Above photo: Delil Souleiman / AFP – Getty Images.
To Demand Federalism, End To Sectarian Killings.
The strike started as Syria’s extremist-led government organized celebrations for the one-year anniversary of the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Alawites in Syria are carrying out a general strike to express their support of federalism and to protest against sectarian killings, arbitrary detentions, and kidnappings being carried out by the extremist-led government.
The strike, which is planned to last for five days, has spread to large parts of the cities of Tartous, Jableh, Qardaha, Latakia, Salhab, Masyaf, Safita, and the Alawite neighborhoods in Homs.
Photos circulating on social media show shuttered shops and empty transportation hubs in Alawite neighborhoods.
The strike was called by prominent Alawite religious leader Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal and the Political Council of Central and Western Syria, which organized large protests across the coastal cities on 25 November.
According to local reports, Alawite protesters were shot at and injured by Syrian security forces in multiple cities during those protests, while others were detained and taken to unknown locations.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports that messages of solidarity with Ghazal Ghazal’s call spread through Alawite villages on Monday, including in the Banias al-Jabal countryside, Jableh, Ramla, Tishreen suburb, Zaqzaqaniyah, Ain al-Raheb, and Ain al-Sharqiyah.
The messages included phrases such as: “We are all with Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal,” “Striking is a right and a dignity,” and “The blood of the Alawites is not cheap.”
The general strike comes on the first anniversary of the rise to power of former Al-Qaeda and Islamic State leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who named himself president of the country.
Sharaa’s government organized celebrations commemorating the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad and the establishment of a government led by the previously blacklisted Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Since Sharaa came to power, his extremist-dominated security forces have regularly abducted and murdered Alawite civilians, including at least 1,600 during horrific massacres lasting three days in March.
In July, Syrian forces carried out a similar massacre against members of the Druze religious minority in Suwayda, killing nearly 2,000 people, including 765 civilians.
Over 100 Alawite women have been kidnapped, after which they are raped and often forcibly married. Thousands of Alawite men who gave up their weapons to the new government as part of a reconciliation process have been imprisoned.
