Despite its al-Qaeda affiliate origins, the HTS promised a unified Syria irrespective of sectarian differences, along with an intensely centralized government which would naturally be under their control. This involved fighting against minority calls for decentralization to ensure they would retain at least some rights.

What that unity looked like in practice, however, was violent purges against religious minorities across the country, with the two largest such minorities, the Alawites and the Druze, each facing large-scale massacres in which HTS forces from the Interior and Defense Ministry participated.