Building peace and reconciliation in Homs

Despite the dismantling of the Assad dynastic regime in 2025, Syrian society is struggling to heal the wounds inflicted by 50 years of violent dictatorship. The Assads' political project was to rule through terror and division. In addition to normalizing torture and enduring mass enforced disappearances, Syrians learned to distrust other communities. Indeed, the authoritarian dynasty destroyed any notion of community and national unity in the country, pitting communities against each other. As a result, Syria experiences a sectarian fragmentation that is still perceptible today.

By analyzing the impact of cultural tensions on political trauma, the French association Les Amis de Mar Moussa, which has been working for intercommunal dialogue since 1991, aims to unite communities around a shared memory. Faced with the new government, which mentions transitional justice but fails to take action, the association seeks to develop a more sustainable initiative than its previous projects on the subject. Today, its objective is to enable Alawite, Sunni, Druze, and Christian Syrians in the city of Homs to confront the painful past of the dictatorship together, with a view to reconciliation and peace.