...Revolution to Civil War By Maya Bhardwaj Abstract: social movements and regime change across the Middle East and North Africa. While interconnected, uprisings in each nation took different forms and reached out distinctions and interactions between uprisings, revolution, and civil war. standing scholarly debate. The presence or absence of civil war is examined in examinations of civil war: the nature of the governmental regime, territoriality complete understanding of what constitutes civil war and provides a framework 76 Introduction the Middle East, authoritarian regimes thought invulnerable to protest and impossible to oust began to cede to massive protest. Attacks on governmental institutions and elite leaders ensconced from public opinion developed divergently in each nation, employing tailored strategies to mobilize the public and reap key support. This paper focuses on the nature and development of these Arab Spring further use these distinctions to illuminate the conceptual, instrumental, and semantic nature of civil war in general. - exacerbated the grievances felt by rebel forces and smoothed over ethnic, religious, and tribal ten- trastingly, in Syria, instances of mild reform under Bashar al-Assad, popular concerns for security, kept civil war at bay. Conceptual Isolation of Civil War presence or absence of civil war. However, the scholarly distinction between civil war and other insurgency and counter-insurgency, uprisings, genocide or genocidal...
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...Not To Do The violence in Syrian began in March 2012, but what led up to it began back in 2011; fifteen school children were arrested and tortured for writing anti-government graffiti on a wall, which led to a small protest that took place on the streets of Deraa, Syria. In response the Syrian government opened fire on the crowd of protest which left four innocent Syrian civilians dead. The following morning fire was opened during the victim’s funeral leaving another innocent civilian dead. Civilians were left devastated and angry for the innocent people that had been killed during the peaceful demonstrations; which then led to Syrian population demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. Up to this point in time the violence has worsened and escalated which has left the country crippled by civil war. US involvement in Syria will be tough, but Syria needs our help. Stop the bloodshed! With the death toll rising how can we as humans stand by and allow innocent civilians to be murdered and slaughtered in a war that has nothing to do with them. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the toll since the beginning of the 29-month uprising now stands at 110,371 people, with at least 40,146 civilians killed including nearly 4,000 women and more than 5,800 children. Craggs, Ryan. "Syria Death Toll: More than 110,000 Dead In Conflict, NGO Says." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 01 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. How many Syrian civilians need to die before...
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...The “Arab spring” also known as the Arab revolution is referred to a revolutionary wave of demonstrations, protest, and violence occurring in the Arab world in the Middle Eastern and North African regions beginning in December of 2010. The Arab spring has had a large impact on the worlds foreign affairs for the past 3 years. Many Arab countries in the last few years have had their own revolutions and protest almost reaching levels to be considered civil wars. The largest and most violent demonstrations have been and are currently happening in a country on the western border of Iraq and south of Turkey known as Syria. Syria has been in an inner conflict since the country won its independence from France in 1946. Though recently because of the large amount of different social ethical and religious groups all looking for power and authority in the same region, the country has been in a violent turmoil. To get a better understanding on why and how Syria has fallen into this state of power struggled violence you should first look at the other countries involved in todays Arab spring and how this whole mess started in the Arab world. On December 17, 2010, in a small North African country called Tunisia, a twenty six year old street vendor by the name of Mohamed Bouazizi started a revolution that would change the world forever. Earlier that day Mohamed had been selling goods from his wheelbarrow in his rural home town when local authorities seized his wheelbarrow and all of his goods...
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...NOTE: PLEASE DELETE INSTRUCTIONS AS YOU FILL THIS TEMPLATE OUT ISSUE: * Two and half years have now passed and the Syrian civil war is getting further out of control with no clear indication of things getting better anytime soon. If anything the situation in Syria is getting worse by the day. Syrian Civilians are fleeing the country to neighbouring borders such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, in hopes of a better future for their families. Unfortunately thousands of people have already fallen victim to shameless crimes committed by the Syrian government, with no end in sight. BACKGROUND: * Syria has seen constant unrest for the better part of almost two and a half years. Close to 100,000 people have been killed and millions of Syrians displaced due to the internal conflict that has now become a full-blown civil war. The killing started when peaceful protests inspired by earlier revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia rose up to challenge the dictatorship running the country; namely President Assad. Government forces started quickly kidnapping, killing, torturing, raping, and mutilating bodies of activists and their families before dumping them on the sides of roads. Then troops simply disregarded any judgement of humility and simply just started opening fire amongst crowds of people. Eventually, civilians started shooting back. Syria’s government has been trying to supress a popular uprising amongst its civilian’s since March 2011 after the arrest and torture of a...
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...DISCUSS THE SYRIAN CRISIS Historical Background Syria is described as a country of fertile plains, high mountains and deserts, and is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shia and Arab Sunnis, the last of who make up a majority of the Muslim population. Syria gained its independence from France in 1946 and united with Egypt from 1958 to 1961 after which a pan-Arab nationalist Baath (Renaissance) party took control in 1963. The Alawite minority (constituting about 12 % of the total population) has exercised monopoly over the political leadership of the country for almost four decades with notable support from the Christian community that is anti- Islamist. The Baath government has seen authoritarian rule at home and a strong anti-Western policy abroad, particularly under President Hafez al-Assad from 1970 to 2000. In 1967 Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel after the Arab defeat in the Six Day War. Civil war in neighbouring Lebanon in the 1970s allowed it to extend its political and military influence in that country. Syria pulled its forces out of Lebanon in 2005, having come under intense international pressure to do so after the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A UN report implicated Syrian and pro-Syria Lebanese officials in the killing, although Damascus still denies any involvement, (CBC News). BBC News reported that in 2011-12 the Syrian Government, run by Bashar...
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...citizens feel that they have limited or no freedom. When people feel as though they lack civil rights they are unhappy, and likely to revolt. When people are not treated fairly they have a tendency to want to either leave or fight back, making the state a difficult place to live. How they government handles rebellious situations is important to the future wellbeing of their state. The country’s economic development is crucial to the survival of a country, without a growing and strengthening economy a state is not likely to progress. If the economy is in crisis the state is destined to fail. Lack of education is...
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...When did the crisis start? Anti-government demonstrations began in March of 2011, part of the Arab Spring. But the peaceful protests quickly escalated after the government's violent crackdown, and rebels began fighting back against the regime. By July, army defectors had loosely organized the Free Syrian Army and many civilian Syrians took up arms to join the opposition. Divisions between secular and Islamist fighters, and between ethnic groups, continue to complicate the politics of the conflict. What is happening to Syrians caught in the war? More than four years after it began, the full-blown civil war has killed over 220,000 people, half of whom are believed to be civilians. Bombings are destroying crowded cities and horrific human rights violations are widespread. Basic necessities like food and medical care are sparse. The U.N. estimates that 7.6 million people are internally displaced. When you also consider refugees, more than half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million is in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, whether they still remain in the country or have escaped across the borders. Where are they fleeing to? The majority of Syrian refugees are living in Jordan and Lebanon, where Mercy Corps has been addressing their needs since 2012. In the region’s two smallest countries, weak infrastructure and limited resources are nearing a breaking point under the strain. In August 2013, more Syrians escaped into northern Iraq at a newly opened...
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...Every time the news is turned on I can’t help but wonder where humanity has gone. Right now politics is in full movement and one of the biggest controversies talked about is whether or not to let Syrian Refugees into America and more oppose to it then not and that’s where I wonder what has happened to humanity? Syrian Refugees are fleeing for safety every day. Terrorist groups such as Isis are taking Syrian Refugees homes from them but there is no reason they should be able to keep the refugees from finding new ones. Syrian Refugees just like any person deserves a home and a safe place to be. Other countries such as France is showing that they are strong enough to overcome the fear they have and remain true to their values America needs to...
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...after the Civil War. 1. Sri Lankan government policy towards India against support of China - Sri Lankan government had a foreign policy towards India that was not supportive of China and that has led to a strained relationship between these two Nations. Tamilian issues were not completely addressed by Sri Lankan foreign policy and the recent atrocities against Tamil provoked the Tamilnadu state to pressurize the central government though this is Sri Lanka internal policy but in its foreign policy they couldn’t relate to the sentiments of Tamil people in India. The Indian government did not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Summit which was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The protest of the Sri Lankan Government towards the Tamils of Sri Lanka forced the Prime minister of India to stay away from the CHOGM summit. The long civil war with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka did not patch up the relations between Sri Lanka and Tamilnadu and Tamil people forced Prime minister of India to boycott CHOGM. 2. Somalia’s foreign policy influenced by Muslim fundamentalism - In Somalia, the foreign policy of this country was influenced by Muslim fundamentalism and it became a safe haven for terrorists and pirates. The entire area around Somalia is under the influence of Militia and terrorist groups. These extremists were not taken care of by the Somalian government and the...
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...Robert F. Obeji April 26, 2014 EC: 462 Prof. Rush Policy and History of the Arab Spring in Syria As the Arab Spring developed throughout the Middle East in early 2010, countries such as Tunisia and Egypt adopted peaceful solutions to transition from authoritative governments to democratic inspired political systems. In Syria, the situation was different, the country unraveled into chaos as groups sought to gain power over each other in an attempt to oust Bashar Al Assad’s 70 year old regime. What happened was four years of warfare without end in sight, and 6.5 million Syrian refugees seeking asylum outside of Syria. Compared to the whole of the Middle East, Syria as a country tends to be one of the most diverse in the region. Syria has numerous sects of Islam, Christians, Jews, and foreign religions in an area the size of Ohio. It also has the Kurds in the North who consider themselves outside of the Arab-centric culture. When Hafez Al Assad took power in the early 1970’s, he adopted a nationalistic view as his minority group would be contested by the majority Sunni population (theatlantic.com). Prior to adopting that policy, the Baath party was ruled by Gamal Abdel Nasser who united Egypt and Syria as part of the United Arab Republic. Nationalism took effect throughout the Middle East as the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and France started to lose its grasp over the region. Nationalism was a way to unite a divided people against a common foe. After realizing the dream of...
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...are all amongst Syrian refugees who are trying to escape a hostile environment they once called their homeland. Have you ever wondered where approximately half the population of Syrian refugees escaped to? According to (worldvision.org) “more than 700,000 Syrian refugees and other migrants risked their lives to travel to Europe.” Many of those migrated to places in the middle-east, and places in Europe; such as Germany, a place of peace and a country who welcomed these refugees to its motherland. What are all these Syrian refugees running from? The answer is a war. Hundreds and thousands of men, women, and children are all fleeing the Syrian civil war that...
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...In March 2011 Syria’s government, led by Pres. Bashar al-Assad, faced an unprecedented challenge to its authority when pro-democracy protests erupted throughout the country. Protesters demanded an end to the authoritarian practices of the Assad regime, in place since Assad’s father, Ḥafiz al-Assad, became president in 1971. The Syrian government used violence to suppress demonstrations, making extensive use of police, military, and paramilitary forces. Amateur footage and eyewitness accounts, the primary sources of information in a country largely closed to foreign journalists, showed the Syrian security forces beating and killing protesters and firing indiscriminately into crowds. Opposition militias began to form in 2011, and by 2012 the conflict had expanded into a full-fledged civil war. In mid-January 2012 the credibility of the monitoring mission seemed to decline further when a delegation member who had resigned from the group called the mission “a farce,” claiming that Syrian government forces had presented the monitors with orchestrated scenes and restricted their movements. After several Arab countries withdrew their monitors over concerns for their safety, the Arab League formally suspended the monitoring mission on January 28, citing an increase in violence as the reason. Violence seemed to accelerate after the failure of the Arab League monitoring mission. In early February 2012 the Syrian army began a sustained assault on Homs, bombarding opposition-held neighborhoods...
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...The Arab Spring: A Year Of Revolution [pic][pic][pic] [pic] Tunisians protest outside the gates to the French Embassy in Tunis. Arab Spring began in Tunisia when a fruit vendor set himself on fire in protest in front of a government building. Tunisians protest outside the gates to the French Embassy in Tunis. Arab Spring began in Tunisia when a fruit vendor set himself on fire in protest in front of a government building. 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi was getting ready to sell fruits and vegetables in the rural town of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia.Bouazizi was the breadwinner for his widowed mother and six siblings, but he didn't have a permit to sell the goods. When the police asked Bouazizi to hand over his wooden cart, he refused and a policewoman allegedly slapped him.Angered after being publicly humiliated, Bouazizi marched in front of a government building and set himself on fire.His act of desperation resonated immediately with others in the town. Protests began that day in Sidi Bouzid, captured by cellphone cameras and shared on the Internet.Within days, protests started popping up across the country, calling upon President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his regime to step down. About a month later, he fled.The momentum in Tunisia set off uprisings across the Middle East that became known as the Arab Spring. Mixed Success In Egypt Along with Tunisia, Egypt has been viewed as a victory.Esraa Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian democracy activist known as "Facebook Girl" for her social...
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...Wednesday of the human cost of Syria's civil war, saying the death toll has exceeded 60,000 in 21 months - far higher than recent estimates by anti-regime activists. The day's events illustrated the escalating violence that has made recent months the deadliest of the conflict: As rebels pressed a strategy of attacking airports and pushing the fight closer to President Bashar Assad's stronghold in Damascus, the government responded with deadly airstrikes on restive areas around the capital. A missile from a fighter jet hit a gas station in the suburb of Mleiha, killing or wounding dozens of people who were trapped in burning piles of debris, activists said. Gruesome online video showed incinerated victims - one still sitting astride a motorcycle - or bodies torn apart. "He's burning! The guy is burning!" an off-camera voice screamed in one video over a flaming corpse. It was unclear if the government had a military strategy for attacking the gas station. At least one of the wounded wore a military-style vest often used by rebel fighters. Human rights groups and anti-regime activists say Assad's forces often make little effort to avoid civilian casualties when bombing rebel areas. Syria's conflict began in March 2011 with protests calling for political change but has evolved into a full-scale civil war. As the rebels have grown more organized and effective, seizing territory in the north and establishing footholds around Damascus, the government has stepped up its use of airpower...
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...------------------------------------------------- THIS HOUSE WOULD ARM THE SYRIAN REBELS (from idebate.org) Syria, a relatively small but pivotal Middle Eastern Country, has been on a downward spiral since March 2011 when there were peaceful street protests calling for the President, Bashar al Assad, to step down. Assad responded with force, firing on the protestors in Daara on 21st March, and within a week demonstrations and some clashes in six of the twelve provincial capitals. Quelling Daara with force was followed in late April with violent clashes in Homs which in turn escalated nationwide on April 22 when more than 100 demonstrators were killed across the country.[1] Some among the protestors responded to force with force and formed the Free Syrian Army at the end of July whose organisation was enhanced by defections from the Syrian army.[2] Peace attempts have failed[3] and the country is now involved in a full scale civil war between rebel groups, that want to overthrow the government as inspired by the other Arab spring revolutions, and Assad's government. The civil war is compounded by the fault lines that run through Syria's history, the government is supported by a Shi'ite sect called the Alawites, that have historically been a persecuted minority but under Bashar's father, Hafez who was president from 1971 to 2000, they rose to prominence. Sunnis, the majority, want to return to political dominance, but these are not the only two groups, there are also Christians...
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