Syria is one of the countries that are most strategically situated in the world because it borders Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq to the north, west, southwest, south, and southeast respectively (George 56). The Syrian population was estimated at 22,457,336 as of July 2013.
A third of this population is under 15 years of age, 3.9% is over 65 years, while 22.7% of the population are of median age. In terms of religion, 74% of the population is comprised of Sunni Muslims, 16% are Shia Muslims, while 10% of the population is made of Christians (iDMC and NRC par. 6).
Syria got independence in 1946, complemented by a coup in 1949. Later, Hafez al-Assad self-declared himself as the President in 1971. He remained in this post until his death in 2000. The death of Hafel al-Assad ushered in the single party rule, making Syria a unitary state. The reins of power have remained in the hands of the Ba’ath Regional Branch party where the presidency is determined through a referendum, instead of democratic elections (Muir par. 3).
The Syrian conflict is the armed conflict between the Ba’ath government loyalties and those who want to overthrow it. While the crisis is taking place in Syria, some spillover of the war has been witnessed in the neighboring countries.
The conflict is said to have started on March 15th 2011 with demonstrations in the country against the government. The protests constantly intensified with each day. The demonstrations stemmed from the Arab Spring wave that hit the North Africa and the Middle East region since 2010 (George 57). Syrian protestors claim that Al-Assad’s family has been in power for too long.
President Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad, in the year 2000 in the pretext of bringing reform to the already bad regime of his father. His father ruled with an iron fist as evidenced by the scores of instances of accusations of human rights abuse leveled against him (Human Rights Watch 555). Only a few transformations have been witnessed during President Assad’s reign, despite the claims that he would bring reforms. This is what triggered the protests against him and his regime (Muir par. 4).
The protesters also want to bring the Ba’ath Party rule to an end. The party has held onto power since 1963. The current Syrian conflict has been increasing steadily in intensity, as well as its scope for over two years now.
The conflict initially persisted beyond the threshold of one and half years before it was officially pronounced as a civil war by the Red Cross (Muir par 6). The United Nations estimates that approximately a hundred thousand lives have been lost as a result of this war, while millions of people have been displaced and fled the country (Bernard par. 19).
The uprising was greatly spurred by the Arab uprising that had taken root beginning from Tunisia in December 2010. The Arab spring quickly spread to the rest of the Arab world. Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt bore fruits by February 2011, while Libya staged its civil war (Human Rights Watch 555).
Syrians complained about gross violations of human rights and widespread corruption in the executive and legislative arms of the government. The Bashar al-Assad’s supporters firmly back him. Among these are the minority Alawite who make up 12% of the Syrian population (George 58).
Some of the minority Christians supported the President in the past because they saw it better to support the President than support the Muslims. The large scale conflict began in Daraa and later spread nationwide. The conflict later saw a military buildup in the opposition. This came about when the Syrian army was deployed in April 2011 to counter the demonstrations (Halaby, Bradley and Michael par. 6).
Assad also launched military operations in large scale to quell the protests. Many lives were lost as a result. The fight between the army and the protesters persisted for months. This made the opposition realize that they needed a more organized army to counter the government. The rebels became more organized and acquired arms. The armed rebellion mostly comprised of soldiers who left the government side, as well as civilians who volunteered to fight. The opposition got firmer and stronger even without a central leader.
The first instance of the large-scale conflict was staged on 4th June, 2011 in Jisr ash-Shangur where protesters burnt down a building where soldiers had fired a funeral demonstration. The protests led to the death of some of the military personnel and protesters took away weapons from a police station they had conquered. More security men defected following the execution of soldiers who were reluctant to shoot civilians (Halaby, Bradley and Michael par. 8).
Free Syrian Army (FSA) sprung up on 29 July 2011 comprising of defecting soldiers who later came to represent the opposition. There was the formation of an anti-government alliance by August 23 in the same year. The Syrian National Council was born in an attempt to dethrone the opposition (George 56).
More organized units of protesters steadily engaged in fights by September 2011. Turkey got involved in the Syrian conflict by allowing the FSA to conduct its operations in the country with its base near the Syrian side of the border. Soon, clashes became commonplace. Early November 2011 saw a rapid escalation in the unrests. For instance, a heavy fight was staged by the army in Homs in November 8. Unlike in other areas, the operations utterly failed to quell the conflict (iDMC and NRC 10).
In the late 2011, the Islamist group known as al-Nura Front brought in a very strong influence on the opposition, thus intensifying the war further. Assad began employing large-scale artillery in January 2012. This led to massive loss of lives, which continued until a ceasefire was attempted in April to May 2012 by Kofi Annan on behalf of the UN. This attempt also failed to bear fruits. Soldiers continued killing protesters even as negotiators were continuing with talks.
A lot of causalities were witnessed in the long-run (Cumming-Bruce and Cowell 5). Re-energized fighting took stage from July 2012 and the conflict began reaching major cities. The defense minister, Dawuod, was bombed on July 18, 2012 as the conflict intensified. The intelligence chief, Hisham, was injured by the FSA. An attempt to have a ceasefire in October 2012 also failed and the rebels began gaining control over the army.
The opposition moved its command headquarters within Syria in areas that they had controlled (Cumming-Bruce and Cowell 5). This persisted until 2013 when other players from outside joined the conflict. In this case, Hezbollah backed the Syrian army. Furthermore, the Syrian government has in the past garnered support from the Russian government, as well as Iraq. Conversely, the Qatar and Saudi Arabia support the opposition by providing weapons.
The conflict has affected the Syrian population immensely. According to the report on the registered refugees in the office of the United Nations High Commissioner, it is estimated that over two million people have fled Syria and a further one hundred and seventy four thousand are waiting to register as refugees.
This is just an approximation. The actual number is feared to be far more than this estimate because statistics from neighboring countries show that the number could exceed this estimate. For instance, Turkey records about 506,532 Syrian refugees. Lebanon, on the other hand, records about 805,541 refugees. Egypt hosts more than 126,121 Syrians, Jordan has about 541,025 Syrian refugees, while Iraq hosts about 197,844 people, and a further 14,959 Syrians are said to have sought refuge in the North of Africa.
The international community and various organizations have blamed both the Syrian government, as well as the protesters for violating human rights (Human Rights Watch 555).
Probes and investigations into the Syrian conflict by the UN and Amnesty International showed that the greatest deal of human rights violation has been done by the government in 2012 and in 2013. Further, the international community has strongly reacted to the use of chemical weapons that has been witnessed in Syria in more than one occasion (iDMC and NRC par. 10).
The Syrian war is ongoing and its impacts are felt in the country and the neighboring countries. The Syrian conflict is now an international crisis. There is the need for the international community to intervene in the conflict and come up with a lasting solution to this crisis given that it has become an issue of international concern. Otherwise, the crisis is quickly growing out of hand and many more innocent lives will be lost.
Works Cited
Bernard, Anne. “Hezbollah Commits to an All-Out Fight to Save Assad.” The New York Times, 2013. Web.
Cumming-Bruce, Nick, and Rick Gladstone. “Diplomats Fail to Agree on Details for Syria Peace Talks.” The New York Times, 2013. Web.
George, Alan. Syria: Neither Bread Nor Freedom. New York, NY: Zed Books, 2003. Print.
Halaby, Jamal, Bradley Klapper, and Michael Astor. “Syria’s Civil War Spills Violence Across Borders into Jordan, Lebanon.” Fox News, 2013. Web.
Human Rights Watch. World Report. 2010. Web.
iDMC and NRC. Syria: Syria: A Full-Scale Displacement and Humanitarian Crisis with no Solutions in Sight. 2012. Web.
Muir, Jim. “Syria in Civil War, Red Cross Says.” BBC News Middle East, 2012. Web.