The Start of the Arab Spring
These are three things that protestors were calling for at the Start of the Arab Spring.
What are three of the following: democracy, an end to corruption, greater economic opportunity, human rights and dignity, and a fair distribution of resources?
These were two responses of the Assad regime to the Arab Spring protests in Syria.
What are Assad's claim that the protests were organized by Syria’s international enemies (backed up by planted evidence) and promise of government reforms?
These are the countries and organizations that armed the regime and the opposition, respectively.
What is "Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey [who] began providing weapons and military training to various opposition groups" and "Iraq, Iran, Hezbollah, Russia" Who assisted Assad's regime?
This is why peace talks failed in Geneva and in Russia.
What is because the "Syrian regime would not consider any arrangement where Assad was removed from power, while the democratic opposition groups continued to demand that Assad resign" and because the Russian "talks did not actually include all the opposition groups fighting in Syria"?
These are five things that Syrians have experienced and lost due to the Syrian Civil War.
What are violence, persecution, and threats to their safety (as experiences) along with access to health care, education, employment, electricity, adequate food, clean water, and safe housing (as losses)?
These are six circumstances against which the Syrians specifically protested. (Name three to earn points.)
What are the national unemployment rate which was about 25 percent, the government’s policy of economic liberalization, the government’s removal of the social services it used to provide, the corruption and theft perpetrated by the elite who had close connections with the regime, the violence perpetrated against common citizens and the Alawite sect’s hold on political and military power?
This was a response hoped for by the protestors and the reason it never materialized.
What is the support of the military who had likewise helped in some other Arab Spring revolutions, such as Egypt and Tunisia? What is their refusal because "Bashar al-Assad and his father before him had given many high-ranking positions in the government, the military, and security organizations to family members and close Alawite connections," thus inspiring loyalty?
These were two types of individuals who joined the Free Syrian Army and these were the types of militias that succeeded the FSA.
Who were army defectors and civilians who became fighters and what were fighters divided along sectarian lines and, sadly, extremist militias?
This is how ISIS helped the Assad regime and hindered peace efforts.
What is "Some regime groups had financial ties to ISIS fighters and profited mutually on various schemes, [...] Its territorial expansion prevented any sort of democratic opposition to Assad from forming, and ISIS’s presence also helped the Assad regime make the false claim that all of its opponents were Sunni extremists"?
This is how many people worldwide had been forcibly displaced from their homes as of the end of 2018.
What is 70.8 million people worldwide?
This is the specific event that set off the protests in Syria.
What is the imprisonment in February 2011 of a group of boys aged about 11 to 16 for writing revolutionary slogans on a wall in Daraa since the boys would be held in Syrian prisons indefinitely and subjected to beatings, psychological torture, and sexual assault?
This is what the Local Coordinating Councils were and this is one of their key strategies.
What is newly minted political organization which had to be formed because there was no opposition to the Ba'thists? What is social media like Facebook and Youtube with which they could spread factual information?
This is how the extremist militias differed from the other participants in the Syrian War.
What is they "gained control of territory through battles with opposing militias and terrorist attacks on civilians and ruled the areas they controlled through violence, [making...] large profits through extortion and other financial crimes"?
This is how the efforts of the Kurds have complicated the path to peace.
What is because the Syrian regime has both oppressed the Kurds and become partially allied with their forces and because "[t]he United States funded a primarily Kurdish coalition of militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to fight ISIS [at the same time as] Turkey—which has a long history of repressing Kurdish rights and fighting against Kurdish militants within Turkey—fought against these Syrian Kurdish groups while also fighting against ISIS"?
This is where the Syrians have fled the violence of the war.
What is "neighboring countries, such as Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan [where they] often live in extreme poverty in refugee camps, in Western Europe or North America [... or] in other places in Syria as IDPs [internally displaced persons]"?
This is how the demonstrations changed over time. (Name at least two circumstances.)
What is the fact that the first protests occurred outside mosques after Friday prayers, and since usually only men attended Friday prayers at mosques in Syrian cities, these protests were led entirely by men? What is that very soon though, women began participating in large numbers as well? As early as March 2011, women led a sit-in at the historic Ummayad Mosque in Damascus. What is that the first protests took place in cities, but rural Syrians also participated in large numbers?
This is a description of the SNC, their goal, and their reason for failure.
What is a group of "political activists who had been forced to leave Syria years before because they publicly criticized the regime [, who wanted ...] to help remove Assad from power and give the revolution a sense of legitimacy by acting as a formal government for the opposition"? What is they never unified "with the protest leaders inside Syria"?
This is why Iran became involved in the Syrian War.
What is to "demonstrate its strength internationally [and...] challenge its enemy Saudi Arabia, which supported the opposition to Assad"?
These were the effects of Russian intervention in Syria.
What is the attack of both "opposition militias and ISIS," but primarily the pro-democracy opposition, targeting hospitals and devastating communities?
These are organizations that have responded to the refugee crisis and problems that they have faced.
What are the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)—an international organization established by the UN— which provides food, water, shelter, education, medical attention, and other services to refugees, along with nongovernmental organizations—such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Rescue Committee? What are funding shortages that have prevented the UNHCR from providing adequate assistance to refugees living in camps?
This is how entertainment was integrated into the protests and this is a description of that entertainment.
What is dabke? What are protest songs in the musical style. accompanied by line dance popular in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine? What are huge dabke circles of hundreds of people sharing improvised poetry, often with humorous lyrics, sung over an electronic beat?
These are three aspects of the U.S. response to the Syrian uprising.
What is support for the uprising, as proven by imposed sanctions on the regime and the demand that Assad step down; recognition of the SNC, not Assad’s government, as the legitimate representative of Syrian citizens?
This military attack against the Syrian people was considered to be crossing a red line and this is the international response it has elicited.
What is chemical warfare (such as sarin gas) and what is the supposed destruction of chemical weapons by the UN Security Council ensured that the regime although more have been used in the meantime?
This is the reason that Western governments have started to accept Assad's continued power in Syria.
What is because of "Western governments’ fear of terrorism, which helped motivate their airstrikes against ISIS, [... Assad's promotion of the] image, [of] a protector of minorities and women’s rights, [European and American concern]specifically with the welfare of Syrian Christians"?
These are some of the conflicted and conflicting steps taken by the United States over the past years in response to the crisis.
What is "admitted a significantly smaller number of Syrian refugees compared to other wealthy countries, such as Canada and Germany, [...] contributed financial resources to groups that assist refugees, such as $1.3 billion to the UNHCR, [...and later] opposed immigration from Muslim-majority countries"?