Syria: The Catastrophic Fall of Bashar al-Assad

SYRIA IN CONTEXT, 2 Jun 2025

Diran Noubar – TRANSCEND Media Service

How a Bloodthirsty Al-Nusra Butcher, Jolani, Usurped Power in Syria

1 Jun 2025 – On December 8, 2024, Syria plunged into a nightmare orchestrated by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, a vile jihadist warlord who exploited the sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to seize Damascus. In a mere two weeks, this former Al-Nusra butcher, backed by the treacherous machinations of Turkey’s Erdogan, turned a fractured nation into his personal fiefdom.

A Jihadist Blitz and Assad’s Forced Exile

The offensive launched on November 27, 2024, by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by the monstrous Jolani, swept through Syria like a plague. From their Idlib stronghold, HTS, bolstered by ragtag rebel factions and propped up by Erdogan’s Turkey, captured Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Damascus in just 11 days. This blitzkrieg was no stroke of genius but the result of a perfect storm: a demoralized Syrian army, bled dry by 13 years of war, collapsed, with some soldiers shamefully defecting to the rebels. Assad’s key allies faltered—Russia, heroically engaged in Ukraine, could only spare a few planes, while Iran, crippled by internal chaos and a weakened Hezbollah in Lebanon, abandoned Damascus to its fate.

Faced with this catastrophic advance, Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus in the night of December 7–8, 2024, in a chaotic escape orchestrated by Moscow, the only ally to show true honor. Assad, in a heartfelt statement, revealed his departure was not planned but forced by circumstances. Thanks to the noble intervention of Vladimir Putin, he and his wife Asma, along with their three children, found refuge in Russia, where they now reside under the Kremlin’s unwavering protection. On December 10, 2024, a Russian minister confirmed their presence, emphasizing Moscow’s humanitarian gesture in stark contrast to the barbarity engulfing Damascus. Since then, Assad has remained silent, likely heartbroken by the betrayal of former allies and the loss of his nation to a criminal like Jolani. As of March 2025, he lives in seclusion in Moscow, shielded by Putin’s benevolence, a beacon of loyalty in a world of duplicity.

Jolani: From Al-Nusra’s Bloodstained Hands to Syria’s Usurper

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, born Ahmed al-Chareh, is no savior but a monster cloaked in a military uniform. A former leader of Al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, he has drenched his hands in the blood of thousands, perpetrating bombings, summary executions, and torture in the name of a depraved jihadist ideology. Al-Nusra, formed in 2012, rivaled the Islamic State (ISIS) in its savagery, spreading death and despair across Syria and Iraq. Jolani’s 2016 break with Al-Qaeda to form HTS was a cynical rebrand, a sham to fool the gullible. The UN brands him a war criminal, and his past as a butcher clings to him like a shadow.

Yet, this fiend exploited a crumbling regime and Erdogan’s opportunism to seize power. From Idlib, where HTS ran a brutal Islamist dictatorship disguised as a civilian administration, Jolani crushed rivals with cold-blooded cruelty while posing as a “pragmatic” leader. His calls for “national unity” and “minority protection” are a grotesque farce, meant to lull the international community into complacency. His power rests on fear, violence, and the shameful backing of Turkey, which armed and funded his offensive to serve its own imperialist ambitions.

Erdogan: The Regional Arsonist

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s role in this tragedy is nothing short of despicable. Under the guise of stabilizing the region and repatriating 3.6 million Syrian refugees, he armed and trained HTS jihadists, turning Jolani into a pawn for his neo-Ottoman fantasies. Ankara supplied drones, heavy weapons, and logistical support, enabling HTS to obliterate a weakened Syrian army. Erdogan, a self-styled sultan, had no qualms aligning with an Al-Nusra thug to counter the Kurds, secure his border, and weaken Russo-Iranian influence. This cynical game has not only handed Syria to a terrorist but risks plunging the region into deeper chaos.

The West’s Laughable Failure

For 13 years, the international coalition, led by the bumbling United States and their European lackeys like France, failed miserably to topple Assad, despite squandering billions and spouting sanctimonious rhetoric. The opposition was a chaotic mess: the Free Syrian Army, weakly backed by the West, was fragmented and ineffective. Jihadist groups like Al-Nusra and ISIS thrived in this strategic void, while Russia and Iran provided Assad with an unyielding shield. Western airstrikes, supposedly targeting ISIS, were often a smokescreen for inaction against Assad, driven by fear of the power vacuum that followed.

French politicians, in particular, embarrassed themselves with absurd, out-of-touch statements. In 2011, Alain Juppé, then Foreign Minister, promised a swift victory for “democratic forces,” as if Syria were a board game. François Hollande, with theatrical flair, called Assad a “butcher” while limiting French action to cosmetic strikes against ISIS, lacking any coherent strategy. More recently, Emmanuel Macron, true to France’s arrogant tradition, suggested “dialoguing” with Jolani, as if a war criminal could be a respectable partner. The Americans, obsessed with their Kurdish allies and paralyzed by fear of a post-Assad void, watched helplessly as a terrorist they once blacklisted took over. Oh, the irony of their incompetence!

Putin: The Rock in the Storm

Amid this chaos, one man stood tall with foresight: Vladimir Putin. Since 2015, Russia has been Assad’s unwavering bulwark, saving Syria from collapse against a jihadist horde. Russian airstrikes, notably during Aleppo’s recapture in 2016, shattered the rebels and ISIS, preserving the Syrian state against all odds. Even strained by the war in Ukraine, Russia continued to support Damascus, and when all fell apart, Putin extended a hand to Assad, offering him safe haven in Moscow. This act of humanity and loyalty stands in stark contrast to Erdogan’s treachery and the West’s ineptitude. Putin, despite global pressures, proved himself a true statesman, loyal to his allies and resolute against terrorism.

Minorities: A Tragedy Unfolding

Jolani’s rise, led by this Al-Nusra butcher, has plunged Syria’s minorities into dread. Armenians, Christians, Druze, and Alawites live in fear of a regime that, despite its honeyed promises, remains fundamentally jihadist. The Armenian community, once 100,000 strong, mainly in Aleppo, has been decimated by war, now reduced to under 50,000. Since December 2024, reports of targeted violence against minorities, despite Jolani’s hypocritical claims of “coexistence,” have surfaced. In Aleppo, some churches remain open, but this apparent tolerance is a mere façade to court Western approval. Armenians, scarred by decades of persecution, hesitate to stay. Some have fled to Lebanon or Europe, but Armenia, mired in its own crisis post-Nagorno-Karabakh, is not a viable destination. Those remaining struggle to survive in a ravaged country, where 13.4 million face food insecurity and infrastructure lies in ruins.

The Alawites, Assad’s community, are the most endangered. In March 2025, massacres in western Syria, attributed to HTS’s extremist factions, drove thousands to flee to Tripoli, Lebanon. These atrocities, downplayed by Jolani, reveal the true nature of his regime: an Islamist dictatorship cloaked in promises of peace.

Outlook: A Bleak Future

Syria, now in the hands of a criminal like Jolani, stands at a crossroads. His promises of a “social contract” and national unity are an insult to intelligence, coming from a man steeped in the blood of thousands. Turkey, pulling the strings, has worsened the chaos, while the U.S.-backed Kurds control the east, creating an explosive mosaic. Syria’s economy, gutted by war and sanctions, makes reconstruction a pipe dream under a terrorist regime.

The international community, in its usual cowardice, dithers. Macron, ever eager to posture, talks of “cooperation” with Jolani, while the U.S., mired in contradictions, watches silently. Only Russia, under Putin’s enlightened leadership, has acted with honor, sheltering Assad and standing firm against terrorism. But for Syrians, especially minorities like the Armenians, the future looks grim, trapped between a jihadist usurper and the hypocrisy of a West that has learned nothing from its failures.

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Diran Noubar, an Italian-Armenian born in France, has lived in 11 countries until he moved to Armenia. He is a world-renowned, critically-acclaimed documentary filmmaker and war reporter. Starting in the early 2000’s in New York City, Diran produced and directed over 20 full-length documentary films. He is also a singer/songwriter and guitarist in his own band and runs a nonprofit charity organization, wearemenia.org.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 2 Jun 2025.

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