The Syrian conflict (civil war in Syria): causes, participants in the armed conflict. methods and forms of conflict resolution
March 15, 2011 against the backdrop of the so-called During the Arab Spring, mass anti-government protests began in Syria. Opponents of the current regime organized several protests in the capital Damascus. Then anti-government demonstrations broke out in the south of the country - in the city of Daraa, located on the border with Jordan.
In April 2011, mass demonstrations demanding radical reforms began throughout the country. People died as a result of clashes with the police.
By the end of 2011, the deepest internal political crisis had developed into an internal armed conflict. The Syrian leadership, which was late in implementing political reforms, did not keep up with the progress of the protests. The demands of the Syrian street, fundamentally Sunni, for democratic rights and freedoms, by analogy with other Arab countries, quickly transformed into slogans for the overthrow of the ruling regime of Bashar al-Assad (he himself is an Alawite; Alawites are a religious minority, an offshoot of Shiism).
The growth of the crisis was facilitated by its unprecedented internationalization with the support of the anti-Assad opposition by regional (Turkey, Arabian monarchies) and external (primarily the USA and France) players. The desire of the latter to change the regime in Syria at any cost has led to the militarization of the conflict, pumping the irreconcilable opposition with money and weapons. Demands for the departure of Bashar al-Assad were combined with the accelerated emergence of “umbrella” opposition structures as an alternative to the regime. The culmination of this process was the creation in November 2012 of the National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary Forces and the Opposition.
In parallel, the formation of the armed wing of the opposition took place under the “roof” of the so-called. Free Syrian Army. Sabotage and terrorist activity over time evolved into large-scale guerrilla warfare in a wide “theater of combat operations.” As a result, significant areas of the country along the border with Turkey and Iraq came under the control of the armed opposition, and the “front line” came close to the capital.
Meanwhile, the logic of the development of the conflict has led to the polarization of Syrian society and the bitterness of confrontation, including on an inter-religious basis. Against this background, the positions of Sunni Islamic radicals (the Al-Qaeda group Jabhat al-Nusra *, banned in Russia, etc.) with their calls for the jihadization of the rebel movement have strengthened in the camp of the armed opposition. As a result, thousands of “fighters for the faith” from all over the Arab-Muslim world flocked to Syria.
According to data at the end of 2015, more than a thousand armed anti-government groups, including more than 70 thousand people, were operating in the country. Of these, tens of thousands are foreign mercenaries, and the majority were extremists from more than 80 countries, including Muslim states, the EU, the USA, Russia and China (Uyghur Muslims).
External support allowed the terrorist organization "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" * (ISIL), later renamed the "Islamic State" * (IS, Arabic Daesh, banned in Russia) to become more active. In the summer of 2014, the Islamic State organization* proclaimed a “caliphate” in the occupied territories of Syria and Iraq.
Militants of the terrorist group "Islamic State" (IS, banned in the Russian Federation) in the city of Raqqa, Syria
A new round of conflict arose in August 2013, when a number of media reported the large-scale use of chemical weapons by Syrian troops in the vicinity of Damascus. More than 600 people became victims of the attack. The Syrian National Opposition Coalition claimed that the number of victims could reach 1.3 thousand people. After the incident, the parties to the conflict repeatedly declared their innocence, blaming their opponents for the incident. UN inspectors traveled to Damascus to collect the necessary tests and biological samples. An investigation by the UN mission confirmed the fact of a chemical attack, but the mission did not determine which side of the conflict used the nerve gas sarin.
The possible use of chemical weapons has sparked a global debate about the need to launch a military operation in Syria. In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the position of those who called for a military solution to the conflict in Syria and put forward an initiative to put under international control Syrian military-chemical potential. On September 28, 2013, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Syria in support of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) plan to destroy Syria's chemical arsenals. At the end of June 2014, the removal of chemical weapons from Syria was completed. At the beginning of 2016, the OPCW announced the complete destruction of Syrian chemical weapons.
Since September 2014, the international coalition led by the United States has been striking ISIL positions in Syria, and the coalition is acting without the permission of the country’s authorities.
American F-22 Raptor fighter jets over Syria
Russia has provided diplomatic support to Syria from the very beginning. Back in the spring of 2011, Russian representatives in the UN Security Council blocked draft anti-Syrian resolutions from Western and a number of Arab countries. In addition, Russia supported the government of Bashar al-Assad with the supply of weapons, military equipment and ammunition, and also organized the training of specialists and provided military advisers.
On September 30, 2015, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad turned to Moscow with a request for military assistance. Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted to the Federation Council a proposal to adopt a resolution on consent to the use of contingents of the Russian Armed Forces abroad; the Federation Council unanimously supported the president's appeal. The military purpose of the operation was stated to be air support for Syrian government forces in their fight against the Islamic State terrorist group. On the same day, aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) began conducting an air operation to carry out targeted strikes on ground targets of terrorists of the IS* group in Syria.
In addition to aircraft, Russia has successfully deployed warships, submarines and coastal missile systems. Some types of weapons were tested in combat for the first time. To search for camouflaged objects and record hits, the Russian Ministry of Defense used many means and reliable sources, including Syrian agents, space reconnaissance satellites and drones. Russian aviation was able to provide constant and continuous strikes against targets of terrorist groups in Syria. With the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces, more than 67 thousand square kilometers of Syrian territory and more than 1 thousand settlements were liberated. Milestones were the liberation of Aleppo (December 2016), the battles for Palmyra, which was cleared of terrorists twice and was finally liberated in March 2017, as well as the liberation of the city of Deir ez-Zor in the fall of 2017.
Shipborne fighter Su-33 of the Russian Aerospace Forces during takeoff from the deck of the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov
As of September 2017, the aerospace forces carried out more than 30 thousand combat sorties, carried out over 92 thousand airstrikes, and as a result hit over 96 thousand terrorist targets. Among the terrorist facilities destroyed by the Aerospace Forces: command posts (total 8332), terrorist strongholds (total 17194), concentrations of militants (total 53707), militant training camps (total 970), weapons and ammunition depots (total 6769), oil fields (212 ) and oil refineries (184), fuel transfer stations and tanker columns (132), as well as 9,328 other objects.
On December 6, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the complete defeat of the Islamic State* on both banks of the Euphrates in Syria. A similar statement was made by the Russian General Staff.
On December 11, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the return of a significant part of the Russian military contingent from Syria.
Two Russian military bases will continue to operate in Syria - the Aerospace Forces in Khmeimim and the logistics support center for the Russian fleet near the port of Tartus. At the same time, it is planned to expand the Russian Navy base in Tartus.
Aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces at the Khmeimim airbase in Syria
According to the UN, more than 220 thousand people have died during the conflict in Syria.
On December 18, 2015, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution in support of the political transition in Syria. As a basis for a political transition in Syria, the UN Security Council approved the Geneva Communiqué of the Action Group on Syria dated June 30, 2012 and the “Vienna Statements” (a joint statement dated October 30, 2015 following the multilateral negotiations on Syria held in Vienna and the statement International Syria Support Group on November 14, 2015). Negotiations between the Syrian government and representatives of the Syrian opposition under the auspices of the UN began in Geneva on January 29, 2016.
Eight meetings took place in Geneva, but they did not bring any progress.
The last Geneva consultations ended in mid-December 2017 with mutual accusations between the parties, and it was not possible to begin direct negotiations between the delegations. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura called the eighth round “a missed golden opportunity” and pointed out that both sides created a negative and irresponsible atmosphere in the negotiations by constantly putting forward preconditions. The main discussions at the talks are centered around a 12-point non-formal document on the future of Syria, proposed by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. In parallel, discussions are taking place on four baskets (constitution, elections, governance and terrorism). On January 25-26, 2018, a special meeting on Syria was held at the UN office in Vienna, dedicated to constitutional issues.
In parallel, negotiations are taking place in Astana to resolve the situation in Syria, initiated by Russia, Iran and Turkey. Eight rounds of negotiations took place, the last one in December 2017. During this time, a memorandum was signed on the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria, a provision was agreed on a joint task force to monitor the cessation of hostilities in Syria, and a number of other agreements were reached that make it possible to begin talking about a political settlement. During the seventh round of negotiations, it was decided to hold the Syrian National Reconciliation Congress in Sochi.
*Terrorist and extremist organizations banned in Russia.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Especially for the Internet portal “Yakutia. Image of the future."
Chief editor of the portal, candidate of historical sciences
Afanasy Nikolaev
The civil war in Syria was preceded by massive anti-government unrest and riots organized by Western American intelligence agencies in different cities of Syria, aimed against the country's President Bashar al-Assad and to end the rule of the ruling Baath Party.
In June - July 2011, these unrest, with the active support of the opposition from outside, escalated into open armed confrontation.
The outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011 was also facilitated by objective reasons, the economic and political crisis, drought, and mass famine.
From 2006 to 2011, 60% of Syria was hit by an unprecedented drought. There was an acute shortage of water, and land desertification occurred. In some regions of Syria, drought has led to the loss of up to 75% of crops and a reduction in livestock numbers by 85%. Back in 2009, the UN and the Red Cross reported that about 800 thousand people had lost their livelihoods as a result of the drought in Syria.
And in 2010, according to UN estimates, 1,000,000 people were already on the verge of famine in Syria. The resulting situation led to a mass exodus of farmers, herders and rural populations to the cities. In 2011, 200 thousand people moved to the city of Aleppo alone. And this does not take into account previous years, as well as Iraqi refugees.
The sharp increase in the urban population in Syria as a result of drought and the resettlement of refugees from Iraq has increased tensions in the cities and contributed significantly to the armed conflict.
All opposition political forces in Syria were banned until 2011. Unemployment in the country was approaching 20%. Demands for social justice united all ethno-confessional groups: Kurds, Alawites, Sunnis, Christians.
The representative of the Patriarch of Moscow to the Patriarch of Antioch, Archimandrite Alexander (Elisov), noted: “The stagnation in political life Syria gave rise to a lot of negativity in society: corruption, rudeness of officials, lack of rights in front of the state apparatus, and so on, which could not but cause discontent among the middle class and low-income citizens. I believe that this is what created fertile ground for unrest. However, the fire to the wick was brought from outside. Military unrest became particularly active after the end of the active phase of the Libyan campaign.”
The dissatisfaction of a significant part of the Syrian population was also caused by the dominant role in the political life of the country of the small Shiite Alawite community, led by the Assad clan. Although President Bashar al-Assad has converted to Sunnism, and the new Syrian constitution assigns the presidency to a Sunni Muslim, the ruling elite is largely, as in the days of Hafez al-Assad, Alawite, while the majority of the Syrian population is Sunni.
Bashar al-Assad is the permanent president of Syria since 2000, the son of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for about 30 years. The Assads came to power as a result of a military coup in the early 70s of the twentieth century, a civil war and the coming to power of the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (Baath).
A key role in the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, as in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, was played by social networks on the Internet controlled by American intelligence services.
About a month before the start of mass unrest in Syria, a new group “Syrian Revolution 2011” appeared on the social network Facebook, calling for a “Day of Wrath” in Syrian cities against the country’s President Bashar al-Assad. The first dates for the political flash mob were set for February 4.
The first anti-government protests in Syria began on January 26, 2011 and were local in nature until the outbreak of an armed uprising in Daraa on March 18, 2011.
These protests began according to the same scenario as similar protests in Tunisia and Egypt. Demonstrators demanded the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad and his government.
At the end of February 2011, the first victims of unrest appeared in Syria.
On March 15, 2011, several hundred people responded to the call of social media and took to the streets in Damascus to demand reforms and a fight against corruption. The next day there was another demonstration in Damascus.
Within three days, an armed anti-government uprising began in the city of Deraa, to which Islamists joined for the first time. Demonstrators took to the streets of the city demanding the “release of political prisoners from prisons.” During the protests, one of the first to be killed was a law enforcement official.
Soon, a series of anti-government protests took place in other cities of Syria. Opposition protests, inspired by the successful revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, took the form of processions that escalated into clashes with the police and were accompanied by acts of vandalism and arson.
Under these conditions, trying to avoid civil war and mass bloodshed, Syrian President B. Assad made a number of concessions.
He publicly acknowledged the partial truth of the opposition’s demands and personally apologized to the family members of the victims. On March 29, 2011, the Syrian government was dismissed and the prime minister was removed. On April 20, 2011, Assad lifted the state of emergency that had been in effect for 48 years. At the end of May 2011, the Government of Syria granted amnesty to political prisoners. President Assad also began to renew the governor's corps.
However, the escalation of violence by the opposition continued. On April 21, 2011, Syrian generals Abo el-Tellawi and Iyada Harfoucha were killed by unknown assailants.
An external factor, Western pressure on the Assad regime, played a significant role in the aggravation of the situation in Syria. For example, on May 9, 2011, in order to support the Syrian opposition, the European Union, at the instigation of the United States, introduced sanctions against the Syrian government.
In May–June 2011, as a result of the intensification of the Syrian opposition with the support of the West, the number of victims during the unrest in Syria began to increase. On June 6, 2011, up to 120 policemen were killed in a clash in Jisr al-Shughour, then 142 people died in the city of Hama, and there were casualties in other cities.
Since the summer of 2011, the Syrian opposition, with external support, began to openly form combat units that began an armed campaign against the Syrian regular army. As a result, violent clashes began throughout the country.
Since the summer of 2011, al-Qaeda militants began arriving in Syria from Iraq ( extremist organization banned in Russia). In January 2012, they created the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, also banned in Russia. Subsequently, this group disintegrated - some of the militants joined the Islamic State, while others retained their independence.
The Free Syrian Army, which united a number of opposition movements, was formed at the end of July 2011.
USA and European countries declared the Free Syrian Army a legitimate representative of the Syrian people and began to openly support it. The Syrian opposition began to receive significant financial and military assistance from Western countries, as well as from Qatar and Saudi Arabia - traditional rivals of Iran and Syria for influence in the Middle East.
On August 27, 2011, a large protest took place in Damascus.
One of the results of the initial stage of the civil war in Syria and the mass unrest of March–August 2011 was the cessation of the country’s tourism business, which previously brought in up to $6 billion annually.
In November 2011, at the instigation of the United States, the Gulf monarchies imposed a series of sanctions against Syria. The sanctions included the cessation of transactions with the Syrian central bank, the freezing of Syrian state assets in its banks, the suspension of air traffic with Syria, and a ban on entry into Arab League member countries for a number of Syrian officials.
In addition, at this time the Arab League imposed a trade embargo (before the conflict, almost 60% of Syrian exports went to Arab countries and 25% of imports came from there).
The European Union also imposed additional sanctions against the Syrian government in November 2011, banning the sale of Syrian oil in the European Union. Revenues from oil sales accounted for up to a third of Syrian budget revenues. It is this source that the EU has cut off.
Thus, by the end of 2011, the legitimate Syrian government, under US pressure, was deprived of almost all of its sources of income.
Simultaneously with increasing external pressure, at the end of 2011, the armed opposition in Syria itself became more active. They temporarily took control of some towns and villages in Idlib province.
However, all these successes were short-lived, and populated areas were again liberated by government forces, and among those killed and captured, more and more often, not Syrians were found, but citizens of various states - from Libya to Afghanistan.
On March 13, 2012, Syrian authorities announced the capture of the city of Idlib. Almost simultaneously with this, artillery shelling of the city of Er-Rastan began. The successes of government forces came against the backdrop of terrorist attacks, such as the bombing of security forces buildings in Aleppo. Fighting and terrorist attacks led to the death of civilians.
Demonstrations against the Assad regime took place in many countries, during which activists destroyed Syrian embassies. Great Britain and the United States recalled their ambassadors from Damascus.
On April 12, 2012, a truce was declared in Syria. At the same time, the authorities announced their readiness to resist any attacks from “armed groups”, leaving troops in the cities. Three days after the start of the truce, the first group of UN observers arrived in Syria.
In the spring of 2012, it became clear that other states were increasingly beginning to take part in the confrontation between the parties to the Syrian conflict. There are reports that the oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf have begun to finance and arm Syrian rebels, and Iran is exporting weapons to Syria and its armed forces are participating in the conflict on the side of the Syrian government.
On June 22, 2012, Turkey, an ally of the United States, openly entered into the Syrian conflict; on this day, Syrian air defense forces shot down a Turkish F4 Phantom fighter over its territory, and a few days later Syrian air defense fired at a Turkish plane searching for a previously shot down fighter.
On July 5, 2012, in the Azez quarter of the Syrian city of Aleppo on the border of Syria and Turkey, as a result of an airstrike by the Syrian Air Force, 5 Turkish trucks that crossed the Turkish border with the support of the Syrian opposition were destroyed.
By mid-July 2012, most of the Idlib province in northern Syria was under complete rebel control, and protracted fighting began in Damascus on July 15, 2012. During these heavy battles, the armed forces of the opposition almost stormed the capital of Syria, the city of Damascus. The situation was critical. Syrian Defense Minister Daoud Rajiha was even killed by a suicide bomber.
On July 23, 2012, the rebels announced the start of a campaign to capture Aleppo, the business center and second most populous city in the country. Armed opposition groups fought with government troops on the outskirts of the city. In the northern direction, they managed to break into the city limits and begin an assault on the local headquarters of the state security agencies. Government troops bombed the city.
At this critical moment for the Assad regime, Iran intervened in the Syrian conflict. In the summer of 2012, armed forces of the Shiite organization Hezbollah, supported by Iran, entered Syria.
Thanks to the support of Hezbollah units, Syrian government forces were able to regain full control of the capital by August 4, 2012 and began to recapture previously lost territories. Against the backdrop of the successes of the Syrian government forces, on September 16, 2012, Syrian Prime Minister Wa'il al-Khalki even announced that the end of the war was approaching.
But already on September 27, 2012, the Syrian opposition announced the launch of a new offensive in Aleppo, which was repulsed by government troops. On October 9, 2012, Syrian rebels took the city of Maarat al-Numan, located on the main highway connecting the country's largest cities - Damascus and Aleppo. This city is of great strategic importance, since it was through it that columns of reinforcements for Aleppo passed through.
From the end of 2012 to the spring of 2015, the civil war in Syria continued with varying degrees of success.
During this period of time, the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (abbreviated ISIS or IS) took the leading role in the Syrian opposition.
Since 2013, IS has actually created an unrecognized quasi-state with a Sharia form of government in the controlled territories of Iraq and Syria. In June 2014, IS declared itself a global caliphate. In Russia, this organization is recognized as extremist and its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation are prohibited.
On June 3, 2014, presidential elections were held in the territories controlled by the Syrian government forces, which resulted in the victory of the current President Bashar al-Assad. The election results were not recognized by the opposition and received limited recognition from the international community.
The creation of an international coalition under the leadership of the United States, supposedly to fight ISIS, and the start of bombing of Syrian territory by coalition aircraft actually led to the weakening of Assad’s government army and the strengthening of the positions of ISIS and the “moderate” opposition.
The situation in Syria began to change dramatically in favor of the opposition in the spring of 2015. Exhausted by many years of civil war and the blockade by the United States and its allies, the Syrian government troops began to lose ground.
On March 28, 2015, anti-government forces took control of the city of Idlib, the capital of the province of the same name. On May 20, 2015, fighters of the Syrian government army left the city of Palmyra, 240 km from Damascus. Troops have taken up defensive positions on the outskirts of the city and are holding the highway to Homs and Damascus.
With the capture of Palmyra, ISIS organized the destruction of world-famous historical and cultural monuments included in the UNESCO list, and also carried out public mass executions of about 400-450 local residents.
In early June 2015, ISIS reached the city of Hassiya, which is located on the main road from Damascus to Homs and Latakia, and captured positions west of the city, posing a potential threat to government forces.
On June 25, 2015, ISIS carried out two incursions. One was a surprise sabotage attack on Ain al-Arab, and the second was directed against government-held areas of the city of Hasakah. ISIS's operation in Hasakah has resulted in the flight of 60,000 civilians. According to UN forecasts, these events will lead to the flight of 200,000 people from Syria.
In July 2015, according to the United States, special forces in the house of the “financial director” of the Islamic state of Abu Sayyaf found evidence of direct connections between Turkish officials and senior members of ISIS.
On September 7, 2015, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), ISIS captured the Jazal oil field, the last one controlled by government forces.
On September 9, 2015, the Abu al-Duhur airbase on the border with the northwestern province of Idlib fell into the hands of militants from the Jaysh al-Fatah group. After the capture of the airbase, the Syrian military was completely driven out of the province.
And only Russia’s intervention in the Syrian conflict and air assistance, starting on September 30, 2015, did not allow the opposition to completely destroy the government of B. Assad.
The positions of Russia and the United States on Syria differ in their assessment of Assad’s role in the conflict. For the United States and its allies, Assad is a probable war criminal who started the civil war with the armed suppression of peaceful demonstrations, using barrel bombs and chemical weapons against the civilian population of the country. The United States insists on the formation of a new government in Syria, including both Alawites with a new leader and Sunnis.
For Russia, Assad is the legitimate ruler of Syria. At the UN, Vladimir Putin called external interference in internal politics Arab countries are the reason for the rise of terrorism in the region.
The conflict in Syria has led to serious destabilization of the situation in neighboring countries, in particular Iraq and Libya. Some armed groups are simultaneously involved in hostilities in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
According to the Al-Watan newspaper, as a result of the civil war and the intervention of American coalition troops, the Syrian economy lost almost its entire oil industry. Oil exports fell by 95% relative to pre-war levels. The volume of supplies of imported goods decreased by 88%. At the beginning of 2011, the export volume was 4.1 billion dollars, at the beginning of 2013 - less than 818 million dollars. Since 2010, oil production has fallen from 370,000 barrels per day to 60,000 barrels per day in December 2013.
Syria's GDP shrank by 21.8% in 2012, 22.5% in 2013, and is projected to fall by 8.6% in 2014.
In March 2014, Walid al-Khalqi, the Prime Minister of Syria, said that the damage from the fighting over the three years of the war amounted to about $31.2 billion.
The Syrian opposition claims that in fact, the damage is 10 times greater and exceeds $300 billion.
Economist Osama Kadi, founder of the Center for Political and Strategic Studies on Syria, believes that it will take at least 10 years to restore 80% of the damage caused by the war. In his opinion, in the first five years after the end of hostilities, it will be possible to restore no more than 50% of Syria’s industrial sector.
The United Nations stated on July 9, 2015 that the number of Syrian refugees who have been forced to flee the country since the start of the civil war in 2011 has exceeded 4,000,000. This is the largest number of refugees from any country in the world in the last 25 years.
In addition, UN observers estimate that another 7.6 million Syrians were forced to flee their homes but still remain in Syria. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said: “This is the largest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation.”
Introduction
Prerequisites
First outbreak and developments
Attempts to resolve the conflict
Analytics
Behind the Scenes Action
War of Controlled Chaos
Conclusion
Introduction
Since late 2010, the world has seen a series of uprisings in Asian and African countries, which have been called the Arab Spring. Later, these uprisings began to develop into more serious conflicts: in some states there was a change of government, and in others the flames of war broke out. The result of all these actions is important not only for the countries within which all this is happening, but also for major players on the world map: the USA, Russia and Europe.
The civil conflict in Syria, which has been going on for more than two years, is still a topic in the world news. In 2011, allegedly due to the population’s dissatisfaction with the authorities and the political regime, a conflict broke out in Syria. Is it so? Consider the latest and longest conflict in the Arab world today - the civil war in Syria. Let us find out the cause of such a conflict, the role of this war in the development of the geopolitical situation in the world in general and in the strategically important region of the Middle East in particular.
We will also formulate some conclusions about the strategy for the course of such events and lessons for the Russian Federation, which from a geopolitical point of view was, is and will be an enemy of the West (the implicit instigator of the war) within the framework of the unofficially ongoing “Cold War”.
Prerequisites
Arab Spring - a wave of demonstrations and coups<#"justify">Arabic spring chaos demonstration
First outbreak and developments
First public demonstration
On March 26, riots broke out in Latakia
The first victims appeared and President Assad made concessions. The Syrian president publicly acknowledged the partial truth of the rebels' demands and personally apologized to family members of the victims. On March 29, 2011, Assad dissolved the cabinet of ministers that had ruled the country since 2003, then on April 20, the state of emergency that had been in effect in the country since 1963, since the Baath Party came to power, was lifted. At the same time, a law was passed prohibiting any demonstrations. Assad began to change governors; according to him, the country's political system needed fresh blood. In particular, it provides for the introduction of a multi-party system, the adoption of a new law on the media, judicial reform, as well as a tougher fight against corruption, which causes particular discontent among the population.
However, the escalation of violence continued. On April 21, 2011, Syrian generals Abo el-Tellawi and Iyada Harfoucha were killed by unknown assailants; the opposition and the government mutually accused each other of this crime.
In May 2011 As one of the first attempts to resolve the conflict, the United States and the EU impose sanctions on Syria (banning arms exports, freezing accounts, depriving Syrian government officials of the right to enter).
August 2011 was marked by internal changes in the political system of Syria - Bashar al-Assad signed a decree introducing a multi-party system.
In September, an attempt was made to resolve the conflict - a draft resolution was introduced at the UN Security Council (USA, UK, France, Portugal). Russia and China vetoed. The reason was determined to be the absence of a clause in the resolution excluding an armed invasion of Syria.
In November, it was decided to suspend Syria's membership in the League of Arab States, and economic sanctions were also imposed against the country.
December 2011 - a new attempt to resolve the conflict - Syria agreed to cooperate with the Arab League, which proposed a peace plan (withdrawal of government troops from cities and release of political prisoners). Observers were allowed into the country, but soon, due to the increase in violence, the Arab League curtailed the observer mission.
In February 2012, another attempt was made to resolve the conflict, but Russia and China again vetoed the new project UN Security Council resolution on Syria, proposed by Morocco. Reason: “unilateral conclusions about the exclusive responsibility of the Syrian government for the escalation of violence in the country.”
Bashar al-Assad approved the draft constitution, according to which the country abandoned the previously legislatively enshrined leading role of the Baath Party. A referendum was held in which the document was supported by 89% of voters.
March 2012 - The EU summit recognized the Syrian National Council as the “legitimate representative of the Syrians”;
April 2012 at 06:00 am a truce was declared.
In May, early parliamentary elections were held, in which several parties took part for the first time, as a result of which 73% of parliamentary mandates were received by supporters of Bashar al-Assad. The opposition boycotted both the referendum and the parliamentary elections.
If we move away from the chronology of the conflict and turn to analytics, we can distinguish three stages of the process:
The first stage is early-mid 2011. During this period, foreign “missionaries” were sent to Syria with considerable financial resources organizing protest demonstrations, inciting clashes with the police, raids on government agencies and police stations. During the demonstrations, they also organized provocations, the purpose of which was to shed blood - and it was during this period that the number of victims among police officers was many times greater than the number of deaths of demonstrators and civilians.
The second stage began when the “missionaries” became “recruiters”, starting recruiting work among marginalized groups of the population. It is worth noting that the economic situation in Syria in the period 2008-2010 was extremely difficult - a severe three-year drought led to mass migration from the north of the country, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees living in Syria and about half a million Sunni refugees from Iraq represented up to still provide extremely fertile ground for this kind of recruitment. The second stage of the conflict led to the fact that the number of people opposing the authorities, ready and capable of destroying the state, robberies, violence, murders, increased sharply - literally by an order of magnitude - within six months.
Finally, the third stage of the process began towards the end of 2011. There was a sharp shift in the situation - recruited robbers, rapists, criminals began to flock into groups and factions, into which experienced leaders immediately began to be introduced - both from among foreigners and from among local criminal authorities. The structuring of underground gangs took place, the supply of weapons and their seizure in the country began. At the same time, the creation of training camps began in Lebanon and Turkey, into which citizens of Islamic countries began to arrive, recruited to fight the bloody regime.
Behind the Scenes Action
Also in post-war years The newly gaining strength of the Soviet Union became one of the most serious opponents of the United States on the world stage. However, more than half a century of open confrontation between Russia and the United States within the framework of the Cold War, which began immediately after World War II, ended with the collapse of the USSR and the catastrophic weakening of Russia. The victorious march of the United States in the 21st century in this confrontation, which is already more complex than the Cold War, is intended to be ensured by the military-strategic plan "Doctrine 2050", which determines US foreign policy and assumes its influence on other countries with the aim of total control and use of them natural resources to achieve world domination. Of course, internal religious-ethnic conflict does exist. But it is not as widespread and irreconcilable as some analysts would like to imagine, thereby, wittingly or unwittingly, fanning the flames of hatred. It is no secret that a real information and psychological war has been unleashed against the Syrian government and the president around the world, at the instigation of a number of interested countries, in which the enemy, as in any war, does not hesitate to use any means. In this situation, the direct distortion of the state of affairs in Syria becomes even more incomprehensible; contrary to obvious facts, the gloomiest prospects for the Syrian leadership are drawn, allegedly due to the internal situation in the country, and the subversive role of a number of Western countries and the Gulf countries is hushed up. It seems that the conflict in Syria arose spontaneously at the will of the rebellious people of Syria, and was not initiated artificially and inflated by a group of Western countries, including the current leadership of France, which is again dreaming of “Napoleonic campaigns in the Middle East” and the United States, as well as the bloody dictatorial regimes of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, dreaming of taking over the most dynamically developing countries of the Maghreb and the Middle East under the American umbrella. And in general, how is it possible today, when Qatari and Saudi troops have not yet washed the blood of thousands of innocently killed Libyan army soldiers and dozens of peaceful demonstrators in Bahrain, from their uniforms, to call a fairly democratic and moderate government in Syria “dictatorial”? Either a liar or a person who has never lived in Syria and uses dubious information sources is capable of this. Leaving aside the political and military components of this conflict, I would like to at least briefly touch on the economic factors of the transformation of Syria in the eyes of the West and the Saudis from a promising partner and one of the most respected countries of the League of Arab States into a “regime of bloody tyranny.” Indeed, even in the context of the global financial crisis, the economic situation in Syria continued to remain stable. Thus, at the end of 2010, the main national macroeconomic indicators looked quite good compared to the world average. Estimated World Bank, the growth of the Syrian economy in 2010 was 4.5%, the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to $17.7 billion. With a small negative balance of foreign trade, exports amounted to $11.9 billion, imports - 13.9 billion. The inflation rate, according to official data, at the end of 2010 did not exceed 3% (for comparison: at the same time in the United States, inflation was 1 .5%, in Russia - 8.8%, in Armenia - 8%). The Syrian government managed to maintain a deficit-free state budget. The implementation of the project for the construction of another gas processing plant has begun, 75 km southeast of the city of Al-Raqqa and 205 km east of Homs. The plant's productivity was planned at 1.3 billion cubic meters. m per year of purified gas and 41.6 thousand tons of LNG. In 2000, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt signed a joint agreement on the construction of the “pan-Arab” AGP gas pipeline. The project was supposed to be launched already in 2010. In May 2010, the capacity of the Egypt-Jordan branch alone was 10.3 billion cubic meters. m of gas per year. It was also planned to build a second line from Jordan to the Syrian city of Homs (the site of recent battles with the so-called “rebels”) and further to Turkey, and in the future to Southern Europe. Shortly before the start of the “Arab Spring” in Syria, an agreement was signed between Syria, Iraq and Iran on the construction of the “Islamic Highway” - a gas pipeline with a design capacity of 110 million cubic meters of gas per day. This agreement was considered as a counterbalance to the Nabucco gas pipeline, the construction of which was frozen until 2013. and which was supposed to pass through Turkey to Europe - through Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. In September 2010, Syria and Iraq signed a memorandum on the construction of three pipelines - two oil pipelines for light and heavy oil with a capacity of 2.5 - 3 million barrels per day and one gas pipeline. At the beginning of 2011, Bashar al-Assad came up with the ideas of the “Four Seas Concept”, i.e. unification of Syria, Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan into a single oil and gas transport system with access to Mediterranean Sea. It was discussed positively with the leadership of Turkey, Iran and Russia. But the most important thing is that any serious participation in all these gas projects of American and Western European companies was not envisaged. Preference was given to the Russian Stroytransgaz. If all these projects are successfully implemented, the consequences are obvious: First, the Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern “European circuit breaker” is moving from the hands of the United States to the hands of Iran, Syria and, to a certain extent, Turkey. While the second “switch” remains in the hands of Russia. Secondly, these pipelines jeopardize the entire oil and gas business of the Saudi and Qatari kings, since the cost of transporting oil and gas to Europe via new pipelines is much cheaper than by tankers around Arabia, and then via the SUMED oil pipeline parallel to the Suez Canal. Finally, such a pipeline system removes the stranglehold of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran and Iraq. War of Controlled Chaos The puppeteers of the “Arab Spring” are so limited in their understanding of the East and the mentality of the peoples of this region that they simply stupidly impose the scheme of liberal European revolutions on the eastern countries and think that it will do. But the financial, political and technological “tails” of this provocation stick out so clearly from under the camouflage that only a blind person could not miss them. In addition, in Syria, as in any other country, there are enough criminals and just people who are permanently dissatisfied with everything. So big money, blackmail, psychological and informational pressure began to do their job, and at the initial stage it was possible to organize desertion from the army, albeit on a very limited scale, but still. With grief, we managed to organize in certain areas in the north and south of the country a kind of insurrectionary movement and put together the so-called. Free Syrian Army. But this was not enough to solve the task of overthrowing Bashar al-Assad with all his economic and political ideas. And then international terrorism and mercenaries of various stripes were involved in the matter. A string of al-Qaeda terrorists and other jihadist militants has reached Syria from Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan and other countries. It is interesting that the greatest activity of terrorist groups is observed precisely in the directions of arms supplies: in the province of Idlib bordering Turkey, in the Aleppo-Hama-Homs direction in the north and in the region locality Daraa in the south, and also on a more limited scale along the Syrian-Lebanese border in the center and north. The main suppliers of weapons and “cannon fodder” for the bloody conflict in Syria are the United States. UK, France, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. At the same time, these countries, having forgotten all shame and decency, are blocking with Al-Qaeda terrorists and are practically openly declaring the existence of “good” (i.e., their own) and “bad” (i.e., foreign) terrorists. Remember Churchill’s famous phrase: “He’s certainly a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” What kind of joint struggle between Russia and the West against international terrorism can we talk about today? Such a formulation of the issue will now only disorient the international and Russian public. So what is taking place in Syria today - a civil war or a conflict of another type, which foreign military-political experts call the 4GW strategy or “fourth generation war”. Through the prism of this approach, the geopolitical goal of the West as a key player in the geopolitical chessboard is to secure its well-being and ensure its dominance in the world. This goal is achieved by destroying or weakening all real or potential geopolitical adversaries and opponents using all the tools of power, including military force. The most effective form of using military force is war. At the same time, the content, character and features modern warfare strikingly different from traditional models of the past. Today we can talk about the emergence of a new type of bloodless wars waged by the West in order to achieve its geopolitical goals. Experts talk about the so-called war of controlled chaos. So what is this new type of war? In the geopolitical coordinate system, the essence of the war of controlled chaos is the geopolitical destruction of the victim state, which is chosen by the customer country as an object of influence. Such destruction is understood as a set of measures to neutralize the geopolitical characteristics of this state (the size of the territory, population, status of the state in the world, economic opportunities, military power, total potential, etc.). The war of controlled chaos allows the West to impose its conditions on other states. At the same time, the war itself becomes as bloodless as possible and minimally costly for the West itself. In the course of a new type of war, some internal political processes are initiated in the victim state, which, in fact, are actions of a strategy of controlled chaos. The true role, place, interests and goals of the customer country are withdrawn from the sphere of public attention, hidden behind "information garbage" and demagogic rantings. The victim country finds itself involved in a state of chaos, and it does not realize this for a long time, trying to solve the problems that have arisen in standard ways and means. A war can last an unlimited amount of time - from several days to several years - or be even more protracted. It is carried on by everyone possible forces, by means and methods, ranging from non-violent to forceful actions. However, the regular armed forces of the customer country often play only a supporting role in such a war and are not necessarily used in invasion operations. In general, the war of controlled chaos involves three stages: escalation of the situation and, through the crisis, instigation of intrastate conflict in the victim country; degradation, ruin and disintegration of the country with its transformation into a so-called “failed” state; the appearance of the West in the role of benefactor and savior, a change in political power. In accordance with the provisions of the charter documents of the US Armed Forces, at the stage of transformation of the victim state into a “failed” state, military intervention by the West acquires legitimate status. If necessary, the US military can undertake invasion operations and then "stabilization" operations. Conclusion The first stage of the war of controlled chaos is the most difficult and ambiguous. The fate of the victim state largely depends on its outcome. Main blow was inflicted on the state of stability in the state. At the same time, the situation in the country developed according to the same general scenario: a mood of discontent has formed in society; a political opposition formed; an internal political crisis arose; the opposition turns to insurrection; an internal conflict arose that developed into a civil war; chaos reigned in the country. This is exactly how the situation in Syria developed. It is quite obvious that this country should have become the next logical stage in the general chain of revolutions of the so-called Arab Spring. How will the war scenario in Syria develop in the future? There are three main options: Assad's victory - the elimination of militants - the restoration of Syria; victory of the militants - overthrow of Assad's power - degradation of Syria; the defeat of the militants - the military aggression of the West - the overthrow of Assad's power - the occupation of Syria. Time will tell what scenario events will develop according to. A lot depends on the true plans of the West, on what kind of scenario for Syria "prescribed" in Washington. Conclusions and lessons for the Russian Federation, which from a geopolitical point of view was, is and will be an adversary of the West. The geopolitical destruction of Russia does not at all mean the physical destruction of the population, the seizure of territory and material assets, breaking the political system and undermining the cultural foundations of Russia. There is only one goal: the dismemberment of the Russian Federation as a single state and the formation of new “independent” countries in the post-Russian space state entities. This goal is achieved within the framework of the concept of war of controlled chaos, which has been tested in Libya and is being implemented in Syria.
There are really few reasons for joy. The fact is that the decline of one global hegemony and the emergence of another, as a rule, is accompanied by large-scale cataclysms that lead to a fundamental change in the world’s “system settings.” In this sense, we can talk about three world wars - the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon (1792-1815) and the cycle that includes the First and Second World Wars in the traditional sense (1914-1945). It seems that the world has now entered a fourth such cycle, the starting point of which can be considered September 11, 2011.
And Obama's current actions show in the best possible way that a new cycle can begin with a new war. And only Russia stands in the way of this.
The conflict in Syria began in 2011. It originated as an internal confrontation between the discontented part of society and the power of President Bashar al-Assad. Gradually in civil war Islamist radicals, Kurds, as well as other countries, including Turkey, Russia, the USA, Iran and numerous Arab states, became involved.
Causes of the war and the first protests
The roots and causes of the Syrian conflict lie in the events of 2011. Then civil protests began throughout the Arab world. They did not bypass Syria either. Citizens of the country began to take to the streets and demand from the authorities the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad and democratic reforms.
In some Arab states, protests did lead to a peaceful change of power (for example, in Tunisia). The Syrian conflict has taken a different path. The first civil protests were unorganized. Gradually, the opposition forces coordinated, and their pressure on the authorities increased. Social networks began to play a big role in what was happening. Groups of protesters were created on Facebook, where they remotely agreed on their actions, and on Twitter people live reported to the network about what was happening on the streets.
The more citizens took to the streets, the more repressive measures the state took against them. In urban areas where protesters were most active, they began to turn off the lights. Food products were confiscated. Finally, the army was involved. The military took up arms in Homs, Aleppo and other major cities of the country.
Sunnis vs Alawites
In March 2011, there was hope that the Syrian conflict would be resolved peacefully. Bashar al-Assad agreed with some of the protesters' demands and dismissed the government. Nevertheless, he himself did not resign from the presidency. By that time, the activity of the dissatisfied had grown so much that it was no longer possible to put out this fire with half measures.
The causes of the Syrian conflict, which began as a purely internal one, were largely ethnic and religious in nature. The majority of the country's population is Arab and Sunni. The political elite of the state, on the contrary, consists mainly of Alawites. This ethnic group professes Shiism. Alawites make up no more than 10% of the Syrian population. Many Arabs rebelled against Assad precisely because of this disproportionate dominance of power.
Since 1963, the country has been ruled by the Baath Party. She adheres to socialist and anti-imperialist views. The party is authoritarian. For half a century, it has never allowed a real opposition to power. This monopoly is superimposed on the conflict between Arabs and Alawites. For the combination of these and some other reasons, the Syrian conflict could not be stopped with soft compromises. The protesters began to demand only one thing - the resignation of Assad, whose father ruled Syria before him.
Military split
In the summer of 2011, the decomposition of the Syrian army began. Defectors appeared, the number of which only increased every day. Deserters and civilian rebels began to unite into armed groups. These were no longer peaceful protesters with an easily dispersed rally. At the end of the year, similar formations united into the Free Syrian Army.
In March, street demonstrations began in the capital Damascus. New demands emerged: the fight against corruption and the release of political prisoners. In June, clashes in the city of Jisr al-Shughour led to the death of more than a hundred people. The Syrian conflict has already claimed thousands of lives, but this was only the beginning. Tourists have stopped visiting the country. Western states, including the European Union, imposed sanctions against the government of Bashar al-Assad and accused the Damascus authorities of killing civilians.
ISIS
Gradually, the forces opposing Bashar al-Assad ceased to be a single whole. The disengagement led to Islamist radicals breaking away from the conditional “moderate” opposition. Jihadist groups have become hostile to both the Free Syrian Army and the government in Damascus. The radicals created the so-called Islamic State (it has several names: IS, ISIS, Daesh). In addition to him, the al-Nusra Front (which is part of al-Qaeda), Jabhat Ansar al-Din and other small groups of this kind also operate in Syria.
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has created a quasi-state in northeastern Syria. His militants also invaded Iraq, where they captured one of the country's largest cities, Mosul. ISIS makes money by selling oil (for example, it owns a large oilfield Jazal).
Islamists destroy museums, destroy monuments of architecture and art. Radicals are persecuting Syrian Christians. Temples are destroyed, churches and monasteries are desecrated. Looters and vandals sell artifacts and ancient utensils on the black market. Before the war, 2 million Christians lived in Syria. Today, almost all of them have left the country in search of safe haven.
Turkish intervention
The first foreign state to openly join the Syrian war was neighboring Türkiye. The main focus of the uprising within the Arab republic was in the north of the country. These provinces border with Turkey. Because of this, it was inevitable that sooner or later the armies of the two states would collide with each other. In June 2012, Syrian air defenses shot down a Turkish fighter that flew into their territory. Soon such incidents became commonplace. The history of the Syrian conflict has entered a new phase.
The rebels who opposed Bashar al-Assad created transit points in Turkey where they received training or restored resources. Official Ankara did not interfere with this. Türkiye since the collapse Ottoman Empire has its own strategic interests in Syria - a large ethnic group of Turkomans lives there. In Ankara they are considered their compatriots.
In August 2016, Turkish tanks and special forces crossed the border into Syria and attacked ISIS militants in Jalabrus. With the support of these formations, fighters of the Free Syrian Army entered the city. Thus, Turkish President Recep Erdogan openly helped the opposition. This offensive was supported by the United States. American advisers participated in the planning of this operation, called the Euphrates Shield. Later, Erdogan publicly declared his desire to overthrow Bashar al-Assad.
Other parties to the conflict
The secular Syrian opposition has found support not only in Turkey. In 2012 they began to openly help her Western countries. European Union and the United States began to finance the opposition. According to various estimates, the amount of money transferred is already more than $385 million. With the money provided, troops opposing Assad purchased equipment, transport, communications equipment, etc. Since September 2014, the Americans and their allies have been bombing positions of the Islamic State. Aircraft from Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are also participating in the operations.
In November 2012, the history of the Syrian conflict was supplemented by another important event. A national coalition was created in Doha (the capital of Qatar), which included the largest opposition political and military associations. The US State Department officially announced support for this faction. The Arab countries of the Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia and Qatar) recognized the national coalition as the legitimate representative of the interests of the people of Syria.
Despite the pressure, the government of Bashar al-Assad is supported by Iran. On the one hand, the Shiite state helps its coreligionists, the Alawites, on the other hand, it fights terrorists, and on the third, it traditionally conflicts with the Sunnis. The parties to the Syrian conflict are numerous; this war has long ceased to be bilateral and has turned into a war of all against all.
Kurds
An important factor in the Syrian war immediately became the question of the future of the Kurds. This people lives at the junction of several states (including Turkey and Iraq). In Syria, Kurds make up 9% of the population (about 2 million people). These are Iranian people professing Sunnism (there are groups of Yazidis and Christians). Despite the fact that the Kurds are a large nation, they do not have their own state. For many years they have tried to achieve broad autonomy in the countries of the Middle East. Radical supporters of independence regularly organize terrorist attacks in Turkey.
The Syrian conflict, in short, allowed the Kurds who lived there to separate themselves from Damascus. In fact, an independent government operates in their provinces on the border with Turkey today. In the spring of 2016, the YPG announced the establishment of the Federation of Northern Syria.
The Kurds who have declared autonomy are in conflict not only with government forces, but also with Islamists. They managed to liberate from ISIS supporters some cities that are now under the control of the new Kurdistan. Some experts believe that in the post-war period, the federalization of Syria will be the only compromise option through which different ethnic groups and religions will be able to live within the borders of one state. In the meantime, the future of the Kurds, like the entire country, is still unclear. The settlement of the Syrian conflict can only occur after the universal enemy of peaceful peoples is defeated - Islamist terrorism, at the forefront of which is ISIS.
Russian participation
On September 30, 2015, Russia's participation in the Syrian conflict began. On this day, Bashar al-Assad turned to Moscow with an official request for help in the fight against terrorists. At the same time, in accordance with the requirements of the law, the Federation Council approved the use Russian army in Syria. President Vladimir Putin made the final decision to send to Syria air force(there was no talk of conducting a ground operation).
Russia in the Syrian conflict used the bases left there since Soviet times. Naval vessels began to be based in the port of Tartus. The Syrian authorities also donated the Khmeimim airfield to the Russian Air Force. Alexander Dvornikov was appointed commander of the operation (in July 2016 he was replaced by Alexander Zhuravlev).
It was officially announced that Russia's role in the Syrian conflict is airstrikes on military infrastructure facilities belonging to terrorist organizations(Islamic State, al-Nusra Front, etc.) We are talking about camps, ammunition depots and weapons, command posts, communication centers, etc. In one of his speeches, Vladimir Putin also stated that participation in the Syrian war allows the Russian army to test modern military equipment in combat conditions (which is actually an indirect goal of the operation).
Although Russian and american planes act in the air simultaneously, their actions are not coordinated. Mutual accusations about the ineffectiveness of the other side's actions often make their way into the press. There is also a popular view in the West that Russian aviation First of all, it bombs the positions of the Syrian opposition, and only secondly - areas controlled by ISIS and other terrorists.
How Türkiye shot down a Su-24
The Syrian war is considered by many to be indirect, since the countries of the Syrian conflict, which are allies of the opposing forces, can themselves become opponents. A striking example of such a perspective was Russian-Turkish relations. As mentioned above, Ankara supports the opposition, and Moscow stands on the side of the government of Bashar al-Assad. But even this was not the cause of a serious diplomatic crisis in the fall of 2015.
On November 24, a Turkish fighter shot down a Russian Su-24M bomber using an air-to-air missile. The crew ejected, but commander Oleg Peshkov was killed during landing by Assad’s opponents on the ground. Navigator Konstantin Murakhtin was captured (he was released during the rescue operation).
Turkey explained the plane's attack by saying that it flew into Turkish territory (the flight took place in the border region). In response, Moscow imposed sanctions against Ankara. The situation was especially acute due to the fact that Turkey was a member of NATO. A year later the crisis was overcome, and at the highest level state level reconciliation occurred, but the Su-24 incident once again demonstrated the universal danger of a proxy war.
Latest events
At the end of December 2016, a Tu-154 belonging to the Ministry of Defense crashed over the Black Sea. On board were artists from the Alexandrov Ensemble, who were scheduled to give a concert for Russian military personnel serving in Syria. The tragedy shocked the whole country.
Another concert also received wide publicity in the press. On May 5, 2016, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra under the direction of Valery Gergiev performed in the ancient amphitheater of Palmyra. The day before, the city was liberated from ISIS terrorists. However, after a few months, the militants regained control of Palmyra. During their stay in the city, they demonstratively destroyed many UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the famous Arc de Triomphe of the 2nd century AD. e. and the Roman Theater.
The essence of the Syrian conflict is that it is a tangle of very different interests. It is extremely difficult to come to an agreement in such conditions. Nevertheless, attempts to overcome disagreements are repeated again and again. In January 2017, negotiations took place in Astana, Kazakhstan. At them, Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed to create a mechanism for observing the ceasefire regime. Previous numerous truces, as a rule, were not actually observed.
Another important news related to the negotiations in Astana is that the Russian delegation handed over to representatives of the Syrian opposition a draft of the country's new constitution. It is believed that the new main law of Syria will help resolve the Middle East armed conflict, which has been going on for 6 years.
