Syrian Crisis – The Worst Exodus Ever
Written by Deb, 3Leaps Content Marketing Agency
for Siachen.com.
If your heart goes out to the homeless, you would have been moved by the Syrian Crisis. There are many out there that need your help and it is not just your sympathy that is going to make that difference. Here is a brief account of how it all started:
A Glimpse into the history:
Syria has been ruled by the family of the existing President Bashar al-Assad ever since 1971. It was in 2011 that people started protesting against the government in Syria which slowly turned into armed rebellions, taking the form of a civil war. The Protestants are asking for the resignation of Assad which will mark the end of the rule of the Ba’ath party in Syria. This civil war, riots, demonstrations and protests are collectively known as Arab Spring in the language of the media and the people who are thus protesting are collectively called the Syrian Opposition. The Syrian Opposition includes:
• National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces
• Syrian National Council
• Local Coordination Committees of Syria
• Free Syrian Army and Higher Military Council
• Kurdish Supreme Committee
Countries like Pakistan, Qatar, Israel, United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are supporting the Syrian Opposition. Russia, Iran and Iraq have joined hands with the Syrian Government, supporting it in technical, military, political and financial ways. The conflict now is very sectarian by nature with militias, Alawite government forces and many other Shia groups fighting against the rebel groups that are all Sunni-dominated. There is also a group called ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), which is a self-proclaimed Islamic state (belonging to a Wahhabi/Salafi jihadist extremist militant group) controlling a whole territory of 10 million Iraqi and Syrian people. It also controls certain parts of Afghanistan, Nigeria and Libya with affiliates in South Asia and North Africa. In 2014, this group drove away the Iraqi government forces from the main cities of Western Iraq, which almost collapsed the Iraqi Government. Ever since then ISIS has been destroying many cultural heritage sites and posting many disturbing videos on the social media pertaining to the beheadings of journalists, soldiers, aid workers and civilians. The foreign involvement in this conflict has turned it into a proxy war.
The death toll of this war has risen above 300,000 and more than 11 million Syrian people have become homeless. In addition, many protesters have been imprisoned and are even undergoing torture in the state prisons. About 4 million people have in fact fled Syria to find refuge in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait, Egypt and Iraq. Many have even fled to Germany, Greece and Sweden and living the life of refugees. Most of them are living in pathetically poor conditions with not much water or food. Bombing has destroyed their cities.
United Nations High Commission of Refugees is leading the emergency response of the region and about Four million Syrian people are awaiting help from the organization. The number of refugees has been increasing exponentially every year, reaching about four million. Syrians have in fact become the largest refugee population of the world and as per the predictions of the U.N the figure could reach a 4.27 million by December 2015. If you thought the Rwandan genocide that happened 20 years ago was the worst exodus ever, this is even worse.
