Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
George Michael sang a hit song, "Last Christmas", about heartbreak, betrayal, and disappointment. Many Syrians may now be feeling those same emotions, because this might be the "Last Christmas" celebrated legally and openly in Syria.
Syrians feel they were betrayed by former President Bashar al-Assad, who drained the country of wealth for his benefit, and that of his family. They are disappointed that he did not hand over power in the process of the UN resolution 2254, but held selfishly on to his 'throne' which forced the country to plunge into chaos.
Syria has been home to Christians for 2,000 years. The community can trace its ancestry back to the converts to Christianity during the ministry of Jesus and his 12 apostles, as well as the ministry later of St. Paul, who was converted to Christianity in Damascus and went on to write much of the New Testament. The site of his conversion is a church in the Bab Touma neighborhood of Damascus, near the Eastern Gate.
When Europeans worshipped bonfires as their 'God', the Syrians sat inside churches praying in Aramaic, the language of Jesus, still spoken in Ma'alula, north of Damascus. In Latakia is the church of the Lady, dated 1,800 years old, named for Mother Mary after she slept there on her way to Turkey, where she was later buried in Ismir.
At the time of the advent of Islam, Damascus was populated almost exclusively by Christians, and the huge Umayyad Mosque, recently prayed in by the fighters who ousted the brutal dictator Assad on December 8, was named Saint John's Cathedral.
By 1860, Damascus was exactly 50-50 split population between Christians and Muslims. After the instigation of a sectarian massacre by the Turkish Ottoman occupiers, the Christian population began to decline and many Christians began to migrate later to Europe and America seeking a safer place to live. The Turks, who ruled Syria for 400 years, stoked sectarian strife to keep the Syrians busy killing each other, instead of noticing how bad the occupation was.
The current Christian population in Syria is about 10%, while the Sunni Muslim population stands at about 80%. The fighters following the Muslim Brotherhood political ideology currently are the caretaker government in Syria, with hopes of a transitional government being appointed along sectarian lines in March 2025.
Although everyone in Syria, and abroad is happy to see the end of the Assad regime, and the accompanying brutality, atrocities, and Captagon drug manufacture and export, still there are a majority of Syrians who have become used to the secular nature of the Syrian government for 50 years and enjoyed the freedom to worship how and where they chose, and to dress themselves out of free-will.
When the US-NATO war on Syria began in 2011, directed and funded by US President Obama, the Western political mantra was: "Assad step-down, and allow for a peaceful transition." It all sounded so easy, but many of the supporters didn't ask about what was the end goal. The peaceful transition ends in what? Now, we know what Washington and their allies always knew: the end is the establishment of an Islamic State.
Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, now being called Ahmad al-Sharaa, has won the war, backed by the US, Turkey, and others, and utilizing troops loyal to him in Idlib. Yesterday, Barbara Leaf, US Under Secretary of State, arrived in Damascus to meet with Jolani and give him his orders. She immediately removed the 10-million-dollar bounty from his head, issued by the US Treasury Department because of his past allegiance to Al Qaeda and ISIS. Now that he won the war for the US and its allies, he is suddenly free of any past crimes and atrocities.
Jolani didn't conquer Syria alone. His group is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but it is only one of a large coalition of fighting groups in Idlib. Nor al-Din al-Zinki (NDZ) is one of the groups in the Jolani coalition. They are best known for cutting off the head of an 8-year-old Palestinian boy who they called an "Assad Loyalist". The group proudly made a video of cutting off the screaming child's head in the back of a red pickup truck. The video went viral on social media. Keeping NDZ in his coalition may have been seen as 'tacky' and 'in bad form' by some Western audiences, but to take Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Damascus in one week every fighter was needed by Jolani.
When Jolani first got to Damascus, he was calm and keen to keep the peace. His first words and directives were to ease the fears of the population, and he assured the 18 different sects of Syria that everyone would be safe. Then he gave interviews to CNN and BBC and started to let down his guard. By the time he spoke with Jeremy Bowen of the BBC, you could tell from his face and body language, that he was fed up with the questions about women's rights and liberties. Most questions went unanswered, such as the question about whether alcohol will be allowed in the Islamic State of Syria.
The Christian leaders in Syria had previously thought of calling off Christmas decorations and celebrations in solidarity and memorial of the hundreds of thousands dead in Gaza and Lebanon. Now, with the new administrators in Syria as of December 8, most are resigned to the fact that this Christmas might be the last openly, and publically celebrated in Syria, marking the end of 2,000 years of celebrations, and the beginning of fear for an uncertain future.
Fr. Vincent de Beaucoudrey, a Jesuit priest and director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Syria, has worked in Syria for several years-- first in Homs and now in Damascus. He is a direct witness to the upheaval that the population is currently experiencing. Jean-Charles Putzolu recently interviewed the priest.
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