The Ruling Leaders of Syria Essay

The push to overthrow Bashar began on social media by a group called, “Syrian Revolution 2011 against Bashar al-Assad” (Gelvin 2015). The group scheduled a peaceful protest in Damascus on March 11th to demand the release of political prisoners, which was not successful. A few days later, 10 school children were arrested in Daraa for making statements against the regime. When they were not released, a large group of protestors took it to the streets in protest. The regime opened fire and killed several. Protests spread from city to city across Syria, eventually reaching the largest cities of Damascus and Aleppo (Gelvin 2015). From this moment the situation has spiraled out of control, turning into a civil war and after international intervention, a proxy war.

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

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.

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 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

The movement began as a peaceful demonstration but eventually outside forces joined and began to use this movement for other purposes - mainly violent ones. The protests turned into massive ones around March of the same year and thousands of people took the streets of Syria in peaceful protests. Later in April 2011, the Syrian government has decided to send out the military to subdue the protests. Opposition groups began to arm themselves and fight back after this, and they were aided by the Syrian military members who joined them as well. The government was not happy about these protests and they responded with extreme measures such as torturing and killing protesters, kidnapping, and mistreatment. The government troops opened fire on civilians and the civilians fired back in response to this. The result of this was the Syrian army quickly turning this to an armed conflict. Daily, terrorist groups sabotage innocents, blow up buildings/infrastructure, bomb roads, and murder civilians in mass scales. Many communities are destroyed and terrorized, families are displaced and broke apart, and people are being murdered on the streets - security officials and civilians. These evil acts are being put through by the Free Syrian Army, as well as some ISIS overlap.

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.

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

The Syrian rebel conflict has been occurring since March 2011 and it started with Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad. The Assad government was known for being very authoritarian as well as restrictive on the people of Syria (BBC). As the protests were occurring Assad send out military force to attempt to crush the rebellion but all it did was intensify their cause. Since the conflict arose there have been as many as 100,000 fighters involved with intentions of pushing the government toward a more democratic state. Over time the violence

The rebels at first started protesting peacefully and the president attacked them with deadly weapons. The president has attacked civilians with tanks, helicopter attacks, and he has even executed children. Syrians are terrified of how dangerous their country is turning, they are forced to migrate to a better place due to its hard conditions. About 11 million Syrians are fleeing and many have been killed. Their movement has caused one of the largest refugee movements in our recent history. The U.N estimates that about 6.1 million people are internally displaced. About half of their population has vanished. Syria is a low developed country and the civil war is causing a major impact towards their economy. The Assad regime is attacking schools and health centers with deadly bombs. Many are being killed and losing their homes. Many kids are not living a normal childhood anymore, instead they are seeing their own country crumble down into

In 2011, there was a small crowd of 13 year old boys who painted “The government must go” on the side of their school. The boys were taken into custody by security forces and tortured, until they almost died, for writing this anti-government graffiti. This is what sparked the crackdowns leading to the Syrian civil war. These crackdowns started when the people of a small city made for the streets to protest against the harsh and cruel torture of the students responsible for the anti-government graffiti. After wavering between force and reform, the British trained doctor, and president, Bashar al-Assad, set off the series of withering crackdowns by doing things like sending tanks into peaceful cities as police forces started

If America and the coalition wish to defeat the Islamic State and re-stabilize Iraq and the Levant, Assad should be funded and the FSA discarded.The continual conflict in Syria is one of the most controversial and misconcepted engagements in the modern era, because of media organizations spreading these truthless allegations and misconceptions. Most westerners view the Syrian Civil War as a fight between an evil regime led by the brutal and malicious Bashar Al-Assad, and Peaceful democracy seeking freedom fighters. The Syrian Civil War has been waging for over half a decade, and has gradually diminished into a war of attrition. The conflict was thrust into existence after Sunni-Arab Syrians became especially enthusiastic about the Arab Spring. The Rebel Bloc in Syria is often thought to have piggybacked off the momentary success of the Libyan Rebels ousting the Gaddafi Regime. However, contrary to the Libyan Rebellion, the War in Syria has been devolved into a legarthic war of attrition that spans multiple nations in the Arab World, and is dominated by a copious number of multi-goaled factions. One of these factions rose to relevancy in 2013. Several titles have been coined to reference it, such as Daesh, ISIS, and ISIL, but when referred to professionally, it is often called The Islamic State. The Islamic State has committed a genocide of which has displaced and massacred ethnic and religious groups that have inhabited Islamic State held territories prior to the Arab

The Syrian Arab Republic is an Arab country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the North, Iraq to the East, Jordan to the South, and Israel to the Southwest. In March 2011, the Syria conflict has begun due to various reasons and is still going on today. This outbreak is one of the key factors which resulted the Arab Spring (Arab Uprising). Arab Spring refers to the democratic uprisings that arose independently and spread across the Arab world in 2011. The protest originated in Tunisia in December 2010 and quickly took hold in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. In these countries, the citizens intiatied the protests as the ruling families have been