Assad’s fellow Alawites in Turkey pose threat of counter-uprising
As the conflict in Syria threatens to bring down the only regime in the world run by members of the Alawite religious sect, the uprising is beginning to stir resentment among the millions of Alawites who live next door in Turkey.
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“It will be a blood river,” said Huzdat Hatay, 52, a teacher and Arabic-language tour guide in Istanbul who serves as a leading member of an Alawite group. “The Muslim Brotherhood will take control and start hunting us down.”
Young men from the insular sect recently became so concerned about covert weapons shipments into Syria that they started hijacking ambulances in the eastern Turkish province of Hatay, searching the medical vehicles for arms caches, he added.
Alawites are stronger in numbers in Turkey than in Syria and are estimated to account for 15 million of the country’s 75 million people. Their recent activism reflects a deep concern among Alawites that Syria could be taken over by Sunni Muslims, who are the majority of the Syrian population, and in particular by the Muslim Brotherhood, which has branded their version of Islam as heretical.
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