“What is Aleppo?” In 2016, that ill-advised response scuttled the campaign of presidential hopeful Gary Johnson, making him look clueless about what was then one of the world’s most volatile hotspots, the Syrian civil war. Ten years later, after the downfall of Assad and a dramatic reshaping of the Middle East, the same old factions are still battling for control of the even older city.

On Tuesday, forces controlled by the new Syrian government — the former jihadi insurgents of the country’s northwest — exchanged fire with militias of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The violence resulted in 23 dead and tens of thousands of civilians displaced as the government drove the Kurds and the minorities they protect from several contested neighborhoods. The Syrian government ordered more evacuations on Wednesday in preparation for another offensive to drive SDF forces eastward across the Euphrates River.

Among the minorities most affected by the violence in Aleppo are Christians. “The Christian community is very vibrant, including people who are from the Kurdish community, minorities, the Sunni Muslim minorities and others who converted to Christianity,” explained Jonathan Hessen, senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security on “Washington Watch.”

According to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List, Syria has jumped from the 18th-worst persecutor of Christians in 2024 to the 6th-worst persecutor last year, edging out Nigeria on this list of infamy. The jump in status “reflects the reality that Syria is now at its most dangerous since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group occupied significant swathes of territory.”

Nevertheless, Open Doors recorded, “The greatest pressure lies in Damascus and Aleppo, where growing hostility from conservative Muslim communities and extremist groups creates uncertainty and restrictions.” That pressure on Christians will only grow as the hardline Sunni government drives out the more moderate Kurds.

The latest round of fighting in Aleppo stems from a March 2025 agreement between the Damascus government and the autonomous administrative body in northeastern Syria, led by the SDF, to integrate the two governments and extend Damascus’s control over the entire region by the end of 2025. However, negotiations for how to implement the deal stalled out due to both longstanding mistrust and new incidents, such as the government’s July conflict with minorities around the southern city of Sweida.

The SDF was already reluctant to sign the March agreement in the first place, with SDF General Mazloum Abdi only consenting under significant U.S. pressure. The SDF “has been the ground force for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State for a better part of a decade,” Hessen explained. In Aleppo, SDF is still “fighting, sacrificing against those jihadis” they fought with 10 years ago, “many of whom are now integrated into the new government in Damascus.”

Although largely staffed by former jihadi terrorists, the Damascene government has made fitful efforts to rehabilitate its image in Western countries, particularly the U.S. However, its fundamental flaw is that “Damascus … does not control its territory,” Hessen explained. “We see that Damascus is failing time and again to consolidate power over the minorities in Syria itself, particularly the Alawites along the coast, where on March 6th of last year, we saw a brutal massacre. … The point, in fact, is that Damascus is not managing to assert its sovereignty over the entirety of the country, and it’s willing to commit atrocities to try and do so.”

One reason why the Damascus regime is “willing to commit atrocities” is that the U.S. is not only (nor even its primary) patron. The increasing autocratic Turkish regime — no stranger to atrocities itself — has backed the same group of Sunni extremists since they were merely jihadi rebels opposing the Assad regime. “The events in the north also have to do much with Turkey,” Hessen added.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan openly dreams of re-establishing the Ottoman Empire, he explained, and “the developments on the ground basically back much of those aspirations. And it’s being done gradually. It’s not a full force invasion right now, but every neighborhood, every town, every village — slowly but surely — there is an encroachment.”

“And it’s in those areas where many of the religious minorities were living,” FRC President Tony Perkins put in. “They’re not going after their own people, that’s for sure,” Hessen agreed. “We’re seeing right now that the Kurds are being pushed back. And we will see more of this as time progresses.”

In fact, Turkey, which views the SDF’s Turkish cousin as a terrorist organization, has even carried out drone strikes against its forces around Aleppo. “I am growing increasingly concerned that the new Syrian government is aligning with Turkey to use military force against the Syrian Kurds, who are our strongest ally in the enduring defeat of ISIS in Syria,” wrote Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “I support a fair chance for the new Syrian government, however if there’s an escalation of attacks against the Kurds by Syrian forces supported by Turkey, this will create a whole new dynamic.”

In addition to being the strongest U.S. ally operating in Syria, the northeastern, Kurdish-led territories are also the freest for Christians. “Northeast Syria is a place where we saw religious freedom starting to take root seven, eight years ago,” Perkins recalled. Open Doors confirms that “The pressure on Christians in Syria varies by region. The north east is generally safer and more tolerant.”

The administration over northeastern Syria also oversees several prisons which have “control of about 9,000 of the worst of the worst ISIS prisoners,” said Graham. “It is in our vital national security interest that these prisoners do not go back to the battlefield. … If anyone believes that I or any of my colleagues would be comfortable — at this stage — for the ISIS prisoners to be guarded by the Syrian army or Turkey instead of the Kurds, you are sadly mistaken.”

“I do think the administration is being a little too friendly with Syria,” said Perkins. “[W]e should be happy to have them join the civilized world, but it doesn’t look like they’re ready just yet.”

After several days of skirmishes around Aleppo, Abdi announced that “with mediation by international parties,” the SDF and the Damascus government “have reached an understanding that leads to a ceasefire and ensures the evacuation” of fighters and civilians from the threatened neighborhoods.

However, members of Congress are demanding more accountability for the outrages committed by the Damascus regime. “I am gravely concerned about the conduct of armed forces in Aleppo, Syria, over the past week and urge the government to hold accountable those who committed these egregious acts,” wrote Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho). “After years of war, the role of Syria’s new government and armed forces is to safeguard the inherent rights of its citizens, not to infringe upon them.”

“The minorities in Syria are really hurting,” pleaded Hessen. “Their lives are on the line.”

He urged Christians to pray for three things: first, a “breakthrough” on the government blockade of the southern Sweida province, where “roughly 50,000 believers” live among other minorities without “the necessary flow of humanitarian aid to contend with winter conditions that they’re experiencing right now.” Second, he urged prayer for “the threats that are posed to the state of Israel … out of Syria.” Third, he said, “pray for President Trump and for the administration, that God grants them the discernment to really take the right decisions on this very complex issue moving forward.”