Arab Spring as a Background of Civil War in Syria

Abstract

In the paper the reasons of outbreak of conflict in Syria at the background of social and political situation of the Arab world at the beginning of 21st century were presented. The influence of displeasure explosion against governments in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, known as Arab Spring, on the situation in Syria was described. The attention on escalation of tensions between Bashar al-Assad’s government and opposition as a source of civil war in Syria was paid. The foreign players at the arena of Syrian conflict with special concern to United States and Russia activity, as a main contractors in the conflict were shown

Full text

International Conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION
Vol. XXIV No 1 2018
ARAB SPRING AS A BACKGROUND OF CIVIL WAR IN SYRIA
Marian ŻUBER, Samuel Sahel MOUSSA
Military University of Land Forces, Wroclaw, Poland
marian.zuber@awl.edu.pl, samuel.moussa@awl.edu.pl
Abstract: In the paper the reasons of outbreak of conflict in Syria at the background of social and
political situation of the Arab world at the beginning of 21st century were presented. The influence of
displeasure explosion against governments in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, known as Arab Spring, on the
situation in Syria was described. The attention on escalation of tensions between Bashar al-Assad’s
government and opposition as a source of civil war in Syria was paid. The foreign players at the arena
of Syrian conflict with special concern to United States and Russia activity, as a main contractors in
the conflict were shown.
Keywords: Arab Spring, Arab awakening, Middle East, civil war, democratisation
1. Introduction
The end of 2010, and the beginning of 2011
known as the Arab Spring or Arab
awakening concerns the wave of
revolutions in the North Africa and in the
Middle East region arranged with the
purpose of overthrowing the most powerful,
long-lasting, and reactive violent regimes in
such countries as Tunisia, Egypt, Syria,
Libya, and Yemen [1]. The first exact apply
of the term “Arab Spring” was initiated by
US political academic journal “Foreign
Policy” [2].
The events of the Arab Spring in Tunisia
had huge influence on the situation in other
countries of North Africa and in the Middle
East. Aftermath of uprisings in each nation
proceeded in various ways and effects of
them were different.
The protests in the countries where civil
resistance occurred had different effects but
methods of protests were similar. Citizens
expressed their dissatisfaction through
strikes, rallies, demonstrations and marches
as much as the effective use of social media
(Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other) to
organise, communicate and create
awareness in the face of the occurring
events [3]. The reaction of governments on
the protests had three forms: resign of
country leaders after pressures of society or
army, social, political and economic
reforms and using the violence in the mass
range (civil war). The ruling elites took
various actions in the face of protests: from
concessions and reforms in the country to
repression and using violence against
citizens.
In the paper, the authors analyse the
implications for the social and political
situation in Syria as a result of the events of
the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Libya and
Egypt. They focused on the development of
the conflict in Syria under Bashar al-Assad
to show the development of the conflict
from revolt to civil war.
2. The impact of the Arab Spring on the
situation in North Africa and Middle
East region
At the beginning of 2011 the revolt spread
to other Arab countries. The strength of
social movements of the Arab Spring was
so enormous that it could lead to major
DOI: 10.1515/kbo-2018-0038
© 2015. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
245

changes in the Arab world, and even the
overthrow of leaders who had been in
power for decades [4]:
• Tunisia - Zine el-Abidine Ben Alì, who
ruled from 1987, was forced to resign
and leave the country.
• Algeria and Morocco - social protests
have had less impact than protests in
other Arab countries, but they have led
to democratic changes.
• Egypt - Hosni Mubarak, who ruled
from 1981, similarly to the leader of
Tunisia, was forced to resign and leave
the country.
• Libya - the result of revolt was civil
war, in which NATO forces were
engaged. The leader of Libya Muammar
Gaddafi - in power from 1969, was
captured and killed on 20 October 2011
during the Battle of Sirte, by National
Transitional Council (NTC) militants.
• Syria - the result of the outbreak of
revolt in March 2011 was the
repression against citizens from the
regime of President Bashar al-Assad,
who ruled from 2000, without
proposing political and social changes
in Syria.
• Yemen - president Ali Abdullah Saleh,
who ruled for 33 years, after ten
months of revolt, on November 2,
2011, signed an agreement according to
which he handed over power to vice-
president Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi,
obtaining immunity for himself and his
family.
• The riots spread during 2011 to many
countries of the Middle East such as
Bahrain, Jordan, Oman and Iran, as
well as their consequences had
different dimensions.
Figure1 presents events of Arab Spring at
the timeline [5].
2.1. Tunisia – the beginning of Arab
awakening
The genesis of Arab Spring began in Tunisia,
on 17 December 2010, when Mohamed
Bouazizi, a 26-year-old vendor from Sidi
Bouzid, set himself the fire to protest
against the confiscation of his cart, which
allowed him to keep his family. The
incident became the spark which caused
changes in Arab countries alight in the near
future.
Protests began locally in this same day, in
several places, but then spread across the
country. Their scale was so massive and
surprising that it forced President Zine El
Abidin Ben Ali, in office from 1987 to
issue a warning on 28 December that
dissent would be severely punished [6]. The
protests were the first sign of successful
popular movement and official
denunciation, a pattern that would soon
become a familiar throughout the Arab
world.
The response of the government was not
positive and the police killed and arrested
many youths. This news disseminated
throughout Tunisia. Many unemployed
young people and the majority of Tunisians
citizens demonstrated in every place of the
country by opposing the government. The
government of Tunisia brutally killed and
arrested many Tunisians. This events
changed the history of Tunisia and became
turning points for the whole Arab states and
signal to the revolution. Finally the
government made many promise to the
people to make a reform but the people of
Tunisia did not return back to their home. At
the conclusion the government of Tunisia
fled from the country to Saudi Arabia [7].
After the escape of Ben Ali, his ministers
were forced to resign because the society
did not want the old discredited political
elites caring only for their own interests. An
interim government was established which
focused on preparing democratic elections.
After the elections situation in Tunisia had
stabilized.
246

Figure 1. The events of Arab spring [4]
2.2. Libya – the death of dictator
First protests in Libya started on 13 January
2011 but mass uprisings began in the city of
Benghazi on 15 February 2011. Public
discontents in the all country were as an
result of rebellion in the north-east of the
country and in the Nafusa Mountains in the
north-west, as well as smaller local protest
in Benghazi over the detention of a lawyer
Fathi Terbil. Within some days the unrest
also spread to the Tripoli and other cities in
the north-west. The actors of the uprising’s
first days were unorganised young men
acting spontaneously [8]. From Benghazi,
the revolt spread quickly and Gaddafi
ordered troops loyal to him to quell the
rebellion. The rebels set up the National
Transitional Council (on 27 February),
claiming to be the legitimate government of
Libya.
When the Libyan government escalated its
response with the use of force to regional
riots in Benghazi and other Libyan cities,
which caused the deaths of dozens of
rioters, popular rebellion spread throughout
northern Libya. The conflict developed into
civil war. The Libyan conflict has evolved
from a peaceful protest to a bloody civil
war. The main reasons for this scenario
were: the repressive regime of Gaddafi, the
division of Libya's territory between the
NTC and the supporters of the regime, the
supply of weapon to NTC and coalition
rebel forces, the influence of the Arab
League and NATO intervention.
On 20 October 2011, war officially ended
with Gaddafi’s death and the NTC’s
declaration of victory [9].
In the Libyan uprising four distinct stages
could be distinguished: peaceful protests,
247

rebellion, organized belligerency, and
international intervention.
Due to the war in Libya, thousands of
people lost their lives and hundreds of
thousands were forced to migrate to
neighboring countries. Losses in the
economy have reached billions of dollars
[10]. After the war, the process of creating
the new government and developing the
new constitution began.
2.3. Egypt – protests in the shadow of
pyramids
Revolution in Egypt, which started on 25
January 2011, was triggered soon after the
uprising in Tunisia. The protests, which
took place on Cairo's Tahrir Square, was
the result of the tradition of protests in
Egypt, which lasted over a decade, and
which included pro-democratic activity,
workers' movements and Internet
campaigns against the brutality of the
Mubarak regime [11].
The revolution started by calls from online
youth groups for protests against regime.
Violent clashes between security forces and
protesters resulted in at least 846 people
killed and over 6000 injured. Protesters
retaliated by burning over 90 police stations
across the country. The protests took place
in Cairo, which was described as “a war
zone” during the uprising [12], Alexandria,
and in all major cities across the nation. On
Friday, January 28, about 50,000 protesters
appeared on Tahrir Square, who joined the
demonstration. Protests also increased after
January 28. More than 500,000 protesters
filled the square on 1, 8 and 11 February.
In the evening of February 11, Vice
President Omar Suleiman publicly
announced the demise of the Mubarak
government and the transfer of power to the
army [13]. In the following weeks, the
country was destabilized. Plundering and
acts of violence began, and the police
almost disappeared from the streets. With
time, the order was restored.
2.4. Syria – the longest and the
bloodiest conflict of Arab Spring
The explosion of protests and social unrest
in Tunisia, and then in such countries like
Libya and Egypt had also essential
influence on other countries of North Africa
and the Middle East, by political, economic
and social factors, and brought a serious
challenges on, for the security of the
Middle East. One of these countries was
Syria.
The conflict in Syria began with protests on
January 26, 2011 and turned into a general
uprising on March 15, 2011. It has become
the bloodiest conflict in the Middle East as
the consequence of the Arab Spring [14].
The scenario at the beginning of the conflict
was similar to other countries. The serious
pro-democracy protests against Syrian
regime erupted in Deraa, the city of
southern Syria, after the arrest and torture
of some teenagers who painted
revolutionary slogans on a wall on 6 March
2011. The escalation of the conflict
followed after the security forces opened
fire on demonstrators, killing several of
them. Protesters demanded President
Assad's resignation. The use of force by the
government to disperse the demonstrations
only sharpened the determination of the
protesters.
Violence was escalating and the civil war
broke out. The rebel brigades were formed
to fight government forces and take control
of large cities, towns and villages. In 2012,
the battles took over the capital - Damascus
and the second largest city of Syria -
Aleppo [15].
The armed conflict showed real divisions in
the Syrian society. Most Syrians are Sunni
Muslims, but Syria's security establishment
has been dominated by members of the
Alawi sect, of which Assad is a member.
Sectarianism is special feature which
occurred during the civil war. Regional
governments of Iran and Iraq with the Shia
majority and Lebanese Hezbollah supported
Assad, while countries with the Sunni
majority, including Turkey, Qatar and
Saudi Arabia, supported the rebels against
Assad [16].
Foreign intervention played a large role in
Syria's civil war but paradoxically it
escalated conflict and prolonged the
248

ongoing civil war. Some states supported
Syria in the war against the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as
ISIS) but encouragement for Assad’s
regime was not clear.
Russia joined the conflict in 2015 and
became the main ally of the Assad regime
in the fight against the opposition and the
Islamic State. The US has supported the
opposition to the Assad government backed
by Russia and has participated in offensive
against ISIL [17].
3. Conclusions
The Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of
demonstrations and protests that have
embraced almost the entire Arab world. A
main slogan of the demonstrators in this
uprising has been a sentence Ash-sha’b yurid
isqat an-nizam (The people want to bring
down the regime) [18].
The reasons of the protests had different
bases in individual countries, but most often
resulted from internal problems such as:
economic problems, rising unemployment,
extreme poverty, restriction of democracy,
human rights violations, widespread
corruption, rising food prices and various
demographic factors such as high
percentage of young educated people who
were left without work, as well as the
existence of centralized systems leading to
the marginalization of people outside large
cities.
In some countries the protests were aimed
at overthrowing the regime, while in others
improving the living conditions of society,
while maintaining an independent state.
Figure 2. Changes in the Middle East after Arab Spring [20]
The ruling elite responded to the protesters
differently: from introducing top-down
reforms and making efforts to ‘buy’ social
peace to repression and armed violence
[19]. Figure 2. presents countries in the
Middle East where changes have succeeded
after Arab Spring.
The Arab Spring emerged Islamists as
newly serious actors in MENA region
politics. While Islamists in the past have
always been an influential voice in Arab
politics, the Arab Spring allowed them to
move from the sidelines to the main stage.
For example, the Muslim Brotherhood in
Egypt and al-Nahda in Tunisia, were both
elected to power in post-revolutionary
governments.
Acknowledgements
This article has been developed as part of
scientific and research project No.
100/WNoB/39/DzS, partially financed from
the funds of the Ministry of Science and
Higher Education of the Republic of
Poland.
249

References
[1] Lynch M., The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East,
Public Affairs, New York 2012, p. 304.
[2] Abusharif I. N., Parsing “Arab Spring”. Media Coverage of the Arab revolution.
Ocasional Paper Series. Qatar: Northwestern University . p. I.
[3] Abdelsalam E., The Arab Spring: Its origin, evolution and consequences ... four years on.
Intellectual Discourse, 23:1 (2015) 122.
[4] Ansani A., Daniele V., About a revolution. The economic motivations of the Arab
Spring, International Journal of Development and Conflict, Vol. 3(3), 2012, p.2.
[5] A Climate of Change. Special report. The Arab spring. The Economist July 13th 2013,
p.3.
[6] Dabashi H., The Arab Spring. The end of Postcolonialism. Zed Books, London – New
York 2012, p. 26.
[7] Diani M., Caelum Moffat, Modes of Coordination of Contentious Collective Action in
the Middle East in: Popular Contention, Regime and Transition: Arab Revolts in
Comparative Perspective. Alimi E.Y., Sela A., Sznajder M. (ed.) New York, Oxford
University Press, 2016, p. 43.
[8] Asseburg M. (ed.), Protest, Revolt and Regime Change in the Arab World. Actors,
Challenges, Implications and Policy Options. SWP Research Paper, Stiftung
Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin 2012, p. 11.
[9] Zenko M. By overreaching in Libya, NATO has left Syria to fend alone. Council on
Foreign Relations. 11 October 2011. http://www.cfr.org/nato/overreaching-libya-nato-
has-left-syria-fend-alone/p26153 (19.03.2018).
[10] Aghayev E., Analysis and background of the “Arab Spring” in Libya, European
Researcher, 2013, Vol.(39), No 1-2, pp. 193-198.
[11] Stein E., After the Arab Spring: power shift in the Middle East?: revolutionary Egypt:
promises and perils. IDEAS reports - special reports, Kitchen N. (ed.) SR011. LSE
IDEAS, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, 2012. p.23.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/43461/ (18.03.2018).
[12] Siddique H., Owen P., Gabbatt A. Protests in Egypt and unrest in Middle East – as it
happened. The Guardian. UK. (25 January 2011). Archived from the original on 26
January 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
[13] Acemoglu D., Hassan T. A., Tahoun A. The Power of the Street: Evidence of the
Egypt’s Arab Spring, NBER Working Paper No. 20665, November 2014. p. 18.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20665 (18 .03.2018).
[14] Ivanciu C., The Status of Armed Conflict. Case study: the Conflict in Syria. Scientific
Research and Education in the Air Force – AFASES, Volume II, Brasov 2016, p. 588.
[15] The Syrian Cicvil War: Between Escalation and Intervention, CSS Analysis in security
policy, ETH Zurich, No 124, November 2012, p. 2.
[16] Hof F., Sectarian Violence in Syria’s Civil War: Causes, Consequences and
Recommendations for Mitigation, https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20130325-syria-
report.pdf (19.03.2018).
[17] Rogers P., Reeve R., Russia’s Intervention in Syria: Implications for Western
Engagement, Global Security Briefing – October 2015, Oxford research Group, pp. 1-5.
[18] Salih K., The Roots and Causes of the 2011 Arab Uprisings, Arab Studies Quarterly,
Vol. 35, No. 2 (Spring 2013), p. 185, based on: Hardy R., Egypt protests: An Arab
spring as old order crumbles, BBC News, February 2, 2011.
250

[19] Rosiny S., The Arab Spring: Triggers, Dynamics and Prospects, GIGA Focus
International Edition No. 1, 2012. https://www.giga-hamburg.de/en/system/
files/publications/gf_international_1201.pdf (18.03.2018).
[20] Rózsa E. N. and Co-authors, The Arab Spring. Its Impact on the Region and on the
Middle East Conference, Policy Brief for the Middle East Conference on a WMD/DVs
Free Zone, No. 9-10, August 2012. Academic Peace Orchestra Middle East.
251