Syria: A War-Weary Nation
The Syrian Conflict is undoubtly the most debated and most heart wrenching controversy today. We all feel melancholy and an intense sadness when we hear about what is happening in Syria. Millions of hashtags like #syria, #Syria Crisis, #Syria War and #SyrianRefugees have been used for this trending topic. But do we really understand the stories behind the hashtags and are we really doing anything to help our fellow human beings? Do we actually fathom the graveness of the situation and most importantly do we as human beings grasp the tragedy of the whole conflict?
Today, I am honoured to be here at this years International Human Rights Youth Conference to talk to and inspire other like-minded youth, I am honoured
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As of 2013, due to foreign involvement, the war has been called a proxy war, a multi-sided war where neither country directly engages with another. I will now be playing a short video that outlines and explains the key events of this conflict and it will also help you grasp just how elaborate and unsolvable the Syrian Conflict is. {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKb9GVU8bHE&index=16&list=LLqO3HSDvoQCB_MCA85i3sJQ, 5:00} Now we are able to recognize that they are a lot of groups and outside countries involved in Syria’s war and even among allies they are many disagreements on who their enemies are, who to support and how to do it. These contradictions are the major reason why for this war, there is no end in sight.
During the five years of this conflict, Syria’s civil war had resulted in an estimated 200,000 Syrian casualties. Approximately 11 million other people were forced to flee their homes as violence and chaos engulfed their communities. Along the way both Syria’s government and various rebel forces have been accused of war crimes. These include kidnapping, rape, torture and murder. [1]. At least 28,277 civilians have died in shootings and mass killings [5]. In one case documented by the United Nations, more than 100 people, including at least 49 children, were killed in Homs on May 25, 2012 [5]. Most were shot at close range. At least 18,866 civilians were killed in Syrian
“The community’s blunt outrage over the children’s arrests and mistreatment, the government’s humiliating and violent reactions to their worries and the people’s refusal to be cowed by security forces embolden and helped spread the Syrian opposition.” This notion demonstrates that the killing of the four protestors was only the first of many deaths to occur continuing into an on-going war that has: “…triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad’s resignation.” Because of this, the Syrian government decided that in order to handle the issue they must crush this nationwide dissent. This in return only allowed the protestors to push harder for a change within the country of Syria, in hopes of it becoming the wonderful country that it was in the years prior to the war. “Syria’s conflict has devolved from peaceful protests against the government in 2011 to a violent insurgency that has drawn in numerous other countries.” “With neither side able to inflict a decisive defeat on the other, the international community long ago concluded that only a political solution could end the conflict in Syria.”
Syria’s civil war is the worst humanitarian crisis of modern time. The “Syrian Civil war Began in March of 2011, between rebel brigades and government force; economy and infrastructure is destroyed” (Library, 2016). “Divisions between secular and religious fighters, and between ethnic groups, continue to complicate the politics of the conflict” (Corps, 2016). Additionally, the Syrian civil war has taken a significant
With a death toll in the hundred of thousands, and millions displaced, the Syrian civil war has become a violent mark on the world’s history. What started as a peaceful protest has spread over five years, has evolved into a war with a tyrannical government, a clashing rebellion, and terrorism fighting either side. But what is it that really fuels the immense amount of violence? It can be narrowed down to four groups that are obvious. The government and the rebels are the forerunners in violence in the war, sure, but they aren’t the only ones. There are the terrorist groups, with skewed views to support the destruction of people and things around them, and in itself the stark difference of the religions and ethnicities of Syria. Who causes
So far, more than 1 out of 10 Syrians have been wounded or killed since the beginning of the war in 2011. “Syria’s civil war has created the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country's pre-war population — more than 11 million people — have been killed or forced to flee their
The editors of Britannica Encyclopedia bring up how the Syrian War started due to “protestors demanding an end to authoritarian practices in the Assad Regime that have been in place since 1971 under Hafiz al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s father” (“Syrian Civil War,” par. 1). With this want of an end of an era rebel militia groups sprung up over a very short period demanding change in the Syrian government. Militias started small by attacking government meetings and targeting specific Syrian government officials. In a little under a year Syrian militias began a full-fledged war between themselves and the Syrian government. Almost immediately after the Syrian War was declared a war the United Nations jumped in to aid the innocent civilians who were being hurt from the weapons of warfare. Since Syria was already a poor area the war only made it worse and left many homeless and exposed to the fighting in the streets. With over 25,000 dead and 2.5 million in need of food, water and medical supplies the Syrian War crisis has received responses from all over the world… but it’s not enough to bring a sense of safety to the innocent people of Syria (Hilleary pars.
The Syrian Civil War has had a profound effect of all Syrians as well as neighbouring countries and the international community. With more than 11 million homeless Syrians comes consequences beyond what most of the world population has ever experienced or anticipated. Of the displaced, almost 5 million are refugees outside Syria and around 6 million have been displaced inside Syria, with half of all displaced Syrians being children. The main causes of displacement amongst the population is the violence committed by all sides of the war, and which often targets civilians or centres of high civilian activity (such as markets, hospitals, schools, workplaces or high density residential areas). One main group heavily affected by the conflict
Over the past four years, the situation within the Syria has become more and more dangerous. As many as 6.7 million people, have been displaced from their homes within the country alone. Another 4 million have fled the country entirely, in order to get away from the incessant fighting. An estimated 200,000 people have been killed over the course of the war, but the country is so
Some experts are saying the Syrian civil war could continue into the year 2020, due to many reasons. These experts claim that civil wars tend to be longer when there is a presence of foreign countries. In the case of Syria the foreign countries that are helping, at the moment, are its neighbors. There is also the fact it doesn’t appear as if one side is getting ahead in the fight. This could also drag out the war over a very long time (Fisher, 2013). Overall, there seems to be no resolution to the Syrian conflict at this time. Only time will tell if one side, the Assad government or the rebels, will
The Syrian war is a multi-problematic situation that started within Syrian borders. The Syrian war began in 2010 with something called the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring is a chain of events where people caused aggressive and non-aggressive situations such as protests which created harm in the Middle East. In 2011 people started a non-aggressive protest because children were being abused after spattering graffiti that stated how they agreed with the Arab Spring. The president during this time was Bashar al- Assad. Assad would torment and imprison the people of Syria who protested. The Syrian People wanted to end Assad’s brutal actions so they created a Free Syrian Army which led to a civil war (i.e. the Syrian war). There are several countries
Syria has been in war for four years. The rebels versus the president, Bashar al-Assad, and his loyal troops. But in 2016, the war has worsened. One of Syria’s major cities, Aleppo, has been getting bombed relentlessly by Russia. Innocent people die everyday. Children are left hurt and parentless. People that survive unscathed try to flee the city, only to find they cannot. They are prisoners in the city they once loved.
Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.
Syria is currently all over the news regarding what many have to come to see as a civil war. A term like civil war needs to identify the players and the reasons for the war. In this case the players are being identified as pro government or antigovernment with a Sunni or Shia overtone. Sunni and Shia are the two major sects of Islam and both have a historical based conflict going back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad and how Muslims should be governed. This conflict has caused tensions and violence to flare up throughout Islamic history. This conflict has carried into modern times and has becoming a rallying point for Muslim people calling for change with their government and across the Middle Eastern region. The
The problem in Syria is that millions of people are suffering. The suffering will not stop until the war is resolved. The struggles that the people of Syria face are a direct result of the war. Organizations will continue to lessen the suffering by providing aid, but they will have no effect when it comes to ending the war. The harsh truth is that end of the war is nowhere near an end. The problem is that no side is strong enough to win the war. Since the start, the Syrian Government Army has gotten weaker and no longer has the power to take over cities controlled by the Free Syrian Army (Dorell). The result of this is the mass destruction the country has faced. The Free Syrian Army continues to fight back in response to the airstrikes from the Syrian Government Army(Dorell). No side has been able to pull away and win the war. Foreign involvement has only made the situation worse. The Russians have taken the side of the Syrian Government while the United States have taken the side of the Syrian Rebel Army. Russia has attempted to help eliminate the terrorist groups supporting the Syrian Rebel Army, in reality, many civilians were hurt in the process (Dorell). The countries involved in the crisis have tried to organize peace treaties and cease fires multiple times, but they all failed (Dorell). Looking at these recent events, the war does not seem to be ending anytime soon. Therefore, the
On March 15, 2011 a civil war began in the nation of Syria. Thousands of civilians stood up in protest to the government of Syria led by Bashar al-Assad. These protests began peaceful but quickly turned violent. These protesters demanded democratic reforms, release of political prisoners, an increase in freedoms, abolition of the emergency law and an end to corruption. This quickly escalated into hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in protest against the government. By 2013, nearly one-hundred thousand lives had been taken by this conflict and that number had risen to a quarter of a million by 2015 (Sharnoff). As this war has raged on, the Syrian government’s allies have grown impatient. Russia is Syria’s largest and most powerful ally has grown concerned over this war as Syria has been important to Russia in many ways over the years. Ideologies brought these two nations together in the mid-twentieth century and the relationship has progressed into a strong alliance.
Syrian civil war started in 2011 was the outcome of the opposition against the President Bashar al-Assad regime. The uprising emerged as a response to the Arab spring movement that lead to regime change in Tunisia and subsequently turned into mass unrest rooted into the discontent with long-term dictatorship and poor economic situation in the country (Manfreda, n.d.). The number of Syrian citizens killed in the civil war reached 140000 since March 2011 (SBS 2014). The European Commission (2014, 2) reports approximately 9.3 million civilians “in need for humanitarian assistance”. The scale of armed rebellion between government and opposition that lead to an increasing number of casualties among civilians did not remain unnoticed by the