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The Situation in Syria

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Montana Model UN High School Conference Security Council Topic Background Guide Topic 1: The Situation in the Syrian Arab Republic1 15 September 2016 In spring 2011, when the popular uprisings of the “Arab Spring” began across the Middle-East, protests began in a number of Syrian cities calling for President Bashar Assad to resign and for an end to authoritarian rule. In response, the Syrian government used military force against protesters and granted some symbolic concessions. What began as protests has now degenerated into one of the deadliest civil wars in world history. More than 400,000 Syrians, including both combatants and civilians, have died,2 and 11.4 million people, more than half of the country’s pre-war population, has been displaced, either internally within Syria or to neighboring countries.3 In addition, according to the UN Human Rights Council and other human rights organizations, both the Syrian government and rebel groups have committed human rights violations.4 The events in Syria have affected other UN Member States. Shelling from Syria has occurred over the borders of both Turkey and Israel,5 and Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt have received large numbers of refugees. Today, the Syrian civil war has even affected countries beyond the Middle East. The refugee crisis has now extended into Europe, with more than 1.1 million refugees coming to Europe in 2015, including 363,000 Syrians who have lodged asylum applications and many more who have not yet applied.6 Since 2014, a United States-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in the region, marking a major increase in international involvement in the conflict.7 Tension rose even further in October 2015, as Russia began its own airstrike campaign and later deployed ground troops in the region against the wishes of the United States and separatist Syrian groups.8 The conditions within the region and the state of international relations has deteriorated even further since the birth of the militant group known as the Islamic State, also often referred to as ISIS or ISIL, that has strongholds in war-torn Syria and Iraq, and has perpetrated violent acts of terror all around the world. 1 This background guide was written by Karen Ruth Adams and Nicholas Potratz (2013), with contributions from Dani Howlett (2016). Copyright 2016 by Karen Ruth Adams. 2 John Hudson, “UN Envoy Revises Syria Death Toll to 400,000,” 22 April 2016, available at http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/22/u-n-envoy-revises-syria-death-toll-to-400000/. 3 Syrian Refugees, “A Snapshot of the Crisis—In the Middle East and Europe,” available at http://syrianrefugees.eu/. 4 “Annual Report: Syria 2015/2016” Amnesty International, 2016, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle- east-and-north-africa/syria/report-syria/. 5 “How Syria conflict affects its neighbours,” BBC News, 9 June 2013, available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle- east-22815222. 6 Jennifer Rankin, “EU prepares to scale back resettlement of Syrian refugees,” 16 March 2016, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/16/eu-cut-number-syrian-refugees-coming-europe. 7 Matthew Weaver and Julian Borger, “Syrian airstrikes—everything you need to know,” http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/01/syria-airstrikes-everything-you-need-to-know. 8 Ben Quinn, “Russia Military Action in Syria—Timeline,” 14 March 2016, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/14/russias-military-action-in-syria-timeline. According to the United Nations Charter, the Security Council has the primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security.9 Yet, until 2013, when the Council passed a resolution authorizing chemical disarmament (in response to the August 2013 use of chemical weapons in Ghouta, Syria), it was unable to pass any significant resolution related to the conflict. Since then, the Security Council has passed multiple resolutions concerning the conflict, but has been unable to reach political solutions between parties or visibly improve conditions over the course of the devastating five year war. What can the Security Council do to address these shortcomings in its position on Syria, so Syrians can return to their normal lives and the international community can return to greater peace and security? History and Current Events To understand the current situation in Syria and determine how the Security Council should respond, it is important to understand the history of Syria, the origins of the civil war, and the way that human, regional, and international security have been affected by the war in general and by the use of chemical weapons in particular. A Brief History of Syria Historically, modern Syria was part of the Mesopotamian “Fertile Crescent,” where the world’s earliest cities developed around 4000 BC. Until 1850 BC, the region was divided into two countries – Sumer (contemporary Iraq) and Akkad (contemporary Syria). By 1900 BC, both were conquered by the Amorites, who governed the regions as Babylonia and developed science and law, including the Hammurabic Code.10 Assyria broke away from Babylon in about 1100 BC, establishing an empire of its own. From the 9th to the 7th centuries BC, the Assyrian empire flourished and at times stretched from Egypt through contemporary Israel, Lebanon, Syria, southern Turkey, and Iraq to the Persian Gulf, uniting most of the Middle East.11 Scholars have traced Syria’s ancient roots through excavations at sites throughout the country, including the Tall Mardīkh palace near Aleppo, where archeologists found “more than 17,000 inscribed clay tablets, dated to about 2600–2500.”12 Aleppo is contemporary Syria’s largest city and has been the site of much rebel resistance. Since 2011, it has been repeatedly bombed by the Syrian government, reducing “entire areas to rubble.”13 After the fall of Assyria, Syria was ruled by various empires, including the Persian, Macedonian, Greek, Armenian, Roman, and Byzantine. In the 7th century AD, the Syrian city of Damascus surrendered to Arab Muslim forces extending Islam and a centralized Islamic state known as the Caliphate.14 As time went on, the system fragmented into competing caliphs, sultans, and other rulers with different territories, ideologies, and governments.15 During the Crusades (1095-1291), Western Europeans invaded parts of Syria and its neighbors and established a series of small Christian states. After their defeat by local rulers who united Syria and Egypt, the area flourished until 1491, when it was sacked by the Mongols.16 Later Syria was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire 9 United Nations, “Charter of the United Nations,” June 26, 1945, Chapter V, Article 24, available at http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-v/index.html. 10 Encyclopedia Britannica, “Babylonia,” 12 July 2016, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/47586/Babylonia. 11 Encyclopedia Britannica, “Assyria,” 10 June 2015, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/39555/Assyria. 12 Encyclopedia Britannica, “Syria,” 13 June 2016, https://www.britannica.com/place/Syria/Media-and-publishing#toc214617. 13 Liam Stack, “Satellite Images Show Destruction in Aleppo,” New York Times, 7 August 2013, http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/satellite-images-show-destruction-in-aleppo/. 14 Encyclopedia Britannica, “Syria." 15 Encyclopedia Britannica, “Syria." 16 Encyclopedia Britannica, “Syria." 2 based in contemporary Turkey. When Ottoman power began to wane and Egypt invaded and occupied Damascus, Europeans once again became involved, with the British supporting the Ottomans and the French siding with the Egyptians.17 At the end of World War I, control of Syria passed from the Ottoman Empire to France. From 1920 to 1946, France administered Syria as a League of Nations mandate (essentially as a colony).18 After independence, the Syrian government was plagued by instability until Hafez al-Assad established the current government during a 1971 military coup. When Hafez died in 2000, the presidency passed to his son, Bashar, the current president. Although the majority (74%) of the country’s population is Sunni Muslim, Bashar al- Assad has continued his father’s policy of filling Syria’s top government and military positions with family members and people from the minority Alawite (Shiite Muslim) religious community.19 As a result, much of the opposition to the government is from Sunni Muslims and their Saudi and Gulf supporters. By contrast, much of the support for the government is from Shiite Alawites and their Iranian supporters. Origins of the Civil War Inspired by 2011 anti-government protests in Tunisia and Egypt, Syrian protests first began in the city of Deraa and quickly spread to other cities. Protesters called for Bashar al-Assad to step down after four decades of family rule and continued violations of civil rights.20 By June 2011, as many as 100,000 Syrians had participated in protests, and 1,500 had been killed by government forces.21 In response to the regime’s crackdown, numerous opposition groups, including defectors from the Syrian military, gradually took up arms against the regime. Most of the military, however, continued to support Assad. By fall 2011, the fighting between opposition groups and the government’s military forces had escalated to full civil war, with large numbers of combatants on each side.22 Today, this conflict is far from a two-sided intrastate war. The situation is one of unthinkable complexity, with over a thousand militant rebel groups involved in the fighting. Each group not only has their own grievances and ideologies, but each have their own combination of support coming in from countries like the US, Russia, the Gulf States, and beyond. The war has been further complicated and escalated by the rise of ISIS, the powerful militant group that now holds control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.
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