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What Is Syria Essay

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In the political and social badlands that those residing in this world have come to regard as the middle east, there exists a country by the name of Syria. Like many other countries of the region, this country has large areas of arid land not fit for habitation. However, unlike some of the other countries of this region, Syria boasts large hospitable coastal, forested, and mountainous areas that have diverse seasons ranging from extreme heat to snow in the winter months. Most of the habitable areas of Syria reside along the western coastline of the region or along the eastern plateau, which boasts large areas of mountainous and often densely forested areas. This diversity has given Syria some social wiggle room that its neighboring …show more content…

But alas, this feat of stability, was to be short lived. By early 2011, the country balanced on the razor’s edge as it was stressed by severe socioeconomic issues as well as by the turmoil of the changing political climate raging through its neighboring countries. For it was at this time, that a wave of violent and nonviolent protests swept the entire region of the middle east in what has come to be known as the Arab Spring . This season of protests led to toppling of regimes, political figures, and even the caused the destabilization of entire governments. Some of these included: Protests that forced Hosni Mubarak (president of Egypt at the time) to resign his office , Mass Demonstrations that forced the government of Yemen to crack down on the protesters leaving anywhere from 200 to 2,000 people dead, and the exile of Ben Ali (the autocratic ruler of Tunisia) as deadly demonstrations ravaged the country . This did not bode well for Syria, as the Assad regime was having trouble dealing with their population at the time. In his article, “For America, An Arab Winter” Aaron Miller noted that, “support in Syria was increasingly tenuous as a result of Assad’s repression and whose Islamist trope seemed out of step with the non-ideological, youthful, secular character of the opposition in the Arab street.” Make no mistake, the regime that the Assad’s had established brought much needed stability to the state of Syria, but it did so at a

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