Middle East Peace Conference

Topic: The Situation in Syria

Starting as a domestic uprising to becoming a major battleground hosting a proxy war, Syria now enters the thirteenth year of being in the center of geopolitical and humanitarian turmoil becoming a land of significant division into spheres of influence and bearing external interventions from regional and non-regional actors. Drawing its inspiration from the Arab Spring uprisings, the Syrian civil war brought the center of the spotlight to the Assad regime supported by Iran, Russia and Hezbollah on the one hand and its various opposition forces on the other, striving to fulfil a wide range of interests and objectives. As for the groups fighting the Assad regime which up to recently controlled much of western Syria, many can be named including, the Free Syrian Army supported by Türkiye, various Islamist factions, Kurdish forces holding the northeast and even ISIS remaining a sporadic threat. Following the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad in early December 2024, the developed power vacuum sought to fill up Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist group assuming control over significant portions of Syria, engaging in dialogue with the West, presenting itself as a force of peace and unity and altering once again the dynamics in the country.

Other than that, closely tied to the conflict remains the Kurdish population represented particularly by the Syrian Democratic Forces, and positioning itself on the side of the opposition forces, supporting the overthrow of the Assad regime. However, as Turkish-backed forces gained prominence over the years leading to the ousting of Assad, this result seems to be just an incidental alignment of interests between the Kurds and Türkiye, which view Kurdish groups as an offshoot of the PKK and majorly denounce Kurds’ aspirations for autonomy and independence, systematically intervening in Syria’s affairs.

In the face of all these events and bearing in mind the still existing Israeli control of the Golan Heights, the lack of a cohesive and solid national authority is evident, bringing intense internal turbulence and massive population displacements and letting this ethnic fragmentation be Syria’s ongoing reality.