The EU Executive must remember that al-Sharaa, to whom they have recently pledged to send millions of euros, was the leader of ISIS’ Syrian offshoot, Jabhat al-Nusra…. The EU Commission must take action to help stop the ongoing massacres targeting Alawites and Christians and help create a safe haven for those persecuted minorities in Syria. 

Since al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) conquered Damascus with the help of Turkey in December 2024, HTS fighters and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militants have committed massacres against religious minorities in the country. Social media posts show Alawite or Christian men, women, and children barbarically shot at close range. And the death toll is increasing.

The Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and all the East, John X, said during a sermon on March 9th:

The bloody events taking place on the Syrian coast left many dead and wounded.… In many cities, towns, and villages, their houses were burnt, and their properties have been stolen. The targeted areas were the places of Alawites and Christians. Many innocent Christian victims were also killed. Residents of some of those places were forced to leave their homes. Then they were shot and killed. Then their houses, property, and cars were stolen.

On the invitation of Patriarch John X, Greek MEP Nikolas Farantouris, who is a member of the Security and Defense Committee, the Constitutional Affairs Committee, and the Budgets Committee of the European Parliament, paid a two-day visit to Syria’s capital, Damascus, on March 8-9.

In a statement Farantouris made following his visit, he said:

Reliable data indicate 7,000 massacres of Christians and Alawites and unprecedented atrocities against civilians. Christian and other communities with a presence in these parts for over a thousand years are at risk of extinction. The new Islamic regime is leading Syria into an Islamic state and is claiming that it cannot control the paramilitaries and their affiliated gangs who attack innocent civilians.

I call on the Greek Government and the entire political world of the country, the European Institutions and the governments of the Member States, to act NOW. Neither Greece nor the EU can continue to show tolerance and limit themselves to ceremonial visits and courtesies with the Islamic regime for investments and ‘business’ while thousands of civilians are being massacred under its tolerance if not its guidance.

In an interview with Greek Kontra TV, Farantouris said, “The situation [in Syria] has spiraled out of control. The West is watching the atrocities of the new Syrian regime as if nothing is happening. Actions are needed here and now. The slaughter of hundreds of civilians continues.”

Approximately 500,000 Christians currently live in Syria. Most are of Greek descent and have inhabited the country for millennia.

In the “Valley of the Christians,” Marwan Shahda, chief of the Christian village Mazraa, was found slaughtered with a machete on March 8th. On March 11th, a Christian man, Elias Michel Asaad, was found executed with a shot to the head after being kidnapped two days prior in the city of Homs. On March 13th, Johnny Al-Sayegh, a Greek Christian from the village of Burj Balamana in Tratous, was shot to death. He was riding his motorcycle with his fiancée on the Baniyas Road. News regarding the murders of Syrian Christians by Islamists is regularly posted on social media monitoring the ongoing violence in the country.

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