(Newswire.net — August 12, 2015) — Syria was part of the great Ottoman empire for more than 400 years, until 1918 when the British helped Arab troops led by Emir Feisal to capture Damascus. Two years later, the National Syrian Congress proclaimed Fasal as the king of Syria, a country with natural borders from the Taurus mountains in Turkey to the Sinai desert in Egypt, including part of Lebanon and a part of Palestine. Colonial forces, however, didn’t like the idea of Syrian independency so they decided the same year to divide Syria into two parts: Syria/Lebanon to the French ruling, and the Palestinian part under the British empire.
Of course, not without war. Finally, in July 1920, French forces occupied Damascus, forcing Feisal to flee the country. The French prevented Syria from forming a new state – the Greater Lebanon.
The Syrian people upraised against French ruling so France finally acknowledge the state Syria, but under French governmentand with the French military in Damascus.
The second Word War changed the military balance when the Germans occupied France. Naturally, all French colonies came under the control of the Axis powers, and French troops left Syria.
After WWII, Syria tried democracy for the first time when Michel Aflaq and Salah-al-Din al-Bitar founded the Arab Socialist Baath Party in 1947. However, Army officer Adib al-Shishakhli in a military coup, seized the power in 1949 and canceled all political parties. However, his army officers in another coup in 1954, seized power, and returned it to the civilian government.
Rise of the Assad family
In June 1967, Israeli forces seized Golan Heights from Syria and destroyed much of Syria’s air force in a Six Day War with Egypt, Jordan and Syria. At the time, Hafez al-Assad was the defense minister. In 1970, Assad became the elected president of Syria.
After failing to regain control of the Golan Heights in another short war with Israel, Assad signed the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel. In response to the Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, Assad set out to gain strategic parity with Israel.
After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, a Muslim Brotherhood member tried to assassinate Assad in 1980 to stress Syria’s adherence to Islam. The assassination attempt failed, but the Muslim Brotherhood gained popularity and upraised in the city of Hama in 1982. The same year, Israel invaded Lebanon and attacked the Syrian army, forcing it to withdraw from several areas. Israel attacked the PLO base in Beirut.
Being Iran’s ally in the Iran-Iraq war, Syria joined US-led coalition against Iraq in 1990. In 2000, Assad died and his son Bashar seized power.
As Bashar Assad had released 600 political prisoners, Syria became an important player in the region. In 2001, Pope John Paul II paid a historic visit to the country. At the time, pro-reform activists tried to push Syria further towards democracy, however, Assad recognized the move as the backdoor for the western countries to once again regaining power in Syria. This marked the beginning of autocracy and his ruling in Syria.
Tensions with the US
After British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Syria to ensure an alliance against terror, he and Bashir Assad didn’t agree on the definition of terror. It became clear that Syria closed its door to western countries, and would support Iran and Russia perspectively. So, the US launched ‘the bad country’ offensive through western media.
In 2002, Senior US officials included Syria in a list of states that make-up an “axis of evil”, first listed by President Bush in January.
In April 2003, Assad was warned by the US that it was not too late to accept the “right decision”. Assad refused, so the US introduced sanctions to Syria accusing Assad’s regime of supporting terrorists.
Pressured by the US, Syrian’s started turning towards the other side, joining the Muslim Brotherhood, which gained more power. In 2006, four gunmen attacked the US embassy in Damascus, throwing grenades, three of them were killed, and one was captured.
The same year, Syria restored diplomatic relations with Iraq, after 50 years.
In 2007, Israel attacked Syria again; launching an airstrike against a site in northern Syria that it said was a nuclear facility under construction. In years to come, Syria was marked as the country that was secretly developing nuclear weapons, introducing once again in western media the “weapons of mass destruction” term.
Meanwhile, Islamists executed a series of attacks in Syria. One of the larger ones was a 2008 bomb attack in Damascus that killed 17 people and wounded dozens more.
Assad now fights two fronts: Radical Islamists and terrorists from one side, and reformists backed by NATO from other side, which have the mission to undermine the Assad’s regime from the inside.
In December 2011 – Twin suicide bombs outside security buildings in Damascus killed 44, the first in a series of large blasts in the capital that continued into the following summer.
Rise of IS in Syria
In 2012, US, Britain, France, Turkey and Gulf states formally recognized pro-western opposition, the “National Coalition” as “legitimate a representative” of the Syrian people. Israel continued air raids from time to time against the Syrian infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the US and Britain were supporting with military equipment the rebels in Northern Syria, believing they would represent the military force to oppose Assad. However, after radical Islamists captured two rebels bases who had armed themselves with mainly US “aid”, IS fighters. In 2014, IS declared the Caliphate in the east, from Aleppo to the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala.
After four months of fighting, the Kurdish forces stopped the advance of IS forces, pushing them back from the Turkish border. In June 2015, Kurdish fighters took Ain Issa and the border town of Tal Abyad, the Islamic State attacked Kobane and seized part of Hassakeh, the main city in north-eastern Syria.
Instead of supporting Kurdish fighters against IS, in July 2015 Turkey launched airstrikes against the Kurds. Feeling betrayed, Kurdish fighters raged in anger. Turkey has long been accused of aiding Islamic State’s rise by allowing its fighters to freely cross its borders, the Wall Street Journal reported. At the same time, Turkey had to let its NATO allys, the US, use their base for airstrikes against IS fighters.
Meanwhile, Moscow has urged Washington to fight IS along with Assad rather than fight Assad’s regime.