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作者

Nura Ibold

来源

OPEN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL,Vol.44,Issue2

语言

英文

关键字

Syria, Civil War, Urban Policies, Reconstruction, UN agencies, International Involvement.

作者单位

摘要

The wave of popular unrest in the Arab world reached Syria in March 2011, and what started as peaceful demonstrationswith simple demands of justice and freedom turned into a brutal armed conflict and a full-scale civil war. Overseven years of conflict resulted in the deaths of over half a million Syrians, the forced displacement of millions more,and a huge loss of the country’s social and physical structures. What began as another Arab Spring movement againsta dictatorial regime has turned into a proxy war that has attracted the interests of the world and regional powers.The paper discusses Syria’s political history and investigates the motives for the Syrian uprising and argues that it isrelated to socio-economic deprivations rather than sectarianism. The work underlines the interests of the countriesinvolved in the Syrian conflict focusing on Russia, USA, Iran, and Turkey, as well as their contribution to the future reconstructionof the country.Over the past few years, the Syrian regime and its allies targeted many cities and destroyed opposition-held neighborhoods.The work considers if this destruction was part of an overall strategy adopted by the al-Assad regime to terrorizethose who opposed it and change Syria demographically, examining the new laws issued by the government totransfer public properties into the hands of its loyal businessmen factions, as in the case of the reconstruction projectin the city of Homs.Seven years of war exhausted Syria’s financial stocks, and the country (and in turn the regime) is suffering the consequencesof military spending. But like any other war, destruction is also a great opportunity to generate moneythrough reconstruction and growth. It is a “win-win situation”; the regime will use the fund designated for reviving thecountry to its own benefit, gaining future profits. Already invested in the conflict, involved countries will be part of thereconstruction process to secure their presence and control in Syria.United Nations agencies like UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and UNHCR (United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees) are working closely with the Syrian regime and its governmental representatives. Thisresearch examines their involvement and how their ‘humanitarian mission’ is being exploited to prop up the al-Assadregime.