What has happened?

On Wednesday, the day after the Israel and Hezbollah “truce” paused the fighting between them, a major new conflict broke out in the Middle East. A prominent jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) attacked and has now captured much of Syria’s second city Aleppo, home to an estimated 2 million people including large numbers of Christians. Middle East News outlet al-Monitor reported that fighting had killed 311 people, including 28 civilians. It is reported that government forces have withdrawn from Aleppo, although Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces are in control of the airport.

When the Syrian civil war began in 2012 fighting quickly spread to Aleppo with government forces controlling part of the city and rebels, including  jihadist groups such as the Nusra Front, controlling the rest. Fierce fighting ensued. A siege by the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front was followed by government forces in turn besieging the rebel-held areas. The stalemate was only broken by massive Russian airstrikes cutting off the rebels’ supply lines and a Russian-brokered deal that allowed the al-Nusra Front and other jihadist groups to be bussed to safety in the rebel-held area of nearby Idlib province. The fighting devasted Aleppo and caused what the International Committee of the Red Cross described as “one of the most devastating conflicts of modern times” – with huge loss of civilian life.

There is now a real possibility that this will be reignited.

Recent atrocities against Aleppo’s Christians

However, it was not simply the fighting that posed a threat to Christians. The Syrian opposition quickly became dominated by jihadist groups – many of which were in practice little different from Islamic State (IS), which had expanded its operations into Syria in 2013 initially renaming itself Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

From then on Christians began to be specifically targeted – beginning with the abduction by jihadists of Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim, head of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Aleppo, and Bishop Boulos Yaziji, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Syria who were kidnapped during a humanitarian trip in April 2013. No-one knows who abducted them, but suspicion fell on the al-Nusra Front – who are now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – the group who have just seized part of Aleppo.

Both Islamic State and other jihadist groups murdered and abducted large numbers of Christians, while churches were systematically destroyed in an attempt to religiously cleanse whole areas of Syria of its non-Muslim population. Islamic State also reimplemented aspects of shari’a allowing the enslavement of non-Muslims – and produced a slave prince list with different values for different age Yazidi and Christian women. Almost exactly 10 years ago – the US State Department formally recognised that what was happening to Syrian Christians, Yezidis and Shi’a Muslims constituted “genocide”.

There is now a real possibility that Christians will again be specifically targeted in similar ways.

Christians in Aleppo

Christianity has existed in Syria since New Testament times and the wider area was a major centre of Christian theology in the first centuries with early church fathers such as Ignatius (d.c110) and John Chrysostom (c.347-407).

However, many of the Christians in Aleppo are descendants of the victims of the Armenian and Assyrian genocides (1915-23) when up to 3 million Christians are estimated to have been killed. During that time the Ottoman government forced Christians living in what is now Turkey on a “death march” into the Syrian desert during which vast numbers died of starvation, murder or rape at the hands of Kurdish militias. Christians still refer to this time as the Seyfoo – meaning “sword”. Many Christians in Aleppo today are second, third, or fourth-generation descendants of those who survived those events– which directly led to the first use of the terms “crimes against humanity” and later to the term “genocide”.

Who are Tahrir Hayat al Shams?

Tahrir Hayat al Shams (‘Organisation for the Liberation of Greater Syria’) which has been designated as a proscribed terrorist organisation by Australia, the USA and the UK originally emerged as an al-Qaeda affiliate, the al-Nusra Front. In 2016 it “officially” severed its links with al-Qaeda and later merged with a number of other Jihadist groups creating Tahrir Hayat al Shams. It was one of the key jihadist groups in the battle of Aleppo and the 2016 truce which ended that – allowed its fighters to be bussed to neighbouring Idlib province – which it has continued to control since then. Two years ago, it flexed its muscles and temporarily seized the city of Afrin and parts of northern Aleppo province. Although it has sought to rebrand itself as a credible alternative government to the Assad regime, it has long been associated with murder and abduction of Christians.

So, on Friday when it announced it would protect churches, Christians and their freedoms and urged “minorities” to stay at home and “live normally after liberation”, what that almost certainly meant was that Christins and other minorities should accept dhimmi status. This is a non-citizen status whereby non-Muslim minorities are permitted to live under Islamic rule subject to a range of conditions set out in a dhimma contract – including payment of jizya. The slightest perceived breach of any condition renders that person an outlaw and enemy (harbi) – who may be killed with impunity by any Muslim. The only alternatives offered to minorities who refuse to accept dhimmi status are forced conversion to Islam, execution or enslavement for women. That is why almost the entire Christian population of Mosul fled when Islamic State seized it in June 2014.

Christians in Aleppo are now potentially face a similar fate.

Future risk

Aleppo’s Christians have long kept their heads down, given the choice between the extreme authoritarianism of the Assad regime and life under jihadist rebels they unsurprisingly have generally seen themselves as having more chance of survival under the former. However, that now leaves them particularly vulnerable to reprisals. In 2015 – when the al-Nusra Front and other jihadist groups controlled parts of Aleppo, the Greek Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo Jean-Clement Jeanbart spoke out about the large scale murder and abduction of Christians which was happening there, and said:

“If nothing is done, it is not impossible that all the Christians in Syria may be wiped out…There is a fundamental threat to Christianity from ISIS. They have killed plenty of us. There is an existential crisis.”

While in the past, the Assad regime has survived largely because of significant military support from Russia, Hezbollah and Iran, none of those is likely to do so to the same extent now. There is, therefore, a grave risk that a jihadist group with a similar ideology to al-Qaeda and a very recent record of atrocities against Christians could take over the parts of inland Syria with large Christian populations. 

Added to this, the one place where Syrian Christians have been able to flee in the past – Lebanon – is literally just emerging from the devastation of a war with a truce only days old.

Christian aid agencies need to prepare for a massive relief operation.

PLEASE URGENTLY PRAY FOR CHRISTIANS IN ALEPPO

For an overview of the situation facing Christians in Syria see our Syria country profile