Coordination and Diplomacy in Syrian Crisis

                      Coordination and Diplomacy in Syrian Crisis

Syria and  refugees are two buzzwords  round the globe now. After four years , Syrian refugees have spread from Middle East to Europe . The sequence of so called Arab Spring turned bloody for the whole region due to absence of diplomacy and coordination in resolving the issue.  Had there no torture, open firing and killings of protesters in the southern city of Syria that day, the situation now would have been much different.

The story of violence, bloodshed and severe human persecution starts from the Syrian city of Dera in the month of March 2011 which was coincidentally spring and then Syrian episode of Arab Spring started. Syrian President Bashar -al-Assad did not bow down against protesters like his Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts. However , he tried to tackled the issue purely as a despot and absolutely set aside diplomacy. Soon the protesters got help from neighboring and international powers who were also determined to oust President Bashar. The result is death of around 250,000 Syrians in civil war since then.

The worst part of this conflict is its complexity and composition of incidents. Initially, it was for regime change i.e. ousting President Bashar from presidency but with more and more factors involved in it got a sectarian outlook. Dissenting Sunni factions gathered against Alawite President Bashar and soon there was Daesh, ISIS on the scene. Daesh or ISIS  which actually opened its wings in Iraq , Lebanon and Kurd areas has become an international terrorist group by reaching Europe after Paris carnage in November 2015.

Syrians have faced war crimes both from Assad government and opposition . Use of chemical weapons is also been reported and confirmed by UN . Severe persecution forced Syrian people to leave their homeland towards neighboring countries. However, neighboring countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and even parts of Iraq were like launching pad for Jihadist around the world into Syria. Extremist from Europe , Asia and even North America flew and walked into Syria freely. Then the same flew back to their actual homelands and perpetrated actions of violence and terror there.

Ironically, Turkey, United States and Saudi Arabia are the countries which allowed, helped, contributed and sourced the destruction in Syria. In the initial days of uprising against President Bashar, these were the powers which managed, united the Syrian opposition and gave them everything possible to fight against Bashar. Here Bashar got an automatic help and respite from Russia and Iran and till this day survived against all odds. However, Syrian population whether it's supporting or opposing President Bashar suffered with un repairable loss.  

After dispersal of  42,89,792 refugees almost around the globe, Assad hold only ⅙ of total Syrian soil  with control over 29,797 square kilometers. Multiple factors like Growth and power of ISIL, unending civil war in Syria and Refugee crisis at the doorstep of Europe forced world powers to start peace talks about Syria in Vienna in October 2015 without participation of Assad government and opposition groups. The second round of talks have also happened on November 14 2015 but nothing solid decide except resolve to fight with ISIL and Nasra Front and other UN declared terrorist groups.

The diplomatic efforts initiated by world powers to resolve Syrian crisis seems fruitless even in the coming future where most of  Syrian land is now out of President Bashar sway and countless small warring groups with ISIL leading them have control that. Regional stakeholders like Saudi Arabia and Turkey insisting ouster of Bashar even they have no short term and long term solution in hand. Here  diplomacy and coordination are at stake as  restoration of  peace and ceasefire in Syria should be the top most priority. The next thing could be  control on ISIL and other warring groups and change of regime in Syria.

Political change, Rehabilitation, resettlement of refugees and redevelopment of infrastructure in Syria will be gigantic, but tiring and necessarily steady process . No country can settle four million homeless Syrians for long time but their own will when realpolitik is out and humanitarian help is given by the whole world.  ISIL, Al-Qaeda and other extremist powers are doing their best to spread the fire of Middle East till Europe which is preventable now.