Geneva II
Syrian opposition and regime sitting at the same table.
ARAB WORLDThe blurred boundaries
The war in Syria highlights the community group in the Middle East to the detriment of borders drawn in 1916.
- Drawing Schot, Netherlands.
With half located in Syria and one in Lebanon, Al-farm Mohammed Jamal Al-Qasr is a source of many mysteries and disadvantages. The land was in his family long before the Europeans draw the borders of the Middle East today. Jamal never really considered that invisible line that winds a few meters from his house. Civil war either. Some of her relatives were abducted, neighbors volunteered to go to fight [in Syria] and shells landed on his property. All evidence of the insignificance of the border.
"For me, it's all because of the Sykes-Picot agreement," he said in reference to the secret pact in 1916 between the French and the British for the partition of the Ottoman Empire. This resulted in the creation of nation-states that had never been infringed and all family ties and previous Community. Much of the current instability in the region has its roots in this period. Nearly a century after their establishment, the viability of its borders - and states that they form - is put to the test like never before. The war in Syria beyond Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Israel, both countries and peoples who have lived together for centuries and whose history, beliefs and way of life that transcend borders they were born. Sunnis across the region converge to Syria to fight alongside the rebels, many of them led by extremist ideals restoration of Sunni power. Their fellow Shiites do the same, but to defend the regime of President Bashar Assad, reinforcing the sectarian dimension of a conflict that is now over Syria.
"Today, there are more border of the Iran in Lebanon, said Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze minority in Lebanon.
Officially they are still there, but they still exist in a few years? If fragmentation continues, is the Middle East will fall apart. " Nobody seriously believes that the war will lead to a formal amendment of the Boundary. But the hour is as serious until after the First World War, says Fawaz Gerges, London School of Economics.disorder in Syria has already begun to muddy the waters, bringing forth new and more faithful to reality boundaries ground. Four flags now float on Syrian territory, each representing a current identity or allegiance revealed by the war. And a possible vision of the future.
"It is very difficult to predict what will happen. The system of states introduced in the Middle East after the First World War is collapsing, " Gerges continues. While the conflict in Syria enters its third year, new unofficial borders emerge throughout the region. In desert areas between the Euphrates and the Tigris - that of ancient Mesopotamia - the Islamic State [Sunni] extends its influence further and further in Iraq and Syria, and the flag of Al Qaeda fleet on both sides of the border. The desire to restore the Sunni caliphate attracts volunteers from throughout the region.
nation state. In the north-eastern Syria, some Kurdish communities have declared their independence and waved the Kurdish flag, nourishing hopes of independence of any one people who had been frustrated by the new reality of the post-war period. Supported by the arrival of Shiites in Iraq and Lebanon volunteers, loyal Bashar al-Assad increasing their control over a portion of territory from Damascus to the coast, home to most of the Alawite minority, faithful the Shiite power.Again the fleet flag two stars of the Baathist regime, forty years old.Everywhere massacres and persecution of people with the misfortune not to be on the safe side of the border deny the diversity that has always characterized Syria. Christians and Alawites fleeing rebel areas, while Sunni insurgents closer, trying to get out of the territories in the hands of government troops. They take refuge in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, without knowing if they will soon return home. Behind every territory we guess the influence of foreign powers who provide weapons and money to better serve their protected their interests. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states supporting Islamist rebels, while Iran and Russia support the regime's forces. This situation is reminiscent of the great-power rivalry that shaped the region there are nearly a century.Except for the Kurds, who have long called their own state, but few who are in favor a new partition, which however seems inevitable in the context of fragmentation. Certainly their leaders have failed to transform the United Nations into viable entities, but most people adhere to the identity of the country in which they live, Malek highlights Abdeh, near the Syrian opposition writer based in London.
"It is the inability of the political elite to propose a vision transcending differences that feeds bigotry, he concludes. The concept of nation-state remains strongly rooted in their minds, even if the reality does not match the dominant ideals. " -
Liz Sly Published December 27, 2013 in
The Washington Post(excerpts) Washington