Dragana Trifkovic, Director General of the Center for geostrategic studies
Bashar al-Assad handed over power and left Syria at the end of last year after armed opposition and terrorist groups launched an offensive. It was all played at high speed and practically from 27. November when actions were launched in Aleppo and Idlib, until 7. in December, when the major cities of Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Dara and Hamas were captured, it was clear that Assad was losing control of the state. The fact that the official Syrian military forces withdrew without fighting and that virtually no resistance to regime change was offered speaks of the state collapsing from within. It all ended 8. in December, when the militants entered Damascus, also without any resistance.
Many Syrian refugees in Europe welcomed the news with joy, and even many residents of Syria hoped that the situation could change for the better. Obviously, many Syrians are completely exhausted by the war that has been going on since 2011. years and clashes between protesters in the wave of the Arab Spring with government forces. After the demonstrations, the conflict in Syria grew into a large-scale conflict with the participation of foreign powers such as the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and Qatar, which officially supported opposition groups and/or conducted operations through proxy groups as well as directly participating in the conflict. Shiite groups from Iran and Lebanon came to Syria's aid in 2015. at the invitation of Bashar al-Assad, Russia also joined the conflict. This was a turning point because until the entry of the Russian army of the terrorist group Islamic State, Al Nusra and others. they controlled nearly eighty percent of Syria's territory. That is, the official authorities and the official army controlled only about 20 percent of the territory. The situation after the entry of the Russian army into the conflict changed drastically in favor of state structures. However, despite the successes of the Russian military in the fight against terrorism, Assad failed to consolidate society and the stabilization of the battlefield only prolonged the further degradation of the institutions of the state and society as a whole.
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, power was seized by militants under the banner of the Syrian national army, backed by Turkey and the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which many label as a terrorist organization. The leaders of these organizations strive to present themselves as officials with whom the world community can cooperate.
Syria is still divided into several regions under the control of different groups and practically broken up into ethno-confessional zones. Most of the territory is occupied by anti-Turkish Islamists, with US-backed Kurds controlling other areas. The Golan Heights is controlled by Israel, which has a further tendency to expand its influence through military force, and the remaining Christians seek refuge in the Alawite region of Latakia and other coastal areas.
The new authorities launched a massacre of the Alawite population calling them "remnants of the former Assad regime". The Assad family belongs to the Alawite minority in Syria, which experts estimate has about two million inhabitants in coastal areas. The Sunni majority in Syria believed that the Alawites, considered by Muslims to be a sect, were taking great advantage of the country's power, even though Assad took strict care not to give privileges to the group so as not to irritate the majority population. Now after the fall of the Assad regime, radical Islamists were given the desire to take revenge, although the Alawites surrendered without resistance to the HTS forces. Immediately after the establishment of the government, the newly organized security service launched a wave of violence seeking those responsible for "crimes against the Syrian people" not only in coastal areas but also in Homs and Hama. In addition to the Alawites, Syrian militants are also persecuting Christians who have suffered massively since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, when mortar attacks were carried out on Christian neighborhoods in Aleppo and Damascus. In addition, throughout the war there were cases of kidnapping and murder of Christian spiritual leaders and destruction of churches. According to estimates, more than 450,000 Christians out of 2 million left Syria during the war. All this can be characterized as ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Alawites and Christians in Syria. After the latest events, about seven thousand locals fled to the Khmeimim Airbase to be protected by Russian military personnel.
According to information from Syria, a series of massacres that began in early March this year following individual cases of violence has led to the deaths of thousands of people. Most of the civilian killings were blamed on the Abu Amsha and Hamzat divisions, which joined HTS in November in Idlib. These two factions and their leaders are suspected of human rights violations, including rape and torture. The new interim government in Damascus has vowed to bring peace and order to Syria, Unite the country and respect the rights of national minorities. However, the situation suggests that terror against minorities, especially Alawites and Christians, continues. Massacres in areas where Alawites and Christians live, murders of entire families, indiscriminate shooting of the entire male population in some villages, are filmed in cold blood by the perpetrators of these crimes and posted videos on social networks. The United States and Russia have called for urgent consultations at the UN Security Council over the escalation of violence against civilians in Syria. Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, told reporters after closed consultations that "the UN Security Council is working to harmonize a document regarding the escalation of violence in Syria and is determined to adopt it as soon as possible." He stressed that the Security Council was unanimous: "everyone pointed out the same elements, which are the inadmissibility of what is happening - bloodshed, violence, the need to bring criminals to justice."
Greek MEP Nikolas Farantouris, member of the European Parliament's Committee on security and defence, visited Damascus 8-9. March where he met with religious leaders, including the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and the Middle East John. "Reliable data points to 7,000 slaughtered Christians and Alawites and unprecedented crimes against civilians. Christian and other communities with a thousand-year presence in this region are in danger of extinction,“ Farantouris said after his visit.
U.S. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabard, who has warned that a terrorist takeover in Syria could lead to even greater consequences, noted a few days ago in her speech to the U.S. Senate about HTS and Al Qaeda links and the fact that the Democratic U.S. authorities have referred to these Islamist extremists as moderate rebels and the U.S. allies.
The Middle East Forum revealed in its February report that the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have provided hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations affiliated with certain terrorist organizations. "A multi-year study by the Middle East Forum on USAID and State Department spending revealed долара 164 million in grants to radical organizations, with at least.122 million going to groups associated with terrorists and their supporters," the report said.
Many organizations and Middle East experts have long debated whether HTS has received direct or indirect assistance from Israel, Turkey and the United States. While the new US administration is investigating these ties, Israel and Turkey are focused on taking action in Syria itself.
What is obvious is that the conflict in Syria is far from calming and that the new militarist authorities, although they have promised to restore peace, are not capable of really acting in that direction. The latest developments indicate that internal clashes between different groups will continue. On the other hand, the reactions of international institutions speak in favor of the fact that they are still dysfunctional, and that, apart from statements and condemnations on words, they are not able to actively act in solving problems on the ground. The reason for this is the different interests of geopolitical players, where many of them hide behind peaceful words implementing a different policy in reality, as evidenced by the evidence of financing terrorist groups in Syria.
Source: Center for Geostrategic Studies
Title photo: Moawia Atrash / TASS
Instructions:
More than 7,000 Christians And Alawites Killed in Syria, Greek MEP Says
Syrian coastal massacres subside
Syrian jihadists accused of killing Alawite and Christians as world stays mostly silent / Fox News
Terror Finance at the State Department and USAID – Middle East Forum
Отряды новых властей Сирии устроили в сранда массовую резню / / Novosti NTV
UN rights chief raises alarm over escalating violence in Syria / UN News
Excellent analysis and focus of attention on what can spill over to others, no one is far away. After being removed from the list of terrorist organizations, the new authorities missed the opportunity to gather all the warring factions, which are manipulated by many great powers, and to agree on joint responsibility and State-Building, which was previously burdened by numerous problems. When the demobilization of the hitherto regular army began, it began to liquidate the same, even their families, which again led to the regrouping of forces and resistance, and that means a new civil war in some other dimensions and at the seams of dividing the spheres of interest large in this terror-stricken state. They have forgotten the experiences of Libya, which has been transformed in the same way from the most socially organized state in the world into a space of constant conflict, hot spots, fear, suffering and misery. History will not forgive failures and missed opportunities. It is not easy to lead a country, the responsibility is huge, but, wisdom indicates teamwork and a general division of responsibility for the state and the future. Do not stop immediately this fire of hatred Syria will be destroyed from within and returned to the past.