What Is Aleppo? A Discussion Guide

The following article was developed by Green Comma as a discussion resource for use in grades 9-12 classrooms as well as in freshmen college classrooms. The principal writer is Douglas Houston, a lawyer living in Cambridge, MA, who frequently collaborates with Green Comma’s managing director, Amit Shah. All opinions are the writers’ own.

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What Is Aleppo?

            When Gary Johnson, the Libertarian presidential candidate, was asked in a television interview about what he would do to address the crisis in Aleppo, Johnson famously drew a blank and said “What is Aleppo?”

Aleppo is a slaughterhouse of the twenty-first century.

Currently, there are 250,000 people who are cornered in this city, bombarded and starved. Of these, 100,000 are children.

It is the greatest humanitarian tragedy of our times.

“The girl comes screaming out of the rubble, pulled by her purple shirt from the wreckage of the house, destroyed by an airstrike five hours earlier. A rescuer hoists her up and places her into the arms of another man. “Get an ambulance!” he yells. An excited shout goes up from other rescuers and bystanders—“Allahu akbar!” “God is great!” The girl’s hair is matted and her face is smeared with blood. For a second, the camera captures her tiny face, anguished and confused. Later, the rescuers pull out a young boy, alive and waving a bloody hand. Then the rescue team pulls out two more children. Their bodies are lifeless, their faces white with dust. The men of the Civil Defense, Syria’s volunteer rescue organization also known as the White Helmets, lay the children in blankets. The onlookers murmur and cluck their tongues in dismay.” (Report in TIME magazine, Oct. 7, 2016)

“The White Helmets go out, of course, for one another, but because they want the world to see what they see.” (TIME, October 17, 2016).

The Catastrophe In a Nutshell

“Today, an estimated 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of the civil war in March 2011. Now, in the sixth year of war, 13.5 million are in need of humanitarian assistance within the country. Among those escaping the conflict, the majority have sought refuge in neighbouring countries or within Syria itself. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 4.8 million have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, and 6.6 million are internally displaced within Syria. Meanwhile about one million have requested asylum to Europe. Germany, with more than 300,000 cumulated applications, and Sweden with 100,000, are EU’s top receiving countries.” 

Then What of Aleppo?

It turns out Aleppo would be famous if only because it is one of the oldest continuously lived-in cities in the world existing in the twentieth-century BC. Tell Qaramel, the remains of a settlement 15 miles north of Aleppo dates back 13,000 years. It lies 75 miles inland from the Mediterranean, an important stop on the Silk Road, a monument to human civilization and its endurance. It is now in ruins, all accomplished in the last five years. A 13,000-year old city destroyed in five years. It is hard to imagine. Look for yourself.

Aleppo lies in northwestern Syria, not far from the border with Turkey. It is agrarian land, cultivated for thousands of years ? the Fertile Crescent, irrigated by the Euphrates River, the birthplace of agriculture and domesticated animals. Syria is part of the Levant, about the size of the state of Washington, pushed up against the eastern end of the Mediterranean by Iraq, and sharing that piece of Mediterranean shore with Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel. About 75 miles off its shore is the Island of Cyprus. Syria’s capital, Damascus, is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

To understand what has happened in Syria over the past five years, we have contructed a narrative timeline. The timeline is simply a set of markers to guide the exploration of the devastation.

The Modern State of Syria

Syria, as a state, did not come into being until 1920. Syria had been part of one of the longest lasting (1299-1923) and largest empires, the Ottoman Empire. In fact, Syria has always been a part of something else: a Greek province in 330 BC, a Roman province in 64 BC, a part of the Byzantine empire after that. But as a province of other empires it held a singularly important position as a lynch pin in the Silk Road, the only trade connection between the East and the West for 1,500 years. In World War I the Ottoman Empire had sided with Germany and Austria, and when they were defeated, Russia, France and England split what was left of the Ottoman Empire. France was given Syria, Lebanon and part of Turkey to govern.

Syria’s ethnicity is about 90 percent Arab; the remainder being Kurds and other groups. The religious groups include 87 percent Muslim, of which 74 percent are Sunni; 10 percent Christian, and 3 percent Druze. Syria’s Sunni community puts Syria in the 90 percent majority of the Muslim world. Iran, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Bahrain hold the10 percent Shia population. Syrian Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, and Turks, and religious groups including Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, and Shiites, all lived in what is now Syria.

Syria’s Independence, Military Coups, and the Ba’ath Party

French troops left Syria in April 1946, but that did not bring a period of peace and prosperity. Within two years, Syrian troops, along with other Arab states, invaded Palestine. In March 1949 Col. Husni al-Za’im led what was the first military coup in the Arab world. Two more military coups followed in the next two years, the last abolishing the multiparty political system.

A parliamentary system was restored in 1954. At that time the Ba’ath party, which was to have its most enduring effect on Syria and Iraq, was the second-largest party. Although there was the beginning of a democratic government, with five years of military rule, power had already become concentrated in the military.

The 1956 Suez Crisis, Military Defeats, and the Improbable Domestic Success of the Military

In November 1956 Syria signed a pact with Soviet Union, in part as a result of the failed Suez Canal invasion by France, Britain, and Israel. This pact began a relationship that supplied Syria with Soviet weapons and support, and gave the Soviet Union, Tartus, its only Mediterranean port for its navy ships.  Another consequence of the Suez Crisis was Syria’s merging with Egypt in February 1958, creating the United Arab Republic.

Syria seceded from Egypt in 1961 after another military coup by a group of Ba’athist Army officers, which included Captain Hafez al-Assad. On March 8, 1963 the Military Committee of the Ba’ath party led another coup, the fifth since 1949, and put Syria under Emergency Law for the next 48 years. In 1966 a group of Army officers staged another coup and imprisoned the current president.

In June 1967 Israel made a preemptive strike against what Israel considered a military buildup by Egypt on its border, resulting in the Six-Day War. Syria’s defeat and loss of a section of the Golan Heights caused a split between the civilian part of the Ba’ath party and the military part under Hafez al-Assad.

In 1970 Syrian forces suffered a third defeat when they supported the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the Black September Revolution against Jordan. In November 1970 Minister of Defense, Hafez al-Assad dissolved the civilian government and assumed complete control in the “Corrective Revolution,” what was essentially the seventh military coup since 1949.

Hafez al-Assad and Stability

Hafez al-Assad was president from 1970 to 2000, and his son, Bashar al-Assad succeeded him. Finally, Syria attained what it had lacked for 22 years, a sustained period of stability with the Assads. However, that stability was gained through an authoritarian regime, according to Freedom House, an NGO (nongovernmental organization) that rates political rights and civil liberties worldwide.

With stability and military rule came a certain tolerance. Hafez was Alawite and Alawi Islam includes elements of Christianity and other non-Islamic influences. However, the government and more doctrinaire Muslims ran into trouble. Russia had Tartus, and the US had a stable country with which it could partner on occasion. Syria, for instance, joined the US coalition to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1990.

The Lebanese Incursion and the Hama Massacre

In October 1973, Syria and Egypt attacked Israel in what became known as the Yom Kippur War, and again Syria was defeated, losing more land to Israel, and further destabilizing Lebanon after the Black September Revolution in Jordan. The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon organized and that eventually resulted in the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. Syria sent soldiers to stabilize Lebanon, effectively becoming an occupying force for 30 years. In 2005 Lebanon’s ex-premier was assassinated. Syrian involvement was alleged; and the result was Syria’s withdrawal.

The Syrian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, which advocates an Islamic state, had often clashed with the secular Ba’ath Party. In 1982 the Muslim Brotherhood revolted in Hama, a city between Homs and Aleppo. In what became known as the “Hama Massacre,” one of the bloodiest suppressions of a civilian population by its own military, between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians were killed along with 10,000 Syrian soldiers. Much of the old city was destroyed and the government wiped out whatever remained of the Brotherhood.

Bashar al-Assad and the Revolution Foments

When Bashar al-Assad was elected president, unopposed, in 2000 there were hopes of political reform and an opening of the political process. Bashar was trained as a doctor and had studied in London.

Then, in 2011, the “Arab Spring” arrived, partly awakened by the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian Ba’athist regime in Iraq in 2003, the weakening of Al Qaeda,  and a generation dissatisfied with what they saw as authoritarian regimes, unfairness in distribution of wealth and violations of human rights .

Some argue that Bashar’s loosening of economic constraints caused a greater disparity in wealth. Beginning in 2006 Syria began suffering from a severe drought which caused a migration of people to the cities, increasing the number of poor and concentrating them into the cities. The poor and disaffected began to protest along with those seeking civil liberties.

The Demonstrations, Bashar’s Concessions, the Flight to Turkey and the Free Syrian Army

The demonstrations calling for government reform began in January 2011 in the northeast, and moved westward. In March there were protests in Daraa against the jailing and torture of students. Major protests followed in Damascus and Aleppo where protesters were killed. On March 25 tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Daraa and more demonstrators were killed. On April 25 Daraa was besieged and tanks were used. The siege ended May 5, but other cities experienced similar violent protests and military responses. It was reported that tens of thousands had been detained and hundreds were wounded or killed over the next several months.  As the protests continued and the military continued its brutal response, the army suffered defections.

During March and April, 2011 Bashar offered certain concessions in an effort to satisfy the protesters and placate the international community, but these concessions either came too late, were never carried out, or were inadequate given the contemporaneous bloodletting.

On June 4 protesters set fire to a building in Jisr Ash-Shugur and took control of a police station taking its weapons and several security force people were killed. The fighting continued until the Syrian army massed and people from the town fled into Turkey. On July 29 a group of officers defected and announced the formation of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which vowed to remove Bashar and his government.

By September 2011 there were several organized rebel military groups. By October the FSA was receiving support from Turkey, as well as maintaining its headquarters there. In November 2011 the FSA and the Syrian Army began a fight over the occupation of Homs, which lasted for the next four years. In December it appeared that NATO was supplying military support to the rebels through Turkey. It was also reported that French and British Special Forces trainers were assisting the rebels, along with the US CIA.

The End of Protests and the Beginning of Civil War

By January 2012 political protests had given way to armed conflict between the Syrian Army and the FSA-led rebels. There were clashes around the suburbs of Damascus and the Syrian Army’s use of tanks became common. Rebels held various cities and then lost them. By April 2012, the death toll had reached 10,000.

On April 2012 a cease fire established through the UN failed and in June 2012 the UN  called the conflict a civil war. The fighting moved to Damascus and Aleppo, the two largest cities. By July 2012, 19,000 people had been killed. In July rebel forces tried to take Damascus, but failed. After that they focused on Aleppo. In August UN observers witnessed the use of fighter jets by the government against the rebels in Aleppo. US tried to bluff and warned Assad that there were limits to what military measures he could use against the rebels.

The Chess Board Called Syria

Russia supports Bashar with military equipment and intelligence because of its interest in Tartus. Hezbollah supplies Bashar with troops because of Syria’s historical support of Hezbollah. Iran supports Bashar presumably because Russia and Iran often find themselves on the same side, along with Hezbollah. The Christian communities support Bashar’s secular government because they fear a rebel victory will lead to an Islamic state

The FSA is the original organized member of the opposition. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni nation, has been supplying the opposition with arms and humanitarian aid. The US has supplied the FSA with weapons and other support. The main rebel group in the northwest is Al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate. However, in July 2016 it rebranded itself and broke with Al- Qaeda. Turkey continues to support the rebels. ISIL had control of the northeastern third of Syria by July 2014. As a result of the Hama Massacre, the Muslim Brotherhood is also opposed to Bashar. But part of the problem with the opposition is that it is splintered and disorganized. Some have reported as many as 1,000 different opposition groups.

What of Aleppo?

The 2004 census revealed that Aleppo had a population of 2,132,100, before the conflict. In July 2012 rebels attacked Aleppo for the first time, taking over the area on East side of the Queiq River, with the government forces holding the West side. The government unsuccessfully used planes and mortar to try to dislodge the rebels, and in the process caused massive destruction. By March of 2013, more than half the buildings had been damaged or destroyed, and that winter there was a food crisis.

Luke Mogelson, writing in the New Yorker, paints a grim portrait of the city, government snipers shooting across the Queiq River killing civilians. By March 2013 in “an assessment of fewer than half the city’s neighborhoods…13,500 people had been killed and 23,000 injured. Fifteen hundred of the dead were under five years old.” According to Mogelson, al-Nusra was providing the military lead in April 2013.

There have been reports of rebel atrocities as well. In February 2012 videos appeared to show rebels executing supporters of the government and Human Rights Watch accused the Free Syria Army of war crimes.

Conflict Analyses

Francesca Borri reports in the Guardian in November 2013 that the battle in Aleppo is not so much between the rebels and the government, but among the rebels and who will prevail, the sectarian rebels or the secular rebels, “ . . . for many of them, the priority is not ousting Bashar al-Assad's regime, but enforcing Sharia law. Aleppo is nothing but hunger and Islam.” 2014 and 2015 brought more of the same for Aleppo, with the two sides stalemated. A Newsweek article by James Harkin likened it to the siege at Stalingrad during World War II when about 2 million were either captured, wounded or killed in six months.  Russian and government planes bombed a hospital just outside of Aleppo in August 2016 and in September 2016 it was reported that Syria used chemical weapons against its own civilians in Aleppo.

John Davison and Suleiman Al-Khalidi in their September 9, 2016 Reuters article call Aleppo, “the conflict’s biggest prize . . . as government troops, backed by Russian air strikes and Shi’ite fighters from Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, close in on the rebel zone, where a quarter of a million people remain trapped.”

On September 22, 2016 The New York Times reported preparations for the final battle for Aleppo, with thousands of government troops amassed on the West, supported by Russian trained troops and Russian observers, as well as Hezbollah troops, and modern T-90 Russian tanks. This, after the failure of talks initiated by the international community, mostly brokered by the United States and Russia.

Aleppo and Syria’s Future?

John Brennan, the current director of the CIA, said he did not know if Syria and Iraq could ever be put back together, because of the “bloodletting, so much destruction, so many continued, seething tensions and sectarian divisions. I question whether we will see, in my lifetime, the creation of a central government in both of those countries that’s going to have the ability to govern fairly.”

After quoting Brennan for her September 16, 2016 article, “Even Peace May Not Save Syria,” Robin Wright qualifies how Washington has sought to put Syria back together, “within the countries created by European colonial powers a century ago.” Except for a brief 41-year period of authoritarian rule, Syria has only existed as a part of a larger empire for 5,000 years. There may be a problem finding some kind of “natural” Syrian identity.

Whither Aleppo and Syria?

Max Fisher, writing for the New York Times, reports on several academic studies of civil wars. Most contemporary civil wars last about a decade, involving factors that affect the duration and violence. These studies conclude that all the factors making a civil war last longer and with more suffering are present in Syria’s civil war. Large foreign forces will continue a civil war until they perceive they have achieved their goals, at no cost to their own citizens. The United States, Russia, Iran, and Turkey are all involved.

As Fisher states, “Most civil wars end when one side loses. Either it is defeated militarily, or it exhausts its weapons or loses popular support and has to give up. About a quarter of civil wars end in a peace deal, often because both sides are exhausted.” That might have happened in Syria, both sides had limited resources, but both sides became proxies for foreign powers that have unlimited resources.

The foreign powers introduce what Fisher calls a “self-reinforcing mechanism.” When a foreign power sees itself losing ground, it increases its support, at no personal cost. The opposing foreign power perceives the resulting new imbalance and increases its support, again at no personal cost. It is an arms and violence race where the nations engaged in the race are removed from the effect of their conflict.

Instead of just two sides, the local antagonists are splintered into several parties, making a path to a peace conference complicated. Each subgroup has its own interest in the war and will fight to protect that narrow interest. Each subgroup is competing for resources against groups which ostensibly are on its side.

And finally a civil war conducted by proxies encourage atrocities. Antagonists must rely on popular support to populate their fighting force, which naturally limits what each side is willing to do. But where both sides rely on outside powers, there is no need to cultivate popular support. In fact, a calculus may be made that atrocities may so revolt and weaken the will of the victimized side, it may be worth the resulting international condemnation and desire for revenge.

Syria’s future tilts toward balkanization but the will and desire of the international powers is intractable. We are suggesting a few articles that delve into a reasoned look at the crystal ball. These are in random order.

• James Fearon on the Future of Syria
• James Harkin on Syria’s Disappearing Future
•  Joseph Puder on the Future of Syria
• BBC: What is Happening in Syria
• What Happens If Aleppo Falls?