Syrie, who's fighting who ?

The proxy war in Syria: ho’s fighting who? 

PLAN

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………………3

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………....4

1. Civil war…………………………………………………………………………………………………………5

1. Arab spring…………………………………………………………………………………………………….5
2. Community dimension:  "politically dominant demographic minority"………....5
3. On the military field: Who is fighting against whom? Who controls what?......6

1. Regional war………………………………………………………………………………………………….7
2. From the regional confrontation to international conflict………………………………8

1. Russia. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..8
2. The United States……………………………………………………………………………………..9
3. Europe……………………………………………………………………………………………………..9

1. Our opinion on the conflict……………………………………………………………………………10
2. References…………………………………………………………………………………………………….11

Abstract

The choice of such a subject is motivated by its timeliness, its geopolitical resonance, the diversity and the multiplicity of actors, internal and external to Syria, in a conflict initially national but which has rapidly become internationalized.
Being a student of Arab-Muslim culture, we feel concerned to understand what is really happening in Syria. And why this war has been going on for a long time and why the situation is so complex?

First, we will describe the situation in Syria in 2011 during the Arab Spring, then how this conflict became regional then international

To answer this problem, we chose to carry out a qualitative study. The qualitative study consisted in gathering useful information concerning the Syrian conflict. We collected our information from several sources such as author's books or websites that deal with the subject. Then we synthesized everything as a summary to trill the information that will be useful to answer our problematic.

Introduction

As part of our geopolitics course, we were asked to do some research work by choosing one of the following topics:

• The religious doctrine as a powerful soft power tool: Case of Wahhabism
• The military alliances as a mean to secure zones of influence: Case of Turkey and Qatar
• The international sanctions as a mean of coercion: the Iran nuclear program case
• The proxy war in Syria: Who’s fighting who?
• The war for talents at an international stage: the murder of scientists
• The control of financial flows: the recycling of petrodollars

My colleague and I chose the following subject:  The proxy war in Syria: Who’s fighting who?

We have chosen this subject because it is a very interesting subject since this research will allow us to have our own opinion on the subject instead of just sticking to the information reported by the media which are often used as propaganda tools. For one of the parties to the conflict. But also, because the subject of the Arab Spring is culturally close to us and we feel concerned by the subject.

The question we are asking ourselves today is “How this local conflict has become progressively regional and now globalized?”

1. Civil War

1 – Arab Spring
In March 2011, young schoolboys, adolescents whose age is that of transgression, write by game on the walls of Deraa in the south of the country the slogan chanted in all Arab streets: "The people want the fall of the regime ". They are arrested by the security services and tortured. Because of this act, the manifestations spread by capillarity throughout the country. Hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrator’s demand democracy and the end of corruption. The regime's forces systematically responded by firing on the crowd, killing and injuring others. At the same time, hundreds of young activists and other civilians are arrested and disappear in the regime's prisons. The daily crackdown is fiercer and provokes new protests and demands for reform. The manifestation / repression cycle continues for months. At the end of 2011, the UN already counts 5,000 dead.

The "militarization" of the revolution is a very controversial turning point, including among Syrian opponents. It begins simply in a logic of defense: it is to protect the demonstrators from the balls of the regime. Civilians take up arms to defend their neighborhoods and villages against abuses by the army and security forces. At the same time, soldiers of the army refuse to fire on their fellow citizens. Some are executed by their superiors while others have no choice but to desert. On 31 July 2011, a statement from deserter officers, refugees in Turkey, announces the creation of the Free Syrian Army and calls on other soldiers to join it. It has small arms that the soldiers took with them and only aims to defend the protesters. The repression of the Syrian army then passes from rifle to gun. In February 2012, the direct investment of the army in the cities makes crossing the conflict an additional threshold in the militarization.

2 –Community dimension:  "politically dominant demographic minority".

Is there not also a community dimension?

It exists because the Assad family belongs to the Alawite community, which has about 10% of the Syrian population but is strongly represented in the army and the security services.

Most of the population’s Sunni (72%) does not accept the political and military domination of a minority community, which denies them access to any position of responsibility.

Admittedly, the Alawites are not in the circle of power Assad or daring to criticize the latter suffer from the same coercion as other communities. Similarly, the regime attempted to co-opt Sunni or Christian personalities. But this dimension of community confrontation has been exacerbated by conflict and regional alliances.

How did the government lose control of part of the territory?

With the generalization of the revolt across the country and the defections in the army, the regime no longer has enough troops to win everywhere. The priority for him is to prevent the insurrection to reach the big cities, by a strong mesh security. Thus, in Damascus, the first manifestations are called "flying demonstrations" because they evaporate before the repression takes place. Escape the control of the regime of rural and peri-urban areas where rebel armed groups have formed locally. A big turning point came in the summer of 2012, when the Free Syrian Army brigades seized a large part of the popular neighborhoods of Aleppo, the second largest city and economic capital of the country. The regular army is yielding under the pressure of the rebel offensive and is also withdrawing large portions of the north-west of the country, around Aleppo and Idlib. The taking of several border posts with Turkey by the ASL allows easier access for men and arms to the rebels, but also the arrival of foreign fighters. The so-called "liberated" areas of regime control are administered by local people who create "Civil Councils" to manage daily affairs. They are bombarded daily by the regime's air force, causing the destruction and especially the departure of tens of thousands of refugees.

3 – On the military field: Who is fighting against whom? Who controls what?

The 4 main forces on the ground:

To the two original actors of this conflict, the regime and the opposition, have gradually added themselves and with their own agenda, Daesh and the Kurdish forces.

1 - The government forces, loyalists to the regime of Bashar Al-Assad today include, in addition to the regular army, militias and other foreign armed groups. In remarkable erosion, they control only a small third of the Syrian territory, mainly in the west of the country, from the capital Damascus to Lattaquieh, including all the coastal zone and the main cities of Homs, Hama and a half Aleppo. This is the essence of what some call "useful Syria", allowing the regime a certain territorial continuity. State services continue to function almost normally in this area, where the population is spared by bombing, since the opposition forces have neither the means nor the will to bomb them. The pro-regime troops fight the various rebel forces on the ground but especially by the air, where they have a decisive supremacy. Their helicopters are dropping explosive barrels daily on rebel areas, killing dozens of civilian casualties. The regime's army says it also fights against Daesh, but in fact very late, much less frequently and with less determination and efficiency than against the Syrian insurgents.