Mainstream media has always claimed they are “moderate rebels” when in fact we know they are neither moderate nor rebels. They are the same militants that beheaded women and children, just rebranded with new names. These people want a theocratic country. Syria is in need of reforms, but they will have to be democratic and respect human rights.

The government of Syria fell on December 8 in an end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family after a Turkey-backed jihadist offensive swept across government-held territory and invaded the capital of Damascus in 10 days.

The assault began on November 27. A jihadist terrorist group named Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Organization for the Liberation of the Levant; HTS) launched a coordinated attack on the Aleppo Governorate in northwestern Syria, captured and killed dozens of Syrian Army soldiers, and promised mass executions and beheadings in front of TV cameras. Videos of jihadists abducting Kurdish women have also surfaced on social media.

As Aleppo fell, HTS, formerly the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, was supported on the northern front by the Syrian National Army (SNA), a coalition of a dozen Islamist armed groups largely financed, equipped and trained by Turkey.

The cities of Hama, and Homs also respectively fell into the hands of the Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists of Turkey. 

Many Greek Christians who fled cities and villages seized by jihadists are currently seeking refuge in the formerly government-controlled “Valley of Christians/Wadi al-Nasara” in Syria. Now that the Valley has fallen to jihadists with the collapse of the Assad government, the very lives of Christians there are at stake.

The X account Greco-Levantines WorldWide reported on December 5:

In Syria, many families from the Greek Antiochian Orthodox community are fleeing the northern Hama countryside, particularly Suqaylabiyah and Mhardeh, and seeking refuge in the Valley of the Christians. The local community in the valley has responded by opening homes, churches, and community halls to offer shelter and support to the displaced.

Syria is home to several ethnic and religious minorities such as Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Yazidis, Druze, and the Alawites. A jihadist takeover means outright massacres, forced displacements, or enslavement for these communities.

The Christian communities in Syria are often simply called “Arab Christians” and their original ethnic identities as well as histories are mostly ignored by the mainstream media and academia. Greeks of Syria and the wider Levantine region are one of these forgotten communities. Greeks, however, are deeply and historically rooted in Syria and the rest of the Levant. Many Greek activists from the region are raising awareness about the history of Levantine Greeks and the current challenges they are facing.

The European Conservative interviewed Rafael, a Greek Levantine activist based in Europe. For his safety, we will not disclose his surname.

Rafael runs The Levantine Greek Association, a registered NGO based in the EU. The organization’s X account is @LevantineGreeks; his personal one is @rafaelimikhail. There are also other X accounts such as @GrecoLevantines and @GrecoNation that are regularly sharing insightful information about Levantine Greeks and the ongoing jihadi assaults against Syrian Christians.

Can you tell us about yourself and about the founding of the Levanine Greek Association?

I am a Syrian born Levantine Greek with ancestry from the entire former Eastern Roman region. My maternal side is of Cypriot Lebanese mixed background, and my paternal side is Anatolian and Syrian in origin. My parents left the Levant when I was four years old, so I grew up in Europe and only had contact with the diaspora throughout my entire upbringing. When I was growing up, I often asked questions about our identity. I was never really satisfied with the answers I was given. Often, I was told we were Christian Arabs, but when I was around Arabs, I felt very estranged from their customs and general philosophy of life. When I was around Greeks or in Greece, I felt like I was home. This made me question everything I had been taught and I took on a journey to find out the truth. Through this journey, I went through a cultural and religious path at first, but later I started reading about Levantine history. Once I realized what the actual history of the Levant was, I started reading local history which confirmed that the Levantines were Mediterranean in culture, history and genetics—the opposite of inlanders with Bedouinistic history and genetics. With DNA sequencing technology made available in recent years, studies have confirmed these theories and now data is being published as we speak, data which will contend mainstream history of the region.

Our Levantine Greek Association was originally founded only to share the results of these findings of history and genetics with both Greek nationals and to the diasporas and minorities around the world.

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