The clashes that started in Syria in 2011 entered its 8th year. Hundreds of thousands of people died and millions of people became refugees, especially in the country where there is great destruction with foreign intervention.
Life is getting harder every day for those people who took refuge in neighboring countries, especially in Turkiye.
The civil war in the country is increasingly intensified and the ceasefire negotiation results in serious frustration. The destruction of the civil war and the human tragedy are getting worse.
We have also asked those who have followed the region closely in the country in which there has been an indescribable pain. Here is the chronology and consequences of the war in Syria:
How did clashes start?
In ancient lands, which have been home to many civilizations for centuries, everything began when two female doctors had a telephone conversation tapping by the Syrian intelligence.
The overthrow of the 30-year-old Hosni Mubarak power with the so-called Arab Spring, which generated a domino effect, then influenced Bahrain, Libya, Morocco, and even caused Gaddafi's death.
In Syria, two female doctors in the city of Dara, talking on the phone; "Hosni Mubarak fallen, wish same for us…" was tapped by the intelligence and these two female doctors were detained on March 14, 2011.
About 10 children, relatives of one of these women, "the people want to destroy the order," writes the slogan the walls. After the writing on the wall of the school, the head of the school complains about these children. Children were taken into custody and were subjected to severe torture.
When the children were taken into custody, the chiefs of the tribes in the Dara region went to the intelligence officer and ask for the release of these children. However, they face insults and the next day on March 15, 2011, about a thousand people matched on the street. This insult to the tribal chiefs and not releasing children were protested.
Assad regime uses excessive forces in responding to peaceful protests. At least 4 people die in the first actions. As people are killed, demonstrations begin to spread to all cities.
None of the talks and summits are enough to stop the blood flowing in Syria.
As of now, the number of deaths varies according to various sources. The UK-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory states that almost 400,000 people have died.
Demonstrations in Dara spread throughout the country
The demonstrations that started in Dara in March 2011 spread to Damascus in a short period of time and then to a large part of the country.
In April of the same year, regime military forces entered Dara and emigration to Turkiye has begun. A year after the events, in February 2012, calls for resignation from the West to Assad began to rise.
In July 2012, the Free Syrian Army captured the north of Aleppo. In the same month, regime handed over the Amude district of Hasakah province in northeastern Syria, Afrin district of Aleppo in country's northwest region and Kobane in the northeast of the country to YPG/PKK elements.
In June 2013, the first political talks took place in Geneva, Switzerland.
In August 2013, more than 1,400 civilian were killed in the eastern Gouta region of Damascus with chemical weapons.
In January 2014, DEASH took control of Raqqa, and in June of the same year declared the caliphate.
In September 2014, the US-led international coalition began to launch air strikes against DEASH.
In May 2015, residents captured Idlib in northwest Syria.
In December 2015, the United Nations Security Council decided on the road map of the political transition. The decision secured Assad's rule for two years.
In August 2016, the YPG/PKK invaded Manbij with the support of the US. Thereupon, Turkiye has launched the Operation of Euphrates Shield.
A ceasefire was declared on December 13, 2016, with Turkiye and Russia's mediation and guarantor and civilians were evacuated.
Regime forces attacked Khan Shanhun of Idlib on April 4, 2017, with chemical weapons, over 100 civilians were killed and more than 500 were wounded.
Within the framework of the Astana agreements, the Turkish Armed Forces [TAF] started the process of establishing ceasefire observation points by transferring to Idlib in October 2017. DEASH was cleared from Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor with intensified US air attacks and YPG's land attacks.
Turkiye has launched Olive Branch Operation in January of 2018 against YPG/PKK in Afrin, and DEASH in Syrian lands.
On 18 March 2018, the Operation of the Olive Branch ended. Nowadays, TAF is preparing to operate in the east of the Euphrates.
The sides of the war
While Russia and Iran siding Assad, the USA, UK, France, and other Western countries provide support the PKK-PYD under the name of Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF] when Turkiye is supporting the Free Syrian Army [FSA].
The United States, which has carried air operations in Syria since 2014, has provided military training to PKK/YPG organizations, provided weapons aid.
Turkiye too supports the Free Syrian Army [FSA]. Turkiye, carry out operations together with FSA in Syria, especially during the operation against Afrin, under the name of Operation of the Olive Branch.
Russia, which has military bases in Syria, launched air strikes in 2015 to support the regime and these attacks played a major role in changing the course of the war in favor of Assad.
Iran also acknowledges support for the Assad regime and states that this support is "military advisory".
Eastern Gouta
Eastern Gouta, located just east of Syria's capital, Damascus, has been in the hands of armed opposition groups since 2012. It is stated that the most powerful group in Eastern Gouta was the Islamic Army, claimed to be founded with the support of Saudi Arabia. Eastern Gouta, the capital oppositions, was the last stronghold region of oppositions.
Thousands of people lost their lives in the attacks carried out by the Syrian regime army to take over the region.
The Eastern Gouta was also on the agenda by chemical attacks, most of which were claimed by the regime.
The US has backed the YPG/PKK in the fight against DEASH
US' Syria policy has shaped in the first 3 years of the crisis began in March 2011, while the former US President Barack Obama called on Assad to resign and followed by economic sanctions on the regime and the discourse of "red lines".
The US military has helped the YPG/PKK grow and spread with all its means. The YPG/PKK went to the west side of the Euphrates River at the end of 2015.
The US, at this time, has constructed an air base in Rumeylan district of Al-Hasakah. As of April 2016, military shipment started via road from Iraq and cargo planes to Rumeylan air base.
Through the flow of thousands of heavy weapons, armored vehicles, antitank, weapons, and ammunition, the YPG/PKK occupied about a third of the country in two years.
Will the US take back its weapons given to the YPG/PKK?
US officials told Turkiye every time that the weapons given to YPG/PKK will have taken back after the threat of DEASH disappears.
The question of whether the United States, which said it is tactical and temporary, will keep its promise after the withdrawal decision is awaiting a response.
The tribes do not want the US and the PKK
After possible military operations of Turkiye against eastern of Euphrates and the US' withdraw decision from Syria, Syrian tribes came together at a meeting held on December 21, 2018, in the city of Azez, Aleppo.
The Syrian tribal and tribal representatives, in their speeches at the meeting, stated that they do not want PYD, DAESH and any international country, especially the imperialist USA, and they gave the message that they want to live on their own land in peace.
USA and Russia are not friends of the local people: HUDA PAR
This war in Syria does not seem to end soon, but everyone agrees that a political solution is needed.
Especially HUDA PAR, since the beginning of the war, called out that the Syrian issue is the internal issue of the Ummah and should be resolved by Muslims. "Neither the US nor the people of Russia are not a friend of the region," HUDA PAR warned.
The summarization of HUDA PAR's statement was: "Of course Assad should be punished but not with the hands of those carrying out massacres and genocides hundreds of times more than Assad did."
"It is still not too late for the solution. The issue of Syria is the inner issue of the Ummah and can only be resolved by Muslims. Referring the solution to the imperialists; not only deepen the problem, but also to be willing to spread the war to the neighboring countries."
"As long as the war continues in the Islamic world, the imperialists will have no bother ending the war. We invite all Islamic countries, especially Syria's neighbors, Turkiye and Iran, to take further initiatives and to push the conditions to the end to solve the problem through political means."
"The massacres of the Western powers for the energy flow"
Ahmet Akgül, head of the International Center for Strategic Analysis and Research, evaluated the latest process in Syria to ILKHA correspondent.
"The Islamic world has been suffering from; unawareness for 300 years, interregnum for 200 years, and abasement for the last 100 years," said Ahmet Akgül, head of the International Center for Strategic Analysis and Research, while evaluating the latest process of Syria to ILKHA correspondent.
Stating that the pressure of the western powers on this geography to perpetuate an ideological and religious transformation and to exploit it economically, has lasted for 100 years, Akgül underlined that although the issue in Syria seems to be a conflict between some groups, in fact, it is a conflict environment under the control of the colonialist West, founded on the fact that these communities are never reunited again.
"In this context, an internal turmoil started to draw a power line from the north of the country and open a considerable area for Israel, building a serious wall between Anatolia and the Holy Land," Akgül noted.
"We can't say the conflicts are in favor of Islamic geography. It is completely under the control of the West, and it is an environment of conflict to regain control over the next 100 years."
Akgül noted that Iran and Russia in different accounts, while the United States and Britain, together with Israel in different accounts. "But it is the Syrians, who were crushed in between conflicts, who were scattered all over the world, whose honor has been violated. All these are the massacres of the West for the sake of the flow of energy."
"Neighboring countries must reach an agreement at the solution point"
HUDA PAR Kızıltepe District President Abdullah Kavan recalled that the talks with Sochi, Geneva, and Astana about Syria were made but the decisions were not implemented in the real sense.
Stating that the Syrian issue is a local issue and needs to be resolved locally, Kavan underlined that the solution will be difficult if there are Western countries, especially the US and Russia involved in the issue.
"PKK / PYD and its extensions have seen other Kurds as treacherous"
Before the war in Syria, there were many Kurdish parties in Syria, the journalist-writer Emin Karakulak and added that many parties were subjected to pressure from the PKK/YPG.
"There was KDP as the Kurdish party in Syria, along with Peshmeru, Shepel, Kewkari. Those parties were stronger. Those chose political struggle instead of an armed fight after the war erupted in Syria. With emerged gap, the PKK came from Qandil and established PYD together with the Syrian regime."
"They then went to Iraq, established Peshmarga group under the name of Rojava and trained more than 6,000 people. After these developments, the PYD increased its pressure on other group and people, recruited children and collect taxes."
"When the pressures increased, Kurdish parties fled to many places, especially to Europe and Iraq. After the establishment of the National Assembly of the Syrian Kurds (ENKS), the majority of the parties, other than the PYD and those close to PYD, joined under this roof. The ENKS wants to be on the table at the solution of Syrian crisis while the PKK sees the Kurds other than itself as traitors and oppresses them."
At the last of his statements, Akgül said the countries of the region can sit around a table, make deal with the Kurds and solve the Syrian problem.
ILKHA