‘Shades of gray’: Aleppo’s Christians between HTS promises and painful memories

MARSEILLE — For now, Joseph Karam*, 42, is staying put with his wife and four young children at their apartment in al-Aziziya, a Christian neighborhood in the center of Aleppo. Their most immediate concern, and what keeps them awake at night, is the threat of regime airstrikes in the newly opposition-controlled city. 

When a coalition of opposition factions led by the Islamist military group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) first swept into Syria’s second-largest city on November 29, they had other fears. Karam, a Greek Orthodox Christian, knows many members of his community who fled as the city fell with little resistance from Syrian regime forces.

His wife, initially terrified, begged for them to leave too. “I said, let’s see the situation first and then decide,” he told Syria Direct on Monday. “We don’t have enough money left to buy food let alone think about leaving.”

On Saturday, a video went viral of an apparent opposition fighter attempting to knock over a metal Christmas tree. Karam said the incident’s impact went beyond social media, pushing some Christians to leave the city. The tree was back up the following day, and videos taken in Aleppo over the following days have shown decorations for the upcoming Christmas holiday undisturbed in Christian neighborhoods.

“People panicked, they were brought back to the time when [Jabhat] al-Nusra broke and desecrated the sanctuaries of minorities and imposed the hijab, so people rushed to leave Aleppo,” Karam said. “If the road was safe, 80 percent of the minorities would have left the next day out of their panic and fear.”

Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate until 2016, is the predecessor of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Al-Nusra kidnapped and disappeared Christian clergymen and persecuted other religious minorities.

Jamil Diarbakerli, the executive director of the Sweden-based Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights (AMHR), said his organization estimates around one third of Aleppo’s Christians—roughly 6,600 people—fled the city, citing field monitors on the ground. Those who left mainly headed for regime-controlled areas and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-controlled northeast, he said. Karam estimated that among those he knows in Aleppo, around 50 Christian families left the city.

As of Tuesday, “many” families were “thinking seriously about leaving the city,” Diarbakerli said, adding that some “have not made a decision yet or have not found a suitable way out.” Clashes are ongoing outside the city and the road remains dangerous.

Before the opposition offensive, an estimated 20,000 Christians lived in Aleppo, down from 220,000 in 2011, constituting the largest Christian population in the country. The Sunni-majority city is also historically home to other Syrian minorities: Kurds, including Yazidis, as well as smaller populations of Shiites and Alawites alongside some Ismailis and Druze. 

So far, few if any violations have been documented against Aleppo’s minority populations. Instead, opposition factions have repeatedly sought to reassure Kurds and religious minorities. On Wednesday, HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani visited Aleppo and reiterated that “Muslims and Christians in all their diversity will be respected” in a statement to the International Crisis Group (ICG).

On Sunday, the HTS-led Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) Department of Political Affairs issued a statement declaring it strived to“ protect the rights of civilians of all Syrian sects and components.” In a later statement, HTS called on Alawites—the sect President Bashar al-Assad belongs to—to be “part of the Syria of the future that doesn’t recognize sectarianism.” 

“It was clear that they were coming to take over the city without harming the property and honor of civilians, and since they took over the province, they illuminated Aleppo with electricity, which we did not see during the days of the regime except for two hours every 30 hours…and sometimes 72 hours,” Karam said. As of Thursday, however, the flow of electricity was once more restricted, “only coming late at night.”

Bassel Qas Nasrallah, 66, a Melkite Greek Catholic, has also decided to remain in the city. He doesn’t ever picture himself leaving Aleppo. “I’m someone who, when I pass by in the street, maybe 50 people will tell me good morning. Everyone knows me, the sidewalks know me, the walls know me. So where do I want to go? I have memories in this city,” he said. 

Nasrallah said he did not fear for his safety, despite at one point being an advisor to Syria’s former grand mufti, Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun, an accomplice of the Assad regime. “No one has bothered me,” he said.

Initially, “we were afraid of them, yes,” Nasrallah said. “The extremism of 11, 12 years ago…we were afraid. But now, no. It’s another discourse, a new discourse.” He pointed to the fact that all 20 of Aleppo’s churches held mass last Sunday.

“However, many are skeptical and say that this behavior is only the beginning, noting that there is no administration in the city and no clear authorities to complain to” in the case of violations, he said. However, on Sunday the Idlib-based Salvation Government established hotlines for residents to report incidents.

On Wednesday, al-Jolani also told the ICG that Aleppo would be governed by a transitional body, with control of government institutions to return to civilians.

“We haven’t perceived any real or clear violations against Christians in Aleppo by the groups that now control the city,” Diarbakerli of AOHR confirmed. “However, our experience after long years indicates all possibilities are open for the worse, not for the better,” he added.

But more than anything Karam fears the regime’s response. “I am afraid of a counterattack that will be fierce…I’m afraid of the arbitrary bombing,” he said. Russian and regime planes have already targeted the city and other opposition-controlled areas multiple times.

“We are afraid for the children most of all, we weren’t prepared for the war. Us and the children hide in the back of the bedroom,” Bahar*, Karam’s wife, told Syria Direct on Thursday. 

“We are afraid of the rockets and planes. We aren’t leaving the house, we aren’t going to school. I want to have fun with my friends. We don’t have any connection to the problems, we want to live,” Rahaf,* their eight-year-old daughter, added.

Changing face

While HTS’ overtures to minorities have been heard and welcomed, few have forgotten HTS’ history as Jabhat al-Nusra, a takfiri group whose leader referred to the beliefs of non-Sunni Muslims as doctrinal mistakes and attempted to forcibly convert Christians and Druze. 

In Idlib, the group expropriated the properties of Christians and Druze. Karam’s family farm in Jisr al-Shughour—which he fled in 2011, while his parents stayed behind—was one such case. “As soon as my father died, and before he was buried, they came to my mother and forbade her from entering our lands. They took the agricultural equipment, saying it was the right of the mujahideen.”

However, following the group’s rebranding to HTS, it began to change face, at least outwardly. It dissolved the religious police and cracked down on extremist factions. It also signaled an abandonment of its dream to establish an emirate, with al-Jolani swapping his turban and military fatigues for a suit and nationalist rhetoric. 

Then, in 2022, al-Jolani began meeting with Druze notables and Christians were able to practice their rites again for the first time in years. Last year, HTS invited Christians and Druze to return to Idlib to reclaim their seized properties. At the end of 2023, Karam’s family estate was also returned. 

Read more: HTS looks to Idlib’s Christians and Druze to whitewash violations

HTS wants to be “deemed as legitimate” in both the eyes of the international community and its domestic constituencies, Aaron Zelin, a researcher focused on jihadi groups and a Visiting Scholar at Brandeis University, told Syria Direct. 

Zelin emphasized that the change in the group’s posture towards minorities is relatively recent, within the past two years, and that historical precedent shows such policies can be reversed. “Different groups have claimed initially that they would be open and then rescinded that, whether it’s with the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 or more recently with the Taliban,” he said.

Moreover, he stressed that Aleppo is different from Idlib, where the group has ruled for over a decade, noting it is less conservative and has more minorities. “This will be a new scenario for HTS and its governance body,” he said.

Minorities have no representation in the SSG’s Shura Council, the organ that makes executive-level decisions, he noted, while there is a minority affairs directorate.

Ultimately, however, Zelin is more concerned about violations by the Syrian National Army (SNA), which has led a simultaneous offensive, than HTS, which he described as more professional, disciplined, and centralized. 

HTS is “interested in having a state-building project and building their institutions,” Zelin said. The SNA, on the other hand, is “more mercenary…sectarian, and nationalistic,” with its forces mainly occupied with fighting the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at Turkey’s behest in recent years. 

“So there’s definitely possible scenarios where if we do see any violations, especially against the Kurds, it would most likely come from the SNA than it would from HTS,” he added. 

For now, Nasrallah believes HTS is sincerely “convinced” of its new ideology, having learned from past mistakes. “They were revolutionaries at first…now they’ve worked in politics in Idlib. They were 12 years late to Aleppo because they made mistakes in their behavior,” he said. 

“Not everything is black and white—there are shades of gray.”