Germany's Syrian diaspora divided over visit by interim leader

Al-Sharaa, who assumed power after the overthrow of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, is set to meet Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other government officials on Tuesday.

While some of the roughly 1.22 million people in Germany with Syrian roots have welcomed the visit, others have voiced strong objections, especially as Merz is to raise migrant returns in talks with al-Sharaa.

The worries have come in particular from Kurdish groups and representatives of the Yezidi community.

Syria’s army has been battling to extend the government’s control over large parts of the country’s north by dislodging Kurdish-led forces, with deadly violence flaring in recent weeks. The fighting erupted after talks to integrate Kurdish forces into the state stalled, raising questions in some quarters about al-Sharaa's commitment to protecting the rights of the Kurdish minority.

The Congress of Yezidis in Diaspora said al-Sharaa's arrival "raises fundamental questions about the coherence of state action and the protection of the interests of victim communities who have found protection in Germany."

According to the German government, almost 100,000 members of the Yezidi religious group from Iraq and almost 15,000 Yezidis from Syria have fled to Germany since 2014.

Three years ago, Germany recognized the crimes committed by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia against the Yezidis as genocide.

Meanwhile, the number of people with Syrian citizenship living in Germany is declining, largely due to naturalization rather than emigration.

According to a German government response to a parliamentary inquiry by the Left Party, 940,401 Syrians were living in Germany at the end of November, with more than half - 512,348 - holding some form of a protected legal status.

A year earlier, around 974,000 Syrian citizens were still registered.

Over the past three years, Syria has been one of the main countries of origin for people who have been naturalized in Germany.

Domestically, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was heavily criticized by his own conservative party in October after he doubted that large numbers of people would return voluntarily during a visit to Syria.

The minister later said that he stood by his assessment that returning to destroyed places would only be possible to a very limited extent in the short term.

With financial support from government agencies, 3,707 people had voluntarily left Syria by the end of November.

The German government said that the current humanitarian situation remains dire, with nearly 70% of the population is dependent on aid.