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DAMASCUS, 30 April 2025 – In Syria, hundreds of members of the Alawite minority, to which ousted President Bashar al-Assad belonged, have been forcibly evicted from their private homes in Damascus since the new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa came to power last December. This was reported by Syrian officials, human rights organisations and eyewitnesses who spoke to Reuters.
Attacks and evictions
One example is the story of the family of Um Hassan (name changed for fear of reprisals). At the end of January, 12 masked armed men broke into her home in Damascus, threatening her with Kalashnikovs. They ordered the family to leave the house, and when they showed their ownership documents, the attackers arrested Um Hassan’s older brother. The family was forced to leave the house 24 hours later to rescue his brother, who was returned beaten.
According to the human rights organisation Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ), such cases are not isolated. “We are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of evictions,” said STJ Executive Director Bassam Alahmad. According to him, these actions are systematic and targeted at Alawites in retaliation for their support of the Assad regime.
Sectarian violence
The Alawites, who are a minority in Syria (about 10-12% of the population), held key positions in government, the army and business during the Assad regime. Following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, when rebels led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is affiliated with a former al-Qaeda affiliate, seized power, Alawites became a target of repression.
In March 2025, hundreds of Alawites were killed in Syria’s western coastal regions, and sectarian violence spread to Damascus. Two government officials reported that since Assad’s fall, thousands of people, mostly Alawites, have been evicted from their homes in the capital. Most of them were living in state housing, which they lost along with their jobs in state institutions. However, hundreds of others, like Um Hassan, have been kicked out of private property simply because of their religious affiliation.
“Committee of Military Trophies”
According to three senior officials of the newly created General Security Service (GSS), the government has set up two committees to manage property belonging to individuals associated with the previous regime. One committee deals with confiscation and the other with complaints. These structures were modelled on the so-called “War Spoils Committee” in Idlib, a city formerly controlled by Sharaa forces.
The mayor of an Alawite suburb of Damascus said that 250 of the 2,000 families in his neighbourhood had been evicted. He shared a recording of a conversation with a GSS representative who demanded that he “vacate the house belonging to one of those pigs” – an insulting term used to refer to Alawites.
Victims and testimonies
Um Hussein, a mother of four from Dahyet al-Asad neighbourhood, said that on 16 January, two armed men who identified themselves as members of the GSS gave her 24 hours to leave because of her son’s disability. The next day, they returned and gave her two minutes to leave the house, which the family had been building for 22 years. The attackers also confiscated the family’s shop.
Rafaa Mahmoud, another victim, shared a video of herself arguing with armed men who threatened to kill her family on 20 February if they did not hand over the keys to their house, which they had purchased 15 years earlier. The attackers, who identified themselves as state security agents, called the family “infidels” and said they were acting “without court orders”.
Reaction and consequences
Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, promises to build an inclusive country to unite Syria after 14 years of civil war and attract foreign investment. However, the Alawites see the expulsions as part of a systematic sectarian persecution.
Syria expert Fabrice Balanche estimates that after the fall of Assad, about half a million Alawites fled Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and other cities, moving to the coastal areas. According to Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma, the GSS has become an all-powerful force that combines the functions of police, intelligence and the National Guard.
Human rights activists and local officials say that evictions often take place without a court order, and that the victims are mostly low-income families who cannot afford to rent elsewhere. “This is not justice, this is transitional injustice,” Landis concluded.
A call to action
On 16 April, STJ filed a complaint with the Damascus Suburbs Directorate, demanding an end to “sectarian” property rights violations and the return of confiscated property. In February, the governor of Damascus called on citizens to file complaints about illegal confiscations, but according to officials, most cases remain unresolved.
The Syrian Interior Ministry and Sharaa’s office did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Source: Reuters
