Syrian Uprising

On the global news, there is a big conflict going on in Syria. I ,myself do not know a lot about what is currently happening in Syria,but I will try to explain. The Syrian Uprising has been going on since January 2011 till now. This violent conflict happening in Syria is connected to the Arab Spring, which is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world. In Syria, protesters demanded for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, and an end to the Ba’ath Party.

This all started when a group of  school boys wrote on a wall saying, “As-Shaab / Yoreed / Eskaat el nizam!”: “The people / want / to topple the regime!” Soon after, the local police arrested them and tortured them. The arrested boys were from almost every big family of Daraa: the Baiazids, the Gawabras, the Masalmas and the Zoubis. This caused  protesting outside the governor’s house, but they replied with shooting down the protesters. And soon, the protesting grew exponentially.

Due to the protesting from the Syrian civilians, the government has arranged  the Syrian Army to suppress the protesters. Tens and thousands of people have been killed, and more and more civilians are being killed.  Based on witnesses, soldiers who refused to open fire on civilians were also executed by the Syrian Army. But these insurgents have also been forming fighting units  under the the Free Syrian Army and fought in an organized fashion. The civilians on the other hand lack an organized leadership causing more people to be injured. To escape the violence, tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan,  Lebanon,and Turkey.

Many countries have disapproved of the use of violence against the protesters and the state of human rights in Syria has always been criticism from global organizations. Syria has been failing to improve their state of human rights since the rule of Hafez al-Assad. All other political parties have remained banned, making Syria a one-party state without free elections. Rights of expression, association and assembly are strictly controlled in Syria. Human rights activists and other critics of government were often times detained and tortured. Women and ethnic minorities have also faced discrimination. Syrian Kurds have always been labeled as “foreigners” because the government is dominated by the Alawites, it has had to make some gestures toward the majority Sunni sects and other minority populations in order to retain power. Which has brought up sectarianism. The opposition is dominated by Sunni Muslims, whereas the leading government figures are Alawites, affiliated with Shia Islam. Thus, the opposition is winning support from the Sunni Muslim states, whereas the government is supported by the Shia dominated Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah.

The standard living in Syria has deteriorated due to the reduction of support for the poor making  high youth unemployment rates,  the erosion of subsidies for basic goods and agriculture etc.

It seems that this Syrian Uprising is still going to continue, but there has been a lot of peace proposals and plans to resolve the 2011–2012 Syrian uprising. I hope there will be a solution soon.

click here to read my response on the Syrian Uprising

Citations

FreedomHouse2. “Hundreds of Activists in a “Freedom Convoy” Who Tried to Enter Syria from aaaaaaaaaTurkey Wave the Pre-Baath Flag Adopted by the Syrian Anti-regime Opposition aaaaaaaaabefore Being Stopped at a Border Crossing outside the City of Kilis on March 15, aaaaaaaaa2012.” Flickr. Yahoo!, 17 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 June 2012. aaaaaaaaa<http://www.flickr.com/photos/syriafreedom2/6842428702/&gt;.

Post, Global. “How Schoolboys Began the Syrian Revolution.” CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 25 aaaaaaaaaApr. 2011. Web. 03 June 2012.

“Syria.” The New York Times. 01 June 2012. Web. 03 June 2012.