The Media Line: Alawite Leader Says to TML: ‘If Syria Becomes a Sunni Extremist State, There Is No Future’ 

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

Alawite Leader Says to TML: ‘If Syria Becomes a Sunni Extremist State, There Is No Future’ 

Secession in As-Suwayda, pressure on the Kurds: Syria’s minorities face a new phase of fragmentation 

By Ahmad Qwaider and Jacob Wirtschafter / The Media Line  

[As-Suwayda, Istanbul] Syria’s Druze heartland is pushing into uncharted territory. What began as rolling protests against deteriorating living conditions has hardened into calls for autonomy. At the center of the movement is Hikmat al-Hajri, the spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community, who has urged the formation of a “National Guard” and pressed for an independent Druze region.  

“The call has gained widespread support because it reflects the people’s yearning for independence in making their own decisions and protecting their land,” Mazen Badria, co-founder of the Free Media Association in As-Suwayda, told The Media Line.  

This support is not just emotional but also practical, with residents ready to form civic forces that protect the community and lay the foundation for future partnership in building the state on principles of dignity and freedom. 

For many, the push for decentralization marks a profound break with Syria’s post-independence compact, where minorities—Druze, Alawites, Christians, Kurds—often relied on alliances with Damascus to preserve their security.   

Now, as that compact frays, minority leaders are imagining futures beyond the central state.  

The desire for autonomy stems from a sense of despair, as basic services in As-Suwayda have deteriorated significantly.  

“Last week the bakery was closed for four days because there was no diesel,” Razan Kiwan, a Druze relief worker, told The Media Line. “People have started cutting trees in their homes to secure energy for cooking and baking. Water is scarce. A water tanker costs up to 200,000 Syrian pounds, completely out of reach for families. Salaries for teachers and nurses are still being withheld. People feel abandoned.”  

Residents have reported intermittent internet service outages, which they believe are a deliberate attempt by Damascus to suppress reporting from the governorate.   

“Cutting off the internet at this sensitive time is a form of silencing to prevent news from coming out of As-Suwayda,” Kiwan said.  

Badria described the humanitarian breakdown as a collapse of the state itself.   

“Leaving people without basic means of life has pushed the community to rely on itself,” he told The Media Line. “This painful reality has resulted in a new awareness: that the solution does not come from an incapable central authority, but from local initiatives—agricultural, cooperative, and service-based—that establish an alternative livelihood economy that preserves human dignity.”  

Even as Israel has signaled readiness to defend Syria’s Druze, most residents recoil at the idea of becoming pawns in a regional contest. “We, the people of this land, reject any external protection or guardianship from any party,” Badria told The Media Line.   

“Our protection comes from our internal unity and the cohesion of our community, and our decision will remain independent.”  

Kiwan, who has witnessed As-Suwayda’s struggles from the ground, was more ambivalent. “We have called on the international community as a whole to protect us,” she said, “but Israel has exploited the Druze’s need to feel secure. Turkey is not accepted in the governorate at all, and the United States appears to play both sides.”  

“The Syrian government deals with the calls for Druze separatism with a mix of media containment, security pressure, and political neglect,” Ali Mohammad, an academic and political analyst in Damascus, told The Media Line.   

“They rely on influential Druze figures opposed to separatism and restrict themselves to sending indirect signals through the media or intermediaries. But there is a clear disregard for these demands, especially in light of the division within the governorate.”  

According to Mohammad, Israel’s recent airstrike southwest of Damascus, which targeted surveillance equipment, emphasizes the regime’s vulnerability. “Israel is exploiting the government’s weakness, encouraging division, and planting separatist ideas among sects like the Druze.” 

But not all Druze voices reject Israel’s involvement. In a televised address on August 9, 2025, al-Hijri — the community’s most senior spiritual leader — publicly thanked Israel, along with US President Donald Trump, for what he described as a “humanitarian intervention” that helped limit the scale of the July massacres in As-Suwayda. His words carried unusual weight, signaling that part of the community sees Israel as more than a regional interloper. 

The statement highlighted the divide among Syria’s Druze: while some insist that protection must come solely from internal unity, others regard Israel’s strikes and cross-border kinship ties as an indispensable lifeline at a time when Damascus has failed to ensure security or basic services 

Damascus is also reshuffling personnel.  

On September 2, the Interior Ministry appointed Brigadier General Hussam al-Tahan as the new director of internal security in As-Suwayda, replacing Brigadier General Ahmed al-Dalati. Al-Tahan, known for a hard-line approach, had previously overseen crackdowns in Jaramana and Sahnaya.   

His arrival signals an effort to tighten the security cordon rather than negotiate political concessions.  

The centrifugal trend deepened this weekend when Syria’s electoral commission announced that next month’s first parliamentary election under the new administration will exclude As-Suwayda and two other provinces because of “security concerns.”  

Seats designated for As-Suwayda, Hasaka, and Raqqa will remain unoccupied until elections can occur in those areas, a spokesperson for the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections informed state media. “The elections are a sovereign matter that can only be conducted in areas fully under government control,” the spokesperson told the state run news agency  SANA.  

Voting for the 210-member People’s Assembly is scheduled for September 15–20. However, voting in the three provinces will be postponed until a “safe environment” is ensured. Opposition figures in the northeast condemned the exclusion, saying in a statement that the government was “continuing marginalization and exclusion” under the guise of security.  

The commission’s move follows a grim July in As-Suwayda, when clashes between Druze and Bedouin fighters left hundreds dead, according to local accounts, and government forces were dispatched to the city to quell the unrest.   

Israeli officials later said they launched airstrikes to prevent mass killings of Druze by government troops.  

The election exclusion, activists in As-Suwayda contend, validates their summer warning that al-Sharaa’s government is systematically marginalizing the province.  

“Our expectations are no longer limited to security promises or limited resources,” Badria told The Media Line. “What is needed is a fundamental change—recognition of the people’s dignity and their political rights. Without genuine concessions, feelings of estrangement will continue.”  

“Two weeks ago, Israelis crossed into our farmland and planted signs marking out future settlements,” said Shaher al-Tahhan, mukhtar of the border village of Kodna in Quneitra and a notable of the Arab al-Naim tribe. “People here are outraged. This is a blatant violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement.”  

He described a creeping Israeli presence in the area. “The occupation forces continue to advance and are stationed at strategic points on Mount Sheikh and in al-Hamidiyah village. They bulldoze fields, uproot trees, and establish roadblocks. It has become a growing concern for daily life, especially for children and women.”  

On August 18, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented Israeli settlers laying a cornerstone for a new outpost in Juwayza, an abandoned Quneitra village.   

Although Israeli authorities did not formally endorse this initiative, Syrian residents perceive it as a symbolic escalation. “We are unarmed and wish to live in peace because people are tired of wars, killings, and destruction,” al-Tahhan said. “We are in contact with the government, and they are aware of the situation, but they are acting within their limited capabilities.”  

“Turkey’s Ministry of Defense has issued what it described as a ‘final warning’ for the SDF[Syrian Democratic Forces] to integrate into the Syrian army under the Ministry of Defense,” Ali Mohammad told The Media Line. “This is not just rhetoric. It represents a strategic shift, showing Ankara’s readiness to intervene politically and perhaps militarily if its demands are not met.”  

A Damascus-based security source confirmed preparations for confrontation. “On September 3, the Syrian army foiled an infiltration attempt carried out by an SDF group in Raqqa’s eastern countryside, resulting in several casualties,” the source told The Media Line. “This was not spontaneous. The army was already on high alert and may have had prior intelligence. It was pre-planned.”  

The same source said repeated infiltration attempts, smuggling operations, and stalled negotiations have pushed Damascus to send reinforcements to Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Aleppo.  

“Although described as ‘routine exercises,’ they involve medium and heavy weapons and near-daily drills. Damascus is inching closer to issuing battle orders if real integration of the SDF is not achieved.”  

Turkish commentator İhsan Aktaş, writing in Daily Sabah, argued that Washington has worsened the uncertainty: “Whereas just months ago the discussion centered on Syria’s territorial integrity and unitary state structure during its reformation, the new reality engineered by the US– forging the SDF from the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] – has cast doubt. This policy has effectively planted a seed of uncertainty in the public consciousness, forcing a reevaluation of whether a unified Syrian state remains a viable outcome.”  

Even members of the Alawite diaspora—the sect of the Assad family that ruled Syria for decades—are now pressing for decentralization, breaking with the centralist model that defined that regime  

Dr. Morhaf Ibrahim, president of the Alawites Association of the United States, told The Media Line that his community is under systematic attack. “Alawites are being prosecuted, killed, and driven from their homes,” he said.   

“There are more than 10,000 Alawites unlawfully detained, and thousands already found dead in regime-controlled areas. The new constitution drafted under Ahmed al-Sharaa is a disaster—you cannot even find the word ‘democracy’ in it.”  

He argued that the only path forward is decentralization.   

“If Damascus keeps a strong central government, minorities cannot survive. A decentralized, federal, or confederal system would allow communities to govern themselves to a degree. Only then can Syria have a future.”   

Ibrahim also pointed to the plight of Christians: “Before 2011 there were about 800,000 Christians in Syria; now fewer than 200,000.”  

For Ibrahim, what is happening to the Druze in As-Suwayda today is part of a wider unraveling.   

“There is an organic alliance among Alawites, Druze, Christians, and Kurds,” he told The Media Line. “Everyone understands that if Syria becomes a Sunni extremist state, there is no future.”  

That logic now drives decisions on the ground. In As-Suwayda, factions insist on running their own security, while Damascus shuffles commanders but avoids dialogue. Israel signals readiness to shield Druze communities even as new outposts appear along the Quneitra fence. Turkey demands that the Kurds fold into the Syrian army, raising the prospect of clashes in the north. And with the electoral commission leaving three provinces unrepresented in September’s parliamentary vote—and postponing a presidential election for up to five years under President al-Sharaa—the political map looks as fractured as the battlefield.  

Communities worn down by years of war are caught in the middle. “We are unarmed and wish to live in peace,” al-Tahhan told The Media Line from Quneitra. “But without real guarantees, we fear more displacement and more loss.”  

Kiwan’s assessment from As-Suwayda was just as stark. “The call for independence is serious and not symbolic,” she said. “Unless our dignity and rights are respected, we will keep insisting on governing our own lives.”