Syria, five years later

Syria, five years later

World March 15, 2016 05:52

damascus - What began with fifteen young people with graffiti spuiden their bile on the Syrian regime, and thus gave rise to a revolt, five years later become a small world and a massive humanitarian catastrophe, which can be felt in the Netherlands.

Everyone thought in the spring of 2011 that it would be done quickly with the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The Arab Spring, after the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, also require the head of the Syrian dictator. It was totally different. The army in Syria remained the president have largely faithful and shrank not hesitate to put heavy artillery against its own people. A revolt was a civil war, when a regional conflict, and then put half the world upside down.

Europe creaking in his joints by the massive flow of refugees, superpowers at each other's throats, the Middle East is about to explode and now dozens of countries (including the Netherlands) to a greater or lesser extent involved in the Syrian conflict, thanks to the incredible rise of Islamic State. To some extent a babe Assad himself, who in a clever way jihadists released him from his prison and the movement had run its course to convince the world that Syria is only one choice: him or the Caliphate.

A tactic that paid off. President Obama was calling for his resignation in 2011, two years threatened with military intervention, but now find under the pressure of Russian interference that Assad can remain provisional. Anything is better than the extremists of IS, which have rapidly become the world's richest and most dangerous terrorist organization with branches deep into Asia and Africa. And supporters around the world initiate attacks.

Despite setbacks on the battlefield and air strikes include the US and the Netherlands, it is barbaric caliphate, which had tens of thousands of jihadists, still standing in Syria and Iraq. A huge area of ​​apostates be stoned, beheaded or thrown from a high building. Where minorities are sold as sex slaves. Practices that none five years ago thought possible.

The suffering of the Syrians is unbearably high. The country has been thrown back decades in time. Of the 23 million Syrians are displaced about half of hearth and home. Of these, ran a small five million abroad. Because a war that killed half a million so far and has claimed millions of casualties. The country is completely destroyed, cities like Aleppo and Homs to the rich cultural heritage, and a lost generation is growing up.

The Syrian war has affected the entire Middle East, where old boundaries fade or disappear, and religious and tribal tensions flare up. With the overarching factor in the conflict to regional hegemony between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, which already is being fought in Yemen and Iraq.

Syria as a unitary state will cease to exist, what kind of a peace agreement there eventually comes. Jordan and Lebanon groan under the pressure of refugees and feared for the stability of these countries. Turkey is full again at war with the Kurds in Syria and stands face to face with Russia. A new incident between the two countries could lead to a dangerous escalation. Russian Prime Minister Medvedev even warned of a third world war.

Barack Obama pulled his hands away from Syria when he finally Assad, despite a 'red' line ', left to get away with a major chemical attack. Although since the bulk of the deadliest chemical weapons have been removed, 'lesser' versions increasingly used on the battlefield. In total, there were certainly 161 poison gas attacks, with a total of 1,500 deaths.

Russia jumped in U.S. hole and now shares largely call the shots in Syria, with the support of the Shiites. Leading to anger among the mainly Sunni countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. They see how Assad slowly draws the longest straw. The battle-weary and mutually divided rebels can barely make a fist. Nevertheless, the chances of a peace agreement, on which negotiations began Monday, small.

Meanwhile, there is the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Just last year were more than one million refugees in Europe, most Syrians. The resistance against this is increasing and walls to be re-erected. The Schengen Convention is under severe pressure while the flow of refugees is far from being dried up. Now that the weather is better and calmer seas, the number of refugees will rise explosively, even threaten the Syrians, like thousands before them, to die at sea.

Anything is better than the war in Syria or a hopeless existence in the region. A situation that will not change soon. Because even if the conflict does not reach his sixth birthday, it will reverberation many decades. In Syria itself, the rest of the Middle East and Europe.

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