Alawite'(alvee): The sect that ruled Syria for 50 years while in a minority.

Damascus: Bashar al-Assad's 24-year rule ended on Sunday after rebel groups, including the militant rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, seized control of the Syrian capital Damascus, raising concerns about the security of the country's alawite sect.

Bashar al-Assad and his father belonged to the Alawite sect. Thus, a Sunni-majority country was ruled for nearly 50 years by followers of a sect whose beliefs are little known.

On Saturday evening, members of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority began leaving homes in large numbers after the rebels seized the city. In the meantime, videos shared on social media showed long queues of vehicles waiting to get out of the city.

According to estimates, the Alawite sect in Syria is between 10 and 13 percent, but despite this, they have been ruling a Sunni-majority country for the last 50 years.

The 1970 military coup, led by Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, led the Alawites to establish a monopoly over Syria's key institutions and security departments.

Hafez al-Assad's association with the Alawite sect led to better relations with other minority groups in Syria to whom he promised equal rights and protection.

In the Middle East, the Alawites are considered too liberal or secular by other Muslims, and the sect's beliefs are heavily criticized by other sects.

The Alawite sect was initially known as the Nasiriya sect and originated in Syria between the 9th and 10th centuries.

Looking back at history, the Alawite sect made a place in the Syrian establishment after years of atrocities and losses in crusades in Syria.

There is little awareness of the Alawite sect. Interestingly, the sect also celebrates Christmas and the New Year of Zoroastrianism.

French settlers tried to give Syrian Alawites a separate religion, but this was opposed by Alawite leaders.

Alawi means 'follower of Hazrat Ali'. The Shi'a sect reveres The Prophet's son-in-law, Hazrat Ali, and like the Alawite sect, there is a belief that he should have been the first Imam after the Prophet.

However, due to the perception of the Alawite sect that they consider Imam Ali to be revered after God, most Sunni Muslims view him with dislike. However, some scholars believe that such perceptions of Alawites' beliefs are unfounded.

According to a document obtained by the BBC in 2016, leaders of the Alawite faction of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took a very unusual step and asked to distance themselves from the government.

In the document, the Alawite leaders stressed that their belief was "only about worshipping God." "The Qur'an is our only holy book and it is a clear proof that we are Muslims. ‘

In the document, the leaders of the Alawites emphasized that their beliefs were different from Shia Islam. And they reject the fatwas of the past, according to which the Alawite sect was called a branch of Shia Islam.

He also made it clear that he believed in equality, sovereignty and called secularism the future of Syria.

Most of the beliefs of the Alawites are carried out secretly, which is in accordance with the practice of taqiyya in the Shi'a sect, under which one's beliefs are hidden for any person so as to avoid atrocities.

In Syria, the Alawite community lives along the country's Mediterranean coastline. Most of them live in the coastal cities of Laziya and Tartous and spread north towards the Turkish border. Some of them are also present in Turkey's Hatai province and in the south and north of Lebanon.

In 2011, when other Middle East leaders were sacked, there was a coup against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but it proved unsuccessful. The revolt was given a communal color as it was found that the majority of the protesters belonged to the Sunni community.

President Bashar al-Assad appointed only people belonging to the Alawite sect to important political and military positions.

By aligning with Sunni traders in Damascus and Aleppo, the Alawite elite expanded their influence in the economy as well as in the security departments and the military. A large number of hardline Assad Nawaz Shabina militias belong to the Alawite sect.

According to the news agency Reuters, sectarian targeted killings in Syria increased because President Bashar al-Assad belongs to the Alawite sect. According to Reuters, not all members of the Alawite community supported Bashar al-Assad, and there are very few of them who have benefited from Bashar al-Assad's rule and a large number of them live in the central hills of Syria.

Abu Mohammed al-Julani: 'Mysterious' leader of the group that defeated the Syrian army 'shockingly'.

Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the head of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, said in his first statement after capturing Damascus that there was no question of a return and that "the future is ours". ‘

When anti-government rebels seized control of the Syrian city of Aleppo at the end of November, images of a Barish man dressed in military fatigues emerged who led the attack.

The man's name is Abu Muhammad al-Julani, who heads a group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The group he is heading has been sanctioned by the United Nations and some Muslim countries in addition to western countries and has been given the status of a 'terrorist group'.

Abu Julani is the central leader of the movement against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and has now taken control of Damascus. There are about three million people who have been displaced by the Syrian civil war and it is considered a stronghold of the anti-government movement.

However, the sudden attack, which began 11 days ago, is perhaps the most dramatic chapter in the life of Abu Julani, the most mysterious and controversial leader of Syria's civil war.

Who is Abu Muhammad al-Julani?

According to BBC Monitoring, there is different information about Abu Jolani's real name, his date of birth, place of birth and citizenship, which adds to the mystery about his personality.

According to UN reports, Abu Jolani was born between 1975 and 1979, while Interpol says his date of birth is 1975.

According to an interview given to american TV network PBS, his real name is Ahmed Hussain and he is called Abu Julani because of the Golan Heights, from which his family has a historical connection.

In the same interview, he said that he was born in 1982 in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as a petroleum engineer. His family returned to Syria in 1989 and was raised near Damascus.

According to some reports, he studied medicine in Damascus but joined al-Qaeda in Iraq in the third year when the United States invaded in 2003.

He is said to soon become a close associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's active leader in Iraq, but moved to Lebanon after al-Zarqawi's death in 2006, where he trained the Lebanese militant group Jund al-Sham.

There have been reports of his subsequent return to Iraq, where he was arrested by us forces and joined the so-called Islamic State when he was released in 2008 after being imprisoned for some time.

It is said that he was kept in a prison called American Camp Baka, where his ideology was strengthened and relations with the leaders of the so-called Islamic State formed in the future.

According to some reports, al-Julani returned to Syria in August 2011 and opened a branch of al-Qaeda aimed at fighting President Bashar al-Assad. However, a Lebanese newspaper has claimed that al-Julani is actually an Iraqi citizen and his name is due to the area of Fallujah called al-Julan and he belongs to the same area.

Al-Julani's personal information was reportedly kept so secret that most members of the group did not even know anything about their leader.

Break away from al-Qaeda

In 2011, when the syrian uprising turned into a civil war, al-Julani arrived in Syria on a special mission on behalf of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to lay the foundation of a local branch of ISLAMIC STATE. Jabha al-Nusra was launched in 2012 and became the Iraqi branch of islamic state.

However, in 2013, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi formally announced the merger of Jabah al-Nusra and Islamic State, al-Julani rejected it and declared support for al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.

This was the time when Jabhah al-Nusra was becoming militarily powerful. In July 2016, al-Julani announced that his group had no ties to al-Qaeda and should now be known as Jabha Fateh al-Sham.

In 2017, the group was formed into a coalition called 'Hayat Tahrir al-Sham', which included other organizations and was headed by al-Julani.

The group prioritized local issues, and in 2021, al-Julani said in an interview with PBS that he had abandoned al-Qaeda's ideology of global jihad and now aimed to overthrow bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria and establish an Islamic system in the country.

"Even when we were in al-Qaeda, we were against targeting European or American targets," al-Julani said in the interview. We've never done that. ‘

He said it was an "unfair" and "political" decision to designate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist group.

Aleppo

Al-Julani is said to adapt to circumstances. At first, his ideology was close to al-Qaeda, but later he adopted a local agenda.

Under his leadership, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham implemented the Islamic system in Aleppo province, set up courts and established a police force. They have considerable influence in Aleppo, which is also considered the center of the opposition in Syria. This area is also important because it meets the Turkish border.

During this time, al-Julani also showed expertise in military operations as well as local administration and diplomacy and emerged as an important role in the Syrian conflict.

The areas that are controlled by his group have a government that manages the economy, health, education and even security. Al-Julani said the areas "have an Islamic government, but not under the ideology of the Islamic State." ‘

However, according to news and analysts, his group has taken a tough stance against its opponents. There are also reports that his group has tortured prisoners.

Al-Julani has denied the allegations and has been inviting human rights organisations to visit prisons in the area under his control and assess the situation there.

The U.S. government also designates al-Julani as a "terrorist" and carries a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.