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The nasty dictator, Assad, wants to cling onto power so he kills hundreds of the protesters.They use social media to organise and publicise protests – which spread all over the middle east and quickly to Syria.People in many middle eastern countries want the right to vote and basically governments who don’t abuse their human rights.Nasty bad men (dictators) in the middle east don’t allow people to vote and oppress anyone who opposes them.To my mind, for the purposes of A level Sociology you can simplify the causes of this conflict thus: NB – As with the previous video, this also has its critics, so as with all sources, be skeptical of the validity!Ĭauses of the Civil War in Syria – A Summary Up until this time, Assad was losing ground to both the rebels and ISIS until September 2015 when Russia stepped in by bombing US backed rebels, and to date (December 2016) it seems like Assad is likely to defeat the rebel forces.

In February 2014 ISIS emerges – which focuses on fighting the rebels and the Kurds, not Assad, and the US now has an ongoing dilemma which confuses matters and possibly prevents the US from taking effective action – who is it’s real enemy – ISIS or Assad? In late 2013, the USA stepped into the war when Obama signed a secret deal for the CIA to train and equip the rebels. the Saudis) While Iran (Shia Muslims) funneled money and troops to Assad. This video focuses more on how the conflict has develop and points to the important fact that Syria has now become a ‘ Proxy War’ in which other nation states are effectively fighting each other by funding different factions within the conflict, but without being directly involved themselves.īy 2013 money and troops were being funneled to the rebels by Sunni Muslims (e.g. ISIS, which established a ‘Caliphate’ in an area which spread across the Syria-Iraq border.The Rebels, backed by the Saudis, Turkey and the USA,.The Assad/ government forces, backed by Russia and Iran,.This second video by VOX starts off by pointing out that the war in Syria is a mess, with four main groups involved: NB – The video has an equal amount of likes and dislikes – with many of the commentators pointing to the fact that the video misses out the role of the USA in causing conflict all across the middle east – commentators argue that the US has a long history of arming rebel groups in the Middle East as part of its foreign policy to deliberately destabilise the region. The ethnic/ religious breakdown of Syria’s population is approximately 12% Alawites (President Assad’s ethnic group),8% Christians, 3% Shiites, and 74% Sunnis.

The root of the conflict can be further traced back to the after math of World War I when France and Britain established the boarders of the Middle Eastern Countries, lumping many different ethnic groups and religions into Syria. Over the coming months some of these armed themselves and formed small groups of rebels – the ensuing conflict between Assad’s security forces and the rebels resulted in 60 000 deaths in the first 18 months of the conflict. The protesters were protesting about the brutal rule of dictator president Assad who had ruled Syria in the interests of a relatively small elite since the year 2000, when he took over from his father, who had ruled the country since the 1970s, having modernised it while brutally repressing any dissent.Īssad’s response to the protests was to violently repress the initially non-violent protests by shooting over a hundred demonstrators. elections) inspired by ‘ The Arab Spring ‘ – a wave of violent and non-violent protests which had swept across many North African and Middle Eastern Countries in December – January 2012. The trigger event which caused the Civil War in Syria was when 1000s of people took the street in January 2011 to demand political reforms (e.g.