Syria is a country in Western Asia surrounded by Israel , Iraq , Turkey , Lebanon , Jordan and Mediterranean Sea . The capital of Syria is Damascus.
Syria is abundantly gifted with natural gas reserves.
Syria is currently a failed state which means that the political and economic state are so weak that government is no longer in control.
In 1971 Hafiz al-Assad became president, the father of Bashar al-Assad who came into power in 2001 and the person under whose regime Syria fell from prosperity to being a failed state.
It all began in March 2011 when a small group of protestors showed up on street to show solidarity towards the pro-democracy protests happening in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. They were “reportedly” contained by security forces.
In April 2011, the government arrested kids for anti-government graffiti in a small town named Dara. This fueled the protests further and they started spreading in cities outside Damascus. The Syrian Security Forces sealed Dara to curb the protests but the mistake happened when the security forces opened fire and this aggression blew up the proportion of protesters and shifted the sentiment altogether. As always the reluctant President blamed it on foreign powers and fires his whole cabinet. In further showcasing the solidarity and seriousness of his government towards the Syrian people, the Assad regime in April 2011 revoked the Emergency Law which allowed the Security Forces the authority to investigate or arrest Syrian people, but this was only on the paper and meanwhile, the security forces continued to capture, detain, kill and torture the opposition.
In May 2011, the United States and the European Union imposed an arms embargo, and senior Syrian officials' assets were frozen.
Finally, in June 2011, Assad's call for national dialogue was rejected by the opposition which, keep in mind, until then was unarmed. The Assad regime also allowed the rare meeting of opposition leaders in a hotel in Damascus.
In July 2011, for the first time since the protests, the rebels picked up their arms, tired of the oppression and torture and use of arms by the Syrian Security Forces, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was formed. Following this development, the US and the French Embassies were attacked and both the parties involved, the government and the FSA ,blamed each other for the attack. During this time a draft law was passed which allowed for other political parties to be formed but a clause in the fine print read that these parties could be qualified or disqualified from contesting elections as per the behest of the current Assad regime.
In August 2011 US intervened asking the president to step aside and go for a free and fair election. Russia and China opposed the move with the explanation that there is no plan as to what will happen if Assad steps aside. So the world forum was already divided into two factions, the US supporting the rebels and people in general. China and Russia backing the Assad government in hope that a peaceful solution can be reached.
In September of 2011, the European Union banned the import of Syrian oil to cut off the Assad regime financially. Four-day conference was held in Istanbul where 140 people were selected to represent the Syrian National Council which would be the opposition of the Assad government. In the city of Al-Rastan, the first large-scale armed battle happened between Government forces and FSA in September and the govt. forces seized control.
In October 2011 the UN Security Council Resolution condemning the crackdown of the Assad regime was vetoed by Russia and China.
In November 2011, the Arab league formulated an initiative ( which included stopping violence by the Assad regime/removal of tanks and armored vehicles from cities and also releasing of political prisoners) to be a medium of communication between the Syrian Govt. and FSA but the peace talks failed as Assad regime fabricated the truth to favor the government which led to the denouncement of Syria by Arab League.
In March of 2012, all 15 members of the UN Security Council agreed that further sanctions and action should be taken keeping in mind the deteriorating condition of Syria. The then UN head Kofi Annan announces that UN-backed peace talks are agreed by Syria. In April 2012, the violence reportedly decreases.
In June of 2012, the Turkish reconnaissance jet is downed by Syrian Air Defense and this led to an increase in tension between the two nations.
In August of 2012, the United Nations formally ends its monitoring mission in Syria and this hallmarked that all hell broke loose. It also came to the forefront that the FSA was being trained for combat by a special CIA program so that they could stand up to the military which had the training, guidance, and will to destroy whoever comes in their way.
The start of 2013 was marked by the division of Syria into two factions: North & East which was controlled by rebels and the rest which was still in control of the Syrian Government. By January 2013 according to UN, the estimated death toll reached 60,000 since the start of the conflict .
In April of 2013, the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi led al-Qaeda in Iraq to become ISIS(Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).
By July 2013 this figure skyrocketed to 1,00,000 .
In September 2013 the UN inspectors report confirmed the use of chemical gas Sarin in an attack on rebels by the Syrian Government. The US, China and Russia all came to an agreement to destroy or seize all chemical weapons available and put them under international control. By June of 2014 with several airstrikes and ground troop movement the task was completed.
In August 2014 US carried out its first air strike in Syria, the Arab states expanded the airstrike campaign backing the US. They were mainly concerned by the advancement of Syrian Military forces but on the world forum, they were unable to attack the Military directly so they held on to a narrative that the advancement of ISIS(Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) was a concern and so they needed the airstrike.
Russia started to take a more active role and started targeting the rebels of the Assad regime with civilians counted as collateral damage. This can be accounted from the fact that hospitals, rescue teams, and aid workers were killed in the airstrikes.
By the end of 2016, the narrative was changed and focused on ISIS.
There were four major factions fighting for the same turf , namely ISIS , Kurdish forces backed by America ,Pro Assad Syrian/Russian and Iranian forces and Turkish backed coalition of Rebel Groups.
Chemical attacks by the Syrian government kept happening even after the reported claim by the US /Russia and China that seizing and destroying all chemical factories and stockpiles had happened back in 2014. This led to more airstrikes by US /British and French forces.
Israel targeted Iran's military base in Syria, Iran retaliated and targeted Golan Heights. This made it easier for Israel to justify the full-fledged attack on Iran's military infra in Syria.
The Nusrah Front which rejected its merger with ISIS back in 2013 merged with HTS(Hayat Tahrir al-Sham). The continuous airstrikes and forces from different factions, discussed earlier, fighting for the same turf led to the containment of rebels in a small town of Idlib. In April of 2019 Syrian and Russian forces pushed into Idlib. With the US thinking of losing out on the turf war, it supplied and trained the rebels to launch a counteroffensive and pushed back into government-held areas.
During the war between rebels and the Syrian Army, many Turkish people were killed. Turkey took it as a cue to go on the offensive and launched a massive attack on the Syrian Army, this was only stopped after Russia intervened and a temporary ceasefire was announced.
It has been 10 years since the civil war staterd and we cannot see it coming to an end anytime soon .The most recent talks in January of 2021 was another failed attempt to bring peace in a once beautiful and historically rich landmass.Since the war began in 2011 according ,an estimate tells us that around 6,000,000 people lost their lives and an astounding 11 million people have been displaced. The future is in peril and with sanctions the lives are misrable.
