From Sheikh Saleh Ali to His Grandson
April 22, 2025, 11:36 am

Osama Ahmad Nizar Saleh

The French presence on the Syrian coast (Syria and Lebanon) began in 1918, about two years before the declaration of the French mandate. At that time, clashes erupted between the Ismailis and the Alawites following the killing of an Alawite child by an Ismaili teenager using a gun in the Qadmous area. The French authorities sought to contain the clashes by summoning Sheikh Saleh Ali for consultation (due to his position and leadership). Sheikh Saleh did not respond to the invitation, prompting a French force led by Lieutenant Florimon to visit him, but they were met with gunfire from his men, who believed there was an arrest order against him.

Until May 25, 1919, there were no clashes between French forces and Alawite militants, while raids and attacks (for the purpose of plunder) continued against Ismaili and Christian areas in the Alawite mountains. The French governor, General Niger, decided to forcibly disarm all mountain factions, leading to an Alawite rebellion against the French. This rebellion was not against the French presence itself but rather against disarmament.

As Sheikh Saleh Ali's political awareness developed, and with his connections to the leaders of the Great Syrian Revolution after 1920, he realized that about 45% of the population in Latakia and Tartus, concentrated in rural and mountainous areas, lacked any historical, cultural, political, or even economic qualifications necessary to lead an independent political entity akin to Greater Lebanon, which emerged through a Sunni-Maronite alliance supported and organized by France. These truths, which Sheikh Saleh Ali seemingly recognized early on, led him to reject the project of the Alawite state ruled by Sobhi Barakat, which was an advanced form of self-rule following the revolt of Ismail Khair Bek, ultimately crushed by the Ottoman state.

More than a hundred years later, the grandson did not match the intelligence and political acumen of Sheikh Saleh Ali. Lawyer Issa Ibrahim believed that sixty years of Assad rule (father and son) had produced an Alawite elite possessing (knowledge and wealth) similar to that of the political Maronites in Lebanon, capable of distinguishing themselves in their center of gravity (the Syrian coast) and leading a civil, secular state with diverse ethnicities and religions (Sunnis, Christians, Marashi, Turkmen, and Kurds), portraying itself as an enlightened island (in the midst of the hardline Sunni community).

The lawyer overlooked the fact that the elder Assad had made the Alawite community a loyalist base for his rule and family, cloaking it in claims of Arab unity and resistance against Israel. He restricted members of that community to fierce security institutions against the Sunni majority opposing his rule and directed educated individuals and degree holders from his sect to state positions, entangling them in a system of patronage and corruption. During the years of the Assads' rule, the Alawite elite played no economic role, neither in the coast nor in Syria as a whole, in building a progressive Syrian economy. They also had no cultural or intellectual role (in establishing cultural institutions or elite educational schools) except for some contributions by enlightened individuals who could not spark an Alawite renaissance due to oppression and marginalization from the Assad's loyalism itself. The grandson of Sheikh Saleh Ali also foolishly disregarded the international stance against Shiite terrorism, sponsored by Iran through its proxies in the region. Most importantly, he overlooked the close connection of the Sunnis of the Syrian coast (who constitute the majority in the provinces of Latakia, Tartus, Homs, and Hama—provinces he called local Alawite gatherings demanding separation or parts of them) to a unified Syria centered in Damascus, aside from their Arab nationalist ties.

I will not refute the claims, slander, and deception contained in Attorney Issa Ibrahim's statement, but the presence of a minister from the honorable Alawite community in the new administration means that there is no intention to eliminate our partners in the homeland and that the problem lies only with the Assad loyalism, which he has used as a vehicle for his continued domination over Syria and its people.

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