Hundreds protest in Syria’s Alawite heartland against recent attacks on the minority community, demanding justice and security after sectarian violence.
LATAKIA: Several hundred people protested on Tuesday in Syria’s coastal city of Latakia, the country’s Alawite heartland, against recent attacks targeting their minority community.
Protesters shouted slogans including “The Syrian people are one” and “To the whole world, listen to us, the Alawites will not bend”.
Security forces were deployed throughout the city but did not intervene to stop the demonstrations.
The protests represent the largest gatherings in Alawite regions since longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite, was toppled by an Islamist alliance last December.
Since Assad’s fall, the Alawite community has faced repeated attacks, including sectarian massacres in March that killed hundreds in the area.
“We are one united people,” said Joumana, 58, a lawyer who declined to provide her family name. “We want armed factions in the region to leave, justice for our martyrs on the coast, and the release of our prisoners.”
The demonstrations followed a call on social media by the Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad.
This appeal came after a wave of violence against Alawites in the central city of Homs following the killing of a Sunni Muslim Bedouin couple on Sunday.
After accusations emerged that Alawites were behind the killings, shops and homes were vandalised in districts home to the community.
Authorities later imposed a curfew and stated the killings were “a criminal act and not sectarian in nature”.
“What happened in Homs is unacceptable,” said protester Mona, 25, who also declined to provide her surname. “We demand freedom and security, an end to the killings and to kidnappings.”
She added, “We want federalism for the Syrian coast.”
In March, sectarian violence tore through Syria’s Alawite heartland, killing at least 1,426 members of the minority community according to authorities.
A war monitor reported more than 1,700 people were killed in that violence.
Authorities said the March violence began with attacks on government forces by Assad supporters.
