Part 6/8:
Assad’s regime also faced challenges from ethnic minorities, especially the Kurds, who had historically been treated with a mix of repression and strategic tolerance. The Assad regime often manipulated Kurdish identity politics to weaken opposition from Turkey but cracked down hard on any semblance of Kurdish nationalism.
The harsh realities of persecution resulted in uprisings and further violence, illustrating that Assad’s brutality was equally directed at ethnic minorities as it was at political dissidents.