Is Ethnic Cleansing part of the Ethics of the Great Powers?

The early inhabitants of the Levant are threatened with extinction. Christianity is in danger of ending in the world.

Maria Saadeh, a former member of the Syrian parliament (under the Assad leadership) - an architect and designer. In 2020, she founded her Nonprofit Association for Social Development "Houna Hawyati", focusing on enhancing the Syrian identity on social, economic and cultural levels.

In March 2015, a member of the Syrian parliament, Maria Saadeh, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, presenting a paper titled, “Unilateral Economic Sanctions against Syria and Terrorism: Two sides of the same coin.”

In June 2016, Saadeh addressed the UN again. Speaking at the Institute of Democracy and Co-operation’s side event at the UNHRC’s session in Geneva, she said:

“Economic sanctions have been applied to punish the Syrian regime. Since 2011, member states of the UN have undertaken collective punitive action against the Syrian people. In March 2015, I presented here at the Human Rights Council a document entitled ‘economic terrorism’ which compared the results of terrorist organisations in Syria with the effects of coercive measures taken under the label of ‘economic sanctions.’

These sanctions violate international law in the same way as terrorism does. Their results and effects are the same; the aim in both cases is to attack Syrian society and to violate human rights, especially the right to life.

As a result of the sanctions, unemployment has risen from 8.6% in 2010 to 50% in 2014; poverty reached 75% in 2013 where it was 9% in 2010; the number of children in primary education has fallen to 50%; the same number of hospitals and factories have closed as a result of the sanctions as as a result of terrorism. In the same paper, I also showed the relations between the states applying the sanctions and the terrorist organisations they support. I also discuss the relationship between them in despoiling Syria of its natural, economic and cultural resources.”

2025 - Saadeh has just written a very important article which I will republish below:

Syria and the Levant: Is Ethnic Cleansing Part of the Ethics of Great Powers?

Is the Levant being purged of its indigenous people, the Native Syrians?

Russia’s strategic analyst and philosopher Alexander Dugin was not convincing in his recent interview, despite being regarded as Putin’s brain. He spoke with a political realism that lacked the vision and doctrine of Russia, its strategic position, and its core principles. Especially when Putin secured what he wanted to obtain from his war with the United States in exchange for other costs that Russia certainly paid.

Dugin’s statements seemed submissive to realpolitik, justifying the rule of force over humanitarian and diplomatic arguments, disregarding human rights and international law. He dismissed these principles as obsolete political tools, arguing that the world now operates on barter and resource distribution at the expense of peoples and societies. He even went so far as to rationalize ethnic cleansing in Palestine, claiming it was unrelated to the moral obligations of great powers. But what about ethnic cleansing across the entire region?

Those who speak of political realism are usually the weaker party, forced to make the best of limited options and submit to the rule of the powerful. Alternatively, they are those who have bartered away their grand causes to secure victory or maintain their position in a political deal that history will judge. I never expected this from Putin’s theorist, whom many saw as a leader, a czar, and a savior of what remains of humanity. In reality, we did not expect this from President Putin’s theorist, the leader in whom we had hoped for prosperity and a new balance in the world.

Meanwhile, former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin—whose moral compass has never faltered—spoke with clarity.

I will never forget his historic speech at the UN Security Council in 2003 against the war on Iraq, for which France later paid a heavy price. After the theatrical scene staged in the White House between Trump and Zelensky, which humiliated the European Union to court Moscow, De Villepin declared that the U.S. was no longer Europe’s ally. One wonders: if Europe had stood with France’s honorable stance back then, could Iraq and the region have been spared total destruction? Would Europe have preserved its dignity before its people and ours, rather than watching its values collapse before both?

Zelensky is a minor actor brought in by the Americans to challenge the Russian czar, an attempt to diminish Russia before a feeble character propped up by the EU and controlled by the U.S. Did the USA succeed in provoking Putin and sidelining Russia from its strategic position in the Mediterranean, forcing it to abandon its bases in Syria and its strategic role in protecting its vital interests, defending its doctrine, and preserving its historical influence in the East? Did it negotiate with Russia over Ukraine, ensuring that Ukraine would not join NATO? Yet, it seems clear now that there may not be a NATO at all, and perhaps not even a Ukraine. What price did Russia pay to abandon its doctrine and the East?

We fear that Russia may have lost its moral compass, just as the European Union did before it.

The Geopolitical Betrayal of Syria and the Levant

If Russia sympathizes with the Palestinian people but will not fight to defend Palestine because “it is not its battle,” if “politics today no longer depends on humanitarian issues,” if “ethnic cleansing is permissible for great powers,” and if Russia intends to withdraw from Syria under the pretext that it is not a priority—considering that Islamic nations failed to defend Gaza—then surely, Russia has either lost its way or been forced out of the New Middle East, surrendering the region to global Zionism. Russia justified this retreat with political realism, disregarding its geopolitical doctrine and, more importantly, its Orthodox religious and cultural doctrine, which ties the state closely to the church. This doctrine has long preserved Russia’s religious, social, and family values in the face of Western liberalism.

Europe, too, made a grave historical mistake when it allied with global Zionism and the United States to wage war on the East – the Levant – and divide it starting with Sykes-Picot and culminating in this destruction and dismantling of the region, the cradle of religions and civilizations. Europe participated in the plan to fragment and destroy the East, including its only genuinely secular state, which still protected the first Syrians and Orient Christians, the bearers of Levant heritage and culture. This culture, which illuminated the world with its human values, was stripped away along with the Catholic Church’s values that had shaped Europe and served as the foundation of its legal, cultural, and intellectual thought. Even today, the Vatican faces the risk of social collapse in the West and bears moral and ethical responsibility in defending humanitarian causes, starting with the protection of the family.

Had these human values not been fundamental to both Eastern and Western societies, the historic 2016 meeting in Cuba between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill would never have taken place. That meeting, that had political and religious dimension, was a historic milestone in redefining the role of the church in the modern world and correcting human and moral values amid the collapse of societal principles and the disintegration of the family unit—the very foundation of societal cohesion. It also emphasized the role of the church in international relations and its stance on geopolitical conflicts. One of the key political aspects of that meeting was the recognition of Russian-European rapprochement despite their differences, as well as the role of both Eastern and Western churches in protecting Christians in the East, the Christians of the Levant, particularly in Iraq and Syria. That meeting effectively legitimized Russia’s role in the region.

Without this shared Christian human doctrine in both the East and the West, societies would not have remained cohesive through faith.

A Region Under Siege: The Systematic Ethnic and Religious Cleansing of the Levant

I apologize, Mr. Dugin, but Russia should not merely sympathize with Palestinians—it must deploy its armies to defend its own faith. Russia must defend its mother church, which began in Palestine, the sacred land of Christ, the cradle of civilizations and values. Russia must defend its strategic depth in Syria, for in defending Syria, it protects its national, ideological, regional, and strategic security. Protecting Palestine, Syria, and the entire region from ethnic cleansing is a humanitarian, ethical, and political obligation for any great power that respects its values. It is not merely the responsibility of Islamic nations.

It is a strategic error to delegate the defense of Palestine to Muslim countries in the face of Judaization of the land. The defense of Palestine and its people must not be driven by religious bias; confronting territorial occupation under the pretext of religion with another religious ideology is a historic mistake. Otherwise, it would be more appropriate for Christian churches worldwide—both in the East and the West—to unite in its liberation, considering it the land of Christ. States should not be built on a religion.

The disregard and the loss of danger alert by great powers for the ongoing ethnic and religious cleansing in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq reveals their unworthiness of global leadership. Any power that fails to defend its doctrine, principles, and history—thus imposing its strength to restore world order—is nothing more than a beast in a jungle that will eventually be devoured, leading to global collapse.

The East is not experiencing a mere episode of ethnic cleansing. Palestine is not just the land of Christ and the birthplace of Christianity; it is the extension of ancient civilizations spanning thousands of years. Aleppo, the oldest continuously inhabited city, is 12,000 years old, while Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited capital, is 9,000 years old. The people of this region have carried forward a vast cultural and civilizational heritage long before Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They assimilated every culture that passed through their lands, making this region the wellspring of civilization for both the Arab and Western worlds. This is why its people—Syria’s first inhabitants—carry the genes of civilization that enlightened humanity.

Today, they are facing ethnic cleansing in Gaza, displacement and killings in south of Lebanon, massacres and forced migration in Syria, and previous displacements in Iraq through coercion and enticement. This is part of a scheme to empty the East of its indigenous inhabitants preparing to create the “New Middle East” altering its identity, distorting its civilization, and undermining its three religions. This is facilitated through the support of extremist terrorist ideologies that kill in the name of Islam, Zionist policies that seek to erase the Palestinian people in the name of Judaism, and Western encouragement of Christian migration under the pretext of protecting “minorities” in the name of Christianity—while God is innocent of all these acts.

This Levant is the historical, natural, organic, and civilizational extension for both of you, the East and West. It alone carries the heritage of humanity in a unified social fabric, and it can only be safeguarded by civil states whose constitutions rise above religious and sectarian discrimination. States are not built on religion but on law and human justice.

As André Parrot once said:

“Every civilized person in this world has two homelands: the one he has born in, and Syria.”

Any world leader who truly carries this culture and bears this heritage must put an end to the travesty unfolding in the world today.

The Hypocrisy of Western Intervention and the Fall of the Secular State

Do You Know Why We Defend Palestine?

The world today rejoices in the fall of a secular state that not only protected the Christians of Syria but also safeguarded Christianity worldwide. It was not merely a defender of moderate Islam, but a teacher of its true essence to the world. Now, it is being replaced by a” religious emirate”—no, rather by terrorist factions ruling in the name of religion, though Islam is innocent of them. Their mission is to empty this East of its original inhabitants and dismantle its society, which carries its heritage, all while the so-called “great powers” remain silent about the ethnic cleansing in Palestine, and Iraq for decades.

Do you know why we defend Palestine? Why so many free nations and peoples have defended Palestine? It is not because it is Islamic, nor because it is Christian, but because it is the land of its indigenous Syrian people—your own civilizational extension—while the world leaders remained silent about the ethnic cleansing planned against the people of this land, who have carried the culture and values of humanity.

We defend Palestine because we defend ourselves and our survival. We defend the sovereignty of nations, the right of people to live on their land, to determine their own destiny, and their fundamental right to life. We defend all divine religions, protecting them from distortion and political exploitation. We stand for the sovereignty of law and international legitimacy in a world collapsing under the weight of greed, power, and wealth. We, the free peoples and societies, stand for humanity and human dignity wherever it may be—even for your own people—because humanity is indivisible.

But as for you, when you accept the ethnic cleansing of the Syrian people of the Levant—the world’s first inhabitants, the bearers of its historical legacy and your own spiritual and cultural extension—you are bringing about the downfall of your own nations and dishonoring your own peoples. You have handed over the land to those who will eventually sell you out, just as they have betrayed others before. You are mistaken if you think otherwise, for in doing so, you seal the fate of the so-called “New Middle East” by purging the land of its original inhabitants, people who do not merely fight for their own survival but also for yours and for the survival of all humanity.

It seems that the world is in desperate need of a reorientation of political science, a reformulation of fundamental concepts to present to a new generation of world leaders, leaders who understand the power of history, the role of societies in shaping politics, and the true stakes in matters of loss and gain and major strategic issues.

A Europe That Has Lost Its Identity

Do you realize that the Christianity that shaped your peoples with its values is, in fact, the historical culture and values of Syria, cultivated over thousands of years? That Christ came as a messenger of this mother culture, and that Christianity across the world is merely an extension of Syria’s original culture? Do you know that Islam spread from Syria after being molded by its culture of peace and respect for others, rather than violence? And do you know that the original Jews of Syria, who were forcibly displaced from the region by an international decision in the 1980s, were among the strongest opponents of ethnic cleansing and killing in the name of religion? They firmly believed that nations should not be built on religious doctrine or the exclusion of others, but on coexistence – an essential part of Syrian culture for thousands of years.

Yet, you are displacing these native inhabitants to bring in extremists and radicals from all over the world, facilitating their passage under the banner of religion. Worse still, you have legitimized their arrival, giving them the authority to annihilate what remains of Syria’s original people, those who enriched the Mediterranean with their civilization, industries, and arts. They were the seafarers who navigated the Mediterranean in Phoenician times. Syrians built Rome and contributed to Italy’s civilization, like Apollodorus of Damascus, and played a major role in expanding Mediterranean trade, cultural exchange, and commerce in the Roman and Byzantine empires. They spread Christianity – Syrian culture, philosophy, arts, and sciences—throughout the Western world.

It was the first Syrians whom the Umayyad state relied upon, helping to spread Syria’s rich culture, arts, and sciences throughout the Islamic world. They built Al-Andalus, the civilization of Spain, which thrived in its arts, architecture, and intellectual achievements, because it was, at its core, a Syrian civilization. The Ottoman Empire inherited its culture, trade, and industries from Syria, and to this day, in its greed and hunger for plunder, it continues to seek more. Syria, the land of Christ, was what inspired the Russian tsars to see themselves as saviors of humanity; it shaped Russia’s history and Eastern identity.

Today, Syrians continue to excel in every country they have migrated to or sought refuge in. Perhaps Germany can testify to this; the most distinguished doctors in Germany today are of Syrian origin. The authentic inherited impacts the civilization of peoples.

Now, survival has become a matter of brute strength! Is this truly the language and logic upon which great nations are built?

It seems the shallow cowboy culture has taken over your deep-rooted legacies, selling them out for oil, gas, and rare minerals. You are all destroying humanity with your actions, delivering the ancient and noble people of Syria to slaughter, just as Judas handed over Christ, the very architect of your civilizations and values.

Today, we are ashamed, and all of humanity should be ashamed, that you have empowered internationally recognized terrorists to govern the world’s oldest and most historic cities. What kind of people are you, so ignorant of your own history and devoid of humanity?!

You all united to bring down Great Syria, Sacred Syria—Syria of Palestine and Lebanon, Syria of Jerusalem, Beirut, Damascus, Aleppo, and Jaffa, and its vast extension.

I have not forgotten Sarkozy and Blair when they called on Syrian Christians to seek refuge in the West at the beginning of the war on Syria in 2011. Yet, they were incapable of protecting the Christians of Europe itself, as even the Pope of the Vatican admitted. Not only that, but they also appointed so-called representatives of the Syrian people—figures who had spent their entire lives in the West, not in Syria. At the time, their sectarian, racist rhetoric and double standards provoked me, and I decided to confront this logic that disrespected us.

We are Syrians first, long before we are Christians by thousands of years. We belong to this land, not to a religion or a sect, and the Christian culture we spread throughout the world is the original culture of Syria.

That is why I entered Parliament in 2012— I, the independent Christian Syrian from Damascus, the capital of history—to declare loudly and clearly:

“We, the Syrians, speak for ourselves, not you—the ones who preach democracy and freedom while deciding on our behalf, seizing our voice, and appointing our so-called representatives.”

I entered to defend from within this legitimate platform, the concept of the “State”—the only guarantor for the survival of its people, against those who sought to destroy it as they had destroyed Iraq before. I entered to defend the land to which we belong, whose culture we carry. I entered to defend my identity, my survival, and my existence, not because I am Christian, but because I am Syrian, the bearer of thousands of years of civilization that you have failed to understand until now. For me, this was a matter of survival and existence.

But as for you, unfortunately, you do not know your own history, and Europe will pay a heavy price for its positions and policies. What has France gained after abandoning its historical interests and influence in Syria? What has Italy gained after losing part of its organic trade with Syria and the Mediterranean? What has Spain gained from severing ties with its historical extension? And what will Russia gain from handing over Damascus?

Is It the Ethics of Great Powers to Betray Their Allies?

The U.S. Manipulation of NATO and the European Union

Yes, Dominique de Villepin was right when he said that the United States is no longer Europe’s ally. And I tell you today that Europe no longer belongs to the Europe that once recognized its organic extension in the Mediterranean. It has failed to protect its culture, its societies, its trade, and the Western values it once fought for. Where is Germany today, with its factories and industrial greatness? Would it not have been better for it to deal with Russia, securing its gas and oil from its natural socio-economic extension? But instead, the United States seized control of its political decision-making, preventing it from doing so and forcing it to pay multiple times what it otherwise would have for years. The hatred toward Russia consumed European minds, and now Trump tells you: “Go on your own, for I will now become Russia’s ally—the same Russia I once forbade you from aligning with, demonizing it in your minds.”

This very same rhetoric of hatred is what poisoned your minds and drove you to unite against the so-called “devil.” Your war was never just against the Syrian regime—it was against the Syrian state itself. You failed to grasp the consequences of its collapse. It was the secular state that fell, and with it, the only safeguard for our survival and for the protection of our first social fabric—your own organic extension—the one that carries within its genes the culture and civilization of humanity. It is embedded in its heritage, its historical landmarks, its religious symbols, and its sacred sites, which belong to all of humanity.

When we defended the state as an entity that guarantees the protection of our societies, it was because we understood that it is the foundation of our existence, while you remained ignorant of the politics of our region, its people, and its history. You failed to see your own civilizational extension in it, your cultural depth within it, and your organic interests that are directly tied to its stability. Your own national and regional security is linked to the balance of power in this region.

But know this: every individual, every entity, and every nation that participated in the selling and bartering of the Levant—the cradle of civilizations—for a cheap project, no matter how much wealth it promises, will be discarded by history.

Because true prosperity is not built on hatred, war, and hypocrisy.

Is It the Ethics of Great Powers, Mr. Dugin, to Stab Their Allies in the Back?

While Europe was seething with hostility toward Russia, the United States formed NATO as its military arm to reshape the Middle East and to establish a counterforce against your influence in the region. At the same time, it leveraged the votes of European countries in the United Nations and the Security Council to legitimize its wars. But once its wars were over and Syria—a pivotal axis in the region—had fallen, the U.S. turned its back on its European allies, now forging an alliance with Russia, without even ensuring that its former allies received their share of the spoils. Instead, it burdened them with the astronomical costs of financing Ukraine’s defense.

Now, NATO is no longer needed, nor is the United Nations, and therefore, there will be no more funds allocated to them. Everyone took the bait—so what will you do now?

Great Powers do not betray their strategic allies, because strategic constants do not change. However, cheap politics is what shifts its colors, disguises, and alliances according to temporary interests, without regard to the act of history, the civilizations of nations, or the dignity of humanity.

It is no surprise that some so-called “leaders” of this contemporary world are openly revealing their hypocrisy on the stage of history. Many have mastered the art of manufacturing, arming, funding, and training terrorism. Hillary Clinton herself openly admitted this in the media, and in 2020, Senator Richard Black blatantly confirmed that “the United States began collaborating with Al-Qaeda and ISIS in 2011, using them as a proxy army in Syria to overthrow the regime, in addition to starving and freezing the Syrian people to death.”

Not only that, but some European countries openly endorsed this terrorism and criminality. In 2013, then-French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius openly declared that “Jabhat al-Nusra is doing a good job.”

And today, they have all conspired to bring these very extremists to power in one of the world’s oldest and most historically rich nations—killing its authentical people in the process.

A Call for a Global Reassessment

The United States Cannot Dictate the World’s Future

Yes, the U.S.-Russia rapprochement can be understood from the perspective of addressing geopolitical issues as two major powers responsible for international security and peace, in partnership with other global powers, especially as we witness the rise of the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Likewise, we can comprehend new alliances that align the interests of the Eastern and Western poles. However, what is incomprehensible is the idea that victory comes through an American handshake that merely serves as a display of power at the expense of people’s peace.

Everyone knows that the United States has no allies—only interests, pursued at the expense of nations and human dignity. I do not know if brute force, deception, terrorism, incitement, hatred, and the politics of imposed realities are truly the language of great powers. The one who turns his back on his allies today to shake your hand will turn his back on you tomorrow for the one who offers him more.

Unfortunately, the U.S. approach to its allies is ignorant of history and civilizations. It does not understand the impact of history on strategic interests, nor does it care about geography, organic relationships, or the value of societies and their evolution, all of which are fundamental elements in the science of politics. The U.S. believes it can design and shape the world as it pleases. Even the global capitalist system it leads is a fascist system that disregards the well-being of societies and the conditions necessary for sustainable life on this planet. It fails to recognize that those who defy nature will eventually face its wrath.

Despite its extensive think tanks and immense financial resources, the United States lacks the foresight to change the natural order of things. Any forced scheme to reshape the Middle East will be the beginning of the collapse of the global system itself, for those without history fail to understand history’s power over societies.

We have said this repeatedly since 2011, and we say it again: What threatens our Levant will inevitably threaten the Mediterranean, the world, and international peace and security. Those who created terrorist monsters will not be able to eliminate them. You armed, trained, and supported groups under the banner of religion to overthrow Syria, but from Syria, your systems will begin to collapse, for you have lost all credibility among your own peoples.

The minds of great-power leaders should be dedicated to building the greatness of humanity not the so-called greatness of the United States, which builds its power through wars, the killing of nations, and the plundering of their resources. True great powers work for their own people and for the world’s peoples, standing against oppression and tyranny, respecting beliefs, and fostering peace among all nations. The ethics of great-power politics are indivisible.

We look with respect and conviction to the great powers that stand on the honorable side of history—Russia among them—for its adherence to its sacred doctrine, which continues to remind it of its historical responsibility toward its people, its deep-rooted civilization, and the world at large. This is especially crucial now that the West has deviated from its historical path, lost its compass, and forfeited the trust of its own people.

As for those who claim to be protectors of Christianity in the Levant, they must first understand that only secular and civil states—those that safeguard all divine religions from distortion—can truly guarantee the survival of societies, civilizations, and faiths.

To Orthodox Imperial Russia, to the Vatican, which calls for a Catholic Europe, and to those who uphold noble values in the United States of America, the democratic state, do you know what is happening in Syria today? Are you aware of the ethnic cleansing plan that began in Gaza, then Lebanon, and is now unfolding in Syria? Are these just collateral damages?

What if, today, the East and the West united—leaving behind the grudges of nations, their prejudices, and the mountains of hatred—not only to save humanity but also to preserve the dignity of your own peoples before history? For true peace can only be achieved through partnership, mutual respect, and the upholding of human values.

We stand today at a critical moment in history, in a world on the brink of collapse. This demands a reassessment of alliances and a realignment toward the honorable side of history, to preserve humanity, values, and the world’s natural resources for the service of all humankind.

The Path to Global Stability

A Call for New Leadership

The world will not find balance until the Jews of Syria return to their homeland and defend their roots as Syrians belonging to this land, standing up for the social fabric from which they emerged, not for a Zionist ideology that is destroying the world today, justifying ethnic and religious cleansing, and permitting crimes against humanity.

The world will not find balance until the moderate Islam of Syria is restored—the Islam that was molded by this land, shaped by its culture and civilization, and from here spread and expanded across the world. An Islam that defends human dignity, speaks of forgiveness and love, not the extremist, Jihadist Islam that dehumanizes others, incites violence, and justifies the enslavement of women and the killing of children in the name of religion.

Neither the whole world, nor the Christian world, will find balance unless you protect the Levant—the land of divine religions and the first Syrians—not in the name of religion, but in the name of the culture and values that you carry in your heritage, history, and political doctrines. Civilized and Great Nations operate at the level of their civilizational responsibility in the world; without this, you will turn into lifeless corpses, fighting each other over shares of this land’s minerals, oil, and gas—resources that belong to its people and to the prosperity of the world.

The world will not find balance without new leaders, leaders who shape history and understand its lessons well, leaders who will build the new world order with justice.

Can the Cezar restore the glory of Russia and the East?

Can De Villepin return to revive the legacy and history of France after France and the European Union abandoned their historical role?

Today, China’s compass is set right, while the United States stands at its weakest, in both power and credibility, before the world. Great powers do not turn the world into bloodbaths and wars.

The balance of the world and its new order will be written in the blood of the Syrians.

Let those who have ears listen.

And those who defy nature will be cast out by nature itself.

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