Ottoman Rule Ended

• 1918 October - Arab troops led by Emir Feisal, and supported

by British forces, capture Damascus, ending 400 years of
Ottoman rule.

• 1919 - Emir Feisal backs Arab self-rule at the Versailles peace

conference, following the defeat of Germany and the Ottoman
Empire in World War I.

• 1919 June - Elections for a Syrian National Congress are

held. The new assembly includes delegates from Palestine.

• 1920 March – BOUNDARIES DRAWN The National

Congress proclaims Emir Feisal king of Syria "in its natural
boundaries" from the Taurus mountains in Turkey to the Sinai
desert in Egypt.
Sharif Hussein Emir Faisal
Thomas Lawrence
French Rule
• 1920 June - San Remo conference splits up Feisal's
newly- created Arab kingdom by placing Syria-
Lebanon under a French mandate, and Palestine
under British control.

• 1920 July - French forces occupy Damascus, forcing

Feisal to flee abroad.

• 1920 August - France proclaims a new state of

Greater Lebanon.

• 1922 - Syria is divided into three autonomous regions

by the French, with separate areas for the Alawis on
the coast and the Druze in the south.
The Road to Independence
• 1925-6 - Nationalist agitation against French rule
develops into a national uprising. French forces bombard
Damascus.

• 1928 - Elections held for a constituent assembly, which

drafts a constitution for Syria. French High
Commissioner rejects the proposals, sparking nationalist
protests.

• 1936 - France agrees to Syrian independence in

principle but signs an agreement maintaining French
military and economic dominance.
• 1940 - World War II: Syria comes under the control
of the Axis powers after France falls to German
forces.

• 1941 - British and Free French troops occupy

Syria. General De Gaulle promises to end the
French mandate.

• 1945 - Protests over the slow pace of French

withdrawal.

• 1946 - Last French troops leave Syria.

Independence

• 1946 -Syria Achieved Independence

• 1964 - Coup D’etat by the Ba’ath party in

1964 – years of instability resulted.

• 1970 – minister of defense General Hafez

al- Assad seized power dubbing himself
Prime Minister initially and then President
a year later in 1971.
Ba’ath Logo
Ethnic Divisions Drawn from Colonialism

• The current borders of the Arab world were

drawn by European colonialists without
understanding the deeper ethno-religious
structure in Arab society.

• “Syrian” in 1920 as a concept did no exist.

Syrians then thought of themselves as “Arab”

• An attempt to impose the European model of

the nation state in a region where it simply
did not fit. One can argue that Syria falls
within these improperly drawn borders.
Hafez Al-Assad
President Hafez al Assad - dictator
• 1. Reinvented the face of Syrian Politics and the Ba’ath party
by dividing the state apparatus between different communities
and centering power around him and his family.

• 2. Showed favoritism to the Alawite community giving them

special favors such as high level government positions and
control over the state military and intelligence apparatus.

• 3. He gave himself, as President the power to veto all

government decisions and multi party elections for presidency
ceased to take place. So basically no one could challenge his
authority – no elections were held.
 Hafez Al-Assad

• Hafez Assad after seizing power

channeled wealth into the state –
channeled funds to the state bureaucracy,
military, businesses and anyone connect
TO THE STATE.
• Why? To ENSURE his own future –
military and bourgeois (elite) would help
Assad regime maintain his rule.
• All hail Assad…
Bashar Al-Assad
Bashar Assad – Democracy
• In 2000 he gave the illusion of democracy in his inaugural
speech when he seceded his father in June of 2000.

• For 8 months there was a change in the political climate of

Syria – amnesties granted to political prisoners, a free press
started to take shape…

• Two human rights organizations even came into being…

• Pro democracy was becoming popular…. And then the Ba’ath

party reined in the reforms and the status quo returned.

• Can’t have too much freedom right?

All Hail Bashar Assad

• For ten years corruption returned, political

oppression continued and nepotism (the
practice among those with power or
influence of favoring relatives or friends,
especially by giving them jobs) ruled.
Ethnic Groups
• Sunni Arabs, by far the largest ethno-religious group – 65%
of the population

• The Kurds, non-Arab Sunnis with their own ambitions,

compose eight percent of the total.

• The Alawite sect of Shia Islam (only 13%) controls the state
bureaucracy almost entirely. FAVOURED BY ASSAD
REGIME!

• Christians 10% compose the only other significant “ethnic

group,”

• Druze, Turkoman 3.2% each

Since 1963
• 2011 before the uprising (a year after Bashar became
president)

• Syrians had lived under martial law since 1963

• Intimidation ,detainment, torture via the mukhabarat –

state security/intelligence

• Corruption was everywhere, infrastructure was poor

and Syria had an education system that was archaic…

• Unemployment – 30%
Syrian Civil War

• More than 3.2 million Syrian people have

sought refuge in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey
and Iraq.

• The Syrian civil war is said to have created

one of the worst humanitarian crises in
modern history.
What set the war off?
• The Syrian uprising started as a reaction to
the Arab Spring, a series of anti-government
protests across the Arab world inspired by the
fall of the Tunisian regime in early 2011.
• The root of the conflict: anger over
unemployment (30%), decades of
dictatorship (under Assad, Alawites, Ba’ath
party) corruption and state violence under of
the Middle East’s most repressive regimes.
• Protests against the government spread
from Damascus to Homs and the southern
city of Daraa, often after Friday prayers.
These were entirely peaceful marches, but
they were mainly by people from the Sunni
majority (69%) in Syria. They were also
led by people who supported a secular
regime, with no intent to establish a Sunni
religious government.
The Arab Spring
The Syrian opposition
• is an umbrella term for groups and individuals calling for
regime change in Syria and who oppose its Baathist
government.

– National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and

Opposition Forces
– Syrian National Council
– Local Coordination Committees of Syria
– Free Syrian Army & Higher Military Council
– Kurdish Supreme Committee
– Some countries that supports Syrian Opposition are:
Pakistan, Iraq, Qatar, United States, Israel, United
Kingdom, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.
Syrian Government Supporters
• Syrian Armed Forces
• Jaysh al-Shabi
• Shabiha
• Defense Force
• Al-Abbas brigade
• Lijan militias
• Iran Revolutionary Guards Foreign militants
• Hezbollah
• PFLP–GC
• Houthis
The war is being fought by several factions:

• The Syrian government's Armed Forces and its

international allies
• a loose alliance of majorly Sunni opposition rebel
groups (including the Free Syrian Army), Salafi
jihadist groups (including al-Nusra Front), the
mixed Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF), and the Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant (ISIL),
• with a number of countries in the region and
beyond being either directly involved or providing
support to one or another faction (Iran, Russia,
Turkey, the United States, as well as others).
Mouawiya Syasneh

The boy whose anti-Assad graffiti lit the spark that engulfed Syria.
Peaceful Protest
Security Forces
• 7 shot dead including a doctor
Syasneh, arrested and tortured aged 14 after
scrawling the graffiti on the wall of his school.
• Nationwide uprising
• 2011 March - Security forces shoot dead
protestors in southern city of Deraa
demanding release of political prisoners,
triggering violent unrest that steadily
spread nationwide over the following
months.
• President Assad announces conciliatory
measures, releasing dozens of political
prisoners, dismissing government, lifting
48-year-old state of emergency.

• 2011 May - Army tanks enter Deraa,

Banyas, Homs and suburbs of Damascus
in an effort to crush anti-regime protests.
US and European Union tighten sanctions.
• 2011 June - The IAEA nuclear watchdog
decides to report Syria to the UN Security
Council over its alleged covert nuclear
programme reactor programme. The
structure housing the alleged reactor was
destroyed in an Israeli air raid in 2007.
• Opposition organises
• 2011 July - President Assad sacks the
governor of the northern province of Hama
after mass demonstration there, eventually
sending in troops to restore order at the
cost of scores of lives.

• 2011 October - New Syrian National

Council says it has forged a common front
of internal and exiled opposition activists.
• 2011 November - Arab League votes to
suspend Syria, accusing it of failing to
implement an Arab peace plan, and
imposes sanctions.
• 2012 February - Government steps up the
bombardment of Homs and other cities.
• 2012 March - UN Security Council
endorses non-binding peace plan drafted
by UN envoy Kofi Annan. China and
Russia agree to support the plan after an
earlier, tougher draft is modified.
• 2012 June - Turkey changes rules of
engagement after Syria shoots down a
Turkish plane, declaring that if Syrian
troops approach Turkey's borders they will
be seen as a military threat.
• 2012 July - Free Syria Army blows up
three security chiefs in Damascus and
seizes parts of the city of Aleppo in the
north.

• 2012 August - Prime Minister Riad Hijab

defects, US President Obama warns that
use of chemical weapons would tilt the US
towards intervention.
• 2012 October - Fire in Aleppo destroys
much of the historic market as fighting and
bomb attacks continue in various cities.

• 2012 November - National Coalition for

Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition
Forces formed in Qatar, excludes Islamist
militias. Arab League stops short of full
recognition.
• 2012 December - US, Britain, France,
Turkey and Gulf states formally recognise
opposition National Coalition as "legitimate
representative" of Syrian people.
• 2013 January - Syria accuses Israel of
bombing military base near Damascus,
where Hezbollah was suspected of
assembling a convoy of anti-aircraft
missiles bound for Lebanon.
• Rise of Islamists
• 2013 September - UN weapons inspectors
conclude that chemical weapons were
used in an attack on the Ghouta area of
Damascus in August that killed about 300
people, but do not allocate responsibility.
Government allows UN to destroy
chemical weapons stocks, process
complete by June 2014.
• 2013 December - US and Britain suspend
"non-lethal" support for rebels in northern
Syria after reports that Islamist rebels
seized bases of Western-backed Free
Syrian Army.
• 2014 January-February - UN-brokered
peace talks in Geneva fail, largely
because Syrian authorities refuse to
discuss a transitional government.
• 2014 March - Syrian Army and Hezbollah
forces recapture Yabroud, the last rebel
stronghold near the Lebanese border.

• 2014 June - Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

militants declare "caliphate" in territory
from Aleppo to eastern Iraqi province of
Diyala.

• 2014 September - US and five Arab

countries launch air strikes against Islamic
State around Aleppo and Raqqa.
• 2015 January - Kurdish forces push
Islamic State out of Kobane on Turkish
border after four months of fighting.

• 2015 May - Islamic State fighters seize the

ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria and
proceed to destroy many monuments at
pre-Islamic World Heritage site.
• Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) Islamist
rebel alliance takes control of Idlib
Province, putting pressure on
government's coastal stronghold of
Latakia.
• Russian intervention
• 2015 September - Russia carries out its
first air strikes in Syria, saying they target
the Islamic State group, but the West and
Syrian opposition say it overwhelmingly
targets anti-Assad rebels.

• 2015 December - Syrian Army allows

rebels to evacuate remaining area of
Homs, returning Syria's third-largest city to
government control after four years.
• 2016 March - Syrian government forces
retake Palmyra from Islamic State with
Russian air assistance, only to be driven
out again in December.

• 2016 August - Turkish troops cross into

Syria to help rebel groups push back so-
called Islamic State militants and Kurdish-
led rebels from a section of the two
countries' border.
• 2016 December - Government troops,
backed by Russian air power and Iranian-
sponsored militias, recapture Aleppo, the
country's largest city, depriving the rebels
of their last major urban stronghold.
• 2017 January - Russia, Iran and Turkey
agree to enforce a ceasefire between the
government and non-Islamist rebels, after
talks between the two sides in
Kazakhstan.
• US intervenes
• 2017 April - US President Donald Trump
orders a missile attack on an airbase from
which Syrian government planes allegedly
staged a chemical weapons attack on the
rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.

• 2017 May - US decides to arm the YPG

Kurdish Popular Protection Units. These
fight alongside the main opposition Syrian
Democratic Forces, which captures the
important Tabqa dam from Islamic State.
• 2017 June - US shoots down Syrian
fighter jet near Raqqa after it allegedly
dropped bombs near US-backed rebel
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
• 2017 July - The Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah and the Syrian army launch a
military operation to dislodge jihadist
groups from the Arsal area, near the
Lebanese-Syrian border.
• Islamic State retreats
• 2017 October-November - The Islamic
State group is driven from Raqqa, its de-
facto capital in Syria, and Deir al-Zour.

• 2018 January - Turkey launches an

assault on northern Syria to oust Kurdish
rebels controlling the area around Afrin.
• 2018 April - Claims of a new chemical
attack in Eastern Ghouta's main town of
Douma prompt the US, Britain and France
to carry out a wave of punitive strikes on
Syrian targets.
• 2018 July - Syrian army recaptures almost
all of the south of the country, up to the
borders with Jordan and Israeli-held
territory.

• 2018 September-December - Kurdish-led

SDF forces launch offensive that reduces
Islamic State territory to a tiny enclave on
the Iraqi border.
• 2019 January - After announcing plan to
withdraw US troops from Syria, President
Trump warns Turkey of punitive economic
measures if it goes ahead with plan to
attack US Kurdish allies in northern Syria.
The Making of ISIS

• ISIS is a powerful terrorist militant group

that has seized control of large areas of
the Middle East. Infamous for its brutal
violence and murderous assaults on
civilians, this self-described caliphate has
claimed responsibility for hundreds of
terrorist attacks around the world, in
addition to destroying priceless
monuments, ancient temples and other
buildings, and works of art from antiquity.
• The roots of ISIS trace back to 2004, when the organization known as
“al Qaeda in Iraq” formed. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was originally
part of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda Network, founded this militant
group.

• The U.S. invasion of Iraq began in 2003, and the aim of al Qaeda in
Iraq was to remove Western occupation and replace it with a Sunni
Islamist regime.

• When Zarqawi was killed during a U.S. airstrike in 2006, Egyptian Abu
Ayyub al-Masri became the new leader and renamed the group “ISI,”
which stood for “Islamic State of Iraq.” In 2010, Masri died in a US-Iraqi
operation, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took power.

• When the civil war in Syria started, ISI fought against Syrian forces and
gained ground throughout the region. In 2013, the group officially
renamed themselves “ISIS,” which stands for “Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria,” because they had expanded into Syria.
ISIS and Sharia Law

• ISIS rule spread quickly throughout Iraq

and Syria. The group focused on creating
an Islamic state and implementing sharia
law—a strict religious code based on
traditional Islamic rules and practices.
• In 2014, ISIS took control of Falluja, Mosul and Tikrit in
Iraq, and declared itself a caliphate, which is a political
and religious territory ruled by a leader known as a
caliph.

• ISIS fighters attacked a northern town in Iraq that was

home to the Yazidis, a minority religious group, in
August 2014. They killed hundreds of people, sold
women into slavery, forced religious conversions and
caused tens of thousands of Yazidis to flee from their
homes.

• The attack sparked international media coverage and

brought attention to the brutal tactics employed by
ISIS. Also in 2014, al Qaeda broke ties with ISIS,
formally rejecting the group and disavowing their
activities.
One Group, Many Names
• Throughout its existence, ISIS has been called several
names, including:

• ISIL: This acronym stands for “Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant.” The Levant is a broad geographical region that
includes Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Jordan. Some
experts believe the ISIL label more accurately describes the
objectives of the militant group.

• IS: The shortened “IS” simply means “Islamic State.” In 2014,

the militant group announced they were officially calling
themselves IS because their goals for an Islamic state
reached beyond the areas identified in other titles.
• Daesh: Many Middle Eastern and
European governments have used this
Arabic acronym for “al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi
al-Iraq wa al-Sham,” which translates to
“Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” to
address the group. However, ISIS doesn’t
approve of the name, and in 2014,
threatened to cut out the tongue of anyone
who called them Daesh in public.
• Although there’s been debate over which
name most accurately describes the
militant group, these titles are typically
used interchangeably, and they all refer to
the same organization.
ISIS News and Video Brutality
• ISIS became recognized around the world for
carrying out heinous acts of violence, including
public executions, rapes, beheadings and
crucifixions. The group has earned an
nefarious reputation for videotaping brutal
killings and displaying them online.

• One of the first widely publicized acts of ISIS

violence happened in August 2014, when a few
of the group’s militants beheaded U.S.
journalist James Foley and posted a video of
the bloody execution on YouTube.
• About a month later, ISIS released another video
that showed the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven
Sotloff. A series of gruesome videos showing the
beheadings of kidnapped journalists and
international aid workers followed for the next
several months.

• In February 2015, ISIS released footage of

Jordanian military pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh being
burned alive in a cage. The same month, an ISIS
video showed militants beheading 21 Egyptian
Christians on a beach in Libya.

• Images of a man being thrown off a building in Syria

were made public in March 2015. ISIS claimed to
have killed the man because he was a homosexual.
ISIS Terror Acts
• ISIS has also claimed responsibility for hundreds of
terrorist attacks in the Middle East and around the
world. Some of the most well-known attacks on
Western soil that were linked to ISIS include:

• November 2015, Paris Attacks: In a series of

attacks, bombers and shooters terrorized the streets
of Paris, killing 130 people.
• December 2015, San Bernardino Attack: A married
couple opened fire at the Inland Regional Center in
California and killed 14 people.
• March 2016, Brussels Bombings: Bombings at
Brussels Airport in Belgium and a nearby Metro
station killed 32 people.
• June 2016, Pulse Nightclub Shooting: A
gunman opened fire inside a gay nightclub in
Orlando, Fla., and killed 49 people.
• July 2016, Nice Attack: A terrorist driving a
truck mowed down a crowd of people in the
French Riviera town, killing 86.
• December 2016, Berlin Attack: A man hijacked
and drove a truck into a Christmas market in
Berlin, killing himself and 11 others.
• May 2017, Manchester Attack: A single suicide
bomber killed 22 people during an Ariana
Grande concert at the Manchester Arena in
England.
Assaults on Historical Sites

• Since about 2014, members of ISIS have

destroyed numerous historical sites and
artifacts throughout Iraq, Syria and Libya.

• The group claims cultural monuments,

statues and shrines are idolatrous and
shouldn’t be worshipped. However,
several news investigations have revealed
that ISIS has sold and profited from many
of these artifacts.
• Some of the cultural sites ISIS has
attacked or destroyed include:

• Ancient ruins, monuments and buildings in

the cities of Hatra, Nimrud, Khorsabad,
Palmyra and others
• Iraq’s Mosul Museum and the Mosul
Public Library
• Various churches, temples, mosques and
shrines throughout the Middle East
ISIS Funding
• ISIS has been called the richest terrorist organization in the
world. While estimates vary, the group was said to have made
$2 billion in 2014 alone. Much of ISIS’s money has come from
seizing control of banks, oil refineries and other assets in the
territories it occupies.

• The group has also used kidnapping ransoms, taxes,

extortion, stolen artifacts, donations, looting and support from
foreign fighters to fill its coffers.

• However, a report released in 2017 by the British International

Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) revealed that
ISIS financial revenue has dropped dramatically in recent
years.
War Against ISIS

• In response to ISIS violence, various

countries—including the United States,
France, the United Kingdom, Russia,
several Arab nations and other countries—
have initiated efforts to defeat the terrorist
group.
• In 2014, a U.S.-led coalition started airstrikes against ISIS
targets in Iraq and Syria. That same year, the Pentagon
announced a program to train Syrian rebels to fight against
ISIS. However, this initiative was nixed a year later when only
about 150 rebels were recruited.

• The United States has primarily used targeted airstrikes and

special operations forces to fight ISIS. In 2015, President
Barack Obama announced that the U.S. had launched nearly
9,000 airstrikes on ISIS.

• The United States military dropped its most powerful non-

nuclear bomb on an ISIS compound in Afghanistan in April
2017.
• Reports have suggested ISIS has weakened
both militarily and financially. The group has
lost control of large amounts of territory in
Iraq, and several of its leaders have been
killed or captured, including the May 2018
arrest of five top ISIS officials in Syria and
Turkey.

• While notable gains against ISIS have been

made, international efforts to control this
powerful terrorist organization will likely
continue for many years.
 Cultural
SYRIA
Influence
(Sunni, Shia)

Assad's Assad's
IRAN Genocide
Regime in Aleppo

Rebel Upheaval
Groups of
(ISIS,
KURDISH,
Political
FSA) Reforms

Alliances Peace Mediation Arab ARAB

(US, RUSSIA) of Int'l SYRIAN
Talks Countries SPRING
Organizat WAR
ions