The Syrian Uprising: Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam

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.

“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.”

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

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

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 Syrian Civil war has its foundation rooted in civil protest, against the current government led by President Bashar al-Assad.

The Cause of the Syrian civil war was the people that wanted a change in government, so they protested. In 2011, successful uprisings - that became known as the Arab Spring - toppled Tunisia's and Egypt's presidents. This gave hope to Syrian pro-democracy activists. That March, peaceful protests erupted in Syria as well, after 15 boys were detained and tortured for writing graffiti in support of the Arab Spring. One of the boys, a 13-year-old, was killed after having been brutally tortured. The Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, responded to the protests by killing hundreds of demonstrators and imprisoning many more. In July 2011, defectors from the military announced the formation of the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group aiming to

There were many factors within Syria that would work against the change into nonviolent resistance. In contrast to Tunisia where the departure of the president who was seen as a liability did not threaten the establish on a larger scale, in Syria, the cohesion and societal linkages meant that many more interests would be threatened if the Assad were to step down. The heterogeneity of the Syrian society has long undermined collective action among the opposition, and the intense links between Assad and the regime core prevented the elites from abandoning the president as many did in Tunisia. Syria had additionally enjoyed some degree of Nationalist legitimacy from decades of opposition to Israel and western imperialism, a blatant contract to the leader of Tunisia who was an ally of the West. The dynamics of Syria’s slide into violence illustrate a number of features of the politics of resistance, and insight into the causes and consequences of resistance. Strategies of violence often follow the perception that actors have no choice but to engage in violence. Violence is a reaction shaped by the immediacy of state

President Bashar al-Assad’s army is currently in an ongoing battle against the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria); a Syrian civil war. This unrest began in the early spring of 2011. The people of Syria were protesting against their leader and the leader’s forces responded with violent “enforcement of regulations”. After

“As far as I am concerned, Syria has not changed”, proposes Bashar Al Assad, the current president of Syria and the commander of the Syrian armed forces, on July 17, 2014 (“Syrian Civil War” 3). In the opinion of Bashar al-Assad, Syria has not changed since the Syrian Civil War, a war fought between the Syrian government and the Free Syrian Army for human rights and political power, began. However, the Syrian Civil War has gone on for over five dreadful years and the death toll has grown to over 500,000 (“Syrian Civil War” 1). The deaths of 500,000 people and the injuries of over 2,000,000 are clearly significant, and there has definitely been a change to the country of Syria ever since the war began. The Syrian rebels’ goal is to increase

The initial protests that sparked the Syrian Civil War occurred in the context of the Arab Spring, a series of mass protests and uprisings that overtook the region beginning with the Tunisian uprising sparked by the self-immolation of a political dissident. The Tunisian Uprising ultimately led to the actual overthrow of the Tunisian government, but affairs were not to conclude so decisively in Syria. The Arab Spring protests writ large were inspired by Middle Easterners’ dissatisfaction with governments they viewed as overly repressive, corrupt, and non-representative, and the Assad regime, grown bloated and corrupt through forty-plus years of uninterrupted rule, certainly fit the bill. The Syrian government reacted in a predictably authoritarian fashion to protests, restricting movement and imprisoning those found guilty of supposedly seditious activities through the spring and summer of 2011, including simple anti-government graffiti (Fahim and Saad). Eventually, the military began to resort to open tactical opposition against mostly unarmed protestors, moving to militarily pacify the city of Daraa where the protests had begun in the late spring (BBC). Military dominance, though taken for granted in a nation that had been ruled

Central idea: Toward the end of the speech, the listeners should have a brief understanding on how the civil war started in Syria, who is involved, and the significant events that have occurred so far

As seen on television, Syria is in disarray and in the midst of a deadly conflict. This conflict did not appear out of nowhere. In fact, this Syrian Civil war is the result of a variety of historic and contemporary factors. In the middle of a grosme civil war, Syria is experiencing consistent intervention by world powers like the United States of America and Russia, a variety of human rights abuses and the ever growing threat of islamic extremist in the region. Too many political scientist and historians Due to foreign intervention, a political power vacuum, religious strafe and the Arab Spring it isn't surprising to political scientist and historians that all of these factors have contributed

The conflicts, especially political conflicts, were not formed overnight. They have been accumulating for at least four years. The Syrian Civil War that displaced millions of refugees officially began on March 15th, 2011 when protesters stormed the capital of Damascus demanding democratic reforms and the release of political prisoners from the Assad regime. (Kareem Fahim) Unfortunately, these campaigns were met with gunfire, as only a month later the Syrian army engaged in a series of military attacks on its own people—leading to the death of over 1,000 civilians.

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