Syrian Civil War Continues as Russia Raises Involvement

               Situated on the eastern bank of the Mediterranean Sea lies the Syrian Arab Republic, more commonly known as Syria. Similar in size to the state of Washington, but with two and a half times the population; the country shares borders with Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, and Israel, and was a founding member of the United Nations. Although Syria has officially been a country for only 70 years, evidence of settlement in its capital city, Damascus, dates back to the second millennium BC. The population of Syria is dominated by Syrian Arabs and Indigenous Arameans, which make up about 90% of the population, with Kurds making up about 9%, and the remaining 1% being made up of Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, Syrian Turkmen, and Greeks. Most people speak Arabic, the official language of Syria.

Since its inception, the country has often been engulfed in conflict. In the first twenty five years after gaining independence from the French, Syria experienced six military coups, the final of them being led by Hafez Al-Assad, who ruled as President of Syria from 1970 until his death in the year 2000. He was succeeded by his son, Bashar Al-Assad, who has been President from 2000 to present. Although they use the title of President, Syria is a non-democratic one-party state. The country was under Emergency Law from 1970 to 2011, when it was lifted by the government after pressure from anti-government protestors. Under Emergency Law, the Ba’ath Party was able to effectively suspend many constitutional protections, including restricting public assembly to less than five persons, and allowing arrest of anyone suspected of endangering public security and order. Syria’s Emergency Law is believed to have led directly to many human rights violations. The protests that led to its eventual removal in 2011 were sparked by the Arab Spring revolutions.

Just a few months after the removal of Emergency Law, the Free Syrian Army was created by army defectors and began Syria’s ongoing civil war. To date, the civil war has racked up a death toll somewhere between 220,000 and 330,000. It is believed nearly 10.9 million people have been displaced, or about half the Syrian population, with an estimated 3.8 million of them becoming refugees. After four years of fighting between the Bashar Al-Assad backed Syrian government and primarily the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front, as well as Hezbollah, and with recent advancements by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), it is believed the Syrian government now has control of only 30-40% of the country’s territory, and less than 60% of the Syrian population.

Whether the US should intervene in this war has been of much debate over the last few years. With reports of chemical weapons being used on Syrian citizens by the Al-Assad regime, some say it is necessary. Over the past year or so, the US has been providing logistical and military support to the Syrian Opposition, but have not put any boots on the ground as of yet. But while we debate involvement, Russia has taken action. With the loss of the last Syrian army base in the province of Idlib after a two-year siege, Russia has sent tank landing ships, additional aircrafts, and a small number of infantry troops to assist the Al-Assad regime. Russia’s support of the Al-Assad regime, while the US supports the Syrian Opposition, has heightened tensions between the two world powers. Although both countries claim the Islamic State as their enemy, with the US using Syrian air space to provide air strikes to the Islamic State, increased Russian presence raises the possibility of the two powers encountering each other on the battlefield. In light of this, Russia has recently called upon the United States for military-to-military cooperation to avert “unintended incidents” as it performs navy exercises off the coast of Syria. For more information on Russia’s current involvement check out Reuters.com.