 Hello, and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about the Syrian Civil War. My name is Barbara, and in this video we'll delve into the causes of the Syrian Civil War, how it evolved, the state's role, as well as the rebel faction involved. We'll also discuss the role of external actors in countries which continue to have an influence on the civil war, as well as the Syrian refugee crisis. So, let's get started. Now, to begin with, it's really important to understand that the Syrian Civil War is an ongoing, multi-sided armed conflict in Syria, fought between the Barthas Syrian Arab Republic led by President Bashar al-Assad, along with domestic and foreign allies, and various domestic and foreign forces opposing both the Syrian government and each other in varying combinations. Now, when it comes to initial uprising, Syrians rose up as part of the wave of the Arab Spring protests against repressive dictators in the Middle Eastern states like Egypt and Tunisia in 2011, and Assad quickly decided to emulate his father, Hafez al-Assad, and tried to repress the protests through the use of brutal force. The goal really was to turn the broad-based protest movement from a political struggle into military one where his control of the army meant he might be able to kill his way to victory. Environmental crises also played a role in the Syrian uprising. Between 2006 and 2010, Syria experienced the worst drought in the country's modern history. Hundreds of thousands of farming families were reduced to poverty, causing a mass migration of rural people to urban shanty towns. It was in the impoverished, drought-stricken rural province of Darar in southern Syria that the first major protests occurred in March 2011. A group of children had been arrested and tortured by local authorities for writing anti-regime graffiti. Incensed, local people took the streets to demonstrate for political and economic reforms. Security forces responded harshly, conducting mass arrests and sometimes firing in demonstrators. The violence of the regime's response added visibility and momentum to the protesters' cause, and within weeks, similar non-violent protests had begun to appear in cities around the country. However, the state responded in an extremely harsh way. The regime's response had a sectarian dimension. Many of the protesters belonged to the country's sunny majority, while the ruling Assad family were members of the country's Alawite minority. Alawites had also dominated security forces and the irregular militias that carried out some of the worst violence against protesters and suspected opponents of the regime. In his public statements, Assad sought to portray the opposition as sunny Islamic extremists in the mode of al-Qaeda and as participants in foreign conspiracies against Syria. The regime also produced propaganda stoking minority sphere that the predominantly sunny opposition would carry out violent reprisals against non-Sunni communities. By the summer of 2011, Syria's domestic players, regional neighbours as well as global powers had both began to split into pro and anti-Assad camps. In July 2011, defectors from the Assad regime formed an organised militia called the Free Syrian Army to protect protesters and strike back at Assad. By January 2012, the Syrian uprising had devolved into a full-blown civil war, pitting the FSA and other assorted rebel groups against Assad and his supporters. The situation escalated into full-scale war between the Syrian government, which was backed by Russian Iran and anti-government rebel groups backed by the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and others in the region. Now, it's really important, firstly, to understand that three campaigns drive this conflict. Firstly, you have the coalition efforts to defeat the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS. Secondly, violence between the Syrian government and opposition forces, and thirdly, military operations against Syrian Kurds and Turkish forces. So this interplay continues to drive the Syrian conflict. Also, it's really important to understand the different actors involved. So we have the Syrian armed forces, the sunny opposition rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army, Salafi jihadist groups such as the al-Nusra Front, mixed Kurdish Arab Syrian Democratic Forces, the Islamic State, as well as regional actors and beyond. Now, when it comes to actors in favour of the Assad regime, in other words, they support the continued rule of President Assad. You have firstly, Russia. So it's one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most important backers, and the survival of the regime is critical to maintaining Russia's interests in the country, as well as also in the Middle East. Russia has blocked resolutions critical of President Assad at the UN Security Council, and its continued supply weapons to the Syrian military despite international criticism. Moscow wants to protect a key naval facility which it leases at the Syrian port of Tartu, which serves as Russia's sole Mediterranean base for its Black Sea fleet, and it has forces at an air base in Latakia, President Assad's Shia-Alawite heartland. In September 2015, Russia began launching airstrikes against rebels, saying the so-called Islamic State, so IS, and all terrorists were targets. However, Western-backed groups were reported to have been hit. Another pro-Syrian government country is Iran. So, the regional Shia power Iran is believed to be spending billions of dollars a year to prop up President Assad and his Alawite-dominated government, providing military advisers and subsidized weapons as well as lines of credit and oil transfers. Syria's alliance with Tehran dates back to 1980 and is critical to Iran's regional ambitions. It uses Syria to convey weapons and other goods to its proxy militias and allies, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. In return, Assad's regime gets military and political assistance from Tehran. Iranian leaders saw the revolt against Assad as a threat not just to him, but also to them. Thus, Iran is believed to have been influential in the Hezbollah's decision to send fighters to Western Syria to assist pro-Assad forces. Iran has proposed a peaceful transition in Syria that would culminate in free multi-party elections. It was involved in peace talks over Syria's future for the first time when world powers met in Vienna. Now, also, of course, there's lots of actors that are against the Assad regime and they want to see a change in regime. The first country involved in this is Turkey. So the Turkish government has been a staunch critic of Mr. Assad since the start of the uprising in Syria. Turkey is a key supporter of the Syrian opposition and has faced the burden of hosting almost 2 million refugees from Syria. But its policy of allowing rebel fighters, arms shipments and refugees to pass through its territory has been exploited by foreign jihadists wanting to join IS. Turkey has let the US-led coalition against IS to use its air bases for strikes in Syria after an IS bomb attack on July 2015. There have been critical of coalition support for the Syrian Kurdish Popular Protection Units, which is also known as the YPG, an affiliate of the banned Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, deemed a terrorist group of Turkey, the EU and the US. Saudi Arabia is another important country that's against the Assad regime. So since the Iraq war, the oil-rich, sunny Arab states along the Persian Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia, which is the largest and the strongest, has been embroiled in a sort of Cold War with Iran, which is a Shiite theocracy. Both sides wish to stare the political course of the Middle East rather as a fundamental threat to their security. Saudi Arabia says President Assad cannot be part of the solution to the conflict and he must hand over power to a transitional administration or be removed by force. Riyadh is a major provider of military and financial assistance to several rebel groups, including those with Islamist ideologies and has called for a no-fly zone to be imposed to protect civilians from bombardment by Syrian government forces. Saudi leaders were angered by the Obama administration's decision not to intervene militarily in Syria after a 2013 chemical attack blamed on Assad's forces. They later agreed to take part in the US-led coalition air campaign against IS, concerned by the group's advances and its popularity among a minority of Saudis. United States of America is another major country that's involved in trying to at least to go against Bashar al-Assad's regime. So Iran's backing made Assad into a target for some of America's closest partners in the region. The US has accused President Assad of responsibility for widespread atrocities and says he must go, but it agrees on the need for a negotiated settlement to end the war and the formation of a transitional administration. The US supports Syria's main opposition alliance, the National Coalition, and provides limited military assistance to moderate rebels. A US-led global coalition has also carried out airstrikes on IS militants in Syria since 2014 and helped an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF, captured territory once held by the Jihadists in the east. Since September 2014, the US has also been conducting airstrikes on IS and other Jihadist groups in Syria as part of an international coalition against the Jihadist group, but it's avoided attacks that might benefit Assad's forces or intervening in battles between them and the rebels. Another important actor is the Islamic State. So since practically the beginning of the conflict, al-Qaeda had been sending forces into Syria, seeing a chaotic civil war as a great environment for them to use as a safe haven and a place to get recruits. By mid-2012, the Syrian al-Qaeda franchise, Jahbad al-Nusra, had allied with some relatively moderate rebels and established themselves as one of the most effective anti-Assad fighting forces. The Islamic State began seizing control of territory in Syria in 2013. After a series of terrorist attacks coordinated by the Islamic State across Europe in 2015, the United States, the UK and France, with the support of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Arab partners, expanded the air campaign in Iraq to include Syria. This of course has all coalesced and caused a refugee crisis. So over 5.6 million Syrians have been forced to flee the country since 2011, and another 6.6 million have been driven from their homes, but they remain trapped inside the country. The vast majority of Syrian refugees have found safety in neighboring countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Turkey alone hosts more than 3 million Syrian refugees, and this crisis continues, and it's a very tragic crisis. So that's all. We hope you found this video useful. If you're seeking a deeper understanding of the Syrian refugee crisis as well as the Syrian civil war, if you found this useful, do give this video a thumbs up and do give us a like. However, do visit our website which is www.firstrichtutors.com. We do delve into lots of different topics, cutting across English history and lots of major subjects, whereby we offer lots of support with regards to revision materials when it comes to essay writing practice for your academic studies as well as your coursework. Thank you so much for listening.