Securitologia No 1/2016 Maciej Paszyn National Defence University, Warsaw, Poland Identification of the non-professional territorial armed formations on the MENA Region Abstract Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is characterized by a high incidence of local intrastate or international armed conflicts. In the vast majority of cases, in these operations are involved the non-professional territorial armed forces. These are military organizations composed of volunteers living various local communities. This article shows the role and significance of these formations on the example of the civil war in Syria. Keywords: armed conflict, MENA region, territorial defence, Syrian Civil War, Free Syrian Army, Peoples Protection Units DOI: 10.5604/01.3001.0009.3835 ISSN: 1898-4509 ISSN: 2449-7436 online pdf E-mail contact to the Author:
[email protected] 121 Maciej Paszyn Introduction Starting from the beginning of the mass anti-government protests called “The Arab Spring”1, 17 December 2010, in the Middle East and North Africa hereinafter referred to as the MENA, observed a significant number of armed conflicts. General character- istics of the listed conflicts defines them in the vast majority, as Non-international, anti- government military operations characterized in certain cases, as the substrate religious and activities of the international organization of Sunni-called “Islamic state” (IS)2. Described conflicts have been observed in areas such countries as Iraq, Yemen, Leb- anon, Libya and Syria. It should be noted that these are unfinished conflicts with highly dynamic events, which making it difficult to conduct research and will outdated infor- mation in certain cases.