The origin and Impact of the Syrian Crisis

The origin and Impact of the Syrian Crisis

I imagine you have had heard about the Syrian civil war and the resulting refugee crisis that has left millions of people homeless and thousands others maimed and/or killed. The conflict started in the spring of 2011 when protesters inspired by the wave of political change and protests sweeping over the Arab world decided to take to the streets in the hope that they would be able to bring much needed political reform. As expected the incumbent President Bashar al-Assad stood his ground and unleashed state machinery on those who are opposed to this regime but the rag tag opposition forces also took up arms to defend themselves and wage war against Assad’s rule.

Besides the points I have mentioned about some of the possible causes of this conflict It is important to examine some of the reasons in detail that might have caused the Syrian conflict. Dictatorship is without a doubt on top of the list, power in Syrian from the 1970 has pretty much been in the hands of one family, the Assad family. Hafez Assad, the father of the current president came to power through a coup and upon his death in 2000, his son Bashar Al Assad took over and continued with his father’s policies of repression and political intolerance. The concentration of power in one family and the suppression of dissent was a good breeding ground for dissent and protests that broke out in March 2011.

Another reason that contributed to the uprising is the economic inequality in Syria, while those close to the regime benefited by securing big tenders and deals majority of the people still struggled to make a living with many young people out work it was a tinderbox waiting to happen. With rising costs of living people in the provinces such as Durra rose up and thought they might remove their government from power.

The Arab Spring that swept across the Middle East gave the youth of Syrian hope that what had happened elsewhere. For example, in Egypt and Tunisia could be replicated in Syria. Many dared to dream that it is possible to have political change but Assad unlike other tyrants decided to fight to hang on and fight back any pretenders to his crown.

The impact of the conflict has been immense and the effects have been felt by neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Turkey and some as far north west as Germany and France, who have to deal with thousands of refugees and asylum seekers knocking on their doors. 7.6 million people were internally displaced while 3.7 million Syrians had fled by the end of 2014.

This conflict has caused the greatest refugee crisis in Western Europe since the Second World War but the impact on neighboring countries has even been greater because most of these countries had enough problems of their own before the onset of the Syrian conflict but now have to contend with such a great influx of refugees. By the end of 2014, the number of Syrian refugees recorded in Lebanon, country of about 4.8 million people, was about 1.5 million people which roughly means that 1 n ever 5 in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee.

Other neighbors such as Turkey (1.552, 839 Syrian refugees) and Jordan (622,865 Syrian refugees) have also had to open their boarder to the refugees but has in turn put enormous strain on their resources, infrastructure, societies and economies and this situation has the potential to cause chaos and instability in the host nations.

Someone may wonder how a conflict in a far flung and outer part of the world should concern them and why would they be bothered when there enough problems of our own closer to home? My response to that would be to examine the human and social cost of the Syrian conflict. I would first look at the human cost of it and perhaps this might help to have some perspective. The mere fact that the Syrian refugee crisis is being talked about in the same breath as the scale of what happened in the 2nd world war should be able to cause someone to listen up. The stream of the Syrian into Lebanon, Turkey and Greece is too much for any country to bear on its own because of the sheer magnitude of the numbers being reported.

Secondly, just like any crisis children and women bear the greatest brunt of any conflict because they are the most vulnerable. Half of the refugees are between the school-going ages of (5-17) but majority of them are out of school. About of half of the 4.8 million Syrian children are out of school and that is because many schools have been destroyed by the 5 years of the conflict. Schools in the Syrian cities of Hama, Idleb, Aleppo and Raqqa have either been closed or turned into camps of internally displaced persons. Those who are in school are not any better than those who are not because the learning process is hampered by lack of sufficient books, teachers and even classes.

The dropout rates among the refugee are very high and this due to a number of interrelated factors such as the economic hardship, and poor access to other essential and basic services such as good healthcare. This underlines the great trouble and hardship that refugee children and families have to contend with on a day to day basis and something needs to be done to salvage a very dire situation.

Finally, the Syrian crisis still raging we cannot say with certainty when this bloodshed and violence will be brought to an end but I hope that this essay has helped to shed some light on the causes and the toll that the conflict has put upon the people of Syria, her neighbors and the international community as whole.