Entre le Marteau et l'enclume
La vie n'etait pas forcement facile dans la Syrie d'avant la guerre civile - celle-ci n'a pas eclate par hasard ! Mais il etait un fait sur lequel chacun s'accorde a quelques details prets : les communautes ethniques ou religieuses vivaient en bonne entente.
Personne ne demandait a son voisin quelle etait sa religion. Personne ne demandait a une femme pourquoi elle etait voilee et pourquoi elle ne l?etait pas. Chretiens et musulmans celebraient ensemble les differentes fetes qui jalonnent leurs calendriers liturgiques respectifs.
Mais la guerre civile est venue bouleverser ce fragile equilibre.
Beaucoup de Chretiens ont vu en Bachar Al Assad un rempart contre la montee de l'Islamisme radical. Et il est avere que certains responsables chretiens se sont tres clairement ranges aux cotes du regime.
De la meme maniere, il est de notoriete publique que Bachar Al Assad aime se presenter comme le protecteur des Chretiens.
Et tout cela a cree beaucoup d'ambiguites.
On sait egalement que chaque guerre n'est pas aussi simple qu'il y parait. Entre les bons et les mechants, il y a toujours une part de la population qui ne sait pas quelle posture adopter et se contente d'attendre la fin de l'orage.
J'ai rencontre des Chretiens qui avaient, des 2011, participe aux premieres manifestations visant a denoncer la cherte de la vie, les inegalites, le ras-le-bol de l'autoritarisme et de la violence du regime. D'autres ont paye leur volonte d'ouverture et de dialogue de leur vie : comme le jesuite italien Paolo Dall Oglio, fondateur de la communaute de Mar Moussa, dans le monastere du meme nom, d'abord expulse de Syrie pour ses prises de positions anti-regime trop marques puis disparu a Raqqa en 2013 alors qu'il y negociait la liberation d?otages aupres de l'EI.
L'internationalisation du conflit et l'emergence de groupes islamistes radicaux ont fragilise d'avantage les positions des chretiens dont l'immense majorite se voulaient surtout neutres dans le conflit.
Aujourd'hui, comme beaucoup de Syriens pris entre les tirs croises des differents groupes armes, les chretiens se sentent entre le marteau et l'enclume. Surveilles par le regime, ils esperent egalement etre des artisans de la paix que doit retrouver la Syrie.
Peu d'entre eux cependant sont parvenus a traverser cette guerre indemne. S'ils representaient environ 10% de la population civile avant guerre, ce pourcentage est estime a 2 aujourd'hui. Beaucoup de jeunes ont fui pour eviter d'etre enroles dans l'armee et, chaque semaine, de nouvelles familles continuent de quitter le pays pour quantites de raisons (securitaires, economiques, etc.,).
Christian's daily life in Bachar's Syria
Life wasn't necessarily easy in pre-civil war Syria - the civil war didn't break out by chance! But there was one fact on which everyone agreed on a few ready details: the ethnic or religious communities lived in good harmony.
No one asked his neighbour what his religion was. Nobody asked a woman why she was veiled and why she was not. Christians and Muslims celebrated together the different feasts that marked their respective liturgical calendars.
But the civil war upset this fragile balance.
Many Christians saw Bashar Al Assad as a bulwark against the rise of radical Islamism. And it is a fact that some Christian leaders very clearly sided with the regime.
In the same way, it is common knowledge that Bashar Al Assad likes to present himself as the protector of Christians.
And all this has created a lot of ambiguities.
We also know that not every war is as simple as it seems. Between the good guys and the bad guys, there is always a part of the population that doesn't know what stance to take and just waits for the storm to end.
I met Christians who, as early as 2011, had taken part in the first demonstrations to denounce the high cost of living, the inequalities, the fed up with authoritarianism and the violence of the regime. Others have paid for their willingness to open up and dialogue with their lives: such as the Italian Jesuit Paolo Dall Oglio, founder of the community of Mar Moussa, in the monastery of the same name, first expelled from Syria for taking too strong an anti-regime stance and then disappeared in Raqqa in 2013 while negotiating the release of hostages with the EI.
The internationalisation of the conflict and the emergence of radical Islamist groups further weakened the positions of Christians, the vast majority of whom wanted to be neutral in the conflict.
Today, like many Syrians caught between the crossfire of the various armed groups, Christians feel that they are between a rock and a hard place. Under the watchful eye of the regime, they also hope to be peacemakers for the peace that Syria must regain.
Few of them, however, have managed to get through this war unscathed. If they represented about 10% of the civilian population before the war, this percentage is estimated at 2 today. Many young people have fled to avoid being enlisted in the army and, every week, new families continue to leave the country for a variety of reasons (security, economic?).
