History Context
This extremely complex conflict between multiple groups that are currently fighting for power in Syria can only be understood when you take a look at the root of the issue. It all began when Hafez al-Assad appointed himself the undisputed leader of Syria in 1970, after doing so he sided with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in exchange for support against Israel. When he passed away in June 10, 2000 his son Bashar al-Assad gained power of Syria. This even had some people hope of an end to the dictatorship that his father had over the country.
As soon as Assad saw signs of descent he made extreme restrictions of free speech and made it clear that Syria was not going to be a democratic state. It is said that “the first ten years of his rule were marked by severe repression, human rights violations and censorship.” (Bayley 2015) Assad even sentenced a lawyer to five years in prison because he tried to prove that a man had died in a Syrian jail because of its horrific conditions in 2007. As is expected after 11 years of this reform the people were fed up with it and pushed towards the option of reform like other countries in its region.
The political and diplomatic history of this nation led to many conflicts between the government and its people. Groups of people began to protest in an attempt to work towards change in Syria. The protest began to accelerate exponentially after March 6, 2011. On this day teenage students where tortured by the government authorities for painting graffiti on a wall of their school that read “The people want the regime to fall”. After the torture of these teenage students the protest spread from Dera’a to a nationwide protest.
The cultural and social history also played a big role in the tension between all of these groups in Syria and just gave the people more reason to rebel. When looking back at the history of Syria a big issue has always been that a large amount of different religions were all thrown in the same area causing many religious disagreements between people. Syria is represented by a religious group called the Alawites who only make up a tenth of the population while the majority of the people were Sunnis and other forms of religion. Usually this may not cause many issues but the Alwaites were big Assad supporters and only hired people of their religion which simply put more fuel on top of the fire.
The protesters quickly had to result to violence because of the Assads extreme ways of attempting to stop the rebellion. In 2012 the regime opened fire on the protesters which lead to protesters resulting to violence as well by starting to use weapons which began the civil war. Assads forces sunk as low as using chemical weapons against its people which then resulted in the involvement of the United States by aiding the rebels. The deaths began to add up at an alarming rate “By June 2013, the UN said 90,000 people had been killed in the conflict. By August 2015, that figure had claimed to 250,000, according to activists and the UN”. (CNN News 2016)
A big reason many countries got involved in this fight was the economic history of Syria, with all the fuel they provide the world with, surrounding countries quickly became involved with this fight. Iran also sent money to the Assad to back their fight for a dominant government. Saudi Arabia began sending money to the rebel fighters along with Turkey and by 2012 Jordan as well. By 2013 the Middle East became divided by this war. After the chemical warfare Obama brought in CIA agents to train the rebels to fight which officially made us part of the war, Russia quickly backed Assad making this a great powers dispute. After all this dispute for power a group of people Iraq separated themselves from the rebels and instead of fighting the Assad they began to fight the rebels and the Kurds and a terrorist group now known as ISIS.
This leads to the US no longer training rebels who fight against Assad but strictly rebels who are against ISIS, the US struggles to find a group that follows the same morals and the war starts to loose control. From the looks of it this war has no promise to end any time soon either.
Anthropology Context
The destruction of infrastructure has had a very negative impact on the economy of Syria and will make it extremely difficult to restore the countries way of life once the war is over but not many people consider how this impacts its culture. Many historic buildings and even cities as a whole have crumbled to the ground, like the ancient city of Aleppo. Hanah Gais states “what’s at stake isn’t just bricks and mortar, but Syria’s culture and historic identity. Markers of culture and heritage help keep pluralist societies stable” (Gais 2013) I couldn’t have said this better myself, this wars damage has an extremely negative impact on the culture of Syria.
Once this war comes to and end we will not just be looking at a country that is facing a large economic loss but also a loss of its cultural identity. It will have lost a majority of its significant landmarks. The fact that a large city like Aleppo has basically fallen and is at the point where it cannot be rebuilt means that the country will be loosing all the culture and history that came with it. If the war comes to an end and Syria builds a new city in Aleppo it will be brand new and unrecognizable which mean the people will have to create a new tradition that become of the heritage in the generations to come.
With millions of refugees leaving Syria it also has to be considered how much this will impact their cultural roots. Having to spend years away from home in a refuge camp does separate you from your ability to practice certain traditions that require you to be home to truly experience them and teach your children. Also with all the deaths due to this war many children are left as orphans and loose the opportunity to learn their culture. With millions of children out of school because of the war children are also unable to become more educated about their culture, so that they can better understand the reasoning behind their culture.
Another factor influencing the change in culture in Syria is ISIS. Dr. Halla Diyab discuses how ISIS focuses on tearing down Syrian culture and building a new one, she even states “As ISIS have demonstrated by their actions, they are intent on demolishing Syrian cultural memory, wiping the slate clean and rewriting history to support their extreme narrative of terror.” (Diyab 2015). It is a scary thought but ISIS is hoping to find a place to find home and hopes to influence the Syrian people and spread their beliefs or “culture” on a larger scale. ISIS hopes to spread their beliefs by seeking out “impressionable young people seeking wider sense of belonging” (2015) ISIS is a very pathetic terrorist group that wants to spread its radical beliefs with the world through acts of terror. ISIS knows it must “exterminate all symbols of the existing Syrian culture manifested by its heritage” (2015), like historical sites and monuments in the hopes of making it possibly to grow their culture successfully.
It is a very scary thought to think that another group of people are intentionally trying to put an end to your culture just to spread theirs, especially when it’s a terrorist group like ISIS. Even if the Syrian people are capable of defeating ISIS and it is no longer something to worry about it is safe to say that the Syrian culture is going to be taking a toll regardless. As the country begins restoring itself it will see that its people have lost touch with their roots because of the chaos they have faced through the past few years and will begin creating a new culture to go by.
Syrian Civil War 