On March 25, the director of the Caucasus Center for Islamic Studies, Shota Apkhaidze, along with other Georgian-speaking Facebook users (1, 2.), disseminated information claiming that the Strasbourg Court had refused to accept lawsuits filed by Syrian Alawites and Christians regarding mass killings and torture. The posts also state that the German authorities completely banned discussions on this topic in both public spaces and the media. Additionally, these accounts claim that Germany removed Georgia from its list of safe countries and replaced it with Syria.
The disseminated information about the Strasbourg Court and Germany is false. In reality:
- Syria is not a member of the European Court of Human Rights, meaning it is impossible to file a lawsuit against the Syrian government in this court.
- There is no evidence to support the claim that the German government has banned public discussions and media coverage of events in Syria.
- Georgia remains on Germany’s list of safe countries, while Syria is not.
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Syria is Not a Member of the Strasbourg Court
The circulated posts do not provide any source to support the claim that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) refused to accept lawsuits filed by Syrian Alawites and Christians regarding mass killings and torture committed by government forces. However, it is important to note that Syria is not a member of the ECtHR, which means the court has no jurisdiction to hear cases against the Syrian government, and, consequently, it is impossible to register a lawsuit in the Strasbourg Court regarding events that occurred in Syria. The press center of the European Court of Human Rights confirmed these details to Myth Detector in written communication. Currently, the ECtHR has 46 member states, covering all European countries except Belarus and Russia. Notably, Russia had been a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights since 1998 and, consequently, a member of the court. However, on September 16, 2022, Russia withdrew from both the convention and the court. As a result, the ECtHR can only consider cases against Russia that relate to events occurring before this date.
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The German Government Has Not Banned Public or Media Discussions on Syria
The Facebook posts claim that the German government has banned public discussions and media coverage of mass killings committed by Syrian government forces in early March. However, it is noteworthy that social media users do not provide any evidence to support this claim. We searched for any sources that could verify this information, but we could not locate any articles, statements, posts, or press releases in Georgian, English, German, or Arabic that would support it. Notably, the German government officially condemned the crimes committed in Syria on March 10 and urged the country’s authorities to take action to stop the bloodshed, investigate the crimes, and hold those responsible to account. A similar statement was made by Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on March 20 during a meeting in Damascus with leaders of Syria’s transitional government.
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Is Georgia on Germany’s List of Safe Countries?
The Facebook posts also claim that Germany removed Georgia from its list of safe countries and replaced it with Syria. In reality, this list has not changed since 2024, and Georgia remains officially classified as a safe country, while Syria is not included in it.
Some confusion regarding Germany’s list of safe countries arose due to two court rulings. In July 2024, the Higher Administrative Court of Münster stated in a ruling that, despite the ongoing civil war, some regions of Syria are not considered unsafe. The case involved an appeal by a Syrian refugee whose asylum request had been denied by Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees due to criminal offenses. Based on the court’s decision, the existing ruling was upheld, and the individual was denied asylum. However, this was an isolated case, and as previously mentioned, Syria has not been included in Germany’s list of safe countries to this day.
Germany added Georgia to its list of safe countries of origin in December 2023, and this decision remains unchanged. However, on March 21 of this year, a Berlin court, while reviewing an asylum case involving a Georgian couple, ruled that Georgia might not be compatible with the European Union’s definition of a safe country. This reasoning is based on a ruling by the European Court of Justice, which previously determined that Moldova may not be classified as a safe country of origin if parts of its territory are unsafe. By this logic, since Georgia does not control two of its regions – Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are deemed unsafe territories – the classification of Georgia as a safe country may also be incompatible with EU law. The court has yet to make a final decision on this matter, and while the case remains under review, the couple has been granted the right to stay in Germany until a final ruling is issued.
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