Turkey and the Syrian Civil War
Turkish-Syrian relations have almost always been soured and hostile in some fashion, dating back as early as the 1500’s. With a perpetual tit-for-tat policy and retaliation method that has been in effect between the two nations, it wasn’t until around 2003 or so in which Turkish relations to Syria had turned mostly friendly in response to the United States’ invasion of Iraq and Assad growing concerned over Syria being invaded as well. To gain more allies and help deter against this, Assad looked to Turkey for support, who was not only happy to better their ties with Syria, but was also in strong disagreement with the United States’ decision to invade Iraq as well. That is until the last five years in which the acting government in Syria has become increasingly more violent and hostile to it’s own people; essentially forcing the Turkish government to reject the growing friendly ties in the name of democracy. The geographic placement of Turkey in relation to the Middle-East and Europe, and particularly Syria, puts the country as a whole in a precarious situation from multiple powerful influences, such as NATO, the EU as well as the UN, and on the inverse, major Islamic figures and traditions held in the region. Because of this, Turkish history has been shaped and formed from the two major influences pulling on the country in very contrasting ways: The west, and the benefits of modernity and non-secularism in the state, and the East, and the fundamental religious beliefs of many who reside there who do not wish to break tradition or stray from their fundamental beliefs. Today is no different, although Turkey is increasingly leaning to the western state of mind and politics as a result of the shaky rela...
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...tern foreigners. One thing is for certain however, Turkish life on an everyday level has been affected to a large degree, and until the crisis and civil war in, and between, Syria is solved, or at least contained better within Syria, Turkish economy will suffer the most as instability and conflict are highly unappealing to investment and tourism, two industries Turkey needs desperately. The expenditure necessary to receive and house Syrian refugees grows larger each day as well. All things the same, in Turkish eyes, Turkey is on track to supporting a new Syrian government, one in which Turkey and Syrians may once again share a common cultural and economic bond with one another without fear of retribution or crisis being just around the corner. How Turkey will fare at the end of the Syrian civil war, as well as the anticlimax of the Arab Spring, is also uncertain.
There is always that one person that stirs the pot in a situation that could have been solved rather quickly without them interfering. This is exactly what happened in Syria. The Syrian Civil War began when a peaceful protest when a group of teenagers who were writing anti-government graffiti on a wall. Syrian people called on their president who instead of making democratic reforms, acted in extreme violence against unarmed civilians. More than a quarter of a million people in Syria have been killed and over 10 million have been forced out of their homes. The Assad regime continues to suppress their citizens and they have begun using chemical bombs to kill thousands of Syrians and many even
14?Narli, Nilufer. ?The Rise of the Islamist Movement in Turkey.? Middle East Review of International
Conflict between Kurds and Turkish Forces "I would not wish on anyone what I went through that day." This is
Essential Question: Should the United States continue to be involved in the Syrian civil war?
The Syrian fate in the next few months and maybe years will be in the hands of big powers like U.S. and Russia that have yet to decide on a peaceful attempt that can, not end the war, but give the Syrian people who primarily need extensive humanitarian and economic assistance, a ray of hope, “as the longer battle begins to build a viable and democratic post-Assad Syria at peace with the region and the world.” (Boot, 2012)
The initiation of the Syrian War was heavily influenced by the (what was supposed to be a peaceful) protest. As well as the many deaths of the Syrian citizens. These conflicts helped citizens realize all the issues that were going on at the time. There were many causes for the violence that went on during the Syrian Civil War. It can be inferred that the three main aspects that fueled the violence of the Syrian War were due to foreign influence, sectarian opposition, and conflicts between opposing groups.
The ongoing crisis in Syria is in many ways to blame for the problems facing Lebanon, but it is certainly not the cause of them. For decades Lebanon has been headed down this road. The recently deceased Muhammad Chatah, two weeks before his assassination, said it well: “We lurch from crisis to crisis, with superficial calms in between.”
27, 2015 Eric Edelman talks about a bargain between the United states and Turkey concerning US missions. For the past year the United States government and the Turkish government have been arguing. The US wanted the Turkey to let them conduct missions and let planes and other aircraft fly over their land for military purposes. Finally, an agreement was made that let the US fly the planes over Turkey. But this came at a cost Edelman says that too much was put on the table and that too much was sacrificed. He says this agreement is going to give problems “both for the success of America’s anti-Islamic State campaign and for the stability of Turkey” (Edelman 1) Erdogan the president of turkey wants to keeps the middle east out of Turkey. So he starts conduction missions to bomb some part and what this creates is tension. Taking out the Kurds may seem like a good thing in the present but is very bad in the future. This would allow some areas to actually be a safe place where these Islamist groups could hide and not be safe. Tukey taking out the Kurdish forces is a big problem says EDELMAN. There are some ways that Edelman thinks that we can somewhat control Turkey so they don’t make things worse. Edelman states that “restrict Turkey’s access to senior-level meetings, reduce intelligence cooperation and withhold American support” (1) is a way to deduce the amount of damage Turkey is doing.
SUMMARY: The Syrian Civil War between the Syrian government, and the insurgents, as well as the Free Syrian Army has been escalating since early 2011. The United States, and our allies have faced difficulty in sending aid to Syria, and continue to deal with obstacles in sending even basic medications to Syrian civilians. However, the United States and its allies have also contributed to the lack of organization and the disparity in Syria by sending aid and artillery to individuals based only on political connection, and ignoring organization, local alliances, and without a true understanding of the reality of the Syrian localities to best protect the Syrian protestors. The question addressed in this memo will be defining the viable options to be pursued in Syria, how to pursue them, and assessing the most beneficial path of least resistance when offering aid, funds, and artillery to specific groups in the country. The recommendation will be that although the best alternative action item would be to choose a Syrian group with the least oppositional values comparative to the United States to fund, supply with arms, and train; that the United States should do nothing for the time being. Given the physical and financial risk involved with the Syrian Civil War, it would be prudent for the United States to simply observe how the war progresses over the next several months, as well as complete some research to truly understand the state of affairs in local areas of Syria to determine the extent to which the United States could identify a group to provide aid to, as well as the extent to which the United States involvement would be within Syria.
The enduring conflict between President Bashar al-Assad’s army and the rebels started with the Syrian uprising and as a reaction evolved into the civil war. The Syrian uprising stemmed from Arab Spring which was uprisings all throughout the M...
Since March 2011, Syria had no longer experienced a situation called peace and harmony. Syrian’s daily life is filled with the events of killing, bombing and torturing of their brothers and sisters. This unresolved conflict began with a revolution to against the government for brook the promise to have betterment in political system (citation). However the government had responded by harsh action. Starting from this point, Syria had slide into Civil War. Based on the brief description about situation in Syria, I strongly believe that the best International Relation theory to describe this situation is constructivism. This is because the Civil War in Syria is socially constructed by some factors which will be discussed deeply in the next paragraph. In this essay, I will emphasize on the two factors that lead to Syria Civil War which are identity conflict in a state and the absence of shared norms of sovereignty; and provide a solution from constructivism perspective which is diplomacy negotiation and limitation to it.
Lawson, Fred H. "Syria." Politics & society in the contemporary Middle East. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010. 411 - 434. Print.
Meho, Lokman. The Kurds and Kurdistan: A selective and Annotated Bibliography. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997. Print.
The nation of Turkey is a paradox in the eyes of many who seek a clean break between the West and its associated values and culture and those of the rest of the world. Often considered an example held to demonstrate that Islam and Western Values are not incompatible, Turkey seems to straddle a fine line between being distinctly westernized while remaining rooted thoroughly in the culture and values of the Middle East. Turkey is one of two nations designated by as electoral democracies in the Middle East by Freedom House, along with Israel, yet the majority of the population is Muslim. For many, the current state of Turkish democracy, it’s longstanding membership in NATO, close ties with the West, and the relative cosmopolitanism of cities like Ankara and Istanbul seem to point to a Turkey which is clearly linked to the Western World, or indeed, simply a majority-Muslim portion of it. It would seem a natural outgrowth of such a view as to suggest that Turkish membership in the EU as fitting, given a Turkey being, in this view, a nation linked culturally and historically to Europe and the West. This attitude, however, belies not insubstantial criticism of this idea of a westernized Turkey. While Turkey is considered an electoral democracy that does have regular free and fair elections, it has seen a tumultuous history of military coups, holds laws incompatible with EU standards of human rights, and acts in defiance of international law with the continued occupation of Cyprus. Is Turkey a part of the West, and thus a natural EU member, or something entirely different. It can be effectively concluded that while Turkey is decidedly different from the Middle East as a whole due to its democratic institutions and a relatively westerni...
In the early 2000’s in Turkey alot of terrorism threats were put there way from many different countries around them. There were many countries affected by terrorism around that time and Turkey was one of them. Alot of countires have helped to stop this problem like America and many more to stop from countries like Turkey getting affected. Also there are many councils, agencies, and other groups have joined in to stop terrorism in these countries.(Frank Web) (“Ethnic and Religious Groups” 1). The Muslims of Turkey are a religious group in Turkey; there rebellions against Turkey has impacted government in a negative way.