Answers: Syria and Conflict

After controlling Syria for 54 years, the last 13 of which saw civil war in which hundreds of thousands were killed, the Assad family’s hold on Syria evaporated in less than two weeks. It all began in 1970, when the Defence Minister from a minority community, Hafez Al Assad led a coup. The elder Assad was President from 1971 until his death in 2000 and was succeeded by his son Bashar.

The 2011 uprising against Bashar Al Assad followed similar ‘Arab Spring’ movements across the Middle East and North Africa. Regional and global powers got involved as conflict spread in multiethnic and multireligious Syria. In 2012 U.S. President Barack Obama warned the Assad government that any use of chemical weapons would be a ‘red line’. But the next year chemical weapons were used in an attack on the rebel-held Ghouta area on the outskirts of Damascus. Amid fears of a broader conflict, the U.S. did not enforce the ‘red line’ threat, instead reaching a deal with Assad’s ally Russia to destroy the Syrian government’s chemical weapons stockpiles.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized large chunks of Iraq and Syria. The U.S. assembled a coalition to fight ISIL with Kurdish fighters on the ground in Syria. In 2015 Russia directly entered the conflict, providing air power to Syrian government forces backed by Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Turkiye also entered the conflict, supporting some rebel groups. Ankara sent troops across the border, targeting ISIL as well as Kurdish fighters. ISIL was eventually defeated both in Iraq and Syria while Turkiye established buffer zones in some border areas to keep out Kurdish fighters. The Assad government limited rebel groups largely to Idlib province, where Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham became the dominant force, while the Kurds held on to a big chunk of northeastern Syria.

Turkiye also ended up taking in nearly three million Syrian refugees, as the war led to the largest displacement crisis in the world. The massive influx of Syrian refugees across Europe played a major role in anti-immigration sentiment and a rightward turn in politics across the continent. After the fall of Bashar Al Assad, one after the other, European countries suspended the processing of asylum claims by Syrians.

Answers:

1) How is Ahmed al-Sharaa better known as?

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. He now uses his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa in official communications.

January 2025 update: Ahmed al-Sharaa becomes Syria’s interim president.

2) What was done by a group of schoolchildren in Syria’s southwestern province of Deraa on February 15, 2011?

They scrawled “Your turn doctor,” on their school’s wall, a reference to Bashar Al Assad, an ophthalmologist by training. This came after the fall of Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak in popular uprisings in early 2011.

Several children were arrested in Deraa, sparking protests calling for their release. Demonstrations spread to other cities only for the government to crack down hard. The protests turned into a complex conflict with multiple armed groups taking on the Assad government and each other.

3) He was killed in a car crash in January 1994 while driving to Damascus airport. His statue atop a horse was toppled in Aleppo after opposition fighters seized control of the city. Who?

Bassel Al Assad, the eldest son of Hafez Al Assad, who was expected to succeed his father. His early death led to the return of Bashar Al Assad from medical training in London. Bashar Al Assad was inducted into the military and became a colonel in 1999. He took over as President in 2000 after his father’s death.

4) In 2018, which then Arab leader, wanted by the International Criminal Court, became the first head of state from an Arab League member to visit Damascus since the civil war began in 2011?

Omar Al Bashir, President of Sudan at the time. More on the ongoing conflict in Sudan in my earlier quiz here.

5) What was founded by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar in the 1940s?

Baath Party. The party espousing a mixture of socialism and Arab nationalism was founded in Damascus in 1947. By the 1950s it had strong branches in Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan as well. The Baath Party seized power in Syria in March 1963 in a coup. Among the military officers involved was Hafez Al Assad.

The Iraqi branch of the Baath Party had already staged a successful coup in February 1963, which allowed future leader Saddam Hussein to return from exile in Egypt. Syria and Iraq attempted to forge a ‘federal union’ with the Baath Party dominating both governments but another coup in Iraq in November 1963 toppled the Baath Party from power. The Baathists regained power through yet another coup in 1968 and controlled Iraq until 2003, when Saddam Hussein was deposed by the U.S.-led invasion.

Relations soured between the Iraqi and the Syrian wings of the Baath Party after a military-dominated faction in Syria carried out a coup in 1966. Hafez Al Assad was named Defence Minister but in four years he led another coup to seize control. The 1966 coup marginalised civilian figures like party co-founder Michel Aflaq, who ended up living in exile in Iraq. Hafez Al Assad and Saddam Hussein had an adversarial relationship and Syria was part of the U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons: Baath Party co-founder Michel Aflaq with Saddam Hussein in 1979.

The Baath Party was banned in Iraq in 2016 while the Syrian wing announced it was freezing its operations in December 2024.

6) He was based in Syria from 1979 to 1998. He has been imprisoned on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara since February 1999. Who?

Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The Kurdish separatist group is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkiye, the U.S. and the European Union.

In 1998 Turkiye threatened war with Syria over its harbouring of Kurdish separatists. The crisis was defused with Egyptian and Iranian mediation that year as Turkiye and Syria signed the Adana agreement. Syria ended its support for the PKK and forced Abdullah Ocalan to leave the country.

The PKK has ties to the Syrian Kurdish group Democratic Union Party (PYD). The PYD’s armed wing YPG (People's Protection Units) is at the core of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters. The SDF has been key to the U.S.-led coalition against ISIL and fought on the ground in the operation to retake Raqqa, which was ISIL’s headquarters.

The SDF controls a big chunk of northeast Syria and most of the country’s oil and gas fields. But it has been losing ground to the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army since the fall of Assad. Turkiye has warned of an offensive against the YPG if its demands are not met. Future U.S. backing is uncertain though Washington is concerned about a possible resurgence of ISIL in a security vacuum. The SDF guards detention centers that hold tens of thousands of ISIL suspects and their families, many of whom are not from Syria.

Meanwhile, Turkiye and Abdullah Ocalan are attempting to revive talks. More here.

February 2025 update: Abdullah Ocalan has issued a message from prison, calling on the PKK to dissolve and lay down arms as part of an effort to make peace with the Turkish state.

7) What was annexed by Israel in 1981, a move recognised by the United States under President Donald Trump in 2019?

Golan Heights. Most of the region was seized by Israel from Syria during the 1967 war. In 1974 Syria and Israel signed a disengagement agreement brokered by Henry Kissinger, under which a buffer zone patrolled by United Nations troops was created.

Source: CIA map from 1989 in public domain.

Israel seized the buffer zone in December 2024 after the fall of Bashar Al Assad and moved further into Syrian territory beyond the buffer zone. It has also carried out its largest bombing campaign on Syrian soil since the 1973 war. UN experts say the Israeli strikes violate international law.

8) A documentary on a volunteer organisation in Syria won the 2016 Oscar for the Best Documentary (short film). Name the organisation.

White Helmets. The volunteer rescue group was operating only in rebel-held areas in Syria until the ouster of Bashar Al Assad.

9) What was established in 1971 through an agreement between Moscow and Damascus?

Russia’s naval base at Tartus on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. It is Moscow’s only overseas naval base but now faces an uncertain future. More here.

10) Which community is named after a cousin and son-in law of the Prophet Mohammad? Their name means ‘those who adhere to the teachings of Ali’

Alawites, the minority community to which the Assad family belongs. More here and here.

11) Which language is spoken in the ancient Syrian village of Maaloula?

Aramaic, the spoken language associated with Jesus Christ.

12) Syria along with Libya, Iraq, and South Yemen was put on a first-ever list by the United States in 1979. Syria is still on that list. What list?

List of state sponsors of terrorism

13) Which illicit product has become Syria’s biggest export earner in recent years?

Captagon. It was the brand name of a medicine produced by a German company in the 1960s to treat attention deficit disorders. The pill contains fenethylline, which was banned in most countries during the 1980s as the United Nations concluded that its addictive properties outweighed any clinical benefits. By the time it had become popular in the Middle East and illicit manufacturing thrived, first in Bulgaria and then the Middle East.

14) Which country has been hosting the third-largest number of Syrian refugees after Turkiye and Lebanon?

Germany. Under the leadership of Angela Merkel, Germany allowed in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria in 2015-16. In the years since there has been a backlash against refugees. Anti-migration sentiment has helped the far-right Alternative for Germany party make major electoral gains. Parliamentary elections in Germany are due in February and many politicians say Syrian migrants and asylum-seekers should now return home.

15) Thousands were killed in which Syrian city in 1982 during the presidency of Hafez Al Assad as security forces crushed a rebellion?

Hama. The city also saw a crackdown on protesters in 2011. In 2024, Swiss prosecutors indicted Rifaat Al Assad, Hafez Al Assad’s brother on war crimes charges stemming from his major role in crushing the Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hama in 1982. Rifaat Al Assad had to go into exile in 1984 after a failed attempt to topple his elder brother. He was pardoned by his nephew Bashar Al Assad and allowed to return to Syria in 2021.

16) This ancient Syrian city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. It was seized by ISIL in 2015, which went on to destroy some of its ancient shrines. Syrian government forces backed by Russia finally displaced ISIL in March 2017. Which city?

Palmyra

17) Which Kurdish-majority town near the Turkish border faced a fierce ISIL assault in 2014-15?The U.S.-led coalition launched massive airstrikes against ISIL, supporting Kurdish fighters on the ground. ISIL retreated from the town in January 2015.

Kobani. Turkiye allowed Iraqi Kurdish fighters to enter Syria through its territory to fight ISIL in Kobani.

18) Which country has effectively been controlling access to most of Syria’s oil and gas fields through its ally Syrian Democratic Forces?

United States. More here, here, here and here.

Addendum: Syria had come up in multiple questions in my recent quiz on Lebanon including its short-lived union with Egypt under the United Arab Republic banner, its military intervention in Lebanon, Rafik Hariri’s assassination, the dispute over Shebaa Farms and the volatile Syria Street in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli.

Syria also comes up in my earlier quiz on the legacy of the Ottoman Empire.