Talk:Tellawi Family Massacre, April 17, 2011

A day shy of one month after the first peaceful protester was allegedly shot dead in Deraa, this happens in Homs: a Syrian brigadier-General, Alawite as it so happens, was killed off-duty, dragged from his car alongside his two teenage sons and nephew who were with him. All four were executed with malice and mutilated on April 17, 2011. Both sides have blamed each other, if not with equal credibility. Belated page here. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:33, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

CDV
CDV database for Regime forces casualties/otherstatistics - generally meaning rightly-killed members of the repressive Syrian forces - includes these four entries in the Homs district "Jib Abas," 4-17-2011 (re-listed in my own order):
 * Ahmad Abdo Khder Tellawi child, male. Age 15. Ninth-grade student, still unmarried. Cause of Death: Shooting. Rank: Civilian. Notes: Killed in a shooting at his father's car which he is Brigadier General."
 * Ali Abdo Khedr Altelawi child, male, age 17. Rank: civilian. Shooting, "Killed in a shooting at his father's car."
 * Khder Fawzi Tallawy age 17, civilian, "Killed in a shooting at his uncle's car, Brigadier General Abdou Tallawy." http://thawra.alwehda.gov.sy/_print_veiw.asp?FileNam...
 * Abdo Khder Al-Telawi Age 58. Cause of Death: Shooting. Rank: Brigadier General. Notes: He was shot and killed in his car with his two sons and a nephew, He was an engineer in Damascus Vechile Administration Unit.

A Sectarian Attack?
The Alawi religious background of Brigadier-General Tellawi isn't necessarily a key feature of his and his offspring's brutal murder. Syrian government or like-minded sources initially made no mention of this basic fact, in keeping with an early policy of ignoring the sectarian aspect of crimes to avoid playing into and worsening the problem - all targets were chosen for supporting the government alone, in SANA and similar reports. Lebanon's Daily Star, in contrast, noted Tellawi was "an Alawite posted south of Homs," whom activists say that the Syrian intelligence services executed," along with his sons, "because they were showing signs of sympathy for the protesters." As for who else was feeling such sympathies for the non-terrorists at this same time, the Star's article dryly noted:
 * Other officers killed in the past two weeks include two Christian colonels and another Alawite general. Alawite military and intelligence officers are generally expected to stand with the regime, fearing a bloody backlash against them should Assad fall. But the Alawite community is not a homogenous entity and there are long-standing tensions between rival clans which could see some powerful figures siding with the opposition against the Assads.

That is, the rebel story might be true. That non-Sunnis were being knocked off could suggest the Salafist conspiracy Damascus alleged, or - less depressingly for the interventionists - it could show that just a few weeks into protests, even Assad's presumed non-Sunni supporters were getting so antsy to join the clearly non-Salafi protesters that a paranoid Assad felt they have to be murdered with brutal fury to send a signal to all the others who were planning to defect themselves. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:37, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

The "Shabiha" propaganda cycle that would come to pinch Syria's Alawi community, especially in Homs, seems to have few outward signs in the first days of the uprising. But the first weeks at least showed the basic contours being laid down. As explained here, Shabiha were first mentioned in the Baniyas area, causing some chaos, sowing sectarian discord, and killing a cop on March 27, and in Homs by no later than April 21. Khaled Yacoub Oweis of Reuters reported then how residents of Homs had "organized neighborhood patrols after," not before, "21 protesters were shot dead on Monday and Tuesday (18th and 19th) by security police and Alawite gunmen known as 'al-shabbiha'." Helpfully, Oweis explained "Assad's security apparatus, dominated by minority Alawites, has used gunfire and brutality to cow protesters," making these claims seem reasonable. So, reportedly, the Alawite killers took out Sunni/democracy advocates in the days right after the general was killed, as if some tit-for-tat.

The VDC database is less helpful, but the first fatalities listed with Shabiha mentioned in the notes was a driver and passenger waylaid on the highway by these elitist bandits near Baniyas, April 16, 2011. That was the day before the attack on the vehicle carrying the Tellawis in Homs, perhaps by security forces, perhaps in fact Shabiha. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:37, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Mahmoud Issa Arrest
Activist Mahmoud Issa, reportedly a leader of the Communist Labor party, but also an anti-government activist of standing before 2011, was famously detained for his comments after the Tellawi slayings. The Times (UK) reported: "Mahmoud Issa was detained after an interview on Tuesday (the 19th) with the al-Jazeera television news channel, during which he discussed the killing of a Syrian brigadier general." Just how he discussed it, not clear. The Guardian reported:
 * Rights activist Mazen Darwish said that in the satellite TV interview Issa angered relatives of a Syrian brigadier general who was killed with his two sons and a nephew on Sunday in Homs. ... Issa had told al-Jazeera he didn't know who was behind the killing and called for an investigation, enraging bereaved relatives who reportedly threatened him before alerting police, Darwich said. Issa, who has spent years in prison for his pro-democracy views, was detained shortly afterwards.

Were they angered just by his uncertainty, entertaining the idea that security forces probably killed Tellawi? Activists are said to assert it as fact. A direct quote might help here. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:42, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Rueters reporter Khaled Oweis noted on April 19 - somehow without mentioning the comments or the murder of the general that underlay his arrest, "The Syrian authorities' arrest of a leftist opposition figure overnight suggests that a bill passed by the government to end emergency rule after 48 years will not halt repression, rights campaigners said on Wednesday." Cited was Rami Abdulrahman of the SOHR in the UK, calling the move "reprehensible." However, by Oweis' description, this could almost be a protective maneuver - if not from the slain officer's family, then from ... whoever exactly was massacring certain activists in Homs in those days:
 * A prominent leftist in the city, Mahmoud Issa, was taken from his house around midnight by members of Syria's feared political security division. Rights campaigners said at least 20 pro-democracy protesters had been shot dead by security forces in Homs in the past two days.

If he hadn't been arrested, would the list of non-Salafist activists killed by "security forces" be one larger? As it was he wasn't shot even when the Communist-friendly authorities had their chance. Mr. Issa was released on June 2, as part of an amnesty deal that freed other journalists too. This article and this PDF are among the few sources mentioning that quieter part of the story. These releases were by presidential decree, issued May 30, for all alleged offenses prior to the next day. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:33, 22 November 2013 (UTC)