In the coverage of the events of the Suwayda massacres, which according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed nearly two thousand victims, clear information about the Christian component is lacking. Most circulated news covered what happened to the Druze and Bedouins, while Christians have a significant presence, constituting about 10 percent of the province’s population. They were subjected to killing, displacement, and looting during the attack.
Nadia (a pseudonym) was visiting her family in the village of Radeimat al-Liwa, before the northern villages of Suwayda were stormed by militants affiliated with the Syrian government and allied clans last July.
Her family comes from a Christian background and is one of the oldest families in the village. As signs of the attack on the large village of Al-Sura began, her husband came and took her, their children, and the women of her family out of the town, while her brothers remained in the village.
“We left my father’s grave behind. My brothers and a number of the family’s women and their children stayed in the church all night, while the sounds of shelling and gunfire echoed close to us, and the gunfire didn’t stop for a moment, until our nerves were almost shattered,” says Nadia, recalling the experience of the attack on Suwayda.
Nadia’s family lives on agriculture and livestock farming, but they lost everything with the incursion of forces aligned with the Syrian government into Suwayda. The family lost all they owned: about a hundred head of sheep, 12 beehives, plus the honey they had extracted a short time before.
As the shelling approached, the residents sent a bus to transport those who remained of the women and elderly men. But with the village being overrun, there were no cars left for Nadia’s brothers to use, so they rode with two young men on motorcycles and fled while the shelling continued.
After spending several days in her husband’s village, they were forced on some nights to sleep inside their cars on the main roads, for fear of any attack that might reach the village they had taken refuge in.
The suffering increased with 14 people in one house, amid water shortages and a lack of life’s necessities. Then the family decided to go to Damascus by any means possible and arranged their exit from the city via the only crossing through Daraa. Nadia says: “I cannot describe to you the amount of pain we carry inside us. The young men of the town have left, neighbors, acquaintances, and friends are gone, and even those who remained are scattered in different places.”
Today, after this bitter experience, Nadia and her family are looking into possibilities for traveling outside Syria. They have no clear plans, but they have lost hope after what happened, as she says. She concludes: “My father’s grave is in Al-Karm. It remained alone. I will not be able to visit him again or talk to him. We all left except for him.”
6 Churches Burned
Nadia’s family is not the only Christian one harmed by the invasion of Suwayda; dozens of other Christian families were displaced and lost their livelihoods and homes. According to unofficial statistics, the number of Christians in Suwayda is about 25,000, while about 200 Christian families fled their homes.
According to a video published by Father Tony Butrus, pastor of the Shahba church and the surrounding villages, six churches were burned. Father Tony tells “Daraj,” “Christians, like the Druze, were subjected to terror, displacement, and looting of their homes, and we welcome them all in the church.”
Videos appeared of churches in the villages of Ta’ara, Al-Sura al-Kabira, and Radeimat al-Liwa destroyed, burned, and broken. Father Tony says, “We cannot describe the situation of Christians in Suwayda as special, because they, like others, were displaced and lost their livelihoods and their life’s hard work. In Al-Sura al-Kabira, they entered and burned the houses of Christians and Druze and burned the church and the council.”
He concludes, “What happened is abnormal; there is hatred and brutality. They did not distinguish between Druze and Christian.”
Amid all this, talk of leaving Suwayda and perhaps Syria has become common among many Christian families. While many families are financially unable to leave, Rita (a pseudonym) began gathering some clothes and necessities for herself, her husband, and their children, preparing to depart for Lebanon.
Rita, her husband, and their two children were forced to flee twice as the factions and clans approached their village. She tries to gather essential items like official documents, medicine, and some clothes, but the memories are too heavy to carry. Rita says, “What country is this that we will live in? My son, who is barely five, knows nothing but the sounds of battles, and there are armed men who burned the gas station and killed people!”
Rita’s husband works on the village’s support committee, where they receive families coming from other villages and distribute aid. The small village, inhabited mostly by Druze and fewer Christians, has become a refuge for about 20 families.
Rita’s husband feels frustrated and believes the country has rejected him, and that waiting for relief or a better future is no longer worthwhile after more than 15 years of tragedies and repeated wars, especially since the attackers did not distinguish between Druze and Christians; although he heard about Christian families that were not harmed, he also heard stories about Christians who were subjected to violations, which prompted him and his family to flee twice. He says, “I don’t think they distinguish between a Druze and a Christian. If their enemy is Al-Hijri, why did they destroy our churches?”
The Al-Hijri that he is talking about is a Druze spiritual leader who refused to accept the demands of the transitional government and submit to the authority of Damascus. The attack on Suwayda was considered an attempt to coerce him and prevent secession.
The village priest, when he heard of his intentions to leave, told him, “I cannot tell you to stay. I know the situation is difficult, and there is nothing we can do to help you or promise you any change.” But according to local statistics, about twenty Christians were killed during the recent events.
Over the past fifteen years, many Christians have migrated or sought refuge from Syria, heading to Lebanon and Europe, fleeing the ongoing wars and conflicts. With each new wave of displacement, this essential component of Syrian society continues to lose its stability, amid rising civil and sectarian division in the country.
Before the Syrian revolution in 2011 and the subsequent wars, Syrian Christians constituted about 10 percent of the population. Today, their numbers have greatly diminished. After the Damascus church bombing this summer, the coast massacres against Alawites, and subsequently the Suwayda massacres, Syrian Christians face a new test that may threaten the survival of those still remaining in the country, not only in Suwayda but throughout Syria.
Since the fall of the Assad regime at the hands of forces of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham led by Ahmed al-Shara, fears of “Islamization” have gripped many in Syria. While the new leadership has repeatedly tried to send positive signals, repeated sectarian massacres and several practices in the state and public life have not dispelled these fears but rather exacerbated them.