"Activate the Local Election": Trust-building in Dreikish

Interview with a civil activist in rural Tartous

Tartous’ Dreikish District is a unique region of Syria’s coast. Physically, it is the only region to contain a four-lane highway connecting the district capitol to the governorate capitol. This well-developed infrastructure reflects the unique social fabric of the district. The area was once a tourism hub, known for its lush mountains and forests, but also for a strong art and culture scene and having a higher concentration of academics and writers than elsewhere in the coast. At the same time, many senior regime military officials hail from Dreikish, which is what gave the area the political power to earn such infrastructure.

This unique blend of cultures has driven the area’s experiences since the fall of Assad. The district lost more than 6,000 men during the war fighting under the Assad regime, and thousands more underwent ‘taswiya’ after December 8. Yet the district has the strongest youth civil movements in Tartous and also saw one of the only grass-roots civil peace committees form, with strong, persistent engagement with local security officials since December 2024. This engagement was undermined significantly by the insurgency on March 6, 2025, and has floundered in the year since. See my recent report for a lengthy account of what happened in Dreikish on March 6:

I have visited Dreikish several times over the past year, meeting with youth activists and members of the civil peace committee. Below is an interview I conducted in mid-February 2026 with a former member of the committee. We discuss the security situation, impact of the SDF’s defeat in the northeast, the weakened role of the civil peace committee, the economy, and most importantly, clear steps the government could take to rebuild trust with the Alawi community.