In this live conversation, Kevork Almassian hosts Rita Koefoed Khairbek, a Syrian Alawite behavioural neuroscience researcher and therapist based in Europe, focusing on stress, sleep and trauma.
Together, we explore what it really means to be Alawite in and beyond Syria – far from clichés, propaganda and hate speech.
We start with the basic question: Who are the Alawites? For an international audience that knows them only as “Assad’s sect” – or not at all – Rita explains their history, geography and lived experience before and beyond the Syrian regime. We then unpack the word “Nusayri” and how its return in slogans, fatwas and everyday language signals that a whole community can become “killable” again.
From there, we look at how many Alawites chose to melt into the Syrian State, army and party after independence, hoping to become “citizens first” – and how this strategy left them politically and legally orphaned when the State stopped protecting them. We discuss genocide as a long process, not just a single massacre: from dehumanizing words and forced displacement to fake “courts” that try to erase even the idea that a specific group was targeted.
Using Hannah Arendt’s concept of “the right to have rights”, Rita argues that an explicit, open Alawite identity – with a name, memory and institutions – is not sectarianism, but the basic condition for Alawites to ever be protected as rights-bearing citizens in any future Syria. We also talk about the role of Europe, other Syrian communities, and the narrative of Israel as “protector” of Syria’s minorities.
🧠 In this episode, we discuss:
• Who the Alawites are, beyond “Assad’s sect”
• “Nusayri” as a word that marks a community as killable
• Melting into the State – and becoming “orphans of citizenship”
• Genocide as a process: language, displacement, courts and denial
• Alawite identity and the “right to have rights” (Hannah Arendt)
• From silence to recognition: a message to Syrians and to Europe
• The narrative of Israel as saviour of Syria’s minorities
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📢 Disclaimer: Guest opinions featured in this video do not necessarily reflect the views of Syriana Analysis.
🎥 Syriana Analysis is an independent platform providing in-depth geopolitical insights, founded by award-winning journalist Kevork Almassian. This channel aims to offer well-researched commentary that broadens understanding of international relations, conflict zones, and media narratives.
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