❊ How The Syrian Regime Is Fending Off Criticism

Today, the Turkish Prime Minister had very harsh words to say about the Syrian President and his brother. He accused the family in power of treating the demonstrators in an “inhumane” and “ugly” fashion.

It was the kind of statement that many of us saw as very damning and incriminating. After all, Mr. Erdogan is the Prime Minister of a Muslim, democratic regional power that until recently had a very warm relationship with Damascus (and Arab street cred to boot). How can the Assad regime’s apologists possibly respond to such damaging accusations?

Here’s how: Dr. Ibrahim Taleb, a regular syrian regime defender accused the Turks on Alarabiya today of harboring Ottoman desires for expansion into Syria. He claimed that P.M Erdogan had nostalgia for colonial days past, and asked the Turkish Prime Minister to respect the sovereignty of the Syrian people and accept that Syria is no longer part of his empire.

You’ll be tempted to dismiss this as nonsense. But this actually plays well with the intended target of his tirade: The Syrian Christians, Alawis, Shiaas and other minorities who are still hanging on to the Assad regime.

There is a relentless, constant exploitation by the Assad regime of the existential fears of minorities of the Sunni majority. The Saudis are scary Wahhabis, the Turks are expansionist Ottomans and the Lebanese Future Movement is funding Alqaeda. As for the Syrian protestors, they are labeled with the frighteningly vague “armed extremists”. This is all deliberate scare mongering, intended to keep a bunch of corrupt autocrats in power.

While a minority of Sunnis are indeed extreme, it is preposterous to always paint the opponents of this vicious regime with such a wide brush. Hopefully, the minorities are starting to see through those desperate tactics.