they are all in danger: the Kurds, the Arab tribes, the Assyrians and the Yazidis. They are all accused of collaborating with America and with the forces of the [international] coalition. They are all terrorists in the eyes of Turkey, the patron of the [Syrian] interim government and its apparatuses, which feeds them ideas and inspires their projects of exclusion. The conflict is therefore not only with the Kurds, but with all that remains of a homeland that has not yet succumbed to the [forces of] evil.
"From now on there is no more room for dialogue, because Syria, exhausted to begin with, is rapidly sliding into a new civil war, crueler and more horrific than everything that preceded it, [and will continue to slide] as long as this takfiri and terrorist regime remains in control of the country… What we see in the footage coming out of Al-Suwayda, and what happened before this in Latakia and Tartous, are but early signs of a black storm that has appeared on the horizon and threatens the slivers that still remain of the homeland.
"The only way out of this hell is to fully recognize that Syria can only be rebuilt on a decentralized federative basis that will ensure [human] rights and stop the ever-recurring bloodshed.
"It is almost impossible to imagine a homeland existing under the control of takfiri groups mired in terrorism, ignorance and crime. Such [forces] cannot build a homeland, but only cemeteries, a history written in blood and an ideology that negates the human in the name of Allah.
"Syria, which gave birth to the greatest philosophers, poets and thinkers, is too pure and lofty to let these benighted and ignorant [forces], bereft of intelligence and values, contaminate its soil."
Everyone Relies On Outside Help, Such As Turkey's And Qatar's; The Druze Leader's Appeal To Israel Is Not Treason
In another article published one day later, on July 19, Abbas expressed support for Hikmat Al-Hijri's move of appealing to Israel for help and rejected the criticism that had been directed at him for this. He wrote: "When an honorable sheikh from the Druze Mountains – [the region] whose name has been changed to the Arab Mountains out of respect for Arabhood and the homeland – cries out and asks his fellow Druze in Israel to help him repel tribal attacks… he is not overstepping the boundaries of patriotism. [On the contrary], he is only restoring [patriotism] to its primary meaning: of defending honor before defending slogans, and of defending people before defending land. For the homeland is not a rag that is waved over the ruins of [our] values. It is a moral contract that has no meaning if honor is buried beneath it.
"After all, what is the difference, or the moral discrepancy, between what the opposition government [in the time of the Assad regime] did when it solicited the help of Turkey, which is one of the most bitter enemies of the components of Syrian [society], or the help of Qatar or of [other] Arab countries…? The factions that made up the Syrian National Army, [comprising pro-Turkish groups] – were they not the product of Turkish and Qatari political capital? Is it not true that some of them were nurtured in the bosom of intelligence agencies and coalesced over the ruins [caused by] regional chaos, just as the militias of the criminal [Assad] regime emerged under Iranian sponsorship and with direct Russian support?
"This is the skewered Syrian logic: everyone uses the help of external forces, and everyone accuses everyone of treason. The land is the one that bleeds and the people are the ones who pay the price as they die or are scattered [around the globe], in the complete absence of trust between the components [of society] and amid a rapid decline into division and the reemergence of tyranny with a new face.
"How terrible it is that 'Israel' has become such a hangup in the crisis-ridden Arab-Islamic consciousness, which has lost its powers of discernment to the extent that it sees anything coming out of [Israel] as aggression – even [when Israel hands] a glass of water to a wounded child or comes to the defense of a sect that is being exterminated. The Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham movement has forgotten that wounded [fighters] of the Syrian opposition, including [members of the HTS] organization, which formed Syria's [current] interim government, received treatment in Israeli hospitals.
"Who instilled this culture of blind hostility and violated the scriptures of the three monotheistic faiths, which [all] preach acceptance of the other? How did appeals for Israeli help become treason, while appeals for the help of the Turkish occupier or the Iranian militias, or [requests for] Gulf capital, are considered a blessed national partnership?...
"And to remove any doubt, [let me say that], in terms of democratic structure and minority rights, Israel, despite everything that is said [about it], is better than all the Middle Eastern regimes when it comes to the treatment of the Druze, of its Palestinian citizens and of the Syrians living on its soil. Do the Kurds in Syria or Turkey enjoy [the rights] that the Druze and Arabs living in Israel enjoy? Does reality not merit some objectiveness, instead of canned curses?
"The hostility that is really destroying the peoples of the region is not the hostility directed at Israel, as is commonly believed. It stems from a distorted culture that deeply permeates [our] collective consciousness and perpetuates hatred for anything that is not Arab or Muslim. Moreover, we find this burgeoning [hatred] even within Islam, between Sunnis and Shiites, and, worst of all, between different Sunni streams, whose hatred for each other is no less than [their hatred] towards Jews or Israel…
"Those who accused Sheikh Al-Hijri of treason should look at their own treason. Perhaps they will see their true faces in the mirror. For treason is not asking your community members in Israel to help you repel the danger of tribal invasions led by [organizations] like ISIS with new names, [organizations] that are supported by the remnants of Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham, which forms the foundation of Syria's interim government. Treason is asking ten Arab countries, led by Turkey, to launch an offensive against a component of the Syrian nation whose battles and sacrifices prove its loyalty to the [Syrian] soil and people. Treason is not a desperate cry for help aimed at keeping your women from being abducted and your children from being massacred. It is when you sell out your national decision-making to advance an extremist takfiri component [of society] at the expense of Syria's national components, and when you raise the banners of sectarianism over the ruins of the state and reach out to those who have betrayed every revolution and committed every crime."
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During Christmas 2024, only two weeks after this regime came to power, foreign fighters torched a Christmas tree in the Christian town of Al-Suqaylabiyah in the Hama governorate, and Christian facilities were attacked in other parts of the country.[8] In addition, on several occasions Muslim preachers, some of them armed, entered Christian neighborhoods, including Dweila'a, and called on the residents to convert to Islam. 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Accordingly, the Syrian Interior Ministry hurried to announce that ISIS was behind the bombing,[11] although this organization has not claimed responsibility for it. On June 24, 2025 a jihadist organization, Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna, claimed the bombing,[12] but, according to assessments in the Arab press, this was only an attempt to gain support and attract recruits from extremist Sunni circles. Following the bombing, Syrian Christians, as well as others, condemned the regime and questioned its ability to protect them. For example, at a funeral of victims of the bombing, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, John X Yazigi, who is considered to be the most senior Christian cleric in Syria, addressed President Al-Sharaa, saying: "Mr. President, we were highly dismayed to see that no government official other than the Christian [minister] Hind Kabawat came to visit the site of the crime… Your phone call… expressing your condolences was not enough. We thank you for this call, but the crime that had been committed merited more than that." The Patriarch added: "We want to know who was behind this shameful act… but we [also] wish to stress that the government bears full responsibility [for it]." He also condemned several Syrian officials that had referred to the victims as "fatalities" rather than "martyrs," saying: "These martyrs are not 'fatalities,' as some Syrian officials have called them, nor are they 'casualties' – they are martyrs. I even dare to call them martyrs of the faith and the homeland."[13] Father Melatios Shatahi, the priest serving at the Mar Elias Church, told Syrian media outlets that the church had informed the security forces about anti-Christian incidents, but the latter always dismissed them as "acts by individuals." 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A post on the Facebook page "Christians at Home and Abroad," which frequently criticizes the new Syrian regime, read: "Don't be surprised at a church bombing in a 'state' where ISIS flags hang in the marketplaces, security officers wear the ISIS symbol, the army is sectarian [i.e., comprised of only one sect, the Sunnis], [members of] minorities are fired from their jobs, non-Sunnis are banished, provocations and the destruction of religious sites belonging to minorities continue on a daily basis, the perpetrators of previous massacres are ignored, and people are kidnapped and murdered every day yet no one is held accountable. This is a hijacked country ruled by a gang of takfiris [i.e., Muslims who accuse other Muslims of apostacy]. It must be liberated from these extremist groups."[15] Syrian writer Anas Hamdoun stated that the Syrian regime has allowed extremist Islamist ideas to permeate society and has thus created a climate conducive to harming minorities: "As expected, the regime hastened to attribute the attack to ISIS in an attempt to rebrand itself as a 'savior and protector.' But as a Syrian citizen I am not satisfied with this claim. The government's statement that it is 'combatting terror' is not enough, given that it itself, along the course of its history, has moved from the embrace of one terrorist organization to the next and from loyalty to a bloodstained takfiri ideology to security dependency on regional and international [forces] – without supplying any [proof], to this day, that it has really broken away from its ideological heritage… On the contrary, we see the Salafist jihadi ideology steadily gaining dominance in Syrian society, not just in [extremist] organizations but as a general approach cultivated by the regime itself… The regime still behaves as though consenting to the presence of churches and minorities is an act of charity and a generous [favor] it is doing to society… "Today it is necessary to hold accountable not only whoever attacked the Mar Elias Church but also whoever laid the conceptual groundwork for it and whoever adopted this discourse, promoted it and allowed it to permeate society. 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He wrote: "The Mar Elias Church in the Dweila'a neighborhood in Damascus has been attacked, [and] this was [ostensibly just] a terrorist attack on a stone [building] and on whoever was praying inside it. But in actuality it reopens old wounds that have never healed and reawakens the hidden concern in the heart of the Christians, who have lived in the East for hundreds of years, not as guests or foreigners but as an authentic part of its [social] fabric. "The Christian [who lives] in societies with a Muslim majority understands that 'democracy' is the rule of the majority, and that he is therefore in a vulnerable position, likely to lose cultural or essential gains under pressure from the extremist religious discourse which sees him as 'the other' who must be restricted and perhaps even 'purged.' This Christian fear is nothing new. It has built up over the course of history, from [the time of] the Ottoman massacres and the scenes of slaughter and persecution in several regions, and ever since the voice of Islamist extremism, which accuses everyone who is different of heresy, become louder… "The greatest danger is that extremism is no longer [just] individual, but has become a conceptual system [that motivated] those who carry bombs and explosive belts. The problem doesn't lie with the person who blew up the Mar Elias Church, but with the one who taught him that the blood of the [Christian] worshippers may be spilled, while presenting this under the slogan of 'Islamic victory'... "Yes, the Eastern Christian is afraid. But he does not fear the Muslim [himself] but the Islamic ignorance, the false Islam, the Islam that has been hijacked by the ignorant to establish a regime that excludes anyone who is different. This is the fear that drives [the Christians] to retreat [into their communities] or to emigrate abroad, never to return… "Fear is not dealt with through [media] carnivals but through education, learning, true religious dialogue, conscious communication and social justice, by amending our [attitude] to poverty and exclusion and through the participation of Christians as citizens rather than guests in the homeland. The war on terrorism is not waged only by repressing it, but by drying up its sources and dealing with the poor areas that breed hatred. An extremist is not born an extremist' [extremism] is created by environments of ignorance, unemployment and exclusion… The Eastern Christians will remain [in Syria], but we want security, not slogans… We want to live together in the light of Allah, not in the darkness of those who claim to be His helpers…"[18] Notice urging Christians to convert to Islam that was hung on a church in the Syrian city of Tartous in May 2025 (Image: May 20, 2025) The New Regime's Harassment Of Minorities Spurs Christians To Emigrate; The Christian Presence In Syria Must Be Safeguarded KasNasrallah expressed the Syrian Christians' fear of attacks against them even before the Mar Elias bombing. In a March 2025 article, against the backdrop of the massacres perpetrated by Syrian regime forces against Alawites on the Syrian coast, he noted that many Syrian Christians were considering leaving the country. He wrote: "Despite the reassurances from several factions of the [former Syrian] opposition, which claimed that the Christians are not a target for attack, the fears still exist, especially given the growing influence of the extremist organizations and the alarming reports coming from here and there, the most recent of which was [the report] about the 'security collapse' that led to violations of the law and to bloodshed on the [Syrian] coast… "The absence of security and political stability has led to increased emigration, and threatens the loss of the religious-cultural diversity that has characterized Syria throughout its history. These circumstances cause the Christians to fear for their future there… This fear, alongside the media hubbub, the provocative discourse and the sectarian incitement, cause all the minorities, and the Christians among them, to constantly feel afraid and to think again and again of emigrating. This is what is happening now, if we ignore the pretty words and the [media] carnivals of reassurances [by the regime]. There is a large group of people with weapons and extremist views that has already erupted once on the Syrian coast, and we don't know when it might erupt again – once or several times – with complete impunity. 'In conclusion, the Christian presence in Syria must be preserved through a joint effort by all elements, so as to ensure [the Christians'] rights and safety from danger and establish a country that respects religious and cultural diversity and guarantees a life of dignity and security to its citizens.' [19] * O. Peri is a research fellow at MEMRI.
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He wrote that Israel's support for the Druze in Syria is more than natural, given that they are part of the Israeli social fabric and serve in the Israeli military, and that Israel has not intervened in other cases of harm to Syrian minorities such as the Alawites or the Christians. The Syrian people under a cloud of violence (Source: Al-Arab, London, July 17, 2025) The following is the translation of Khairallah's column: "...The events in the Syrian province of Al-Suwayda, which has experienced and continues to experience crimes and atrocities against the Druze community, are an opportunity for the new Syrian regime, led by Ahmed Al-Sharaa, to reinvent itself – instead of settling for accusing Israel [of fanning the violence] or turning a blind eye to the attack on the Druze, committed by so-called Bedouin tribes, [if we believe the regime's] claims, which are unsubstantiated, to say the least! "This is an opportunity for Al-Shara to prove, in deeds and not words, that he is the president of all of Syria and of all the Syrians – and not the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [HTS] and its supporters. He can do so by proving that the [new] Syrian state, which has been in existence for just seven months, can be different from the Alawite regime that had existed from 1966... "There is no way out of the profound crisis in which Syria finds itself unless this young regime takes charge of protecting the Druze, who are first and foremost Syrian citizens. In this realm, Ahmed Al-Sharaa and his aides can learn from recent past experience, and avoid what happened to the Alawites and Christians. "Last March [2025], the Alawites were slaughtered in the Syrian coastal region, after armed militias suppressed a move they had made to bring up what could be called 'the Alawite issue,' based on the assumption that the world takes an interest in their fate. But it turned out that the Alawites were the world's least concern, and that no one, including Israel, was willing to embrace the cause of a minority that had ruled Syria with an iron fist and with fire for some six decades. The Alawites are now paying the price for the crimes of Hafez and Bashar Al-Assad and other members of their family, who considered Syria nothing more than the ruling family's [private] ranch. "Israel did not interfere in events in Syria, particularly when they concerned the Alawites and then the Christians. It was clear that the Christians in Syria were the least concern of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, even though they were massacred by an ISIS fighter inside a church in one of the Damascus neighborhoods.[1] The Syrian officials treated the Christians somewhat contemptuously, considering that they were a minority that played an important role in shaping Syria's history... "The Christians were the victims of the Egypt-Syria union [i.e., the United Arab Republic, a union of Egypt and Syria that existed in 1958-1961], and later they were the victims of the Ba'ath Party because of its dearth of political thought and its wickedness. [They were also] one of the victims of the Alawite regime, which handed the Golan over to Israel in June 1967 in order to ensure Hafez Al-Assad a monopoly on power after [the 1967 War] and also to ensure that Syria would be inherited by his son Bashar in 2000. "Ahmed Al-Sharaa received strong American and Western support, for example, meeting with President Donald Trump in Riyadh and visiting Paris. He played the card of the relations with Israel wisely, and at all times hinted at a return to the 1974 [Israeli-Syrian] separation of forces agreement. [2] He disregarded all Israeli attacks aimed at specific Syrian military sites. Moreover, he has established close ties with influential Arab countries, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He maintained the special relationship with Turkey and did not for one moment take lightly the issue of the Iranian presence in Syria. He took care to emphasize that this presence had ended permanently and that Syria would never again serve as a bridge between the Islamic Republic and its proxy Hizbullah in Lebanon. This great achievement, historic in nature, cannot be spent on marginal battles in which the Druze are required to be the victims. "Everything that Ahmed Al-Sharaa has done is good. But this does not mean that there is no need for reconciliation with the Syrians – all Syrians, including the Druze, who throughout the state's modern history have played an important and central role on the national level, starting with their rejection of the idea that Syria would include several states, including a Druze state. The Druze had a role in strengthening the Syrian national unity that Hafez Al-Assad, and later his son, tore to shreds, by gambling on an alliance of minorities led by the Alawites in order to confront the Sunni [majority]. The most dangerous thing that the elder and younger Assads did was to use the Islamic Republic of Iran to create a new demographic reality in Syria, and to change the political balance [of power] in Lebanon. "Yes, Ahmed Al-Sharaa has a chance to prove that he is the president of all of Syria and of all Syrians, without discrimination or distinction. It is easy to blame Israel [for the sectarian violence in the country], but it is difficult to block its interference in Syria's domestic affairs in a sensitive region like Al-Suwayda province. Israel's support for the Druze of Al-Suwayda is more than natural, given that Israeli Druze serve in the Israeli military and given the Druze community's historical role in the Israeli sphere. "To put it more clearly, Ahmed Al-Sharaa has no choice but to play the role of the historic head of state who leads the people and is not led by them. More important than anything else is the new Syrian president's duty to prove that he is Ahmed Al-Sharaa and not Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani [the name by which he was once known].[3] This requires both great courage and political maturity. Additionally, there is a need to play the role of the national leader who reconciles first with the Sunni moderates, and [then] also with the Druze, Christians, Alawites, and Kurds, of course."[4]
