The Arab Spring has largely affected the politics in the Middle East. While Tunisia is arguably the only country that was able to find some sort of success from the uprisings, most of the other countries were not as lucky. Being such a microcosm, the middle east has become a place for larger players to fight for their interests through the use of proxies. A noteworthy example of this would be the civil war that is occurring in Syria. Pro-democracy protests broke out in the Southern city of Deraa after the arrest of some teenagers who had painted a revolutionary message on school wall (Syria: The Story of the Conflict). When security forces responded to by opening fire on demonstrators, killing many, even more citizens began flooding the …show more content…
Western powers believed this was the result of the Assad government, while the government blamed rebel forces. The threat of U.S military intervention proved successful in pressuring Assad to get rid Syria of its chemical weapon arsenals (Syria: The Story of the Conflict).
As a result of Syria’s civil war, Syria has become a vacuum that has made it possible for a plethora of rebel groups to fight and thrive. The group catching much of the world’s attention recently is ISIS, a Sunni insurgent group that has taken over territory in much of the country and in 2014 has established itself as a caliphate in the Capital of Raqqa. They are most notable for their extreme jihadism that has resulted in the deaths of thousands, including public beheadings and executions. While ISIS does not back the Assad regime, they seem to have come to an agreement where they do not directly attack each other. In fact, ISIS sells oil from the oil fields they have seized in Syria and sells it back to the Assad regime. The Syrian government has also enjoyed the support from other Shia militia groups, most popularly Lebanon 's Shia Islamist Hezbollah party, who has been quintessential on the battlefield against Sunni rebels (Gilsinan).
This proxy war has large world powers aiding in both the government, and the rebel’s favor. Iran and Russia have continued to prop up the Alawite-led government and has been gradually increasing aid as the war rages on. Tehran is believed to be spending
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
In Syria there has been massive battles between rebel forces and the governmental forces. The problem is that the rebel forces are split into multiple factions with different agendas. In some cases you have found that rebel forces may even be fighting one another. ISIS has even arose out of this chaos further weakening the rebels chances of overthrowing the government because it splits the agenda into even more smaller fragments. The results of this fragmentation are that Syria is now a shell of its former self. It is in a constant state of war and battle and prospects for the future are not looking
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.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has been in charge since 2000, following on from his late father who ruled for 30 years. Commencing in March of 2011, an anti-regime uprising has since escalated into Civil War where it has been estimated that more than 400,000 have been killed (CNN, 2017). Just this death toll alone proves the danger and inhumane conditions the people of Syria have been living in for over six years. Controlling large areas of Northern and Eastern Syria, Islamic State (IS) have been left battling government forces, rebel brigades and air strikes from
some of the wrong people and not in the right part of the Free Syrian Army. Some of those weapons from Benghazi ended up in the hands of ISIS. So we helped build ISIS." (McInerney, Tom). This U.S. Air Force General shows us that ISIS’s original source for weapons was the United States, who misunderstood who they were giving them to. Furthermore, IS’s weapons, sources, and assistance have surpassed anything the U.S. has given them; instead, they have found new ways of getting money. This new way in described in Theweek.co.uk’s article ISIS: Who are the Islamic State and Can They Be Stopped? when it says, “The group made money through oil smuggling in Syria, racketeering, and kidnappings, as well as donations from private jihadi networks in the Gulf, says the Financial Times.” It precedes to say, “The militants have seized oilfields in Syria's Deir Ezzor province, made alliances with tribes to extract oil and were believed to be extorting taxes of up to $8m a month from businesses in Mosul before its takeover.” It closes with, “After it seized Mosul last year, the group looted hundreds of millions of dollars from the city's banks, making it the richest terrorist group in the world.” This shows that IS has a very extensive amount of finances at their disposal from smuggling and extracting oil, taxing businesses, and private jihadi networks in the Gulf. One may believe this is very devastating but according to author Nick Thompson, it gets worse. He
In Syria we see massive civilian displacement and casualties due to fighting. The specific symptoms are armed conflict, air strikes, and purported chemical weapon usage. In following step two and collecting data we have verified proof that the problem exists via independent and state sponsored journalists reporting to all major news syndicates worldwide. The beginnings of the conflict formed over many years of pro-democracy civilians being suppressed in lieu of an authoritarian government. The beginning of the actual anti-regime uprising started in March of 2011 following the arrests of teens and children for political graffiti (Syrian Civil War Fast Facts, 2015). This lead to mass demonstrations in the country's capital and surrounding cities, and let to Syrian police and military forces beating and even killing protesters. This led to the formation to militias forming which split the country into the military and security forces of the Syrian state and militant rebels attempting to overthrow the government. The impact of the problem is that Syria has spiraled into a constant state of chaos throughout the country, resulting in almost complete devastation of all the country's main cities, as well as, constant war and the death of many innocent people and
The term “Arab Spring” has emerged in academic literature as well as in the general media from about early 2011. It refers to the “awakening” of some Arab nations and the movements to replace authoritarian regimes with democratic ones. The theme of “spring” and “awakening” seems to have been borrowed from the 1989 reform movements in the former Eastern-block nations, such as in the former German Democratic Republic or Hungary. However, this comparison has been criticised by some analysts since both the circumstances which have led to these movements as well as the outcome of these reform efforts seem to differ quite a lot. Yet, the Arab Spring term seems to be still widely used and even found an extension in the creation of the term Arab Winter which refers to events that happened in 2012 in some Arab countries during which these reform movements seemed to have “cooled-off” and particular nations, such as Egypt, attempted to go back to the status-quo of the pre-2011 era.
Another reason why the arab spring occurred was because of unemployment. Due to the significant rise in population over the years, and government’s inability to create jobs, many grew frustrated and poor as a result of these conditions. The middle east has also had a very unstable political groups constantly taking over power. From religious extremists groups to leftists groups. Because of the common land that all endured political instability, many revolutionists from all over the Middle East were able to unite on certain common ideology and citations. Needles to say, the unemployment that overwhelmed the middle east was able to unite upset civilians all over the arab world which is why the Arab Spring was as great as it was.
The Arab Spring was a very important public movement against tyranny because people want to be free, fed, have freedom of speech, etc. In Islamic understanding, this movement was totally foolish because any Islamic government uses theocratic tyranny to govern its people. In this manner public rebellions occurred during the Arab Spring. Today, the Turkish Government want to change the regime from democracy into theocratic tyranny because in theocratic tyranny, the dictators will be fed, not the people. The Middle East needs more democracy to heal
The war, which has engulfed Syria, continuously attracts the attention of journalists and diplomats. It has already taken lives of at least 76000 people (Gladstone and Ghannam 4). Moreover, this confrontation has turned millions of Syrian citizens into refugees who need to seek asylum in various countries. To some degree, this conflict illustrates the instability of countries located in the Middle East. One cannot easily identify a single underlying cause of this war. Instead, much attention should be paid to the combination of factors that are related to the political landscape of the country, its religious tensions, economic recession, and
As late as 2012 during the Sunni protests, many protestors distanced themselves from ISIS. According to Abu Risha, they have been fighting Al Qaeda in Anbar for the past six months, but need Americas support. ISIS military campaign was devoted to the assassinations of the Sunni leaders that fought against them, so they could eliminate the leaders who could continue to rally Iraqi Sunnis against ISIS. As a result, the mainstream Sunni nationalist and ISIS agendas are greatly divided, which will soon manifest itself into greater conflict as it currently does in Syria. ISIS is as strong as it has ever been with thousands of jihadists freed from Iraq’s jails, half a billion dollars looted from Mosul’s banks, and is flushed with international support and recruits, which makes the Sunni-on-Sunni struggle in ISIS held territory harder to uproot terrorist organizations in the territory it has acquired without outside assistance and organization. This struggle will become a sectarian war as according to Ardolino and Roggio, without quick political accommodation and direct Western intervention, the conflict could slip into “the sectarian ghettoization and murder that characterized the worst years of the Iraq War.” (Ardolino; Roggio) This sectarian divide is inflamed by Iranian
According to the Syrian Overview video, the Assad government carried out chemical attacks on peaceful protesters when they tried to express their dissatisfaction for the country’s regime.
In late 2010, a tidal wave of uprisings and protests in various parts of the Arab world emerged. It began with the Tunisian revolution when the martyr Mahmoud Bouazizi set fire to himself as a result of the deteriorating economic and social. This led to protests and demonstrations that ended with the fall of the ruling regime. In Tunisia which sparked the beginning of revolutions in many Arab countries, this is known as an Arab Spring. The question remains what are the real reasons that led to the Arab Spring and its effects? the causes of the Arabic spring May be varied, depending on the places, however the reasons can be a corruption in economic policies and demand social justice as the key motives and protests in the Arab world. This essay will discuss the most important reasons, and the effects of what is known as the Arab Spring.
Although the people’s voice is being heard and changes are being made, blood flows down the streets as people are being killed violently everyday. Many people believe it would have been more beneficial if the Middle East had completely avoid the Arab Spring or at least have gone a more passive road. Through the history of the region, leaders of Arab countries have anchored their position to later become rich and