The European Union And Its Relations With Syria

Syria is a Middle Eastern country located on the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon. To people in the West, Syria is most likely known for violence, terrorism, and conflict because that is what the media portrays. However, it is one of the oldest inhabited regions in the world and is rich with culture and history. From Bible references noting, “The road to Damascus” to Ottoman control in 1516 to Bashar al-Assad taking control in 2000, Syria has seen periods of peace but has been plagued with many years of instability throughout its history and especially in recent years. This essay will discuss the events leading to the uprisings, the current situation, and possible peaceful resolutions.

Before World War I, the countries of Europe competed with one another in a race to colonize the world. The end of World War I brought national sovereignty, and an end to colonization to the forefront of the Allies’ concerns as they drew up plans for peace, and as a result, the Allied countries received former enemy colonies to watch over and guide to independence1. As a result of this mandate system, among other colonies, France received Syria. Instead of guiding Syria to independence, however, as the conflict dragged on, France forgot its mission and attempted to subdue Syrian resistance to her humanitarian efforts. This paper will address the following questions: Who is more to blame for the violence, the Syrians or the French? What did

In addition, the non-intervention by Saudi Arabia will be examined and this paper will attempt to determine why they have not become involved in the Syrian Civil War despite being a large power in

The civil war that continues to rage in Syria for the past five years has been one of both great loss and great interest. Several key actors from around the world such as the United States, Russia, Turkey, the Syrian government, Syrian rebels or National Coalition, Iran, and Saudi Arabia all have a great amount at stake based on the outcome of the war. Thus, the difficulties of negotiating peace are almost impossible to overcome, which causes great powers like that of the U.S. and Russia to use their resources in order to obtain their desired outcome. In this essay, I will be outlining the key actors, which side they are on, and what is at stake for each of them within this civil war, as well as examining how this turmoil has “[created] a haven for the Islamic State to move in.” Now let us identify the key actors who have a stake in this civil war.

Another specific conflict area that this paper will examine is Syria. The area, today known as Syria, is in a unique location which has made it subject to many empires, including the Roman and Ottoman. Since the area has been at the center of history for thousands of years it is home to a diverse ethnic and religious culture. Currently the country is home to “Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shia and Arab Sunnis, the last of who make up a majority of the Muslim population,” (BBC). Prior to World War I, the area was under control of the Ottoman Empire, after the war the empire was broken up and France took control of the area. In 1946, France granted Syria independence, and the country has been dealing with political instability ever since. From 1958-1961, Syria joined up with Egypt to create the United Arab Republic. The following years brought about a succession of upheavals within the government. In the 1960’s the Arab-nationalist group, Baath, took over power, and in 1970 one of their leaders, Hafiz al-ASAD, took control, which brought about political stability. In 1967 there was a war taking place between Israel and Syria, which resulted in Israel occupying a southwestern region of the country. In 1970, Syria’s neighbor of Lebanon broke out into civil war and Syria extended their military power into that country. The Baath government has been known to be a strong authoritative power and has powerful anti-western policies in place that

The Syrian Civil War continues to be a major issue in the world today. Though it began as an issue over the resignation of President Bashar Al Assad against the government and Syrians, the war has greatly escalated. It currently involves over 50 different groups, all supporting either the government or the Syrian people, but possessing a slightly different goal. All of this violence poses a threat to individual nations all through the world, focusing on the immigration of refugees into such nations and the impact of such a movement upon that nation. Furthermore, all of this violence has violated the human rights of millions of people, with rape , torture, and harsh execution style killings occurring on a daily basis. Millions of people caught

Syria has been the epicenter of wars and prosperity for many decades. Whether it’s the Syrian-Franco war that gave their independence, or the flood of Universities that entered in the 1950’s; it’s always been a mixed bag with Syria. Many people will look at the destabilize modern Syria and wonder “How did it get to this point?”, well in reality it was not one event rather a concurrency of events that all led up to Syria’s likely demise.

What started out as low-scale anti-government protests in 2011, have now uproared to an entire civil war throughout Syria, as well as involving other neighboring countries and outside nations. Over twelve million Syrians have been forced to leave and over 250,000 have already been killed. Jihadist militants from Islamic State are taking control over almost half the territory of Syria, as well as parts of Iraq, and the public claims that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad is not taking the right or necessary steps to help find the solution to this chaos, which causes some countries to strongly encourage him to step down.

The Syrian war is perhaps the worst type of war of modern time. The war has gone on for more than five years now, and a solution is yet to be found. The conflict has claimed over 250 thousand lives and left more than six million refugees (Erlich 1). It is believed that more than seven million have been displaced internally. The escalation of the war and difficult in finding a lasting solution is due to the involvement of foreign countries. The situation in Syria has been made by the interference of the West. The West did not only create the situation Syria, but they have intensified the dilemma and made the conflict last for many years. Some people may argue that the Syrian war was influenced by Arab uprising.

The war in Syria has brought pain and destruction to the people and cities affected. Upwards of 500,000 people have lost their lives and the country itself has crumbled as result of the irreconcilable differences between the protestors and government. The conflict in Syria is the deadliest struggle that the 21st century has experienced so far. This research explains what sparked the war, how it has affected Syria, and what is being done to end the battle.

In this article, Bellamy explores the argument that the failure to intervene in Syria is due to the controversies in Libya. Bellamy argues that there is no substantial evidence to backup this line of reasoning. Bellamy contends that the reason behind the UN paralysis on Syria is credited to the politics surrounding the conflict than the concerns about R2P. Although the main argument of this article is focused on the political issues surrounding the R2P in Syria, the main part I will draw from this article is its discussion on the military aspect between Syria and Russia. Similar to Stent (2016) this article overlooks other aspects that have contributed to the inaction of the UN and international community towards Syria. However, Bellamy

Over five years ago, the middle-eastern country of Syria was plunged into the worst civil war of its history, culminating in large scale death and destruction nationwide. As at October 2015 the devastating death toll of the war exceeded half a million people, over 100,000 of those being civilians. Approximately 18 million people still live in the war torn country, with over 7 million of those people being internally displaced, meaning they have been forced to leave their homes (Gardner, 2016). Now, with more than 4.2 million refugees fleeing into neighboring countries and further into Eastern Europe, the Syrian war has been classified as one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time (Khawaja, 2016). With nearly half Syria’s population now displaced or made refugees by a protracted and chaotic conflict, it is clear that the world is seeing an unparalleled breach of Human Rights issues in Syria. The forces of ISIS and the Syrian government are causing untold damage to the lives of innocent people within the region, as well as impacting on neighboring countries who are struggling to accommodate the influx of refugees.

Syria is located in Southwest Asia. According to National Geographic Syria is considered to be the heart of the Middle East because of its borders. Syria borders Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Cyprus, but most importantly the Mediterranean Sea. Even though, the relationship between Russia and Syria wasn’t the best throughout the years it has become important. Syria has become an important ally to Russia. Russia and Syria’s relationship can be best described as a strategic plan. It can be viewed as a strategic plan due to Russia’s main concerns or interests toward Syria’s weapons, trade, natural resources and the access to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Assad regime which has been in power since 1971 has seen recent civilian pro-democracy protests over lack of political freedom become violent which have been met with violence by government forces. (Adams, 2015) As explained by Hobbessian concept of sovereignty, the appropriate role of government is to preserve the individuals ability to achieve self interest while protecting everyone. (Gardner,2013). This leads to the thought that because the current civil war, the Syrian government can no longer guarantee the safety for their people. The civil war which began in 2011 has introduced the foreign intervention of Syria 's ally: Russia. Russia in the past has been an overarching ally to Syria through out their historical diplomatic ties beginning from the Cold War.(Adams, 2015) These ties have increased the role of Russia in Syrian appeals to aid in maintaining sovereignty by intervention. The plea by the current Syrian government to Russia creates a debate of whether it is justifiable and appropriate for Russia

Syria has gone through many adversities as a country and to this day struggles with the habitual effects of the Syrian civil war. The Syrian civil war began on March 15th, 2011, between forces who are loyal to the Ba’ath government and those who want to overthrow them. Multiple organizations are working together to