In the past few months, there has been a clear escalation in statements, discussions, and writings about Syria's minorities and majority. This has not been limited to Syrians, with their visions, differences, and disagreements; rather, it has extended to the regional and international spheres, taking on political, economic, cultural, social, military, and security dimensions. It has almost become one of the issues that preoccupies not only Syrians, but also the world, or a large part of it. This is something that can be seen in the recent meetings and statements by officials from major powers, including the Americans, Russians, Europeans, and others.
The phenomenon of splitting minorities from majorities is not unique to Syria; rather, it is present in most countries of the world. In every country, there is a majority, and minorities share the political and geographical space with it. Indeed, the majority, which is commonly believed to express a numerical majority with a religious or sectarian identity, shares its surroundings with other religious and sectarian minorities.
The reality of major countries - such as the United States, Russia, Britain, or France - is an example of the reality of national and ethnic, religious and sectarian diversity. Each of them has a religious national majority, alongside other ethnic, religious, and sectarian national minorities, the number of which is almost impossible to enumerate.
Syria, with its majority and minorities, is like any other country, although it is less diverse than the reality of the countries we have presented. This raises the question of why the issue of majorities and minorities in Syria was raised, and not addressed like in other countries.
The fundamental reason for raising such an issue is political, involving various parties, ranging from Iran to its adversaries, such as Türkiye and Israel, and Western countries, such as the United States, Germany, Britain, and France. The latter two, as is well known, drew the borders of the current Syrian state, with its majority and minorities, in negotiations that reached to the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, between the United Kingdom and France, with the approval of Russia and Italy, related to the division of the Ottoman Empire.
The problem of majority and minority groups in Syria emerged with the Ba'ath Party's rise to power in 1963, within the framework of an alliance of minority officers. It escalated amid power struggles, which Hafez al-Assad won in 1970. He established an Alawite minority regime, which his son and heir, Bashar, maintained in place for the next 14 years. During this time, his allies waged a devastating war against the Syrian people, inflicting losses on all components of the national community.
If the losses are greater among the majority, this is only natural, for reasons including numbers and dispersal, and the regime's use of them as a direct target to fuel sectarian conflict. A city like Homs was largely destroyed, including its diverse population of Sunni Muslims and Greek Christians, with the exception of those the regime considered its incubator, described as the "Alawite minority." During the Turkish military interventions in northern Syria, Kurdish/Arab villages and areas whose common denominator was Sunni Islam were destroyed.
Most countries that raise the issue of majorities and minorities have remained silent and ignored the details of the Syrian massacre. Instead of seriously seeking to end the war, they have slept on the notion that the Assad regime protects "minorities," which has exacerbated the war's cost on every level, both human and material.
The approach to the issue has been based on political interests, aimed at strengthening the position and status of each local or foreign party within the Syrian reality and its potential development, as in the example of the Assad regimes. If we were to examine examples of foreign policies, the most dangerous is Israel's position, which no one can claim to care about any Syrian minorities.
An other bad example is Türkiye's position, which views Syria and its immediate future as a state governed by Sunni Islam. Türkiye naturally opposes the radical approach adopted by a broad spectrum of Syrian elites, including the Kurdish elite. It opposes any Kurdish nationalist and political presence on the Syrian side of the shared border.
While Iran is preoccupied with the issue, it has stopped short of focusing on the sect, not for ideological reasons, but rather because it represents a potential lever for Iran's return to Syria, or as a means of "improving" Iran's position in Syria.
In summary, examining the issue of majorities and minorities in Syria for the last fifty years, it can be said that the country is effectively divided into a majority merely represented by Syrians, and a minority that forms the ring of the defunct regime, including authoritarian figures from all components of the national community. The conflict currently raging in the country are rather an expression of political and strategic interests of foreign actors that historically have influenced Levant region.