How can we understand Syria? How far back in history should we go?
Let’s start with the Sykes-Picot agreement between the UK and France which divided up the area during the First World War in 1916. France got control of Syria, without of course any consultation with the Syrians who were then part of the crumbling Ottoman empire. Local dissatisfaction with this arrangement is still alive and emerging today.
Hafez al Assad, the father of Bashar al Assad ruled Syria for 30 years (1971-2000). In 1982 he put down civil unrest in Hama with a bloody massacre in which an estimated 20,000 people were killed.
“The 1982 massacre is regarded as the single bloodiest assault by an Arab ruler against his own people in modern times and remains a pivotal event in Syrian history” (The Guardian).
Later when another peaceful civil uprising in Deraa occurred in 2011, Bashar al Assad used the same brutal force as his father to suppress this. This was the beginning of the civil war that is now raging throughout Syria.
The Bashar al Assad regime now counts on the support of three outside powers.
