Representatives of Syria’s minority communities this week urged world leaders to block normalisation with the new authorities in Damascus. They called for international protection of minorities and support for a federal system in a country emerging from decades of dictatorship and over ten years of brutal war. “Our message here today is very simple: normalisation with Jolani’s regime cannot be reached at the expense of our lives,” said human rights defender Masoud Aqil, a former hostage of ISIS and a member of the Yazidi community, which endured genocide, displacement and enslavement at the hands of the group. Gathered at the Geneva Press Club on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council’s 60th session, Druze, Alawite, Christian, Kurdish and Yazidi activists described massacres, forced displacement and systematic discrimination under Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. “We all know there is no difference between the ...
