Hello and welcome to a new episode of Real Politics. I am your host, Firas Mahdad, and I'm joined today by Kivouk al-Masian,

who is a Syrian-Armenian from Aleppo, now obviously no longer living in Syria for obvious reasons.

And he has exceptional insights on what is happening within Syria, how the country has been changing,

what to expect in the future, and we're going to cover all of that with him.

Kivork, welcome. Thank you very much for joining me.

Fivas, thank you very much for the invitation.

I learned personally a lot from you, from your recent podcasts. We agree on many

things and we disagree on other things and I find that you have a fascinating insights on the

region as well. Thank you, man. Thank you. Thank you. Let's just get right into it and start with

the situation in Syria now. As I know you know, we're seeing protests in

Swayda, we're seeing protests along the Alawite coast. What is going on and how is the new

regime dealing with the minorities in Syria? Once the regime change happened on the 8th of December, 2024, the situation in Syria

was the following.

The Druze community in Swayda, they were already de facto managing their own affairs in

Swayda, even under the Assad government.

I mean, the supplies of food and fuel and other basic necessities were coming

through the government routes into Swayda. But all in all, the situation in the city was out

of the control of the government. And there were weekly demonstrations against Assad, calling him

illegitimate and they don't want for Assad to stay in power.

But the situation in Swayda, let's say this de facto self-ruling situation in Swayda, was

possible because they had their own armed groups. They had their own militias, they were protecting their cities,

their neighborhoods, and the Assad

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