Trying to understand what exactly is happening in Syria? Maybe this will guide you

There has been war in Syria for quite some time now, but who are they fighting and for what? Who are their friends and who are their foes? Who’s helping them and who’s shaking hands with their enemies? Let’s take a look at what exactly is happening in Syria.

To begin with, Bashar al-Assad the president of Syria is facing an uprising from foes who are extremely organized and has a lot of military power. He’s been fighting them with help from Iran, Russia and Shi’a Islamist militant group and political party based in Lebanon called the Hezbollah. If that’s not enough to give Assad sleepless nights, America, Turkey and most of the Gulf countries want Assad to resign his presidency, they have been supplying weapons and providing training to many smaller rebel groups who are attacking him.

One of the biggest rebel groups among the ones fighting Assad is the Islamic State (IS) who are proving to be a problem not only for Assad, but also for the other rebel groups fighting him in particular and the world in general. The IS wants to establish a Caliphate that aims to unify all the world’s Muslims under the Sharia Law. They also believe that the Jihad (Holy War) is the one that will cause the apocalypse and from the ashes will rise a new world order under their Caliphate. The rest of the world does not like this Idea.

Now, you must be thinking since everyone hates the IS, why don’t they just wage war against them. Well, it isn’t that simple. In a recent turn of events, Russia has gone to aid Assad in his fight against the Islamic State. The Russians claim they are bombing the IS, but they are also bombing other rebel groups that are fighting Assad, groups that some of the Gulf countries are funding. Now these countries are rivals of Iran, a country that is supporting Assad.

On the other side, Turkey too wants Assad to resign his presidency, but instead of bombing him they’re bombing IS and the Kurdish military. Now, Kurdistan is enemies with Turkey, Assad and IS. What makes things more complicated is that, Kurdistan is funded, trained and weaponized by the United States who are allies with their enemy Turkey.

Let’s break it down.

• America is friends with Kurdistan and Turkey
• Kurdistan and Turkey are fighting each other
• Kurdistan and Turkey have the same enemies who are the IS
• IS and Turkey are Assad’s enemies
• Russia is friends with Assad
• Islamic State is enemies with everyone but are currently bombing Assad
• Russia is enemies with IS because it is friends with Assad
• America doesn’t like Assad but it is bombing IS

Pretty messed up huh?

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