Syrian History
In 1918, Damascus, and Aleppo were captured by British and Arab troops and the French took control over Syria in 1920. British and French troops occupied Syria during world war 2, but when the war ended, Syria became an independent country in 1946.
Bashar Al Assad’s dictatorship in Syria faced widespread resistance during the Arab Spring.
Before The Civil War
Bashar-al-Assad was appointed the president and commander-in-chief of the Syrian armed forces. After the death of Hafez-al-Assad on 10th June 2000. In 2005, the former prime minister Rafic Hariri was killed and Al-Assad was blamed for it. Also, relations between Hariri and Bashar-al-Assad abated among threats.
On 27 May 2007, Assad accepted another seven-year term in a referendum, in which opposition parties were not allowed in the country.
Syrian Civil War
Many Syrians were complaining about corruption, lack of freedom, and high unemployment.
On 26 January 2011 protests began. Protesters demanded the re-establishment of civil rights and political reforms. Protests became wide on 18–19 March. On 18 March 2011, the government violently responded against the protesters, the army opened fire on protesters and killed 4 people. Due to this, the protest spread to other parts of the country.
Arab Spring, which started on 17 December 2010, provoked the war. Arab Spring was a series of protests that spread across Arab and it started in Tunisia.
In April, the US imposed a limited penalty against the Assad government. Canada imposed a penalty on Syrian leaders, incorporating Assad on 24 May 2011.
Syrian citizens did not have much freedom. So on 20th June, concerning demands of protesters and external pressure. Assad assured a national movement towards reform, new parliamentary elections, and much more freedom. He encouraged refugees to return from Turkey.
On 18th August 2011, Barack Obama provided a written statement encouraging Assad to step aside.
By the starting of February 2012, over 5000 civilians and protesters were killed by the Syrian army and 1100 people were killed by terrorist armed forces. Also, children of 15 schools were arrested and tortured for just writing graffiti on walls, and local people started protesting.
Assad gave a speech in which he conveyed that the condition of Syria had been improved by the support of foreign countries. Since Syria had been expelled from Arab League, even in this situation, closed doors from the solutions put by foreign countries till national sovereignty is not damaged by them. He said that a referendum for the new constitution will be held in March.
The US, Turkey, and other nations identified that the referendum was meaningless. In July 2012, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized western powers and provoked a civil war in Syria.
The International Committee Of Red Cross declared Syria in the condition of civil war. It was reported to have caused nearly 20,000 deaths in Syria.
In 2012, people demanded that Bashar-al-Assad should resign. But he did not agree, protesters were extremely annoyed. But still, some people were supporting him and therefore they began to fight against the protesters.
In 2014, Raqqa was captured by Islamic State and Bashar-al-Assad forces were fighting against Islamic countries and each other.
Airstrikes were planned in September 2014 by the US to attack Islamic State and Iraqi fighters. Then, there was a big control of Islam states in Syria.
Years of war have ruined Syria, its cities, villages, and economy.
The US-funded Kurdish fighters in Syria won the victory over the Islamic State. Now, Islam States occupy a few hundred square meters near Syria’s border with Iraq.
Consequences
It was estimated around 90,000 people died by June 2013. In February 2019, it was noted that 13 million people needed humanitarian assistance. Also, 5.2 million in critical need.
According to the UN, more than 5 million Syrians had to leave the country and more than 6 million tried to find shelters. In December 2018, it was estimated more than 367,963 people lost their lives and around 120,000 lost their lives who aren’t soldiers or involved in the fighting.
Present Situation
It’s the 11th year of the war. It resulted in around 400000 deaths and over 13 million people displaced.
Syria has also been going through a refugee crisis since 2011 and it’s the largest refugee crisis in the world. A refugee crisis refers to difficult and threatening situations in which due to various reasons a large group of people is internally displaced.
It was estimated around 6.2 million people are refugees in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. It was estimated that in Lebanon around (1.1 million), Jordan (600,00) and Turkey (800,000). People are facing problems and are not able to get food, proper drinking water, and people are facing difficulties to feed their families. Also, due to war children did not have any excess to education.
It was estimated around 39% of the total population was food insecure and due to the COVID pandemic, it increased to 1million people.
Syrian pound informal exchange rate had already led to inflation across all sectors of the Syrian economy. The food price rises during the government-imposed COVID-19 lockdown and panic generated for inflation and the lockdown ended in late May 2020.
Syrian economy experienced various shocks between 2019 and 2020, which have resulted in the weakening of the Syrian economy and unemployment has increased. Due to war people are living as refugees and facing problems. The prime minister or president should introduce various beneficial schemes and should treat the migrants in the same way by opening schools, jobs and not discriminating against them.
Bashar-al-Assad should be impeached because of his brutality which resulted in protests. UN should help to stop the Islamic State by which Syria will be free from wars and it will surely take time to develop Syria again. But it will be a peaceful country, eventually. I would conclude Syria’s economy is destructed due to civil war.