Timeline of the Syrian Civil War

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Here is a brief and simple Timeline of the Syrian Civil War:

– 18th December 2010: Arab Spring movement starts off in Tunis, triggering the Tunisian Revolution

– January 2011: Start of peaceful demonstrations against the government

– March 18th 2011: Use of violence against peaceful protesters

– April 2011: Mass protests, considered the start of the Syrian Civil War

– July 29th 2011: Seven Syrian army officials create the FSA

– December 2011: US withdrawal of troops in Iraq

– April & May 2012: Ceasefire attempt

– July to October 2012: Battles of Damascus & Aleppo

– June 3rd 2014: Presidential elections held: Assad stays in power

– Present: Continued fighting

Military Situation

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At this stage of the Syrian Civil War, there are many parties and disputes involved in the conflict.

The Assad government controls most of South while the rebels have some control in the South-East and North-East.

ISIS, also involved has taken over one third of Syria in the North and West, controlling most of the oil and gas production of the country.

Many key cities are under siege sought after through for control over the country.

In 2012, two major cities, Damascus (the Capital) and Aleppo underwent sieges from the FSA.

Damascus has been a partial victory for the rebels who were able to occupy parts of the city.

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However the city centre and the airport are still under the government’s control who outnumber the rebels 15 to 1.

Aleppo is still going on as of today. It has been dubbed the “mother of all battles” and all parties are fighting for control over it.

The Civil War is still raging on today, as all sides try to determine the winner.

2014 Presidential Elections

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On the 3rd of June 2014, presidential elections were carried out in Syria.

It was the first multi-candidate elections since the Ba’ath Party took power in 1963.

Voting was not carried out throughout the country, cities under Kurdish and rebel control were not allowed to vote.

Due to the large number of Syrian Refugees, voting was conducted in Syrian embassies in foreign countries.

Bashar Al-Assad won the elections by a landslide, gaining as much as 88.7% of the votes.

World organisations such as the UN as well as countries such as the USA have labelled the elections as illegitimate.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has criticised the decision to hold elections while the country was undergoing a Civil War.

Bashar Al-Assad has won the elections for a third consecutive time, extending his time in power until 2021.

Bashar Al-Assad and the Ba’ath Party

In 1963, the Arab Socialist Ba’ath party took power in Syria through a Coup d’État and have remained in power since.

Hafez Al-Assad took part in a second coup d’État which toppled the leaders of the Ba’ath party in 1966 and took over as defence minister in the new government.

From there, he imposed himself overthrowing his superiors until he became the undisputed leader of Syria, becoming the Syrian President in 1971.

The Assad family have then been in power since 1971 and Bashar Al-Assad, current President of Syria and general secretary of the Ba’ath Party, has been in power since his father died in the year 2000.

The Assad family have been autocratically ruling the country, having a concentration of the power and dictating the country.

When the Syrian Civil War emerged, Bashar Al-Assad refused to step down from power amidst international pressure and a raging internal civil war.

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Bashar Al-Assad

International Efforts

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The Syrian Civil War has been one of the top news stories over the past few years and has attracted a worldwide attention.

As a result, many countries as well as organisations such as the UN and the Arab League have tried to intervene and resolve the conflict.

The UN has been working on the Syrian conflict together with the Arab League, trying to find a possible ceasefire to the conflict and promote peacekeeping to the world.

Two initiatives were launched by the Arab league in late 2011 as well as the UN launching the United Nations Supervision Mission In Syria (UNSMIS) in an attempt to resolve the conflict, promote peacekeeping and minimise violence.

However all of these missions were considered a failure after most UN observers had to be recalled on Jul 16th 2012 due to an escalation in violence against the UN in Syria.

The UN’s and Arab League’s failures have led to many frustrations, most notably Kofi Annan’s resignation as the UN -Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria in 2012, a major blow to the conflict’s resolution prospects.

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Kofi Annan

 

The Arab Spring

The Arab Spring is a revolutionary movement which started in Tunisia on the 18th December 2010.

Triggered by the self immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, it brought forth the Tunisian Revolution.

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The revolution led to several other revolutionary movements in the Middle East.

Many Arab and non-Arab countries were suffering from autocratic governments.

They took inspiration from the Tunisian Revolution and decided to revolt against their oppressive rulers.

The movement spread mostly towards the East and many countries such as Libya, Egypt and Yemen had their oppressive rulers successfully thrown out of power.

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Several other countries underwent unsuccessful civil revolts, such as Bahrain.

The Syrian Civil War is one of the few revolutions that is still undergoing as a result of the Arab Spring .

This movement was a clear example of an enlightenment period.

People realised that they were unnecessarily suffering from their oppressive rulers and they saw the opportunity to bring down their unwanted leaders.