The War in Syria
The War in Syria
In August 2013 Barack Obama made a statement that shook the world, he called for ‘limited’ airstrikes to be used against Syria’s government of President Assad in retaliation to chemical weapons attacks made allegedly by him on his own people, with the result of many deaths of men, women and children, in an effort to combat the rebels with whom they have been fighting a long civil war. The result of this announcement led to widespread debate amongst countries around the world on what should be done in retaliation to Assad’s actions.
So where did this all begin and what does this announcement mean for Syria and the rest of the world?
This rift in Syria’s populace has existed since its birth in 1918 at the end of WW1, when Arab troops led by Emir Feisal, supported by British forces, captured Damascus, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule, with Emir Feisal proclaimed as king of Syria by the Syrian National Congress in 1920 with Syria "in its natural boundaries" from the Taurus mountains in Turkey to the Sinai desert in Egypt. These ‘natural boundaries’ are by no means natural in terms of the people that lived there, for what you had in Syria was a real melting pot of different ethnicities and religions. With about 55% of the population being Arab (Sunni Muslims) and the rest being a mixture of Levantine Christians, Alawites, Shias, Kurds, Druzes, Ismalii, Turkomans, Nusairis, Circassians and Assyrians, each of these with respectable standings in the populace but nowhere near as many as with the Sunni Arabs. This diversity is an important thing to consider when looking at the causes of the civil war.
In 1966 the Assad family began to enter the frame but in that forty year gap Syria had been through a turbulent time. The same year that it became a country in its own right, Syria became a French colony with Emir Feisal deposed by the French. One of the results of this was that the cultural diversity increased with colonialists arriving from France with
In August 2013 Barack Obama made a statement that shook the world, he called for ‘limited’ airstrikes to be used against Syria’s government of President Assad in retaliation to chemical weapons attacks made allegedly by him on his own people, with the result of many deaths of men, women and children, in an effort to combat the rebels with whom they have been fighting a long civil war. The result of this announcement led to widespread debate amongst countries around the world on what should be done in retaliation to Assad’s actions.
So where did this all begin and what does this announcement mean for Syria and the rest of the world?
This rift in Syria’s populace has existed since its birth in 1918 at the end of WW1, when Arab troops led by Emir Feisal, supported by British forces, captured Damascus, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule, with Emir Feisal proclaimed as king of Syria by the Syrian National Congress in 1920 with Syria "in its natural boundaries" from the Taurus mountains in Turkey to the Sinai desert in Egypt. These ‘natural boundaries’ are by no means natural in terms of the people that lived there, for what you had in Syria was a real melting pot of different ethnicities and religions. With about 55% of the population being Arab (Sunni Muslims) and the rest being a mixture of Levantine Christians, Alawites, Shias, Kurds, Druzes, Ismalii, Turkomans, Nusairis, Circassians and Assyrians, each of these with respectable standings in the populace but nowhere near as many as with the Sunni Arabs. This diversity is an important thing to consider when looking at the causes of the civil war.
In 1966 the Assad family began to enter the frame but in that forty year gap Syria had been through a turbulent time. The same year that it became a country in its own right, Syria became a French colony with Emir Feisal deposed by the French. One of the results of this was that the cultural diversity increased with colonialists arriving from France with