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Dissatisfaction with Assad's Rule in Syria's Alawi Sect

(New York Review of Books) Elizabeth Tsurkov - "There is a small percentage of Alawis who benefited from the war, but the vast majority are poor and hungry," Loubna, 59, a teacher, told me. Loubna is an Alawi, the Syrian sect that dominates the top echelons of Syria's civilian and military leadership, including the ruling Assad dynasty. The Alawis are most commonly labeled as "loyalists" of the Assad regime, but interviews I have conducted remotely over the past several months reveal their deep dissatisfaction with the rule of the Assad government. The regime's heavy reliance on Alawis on the front-lines, coupled with the community's 10% share of Syria's pre-war population (numbering two million people), have resulted in disproportionate losses of the sect's young men. Loubna said: "The Alawi community is all widows and spinsters. There are no men anymore, and if there is, they're all broken and maimed. Everywhere you go you see graves, pictures of martyrs, and people dressed in black." Thousands of Alawi men emigrated to Lebanon and Europe to avoid serving in the army.
2019-07-30 00:00:00
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