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Conflict in Syria: War rages on

His name is Omran

He’s rescued from under the rubble and taken to an ambulance to receive medical attention. He’s surrounded by a chaotic environment — fire, destroyed buildings, citizens yelling at the top of their lungs. This area in the northern city of Aleppo has just been bombed.

He is a 5-year old boy, named Omran Daqneesh, and video footage of his bloodied body, covered in dust, has taken the online world by storm.

The boy sits in an ambulance, perplexed and gazing into the distance. He seems shocked, but dazed, after surviving such an event. He rubs his temple at one point in the video, and when he notices blood on his hand — he is surprised but overall, numb.

Thankfully, he survived the airstrike; however, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, his older brother Ali has died as a result of his injuries after an aerial bombardment earlier this week.

This young Syrian boy is now another emblem representing the Syrian people’s struggle.

Social media has made the 5-year-old a symbol of the country’s despair — though his photo is not the only photo that has caused millions to realize how bloody the situation in Syria has become.

The Syrian war is one of the most frustrating and heartbreaking conflicts in the world. An end must be put to it. Instead of focusing on the CNN reporter who held back her tears while watching Omran being pulled from rubble, we should focus on Omran, and the millions of Syrian refugees and citizens looking for an end to the war in their homeland.

Images of dead and blood-soaked Syrians are shared daily on social media. Photos displaying pieces of people’s bodies — arms, legs, heads — being recovered from under rubble are shared with alarming regularity online.

Some 1.5 to 2 million people continue to live in the city of Aleppo, once deemed Syria’s largest city but now a hostile war zone divided into rebel-held and government-held areas.

From March 15, 2011 through Aug. 18, 2016, 18,598 civilians have been killed in Aleppo – 4,557 of them children, according to the SOHR.

Those numbers are small compared to the entire country’s death toll. Since 2011, 11.5 percent of Syria’s population has either been wounded or killed.

Moreover, 4.7 million Syrian people have escaped and sought asylum in neighboring countries. Nearly one million refugees have applied for asylum in Europe.

Upsettingly, thousands of those searching for new lives meet their deaths in the Mediterranean Sea. As reported by the International Organization for Migration, more than 3,770 migrants were reported to have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2015.

Not to mention, some European countries have promised to allow refugees in but have failed to do so. For instance, Turkey made a deal with the European Union in March to allow in millions of refugees but the country eventually became overwhelmed with the masses.

Turkish authorities have been gathering refugees and deporting groups of about 100 Syrian men, women and children back to Syria on a near-daily basis since mid-January, as reported by Amnesty International.

The Arab Spring, 2011

It’s important to understand how this conflict began. Before it became a war, it was a call for a president to resign by the Syrian people.

In 2011, the Middle East saw a series of anti-government protests and uprisings that spread across the region.

The “Arab Spring” began with a successful uprising in Tunisia against former leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali — which led to similar anti-government protests in many neighboring countries, including Syria.

Pro-democracy protests erupted in Syria in March 2011. Protesters began to demand President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation. Assad responded with brutal military force against its citizens which only hardened the protesters’ resolve.

It’s disturbing to realize that what Syrians wanted back in 2011 was a democratic society and an end to Assad’s regime, but instead received war and hell. It is now 2016 and the country is destroyed while Assad remains in power.

By 2011, people were doing more than protesting on the streets across Syria; they began to take up arms in an attempt to rid local areas of government military forces.

Violence between government forces and rebels escalated quickly and a civil war ensued. Fighting reached the capital Damascus and Aleppo in 2012.

By June 2013, 90,000 people had been killed in the conflict.

The Arab Spring was a movement filled with great hope — the protesters hoped for a new and better way of living if they participated. They failed to realize that Assad would rather see the country he “leads” in shambles and its citizens dead than to resign and see progress flourish in the Middle East.

Moreover, the country’s civil war made it a vulnerable place for radical Islamists to come in and take control of certain areas. Now the Islamic State holds large parts of Syria in its possession creating an even bigger problem for Syrian civilians, and the conflict in general.

And while there are world leaders who want to take Assad out of power, there are also those who want him to remain — Vladmir Putin, leader of Russia, is one of them.

Moreover, Iran’s leader is another supporter of Assad’s regime, as he does not want to see Syria lean in a politically democratic direction.

Getting rid of Assad doesn’t appear likely in the future, which is unfortunate news for the people suffering in Syria.

The Future of Syria

The future of Syria lies in the hands of major world leaders; however, it seems as though no leader knows exactly how to handle the situation. Russia’s intervention has killed approximately 2,704 civilians since its forces interceded last September, as reported by the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

In comparison, the Islamic State has killed 2,686 people since it’s come to power three years ago.

Leaders must first realize what the root of the problem is before dropping any more bombs that take hundreds of civilian lives at a time. Without a proper understanding of this complex issue, little progress will be made in Syria.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has vowed to play a “more active” role in the next year in an effort to put an end to the Syrian conflict.

Any world leader offering help to Syria sounds like a hero, but can we really place trust in the Turkish government, who had its own military try and attempt to overthrow it in last month’s coup d’etat?

“We say the bloodshed needs to stop. Babies, children, innocent people should not die. That’s why Turkey will be more active in trying to stop the danger getting worse in the next six months, compared with before,” said Yildirim to reporters in Istanbul.

Moreover, Yildirim stated that Assad “can’t have a role in Syria’s future,” which is confusing to imagine when Russia, one of the major world powers, backs Assad’s regime.

The future of Syria seems dark and violent.

If the war continues we might be looking at a Somalia-type situation.

A country divided and at war which faces consistent destruction would soon institutionalize a war economy, giving warlords and terrorist factions a motif for the Syrian war to continue.

The Syrian refugees who left would have no reason to return to their homeland, as it would be completely destroyed and overrun with violence.

Those who decide to stay would be left without schools or any financial opportunities beyond becoming a part of the war.

Already over 6,500 schools have been destroyed since the conflict began in 2011, according to Syria’s Ministry of Education.

Syria has not yet reached the point of no return, though.

It’s not until we truly understand the nature of the Syrian conflict and realize who is fueling this war that we can urge our leaders to bring it to an end. With proper initiative from the the world’s powers we can put an end to the killing of innocent civilians and the displacement of the Syrian people.

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