Syria’s interior ministry warns against ‘sectarian’ slogans amid Alawite protests

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s interior ministry on Tuesday warned residents of Alawite-majority coastal regions against falling for “schemes” aimed at sowing discord, cautioned against sectarian slogans, and confirmed that security units had been deployed to protect protests. The statement follows calls by the community’s top leader for a “unified demonstration” across Alawite-populated areas on the same day.

Speaking to state-run al-Ikhbariya TV, interior ministry Spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba said that “internal security units have secured protest gatherings in some [Alawite-majority] coastal areas to prevent any sudden incidents that could be exploited by parties promoting chaos.”

He added that Damascus’s interior ministry “ensures the right to freedom of expression for everyone, provided that this expression remains within the bounds of the law and does not disrupt civil peace.”

Baba underlined that “the Syrian state remains the sole guarantor of the demands of all the Syrian people, and these demands cannot be dealt with through scenarios of chaos and calls whose objectives our people on the coast are well aware of.”

The remarks come after the leader of Syria’s Alawites, Ghazal Ghazal, called for a “unified demonstration” on Tuesday across regions where the community resides.

The Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad released a video of Ghazal urging demonstrators to “document the sit-ins” and seeking support from Kurdish-majority northeast Syria (Rojava) and Druze-majority Suwayda province in the country’s south.

Rudaw noted that demonstrations were held in at least eight different areas in the province of Latakia, two areas in the province of Tartus, along the Syrian coast, as well as several areas in the central provinces of Hama and Homs . Protesters carried banners calling for federalism, political decentralization, the release of detainees, and an end to violence against minorities.

In a seeming indirect reference to Ghazal, Baba warned that “the parties promoting and marketing chaos in the coastal areas are all based outside the country and are disconnected from the lived reality of our people on the coast.”

He cautioned against “sectarian slogans in some gatherings,” saying such acts reveal agendas that “do not align with the genuine demands sought by our people on the coast,” and urged demonstrators “not to be drawn into schemes whose owners only want to involve the region in a spiral of instability.”

The Alawite protests come amid tense calm in Homs after a man and his wife, reportedly from a Sunni Arab Bedouin tribe, were found dead in their home south of the central Homs province on Sunday.

Following the killings, the Alawite Council issued an “urgent appeal” to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the international community, stating that “Alawite neighborhoods in the city of Homs had been subjected to a barbaric armed attack carried out by groups of Bedouins supported by elements of the de facto [interim] authorities.”

The Council said that “unarmed civilians were terrorized by direct shootings, burning of homes and properties, destruction of shops, and cars set ablaze,” holding the interim authorities in Damascus “fully responsible for the safety and security of Alawite civilians.”

In a Sunday interview with Rudaw, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Rami Abdulrahman, warned that the Homs situation could turn sectarian, noting that two young Alawite men had recently been killed, but “the Syrian authorities took no visible action.”

Some “are seeking to displace the Alawites from Homs,” Abdulrahman purported.