What's really happening in Syria. First, in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, the Assad regime is consolidating its power after months of fighting with rebels. “Battles,” as happened in Aleppo at one time, are nothing more than a war crime: Russian and Syrian planes continuously strike civilian population and civil infrastructure - both night and day. No one in the world will even mention what is happening during these “battles.” Southern Damascus is under ISIS control (an organization banned in Russia - editor's note). There is no doubt that they will be the next target of total destruction and murder.
Secondly, a huge flow of refugees from areas close to Damascus to northern Syria is already underway and will increase in the near future. The Assad regime is encouraging Sunni citizens to leave their places and move to the north of the country. Russian forces provide the ability to move this flow.
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InoTVIT 04/12/2018 Thirdly, virtually the entire north of Syria has turned into a Turkish security zone in which the army of this country is stationed. Erdogan's Turkey becomes the patron state of Islamic insurgent movements and the Sunni population that has fled other parts of the country. It appears that only Ankara's fears of Moscow's reaction are preventing the Turks from taking control of Aleppo, much of which is controlled by Russian forces.Fourthly, these days new borders of Syria are being formed: the Turks are in the north of the country (except for one Kurdish enclave), nearby is the large enclave of Idlib, which is controlled by Islamic rebels receiving Turkish patronage. This is approximately 15% of Syrian territory. In northeastern Syria, the Kurds, who are supported by the United States, hold power. This is almost 30% of the country's territory. There is a lot of oil and gas in this area. Hezbollah has taken control of mountainous areas in western Syria. In the Golan Heights, Israel maintains its interests. Formally, Assad controls 50% of Syria. However, he is not the real owner. They are Russia and Iran.
Fifth, former US President Barack Obama ignored the genocide that took place in Syria, and thereby opened the gates of this country to Russia. The original sin lies with him. Is Trump repeating the policies of his predecessor? On the one hand, he wants to escape responsibility and abandon the Kurds, who did the “dirty work” for the United States in defeating ISIS. On the other hand, it is difficult for him to ignore the use of chemical weapons and limit himself to minor actions. What will he decide? We don't know yet.
InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.
Like Israel, Syria was artificially formed by the victors of the world war, who united hostile nations and religions within the same borders. In 1918, France and Great Britain drew a new country on the map of the defeated Ottoman Empire, where Sunni Muslims (according to various estimates, 60–75% of the population) made up absolute majority over Alawites, Shiites, Kurds, Druze and Christians. At the same time, both the French colonialists and the future Syrian dictators, following the policy of “divide and rule,” supported minorities in opposition to it.
“Ethnic map of Syria. Photo: wikipedia.org”
What kept Syria from collapse for almost 100 years?
First, a patriotic impulse in the struggle for independence - French troops were withdrawn from the country only in 1946. Later, they were united by a common enemy, Israel, and pan-Arabism - a political movement that sought to unite all Arabs into one state, regardless of the versions of Islam they professed. In 1970, another coup brought to power the commander of the air force and air defense, Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite. He set a course towards building a secular state relying on the army and intelligence services. In 1982, tens of thousands of civilians were killed during a government assault on the Muslim Brotherhood-held city of Hama. After this and until the start of the current Syrian crisis, the Islamists did not show themselves seriously.
Group photo of dictators: Hafez al-Assad, Syria; Idi Amin, Uganda; Anwar Saddath, Egypt; Muammar Gaddafi, Libya. 1972, no one has lived to this day. Photo: AFP/EAST NEWS
Who are the Alawites, and how did they come to power?
Alawite affiliation with Islam is not recognized by all Muslims. Their faith combines the principles of Shiism, elements of Christianity, Zoroastrian mysticism and belief in the reincarnation of men. Alawites keep their customs secret, so they are known about them, for the most part, from the words of ill-wishers. It is believed that they perform namaz 2 times a day, celebrate Christmas and Easter, have no ban on alcohol, deny Sharia and Hajj, and pray in their native languages.
Making up about 12% of the Syrian population, Alawites have long been the poorest and most disadvantaged caste. Having received the protection of the French administration, many Alawite families sought a way out of poverty by choosing a military career for their sons. So over time, they formed the backbone of the officer corps that brought the Assad family to power.
Is Bashar Assad a dictator?
In 1997, Basil Assad, Hafez’s eldest son, who was preparing to be his successor, crashed in his Mercedes on the way to the airport. The younger Bashar was immediately summoned from London, where he was building a career as an ophthalmologist under a pseudonym. He was elected president with a result of 97.29% in a referendum held after the death of his father in 2000.
Assad was the most pro-European of the Middle Eastern leaders. He wore jeans, often drove his Audi A6, dined at fancy Damascus restaurants and married a London-raised J.P. Bank employee. Morgan Asma Akhras, who became one of the most elegant first ladies in the world. The changes were not only external. Under Bashar, Syria's first civilian government in decades was formed, Internet access was liberalized, many political prisoners were released, private banks were allowed to operate, and the country's first independent newspaper, the illustrated humorous booklet Lamplighter, was launched.
Bashar and Asma Assad. We've known each other since childhood, married since 2000. The couple has two sons and a daughter. Photo: Abd Rabbo-Mousse/ABACAPRESS.COM / EAST NEWS”)
However, the very first manifestations of democracy seemed dangerous to the president. After a series of speeches by the capital’s intelligentsia demanding the abolition state of emergency, established in Syria back in 1963 (!), new political prisoners appeared and “The Lamplighter” ceased to be published. In 2007, Syrians were denied access to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and many news sites. That same year, Bashar al-Assad was re-elected president with a score of 97.6% in favor.
One of the “Lamplighter” cartoons, for which its author Ali Ferzat had his arms broken by security officers in 2011. Photo: Ali Ferzat
What was the cause of the 2011 uprising?
From 2006 to 2011, Syria suffered from a record drought. Several consecutive years of poor births resulted in the destruction of more than 800,000 peasant farms, and almost 1.5 million people were forced to move to cities where they did odd jobs. This migration overwhelmed already overcrowded cities. From the 1950s to 2011, Syria's population grew from 3.5 to 23 million inhabitants. Work, food, water - all this has become scarce. The underlying religious discord and dissatisfaction with the regime, driven underground by the security forces, were now aggravated by the economic situation.
What was the reason for the uprising in 2011?
Protest sentiments among the Sunni poor were fueled by successful opposition protests in neighboring countries. The Arab Spring in Syria began with the appearance of a lot of political graffiti. In February, in the southern city of Daraa, a dozen schoolchildren aged 10 to 15 were arrested for graffiti and beaten by police. They belonged to influential local families, and hundreds of people took to the streets to demand the boys' release. The security forces opened fire.
In 2011, the number of political graffiti in Syria increased so much that balloons spray paint started selling using ID cards. Photo: Polaris / EAST NEWS
Tribal ties and customs are still strong in these places - one's own must be protected, blood must be avenged - and thousands gathered for the rally. The more often the security forces fired, the more numerous and violent the demonstrators became. On March 25, after Friday prayers, 100,000 people rallied in Daraa, 20 of them were killed. The protests instantly spread to other cities. Everywhere the authorities responded with violence.
April 2011, demonstrators demand an end to the government siege of Daraa. Photo: AFP/EAST NEWS
How did the war start in Syria?
More than a third of Syria's population were young people aged 15-24, among whom the unemployment rate was particularly high. In the spring and summer of 2011, after every Friday prayer, which Sunni imams used for political information and propaganda, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets across the country. Soon the police were unable to contain them, and military operations began against the opposition. Cities were surrounded and cleared using military equipment and aircraft. The reaction was mass desertion of Sunnis from the army and the creation of an armed wing of the opposition - the Free Syrian Army. Already at the end of 2011, clashes between protesters and authorities turned into street battles.
After a government air strike, smoke rises from the rebel-held town of Douma, south of Damascus. Photo: AFP/EAST NEWS
Who supports the parties to the conflict from abroad?
At the regional level Civil War in Syria is another episode of confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites. The main support for the opposition comes from the Sunni oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf (primarily Saudi Arabia and Qatar) and Turkey, whose interests include weakening their neighbors and gaining the status of the main power in the region. The local Shiite superpower Iran, which recognizes the Alawites as its own, seeks to maintain a continuous zone of influence to the Mediterranean Sea through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. Only the Iranian and Lebanese troops that came to the rescue helped Assad survive at critical moments of the war.
Russia continues the Soviet policy of supporting Arab regimes opposing the United States. After the fall of Gaddafi in Libya, the Assad government was the last of them.
Satellite images of Basil Assad Airport in Latakia. According to the latest data, four Russian Su-30 multirole fighters, twelve Su-25 attack aircraft and seven Mi-24 attack helicopters are already based there. Photo: Airbus DS/Spot Image
The administration of Barack Obama categorically did not want to be drawn into another war against the backdrop of continued fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but found itself hostage to its status as the main defender of democracy. However, American assistance turned out to be insufficient for the victory of the Syrian opposition, and now that its main impact force became Islamic radicals, and was completely questioned.
In February 2015, the opposition fired mortars from the city of Douma into the Syrian capital Damascus, killing at least 5 residents. In response, government aircraft launched a strike that killed 8 people and wounded this girl. Photo: AFP PHOTO / EAST NEWS
What is happening in Syria now?
By this point, up to 250,000 Syrians had died, and more than 4 million had fled their homes. The situation is critically complicated by instability in neighboring Iraq, from where the ideologically aggressive and militarily powerful group “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” penetrated into Syria. In a situation where government forces and the moderate opposition are extremely tired of the war, it is ISIS that is expanding its territory at the expense of both. In the north, he is fighting with the Kurds for territories along the border with Turkey, in the south he has come close to Damascus. In addition to the loss of the capital, the critical threat to the Assad government is the approach of fighting to the ancestral Alawite lands on the Mediterranean coast and the key port of Latakia. It is believed that it was for its defense that the Russian contingent arrived in Syria.
Map of the fighting in Syria. The areas marked in red are controlled by the Assad government, yellow by the Kurds, gray by ISIS, green by the moderate Sunni opposition, and white by the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. Photo: AFP PHOTO / EAST NEWS
What's next?
A peaceful solution is not in sight, and for the military, neither side has a significant advantage. In a situation where the US is avoiding a ground operation, the main common problem is ISIS. Assad with his Alawites, Iranian Shiites, Sunni partisans, Kurds - theoretically, they could come to a compromise, even in the form of dividing the country. But what to do with a force whose only goal is absolute victory through the annihilation of opponents?
Perhaps the most full version events that happened near Deir al-Zor. It is clear what happened, and why, and who struck, and where such losses came from. I also found it on Facebook.
“To date, we have been able to piece together quite a bit of information about the events and the consequences of direct fire contact between the Russian military and the American army. According to the latest data, the coalition forces suffered no losses as a result of the conflict.
1. What was the point of the attack on the Kurdish positions in the Euphrates region?
Most likely, the main target of the attack by mixed Russian-Assad units was the oil-bearing region in South-West Syria, in which Russia has long been interested. The fact is that despite the fact that Assad and the Kremlin, together with Iran, control approximately 40-50% of the territory of Syria, they have no economic opportunity to compensate for the costs of the war, and most importantly, there are no resources to restore the completely destroyed territory that they control. Thus, the Kremlin came up with the idea of occupying oil-bearing areas 80 kilometers from Deir ez-Zor, where it is possible in the future that Rosneft and Gazprom will be able to expand their activities. However, just a few days before the Russian military moved into this area, the territory was taken under control by the Syrian opposition, which is part of an anti-terrorist coalition with the US military. There were also American military advisers in the ranks of the forces of the democratic Syrian opposition, including on the front lines.
Nevertheless, the Kremlin decided to “test the area” and seize the territory in case of weak opposition. The operation was prepared at first demonstratively, and after the bridge across the Euphrates, built by the Russian military, was also demonstratively destroyed, the accumulation of large forces for the offensive began.
2. How the operation of Russian troops in Syria developed.
“General Hassan, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the region, points to a spot on the map east of the city of Deir ez-Zor, 80 kilometers southeast of here, where he says tanks and artillery supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime began advancing Wednesday evening toward the headquarters occupied by his forces and U.S. Special Operations Forces advisers (Hassan, like some other senior Kurdish commanders, does not give his full name).
According to Hasan, he received intelligence information about the preparation of an offensive by pro-regime forces. At 9:30 pm on Wednesday, about half an hour before the offensive began, he called a Russian liaison officer in Deir ez-Zor, with whom he is in contact, in the hope that he could stop the operation. “We said that there was a certain movement going on and that we would not want to attack the participants in these actions. They (the Russians) did not accept our proposal, they denied everything and said that nothing was happening,” Hasan said through an interpreter. He spoke with several reporters who arrived here on Thursday with Maj. Gen. James Jarrard, who oversees U.S. special operations forces in Syria and Iraq.
American officers made a similar attempt aimed at preventing clashes. As highlighted in Thursday's Pentagon statement, "coalition officials were in constant contact with their Russian counterparts before, during and after" the offensive. “The Russian military has assured coalition representatives that they will not attack nearby coalition forces,” the statement said.
According to Hasan, the attack began around 22:00, and pro-regime formations began to advance under the cover of volleys of tank and artillery pieces, whose shells exploded approximately 450 meters from the positions occupied by the Syrian Democratic Forces and American soldiers.
In total, one battalion-tactical group was allegedly initially involved in the attack, which included more than 10 tanks and about three dozen units of other armored vehicles. After the American military retreated from the forward positions, the Russians decided to develop the offensive and bring into action a second reserve battalion tactical group, the exact number of which is unknown.
The US Air Force responded to this threat with devastating strikes, initially with high-precision artillery and possibly, judging by eyewitnesses, the use of HIMARS (English High Mobility Artillery Rocket System - pron. Haymars) - an American highly mobile missile and artillery system for operational-tactical purposes. These are rockets that can fly up to 200 km. in five minutes and destroy up to 50 targets in one salvo with precision-guided ammunition. Most likely, it was with the help of this system that Russian artillery covering batteries were destroyed, and the drones were used only for target designation of fire. After the destruction of the enemy artillery, as well as the operational formations of the Russians and Assadites, a blow was struck to the rear units, which were actually destroyed on the march by the second BTG.
At the same time, the electronic warfare system operated, completely suppressing communications in operational formations, which explains that it was possible to obtain a transcript of the conversations of the rear groups. The air was probably controlled by two pairs (as usual) of F22 Raptors, monitoring the possible appearance of Russian aviation in a given area.
In the midst of the carnage, Hassan said, a Russian liaison officer called him again and asked him to stop fighting for a while so he could pick up the dead and wounded in an offensive he denied. The Kurdish commander saw this as treachery. “We don’t trust the Russians anymore,” Hassan said. And when one reporter noted the irony of the situation - a Russian officer first denies carrying out an attack and then asks for a ceasefire - Hassan remarked: “It’s funny that a superpower doesn’t know what its forces are doing on the ground.”
Approximately two hours after the counterattacks, 80% of all Russian and Assadite forces were destroyed. Now the “flea hunt” began - using the “anti-guerrilla” AC130 and two pairs of attack helicopters, the Americans, under the cover of the F22, finally cleared the enemy’s offensive area.
You can roughly see how this happens in the video below:
The total losses of the Russian Federation and Assad amounted to up to 90% of all equipment and 70-80% of manpower. The American military emerged from the battle, in all likelihood, without losses. The entire operation lasted about six hours.
3. Why do the data on Russian casualties differ?
The main reason is the complete secrecy of information from the beginning of the operation by the Russian Army until its completion. In addition, there were two battalion tactical groups. Probably in the first one (on the line of contact) 217 Russians (mercenaries from PMCs) died. The second group was defeated on the march (at least three companies of Russians). Hence the difference in assessment - from 217 to 640 Russian military personnel. It must be said that in reality, the coalition forces completely destroyed not only the forward group, but also the artillery support group, as well as the rear group, including the operational headquarters that commanded the offensive.
4. What is PMC “Wagner” and why do they write that they were the only ones who died?
PMC “Wagner” is a camouflage name for the most combat-ready Russian units in Syria, the so-called “Ichtamnets”. These are detachments of assault special forces, which previously actively fought in Ukraine, and now in Syria. Before the offensive, Russian military personnel from these units surrender their passports. military ID cards, changing into the uniform of Assad’s troops. In reality, they are all professional Russian military contractors. The coalition is well aware of this and monitors their movements constantly.
5. What are the consequences of this operation for the Kremlin and the coalition?
It must be said that the complete destruction of the Russian military group by American forces in Syria in the first hours caused a shock both at the headquarters of the Russian troops in Syria and in the Kremlin subsequently. What was unexpected was not only the fact that the Americans responded to the Kremlin’s challenge in the oil-bearing region of Syria, but also the power with which they responded. It is estimated that Russian units destroyed in southern Syria accounted for about 20% of all Russian assault forces. They were destroyed in a few hours. Within a few hours, the American side announced from official sources that it had destroyed Assad’s forces during their attack on coalition positions. They also stated that they knew nothing about any “Russian ichtamnets” in this area. A day later, about 150 wounded Russians were flown to Russia on two planes. Some of the wounded were left on the territory of Russian air bases in Syria.
The Kremlin refrained from a clear response, expressing only “deep concern” about the current situation in southern Syria. Most likely in in the near future Russia will refrain from carrying out any operations in the direction of coalition troops, having learned a cruel lesson. According to experts, in the event of a conflict with the coalition, Russia could lose all its bases in Syria within three days."
The basic law of history says: “If something happens somewhere, it means there were prerequisites for it.”
Any historian, observing the events of the past, clearly sees the inevitability, inevitability of certain global changes, and, paradoxically, this inevitability consists of a million insignificant, optional and secondary details that, chaotically fussing and pushing, roll the wheel of history along the only possible track .
The Syrian conflict, in which our country has recently been sitting on its feet, traces its origins back to the times of the Hyksos and Hittites, from ancient bronze knives, for Syria is one of ancient places habitat of humanity, part of its Mediterranean cradle, rich in movement. The ancient Jews and the first apostles hung around here, the Babylonians and Persians wandered around, the crusaders butted heads with Saladin, many peoples, cultures and ideas were born here.
So, as they say, dig, do not dig. And, in order not to get completely bogged down, let’s pretend that all this doesn’t interest us at all, and let’s turn straight to the collapse of the Ottoman Porte.
We are so different, and yet we are together
Sultan Saladin (Salah ad-Din)
The huge empire preserved by Allah, which united most of the Arab and Turkic worlds, died in the 20s of the 20th century (and this was, perhaps, the main result of the First World War, which left the horns and legs of several empires at once).
The winners tried their best to make everyone look good. The borders of new states were drawn at headquarters along a line, ancient thousand-year conflict points were ignored, abscesses were opened without anesthesia. In 1922–1926, the area designated as Syria officially came under the French mandate. The French promised to put the territory in order, approve the law here and provide the new power with autonomous navigation in the near future.
At the same time, the population new country was not just a multinational rug - that would not be so bad. It was a rug, many of the patches of which sincerely and ardently hated the neighboring patches. Under the pressure of the very illiberal Ottoman Empire, all this somehow still coexisted, although not without problems, but in independent Syria, cooperation was a big question. Judge for yourself.
Muslims, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians coexisted here. Religions, as we all know, are extremely tolerant of each other.
Armenians, Turks, Arabs and Jews lived here side by side. Guess how they got along with each other.
There were many Kurds here. The Kurds are a large (approximately 35 million people), although not very united, people who, after the fall of the Porte, did not get their own country, and were divided between Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. Since then, Kurds in these countries have been fighting for independence and the right to their own state. In Syria, the Kurdish issue is especially acute, given, for example, that the brilliant Saladin, the pillar of the local ancient statehood, the great ruler of Syrian antiquity, was precisely a Kurd, which, from the point of view of his fellow tribesmen, allows us to speak of Syria as an originally Kurdish state. Kurds in Syria make up about 15 percent of the population, but they are not united ethnically, linguistically, or religiously.
The Muslim majority in the country is also torn by conflicts, because in Syria there are three branches of Islam hostile to each other: Sunnis, Shiites and Alawites*. The Sunnis are the absolute majority, while power in Syria is in the hands of the Alawites. Considering that the overwhelming majority of Sunnis sincerely consider Alawites to be children of Satan, heretics and not Muslims at all, we understand how things turned out in the wonderful state of Syria. Yazidis and Druze, ethno-confessional groups, also live here. They have serious difficulties in relations with all other religious groups, to the point that in 1953, for example, in Syria they even had to adopt a separate code of laws on family law - exclusively for the Druze, because they could not exist according to the same the rules by which other citizens live.
Add a few more pinches of traditional oriental spices to this salad:
- Inevitable authoritarianism of government in the virtual absence of self-government mechanisms.
- The undisputed right of private property and, as a consequence, confusion with property rights at all levels.
- Laws that are a sad attempt to marry Sharia with the Napoleonic Code.
- Social services are at the level of the baseboard and the level of education of the population is extremely low.
And now we understand which state was sent on an independent voyage in 1946, when the last French troops left the territory of Syria.
And now - a new revolution
The conflict in Syria is a world war in miniature
The history of independent Syria is, first of all, wars and coups. Firstly, Syria was one of the main participants in all the wars of the Arab states with Israel, and therefore part of its territory, the Golan Heights, was occupied by Israel and has remained under its control for over half a century. For several years Syria was in single state with Egypt, then this entity disintegrated. Riots and uprisings broke out here regularly, and they were suppressed with the same cruelty with which the rebels acted. The Jewish pogroms stopped only after the death or emigration of almost all Syrian Jews. The Kurds systematically sought rights and autonomy - to no avail, but fiercely. Sunnis hunted Alawite officials at night. When the working day arrived, they sent the army in response and filled the prisons with protesters. The authorities took either Islamic or socialist doctrine as a model - and managed to nationalize what was already not the most successful Agriculture to the state of ruins.
The years 1963–1966 were the most fruitful for events: during this time, five events occurred in the country. coups d'etat. As a result of the latter, Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite and great friend, came to power Soviet Union, as it were, a socialist and a member of the Baath Party (remember that another famous chick of the Middle Eastern Baath was a certain Saddam Hussein from neighboring Iraq).
With the help of Soviet money and weapons, Syria fought a good fight with Israel and fought completely, took part much more successfully in the Lebanese campaign and gained Lebanon under its actual control, appeared in the Iran-Iraq conflict on the side of Iran - in general, it was not a peaceful and calm the country not a single year in its short history. Especially if you take into account the ongoing Sunni-Shiite-Alawite conflict within its borders, where everything happened in an adult way: with the suppression of rebellions by the army, massacres and thousands of victims both on the part of the rebels and on the part of the suppressors.
What now?
The conflict in Syria at the moment is a real world war in miniature, because as many as 29 states are involved in it, not counting other entities, and citizens of almost a hundred countries are fighting there. It all started because of bad weather.
After the death of the first Assad, his son Bashar came to power in 2000. In fact, he was going to become a doctor and studied incognito in London to become an ophthalmologist, but after Bashar’s elder brother, the presumptive heir to the Syrian presidential throne, died in a car accident, the guy was pulled out of the oculist’s paradise and, having been sent to study army work, was transformed in a few years to the colonel. Bashar was elected to the presidency, as usual, almost unanimously (97 percent of the vote) and began to continue his father’s work. And he, as we remember, was a classic eastern dictator with a socialist lining, so the life of the Syrians did not look particularly heavenly. Of course, there was not such violence as in Iraq, or such madness as in Libya under Gaddafi, but civil and economic freedoms were in a very unenviable state.
The country lived a little on thin oil, a little on tourism. Some timid private industry did not play a special role, since 75% of all enterprises and industries were state-owned, including all energy, transport, etc. Bashar al-Assad, however, supported some liberalization of the private sector, but mainly for the small business and farmers. The Internet was controlled, any opposition was rolled under the asphalt, the media did not dare to make a word, and for the dissatisfied there was always a not-so-righteous court and zealous intelligence services who were not lazy even to kidnap escaped oppositionists from abroad. Sometimes Islamists, some Muslim brothers, tested the fortress of power to the teeth - and received a powerful blow in this tooth, in connection with which Western screens began to be replete with images of bloodied Sunni children carried out from under the rubble of buildings.
Other children in compulsory primary school They told me what a wonderful president they had - they couldn’t breathe from the propaganda. And everything was more or less until a terrible drought began in 2006, which lasted five years. Syrian agriculture for the most part was in the hands of the state, and these hands, frankly speaking, did not grow from the most literate place in terms of agricultural technology.
The trouble was not even the lack of harvest, but the fact that during this catastrophe the arable land turned into a desert unsuitable for cultivation, the rise of which now required a lot of resources and time, not to mention the most complex technologies soil restoration.
The division into “Islamic terrorists” and “freedom-loving democrats” is very arbitrary here
Approximately a million Syrians were openly starving, several million more were on the verge of famine, ruined and desperate peasants poured into the cities, who lacked neither jobs in modest Syrian industries, nor housing, nor medical care. All they could eat was government news, which told them what efforts the dear President and the wonderful Ba'ath Party were making to cope with these minor difficulties.
For the first time in the history of Syria, Kurds and Yazidis, Arabs and Turkmen, Shiites and Sunnis, Christians and atheists felt themselves to be a single nation - united in their deepest hostility towards Mr. President and his colleagues and closely following what was happening in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, where respected presidents have recently flown away from their posts like migratory birds in the Arabian spring...
In general, all that remained was to bring a match.
The match was brought in March 2011, in the city of Daraa. Several teenagers from 10 to 18 years old were arrested there, who wrote all sorts of nasty things about the president, freedom and revolution on the walls. The boys were thoroughly beaten by the police, despite the fact that most of them belonged to the most important families in the city. A day later, Ba'ath offices and police stations in Daraa went up in flames, armed clashes began, and the city was disconnected cellular communication, the oppositionists created their headquarters - in a word, it began.
For some time, the international community tried to ignore what was happening. In fact, no one wanted to get into Syria, because there were enough problems on this planet without Syria. Nevertheless, open war between the government and an increasingly intensified opposition violated dozens of international agreements, demanded the fulfillment of obligations and caused anxiety among Western voters. Not to mention the states of the Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Emirates, etc. These countries demanded an immediate and clear solution to the issue: they categorically did not want a real and protracted war in the region. And in general, they always supported the Sunni brothers who were suffering under the heel of the damned Alawites.
After futile attempts to solve the problem diplomatically, it became clear that more decisive action would have to be taken. For example, choose your side of the conflict.
Western countries had no choice about whom to support. It was in no way possible to openly support a dictator who came to power as a result of undoubtedly staged elections, who was clamping down on progress and freedom in the country, and who was practically convicted of supplying weapons to Hezbollah.
The dichotomy was as clear as three kopecks: on the one hand, the heroic people demanding rights; on the other, the tyrant and his minions bombing hospitals and kindergartens. And although everyone understood that the composition as a whole was much more complex and disgusting, there was nowhere to go.
Moreover, the Syrian opposition consisted not only of bearded men who demanded to blow up America and give each faithful four young virgin wives. There are also quite sane secular officers who sided with the people, some unfinished intelligentsia, moderate Muslims and other decent public.
So for now, NATO countries and their sympathizers are supporting the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (NCRFF) in their heroic fight against the Assad regime. This coalition more or less brings together forces with which the West can at least somehow come to an agreement.
But besides these decent oppositionists, there are forces in Syria next to which Assad looks like a flawless angel. The proximity of Iraq, where Islamists have long been fighting the official authorities, had an immediate impact. Take, for example, the group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), banned in Russia, whose atrocities in Palmyra and other cities it captured forced even al-Qaeda to turn away from it. One of the first laws passed by ISIS was to allow Muslims to own slaves from among the Alawites, Yazidis and some Kurds, as well as to have sex with underage slaves. It’s been a long time since there have been societies in the vastness of the world that smash ancient cultural monuments with sledgehammers and march under the slogans “Let’s fuck children!”
In addition to ISIS, there are several dozen more Islamist groups in the country competing and cooperating with each other, including the well-known Jaish al-Muhajireen, formed mainly from Chechens and Tatars, as well as other mercenaries who arrived from former USSR to help the Syrian jihad. It is already clear that a considerable part of the military and financial assistance, which the international community provides to the NKSROS, is floating into the hands of the Islamists.
Russia, having come out in support of President Assad, officially announced that we will support him exclusively in the confrontation with ISIS and other ultra-Islamist groups. Assad, of course, is the elected and legitimate president, but so be it, let’s leave his fate to the mercy of history and the Syrian people. But ISIS is a terrorist nest that poses a threat to the whole world, and it must be destroyed. We sent aircraft, weapons and a number of military personnel there to prevent the emergence of a terrorist state dreaming of a worldwide caliphate.
In reality Russian troops, apparently, work in close connection with Assad’s special services and are quite actively attacking the positions of the opposition members of the NKSROS, which has already caused numerous protests from countries supporting this coalition. However, taking into account that it also includes some quite radical groups, we can admit that the division into “Islamist terrorists” and “freedom-loving democrats”, adopted in the Western press, is very arbitrary: often both of them, as they say, are “one and the same person."
Lovers of human hunting from all over the world are now coming to Syria. Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Israel are already seriously involved in the conflict, on whose borders regular excesses are now occurring. Millions of Syrians are fleeing their homes - countries in the Middle East, as well as Europe, are taking them in.
The uncontrolled proliferation of weapons in the region leads to the fact that the risk of a terrorist threat is increased to the maximum even in the safest regions of the planet.
And this war of all against all can have the most fatal consequences for those who are somehow involved in it. Here people are now being trained and educated who will blow up houses and factories on all meridians and parallels; here the preconditions are laid for even more global conflicts; Here, relatively speaking, there is a snaking crack along which the whole world could fall apart. Turkey and the Kurds, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Israel and Iran, Russia and NATO - hardly anyone can say which confrontation will be fatal. But the fact that the concentration of threats in this region now is no less than in the Balkans before the First World War - any historian will agree with this.
S. B. Ivanov
- The participation of Russian military personnel in the ground operation is not planned.
- The purpose of the operation in Syria is not the desire to divert attention from the situation in Ukraine.
S. V. Lavrov
- When we hear that Russia needs to take some steps, we need to remember a simple truth: we have done everything we promised.
- We have always advocated for the United States to work directly with the SAR authorities. We work daily with the Syrian authorities. Statistics clearly show that the main problems are created not by the regime, but by those terrorist extremist groups, of which there are a great number of which have proliferated in Syria and which do not obey any political opposition structure.
Russian military about Syria
A. V. Kartapolov
Head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel General
- Our aviation strikes militant infrastructure based on information received through several intelligence channels, as well as from information center in Baghdad.
- The Russian side called on others to share any useful information about the objects of the ISIS group in Syria and Iraq.
- We must openly admit that today we receive such data only from our colleagues at the Center from Iran, Iraq and Syria. But we remain open to dialogue with all interested countries and will welcome any constructive contribution to this work.
A. I. Antonov
Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation
- We are interested in cooperation with all countries without exception. We established a direct telephone line with Turkey. We held consultations with Israel. Ties with the Gulf states have intensified. We are negotiating with our American partners to conclude an agreement on ensuring the safety of flights over Syria. But this is not enough. We propose much broader interaction, which Washington is not yet ready for.
The situation in the East remains tense. What is really happening in Syria now in 2018 is covered by all the world news. The civil confrontation that began in 2011 escalated into a real war. Most major countries are involved in conflict in one way or another. Based on the latest news, there is no talk of imminent reconciliation.
Chemical strike
In early April, a chemical attack was carried out on the province of Idlib. A video recording of footage from the scene of the attack spread throughout the Internet. The world media immediately reported the deaths of civilians. The West immediately accused the Assad regime of involvement in this attack. In turn, the Syrian government does not admit its guilt; moreover, it questions the chemical strike itself. The government says operations have been carried out to destroy terrorist ammunition depots. It is possible that chemical weapons were also stored in these warehouses.
On April 9, a meeting of the UN Security Council was urgently convened. The meeting was attended by representatives of the United States and 8 other countries, who spoke sharply about the situation in Syria. It is worth noting that French President Macron warned at the beginning of March about the impossibility of using chemical weapons. His address stated that if it was used, France would retaliate against Syrian territory.
TO active actions called several significant Republicans and Trump. The US government was considering the option of withdrawing American troops from Syria.
In an appeal to the president, parliamentarians recommended that he reconsider this issue. Meanwhile, Trump himself blamed the Kremlin for the victims of the chemical attack. According to him, part of the blame lies with Russia due to the fact that it supports the policies of Bashar al-Assad.
Donald Trump believes that his predecessor, Barack Obama, is also to blame for what happened. In his Twitter appeal, he argues that Obama should have crossed the line and ended the "Syrian disaster." The US President is confident that he will not make the same mistake and will see the matter through to the end.
Meanwhile, the Syrian government and its allies are responding to Western attacks. The Iranian Foreign Minister is confident that the US statement and European countries this is a conspiracy against the regime in Syria. His address says that the West makes its statements in order to be able to strike at Syrian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an appeal calling the Western statement a provocation and a cover for terrorists.
It is necessary to prove that what is actually happening in Syria now, according to the news of 2018, is the work of the state government. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that it has irrefutable evidence that Great Britain is involved in organizing a provocation in Syria.
The West has begun to act
To be able to retaliate with a strike against Syria, the West must prove the existence of a chemical attack and the involvement of the Assad regime in it. Without waiting for the results of the audit, the US President ordered a strike on CAP. stated that the video of the chemical attack is evidence of a violation of the agreements that were signed in 2017. Great Britain and France are joining the ongoing operation. The missile strike on Syria was carried out on April 14 at 4.50.
110 missiles were aimed at both military and civilian targets. The military selected targets that were declared to be ammunition depots and chemical weapons development sites. Syrian troops independently repulsed the missiles with their air defense systems. It is known that the territories that are under the protection of the Russian military were not shelled.
The rocket attack lasted for an hour. But already at 7 am the residents of Damascus came out to a rally. With their spontaneous action, they decided to demonstrate that they will continue to fight against ISIS terrorists.
At the same time, most world powers supported the actions of the United States and allies. The governments of Canada and Turkey expressed their approval. Russia and a number of other countries expressed condemnation. The Kremlin demands that the issue of the legality of Trump’s actions be resolved at a UN meeting. Also by latest news, what is happening in Syria now, in April 2018, was actually condemned by US congressmen. By his actions, Donald Trump violated the American Constitution. By law, the president had to obtain the consent of the majority of parliamentarians before starting shelling of Syria.
Trump himself said in his order that the strike on Syria should be so powerful that it would affect the state’s allies, Russia and Iran. By official information 3 people died from the impact. It has been officially confirmed that Syria was warned of the impending attack. Therefore, it was possible to reduce the number of victims to a minimum. Missile strikes were carried out on empty objects.
