As a terrorist fired at Saint Elias Church in Syria and entered with a grenade during a memorial mass on June 22, brothers Gergis and Boutros Bechara knew they were facing death when they moved quickly to save hundreds. Gergis kicked the explosive device, while Boutros wrestled the terrorist down. When the bomber detonated his suicide belt, the explosion ripped through them, sending fragments of their bodies into the air—but their sacrifice saved the lives of many among the 300 worshippers attending the memorial service.
Just feet away, 19-year-old Maryana had come to church to light a candle. She survived the initial blast but died from her injuries days later. In a heartbreaking gesture, her relatives and neighbors asked her parents to parade her coffin through the street where she lived, so they could throw sweets on it—a Syrian tradition normally reserved for honoring a bride before her wedding.
The massacre at Saint Elias Church in Damascus killed 25 Greek Orthodox Christians and wounded over 60—the deadliest attack against Syrian Christians in Damascus since 1860.
The World’s Selective Outrage
Syria’s Christian population has been decimated from 1.5 million to under 300,000 since 2011. Yet the global silence reveals devastating double standards.
When Alawites were killed in March 2025, the U.S. and U.N. immediately called for accountability. However, atrocities against Alawites continue daily. In recent days, the Shiite community in Syria has also faced atrocities by terrorists.
The European Union (EU) condemned the June 22 church attack. The U.S. State Department offered condolences, while the U.N. issued strong condemnations but none proposed concrete pressure on Syria’s government. The hypocrisy becomes starker when examining financial support. The EU lifted sanctions against Syria in February 2025, redirecting funds toward infrastructure. On June 30, President Donald Trump issued a historic executive order terminating sanctions to support the country’s path to stability and peace.
Christians Feel Abandoned
Prior to the church bombing, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate criticized the new Syrian government’s insufficient response to keeping Christians safe. Christians have routinely expressed that they do not feel safe in Syria anymore. They have been part of the opposition in Syria since the domestic war started in 2011. Yet their voices are systematically ignored.
Syrians from all faiths—Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, Alawites, Christians, Druze, and others—have all raised their voices for a Syria that belongs to all Syrians. George Charro, a former ADFA volunteer who helped the needy in Lebanon and now runs his own IT business in Damascus, told Newsweek how Syrians of all faiths have been praying for the martyrs killed in the church and for an end to violence against all Syrians.
A Call for Concrete Action
The persecution of Christians in Syria has continued relentlessly for more than a decade. Nuns and other members of the clergy—including two of the country’s most revered religious leaders—have been abducted. Some have vanished without a trace, others have been brutally murdered, and in certain cases, ransom has been paid. Churches have been bombed. Entire Christian neighborhoods have been emptied.
I personally knew one of those abducted: Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim. He was a friend of my late father, a man of deep faith, compassion, and unwavering commitment to peace and interfaith dialogue. Archbishop Ibrahim’s disappearance, alongside that of Archbishop Boulos Yazigi, the brother of Patriarch John X Yazigi, head of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, is a wound that remains open for their families and the entire region.
On June 25, during his weekly general audience, Pope Leo XIV condemned the church bombing and expressed deep solidarity with Christians in Syria, stating: “I am close to you, and the whole Church stands with you.” But will His Holiness go further? Will he call for an international conference demanding a Syria for all Syrians? Will the Vatican, the U.S. government, the EU, and the U.N. say their names: Maryana, Gergis, Boutros, and all the victims? Let these words echo in the constitution of Syria, the laws, the spirit, and the daily life of the country—words that are worthy of repeating: Syria for all Syrians.
Nuri Kino is an independent investigative multi-award-winning reporter and minority rights expert.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
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