Last Sunday, a team of more than 70 partners in the United Nations made the decision to support Syria's opposition groups by sending communications equipment valued at millions of dollars. The move not only proved the concerning state of Syria's internal strife, but also showed the level of involvement taken by international organizations to support Syria's citizens and bring an end to Bashar al-Assad's hold on Damascus.
Though it is difficult to pinpoint the exact source of Assad's strength, when compared to the other regimes toppled in the Arab Spring, Syria seems to perpetually exist in a constant state of stubbornness. Much to the anguish of the country's citizens, Assad's leadership has gone to ruthless lengths to eradicate all opposition, and as a result, has killed more than 6,000 Syrian citizens and prompted thousands to flee to neighboring countries.
What is seldom addressed, however, is that Assad's dominance derives not from his power, but from the fact that Syria's notion of unity is not as strong as that of other Arab nations. This fact has historical roots and stems from the disconnect between Syria's artificially constructed state identity and the identity of its inhabitants.
Although Syria's part in the Arab Spring began just a few months ago, the seeds of the conflict were planted decades before, as is the case in most revolutions. In 1963, the Arab Socialist Resurrection Party - known as the Ba'ath Party - assumed total political control in Syria, installing its members in all legislative and executive posts. Running with the slogan "Unity, Liberty, and Socialism," the predominant party rules Syria to this day, placing exclusive emphasis of national ideals which stray from the previous identity of "The Greater Syria" by which many citizens defined themselves before the French drew their borders. The disconnect starts here. Now citizens of an independent nation, Syrians were forced to form a whole new national identity within boundaries which were arbitrarily drawn.
As a result, cultural identification in Syria became indistinct, with Kurds, Armenians and Alawites being just a few of the ethnic minorities outnumbered by the Arab demographic which made up 90 percent of the country's populace. Instead of uniting these subcultures, the Ba'ath Party's new dominance disregarded them, encapsulating the Syrian identity into a secular Ba'athist regime which existed only within the mandate borders.
For years now, Syrians have experienced the denigrating effects of the encapsulation: The vast difference between state and national identities obstructed any opposition and stabilized the Ba'ath Party. An ethnic and religious melting pot, Syria's divided citizenry made any anti-state unification impossible. What's more, a deficiency of Pan-Arab culture or nationality bolstered the alienation, as citizens found a disconnect between their culture, "Arab" culture, and the culture of the state. In light of this, the word "citizen" is an ambiguous term in Syria.
Syria's recent role in the Arab Spring marks some change in the sequence of alienated identity, but the disconnect remains. Today's Syrian state faces great opposition, with large-scale civilian protests which were initially sparked by the Ba'ath Party's imprisonment and torture of 15 schoolchildren more than a year ago. Yet even the protests are divided, driven only by a will to remove Assad with no real future trajectory agreed upon by protestors.
At this point in time, the permanence of Assad's leadership is something of a mystery. Syria recently adopted Kofi Annan's "Six Point Plan," an assurance on behalf of the government that no new forces will be used against civilian uprisings. Though the plan was meant to settle the concerns of Assad's international critics, the Syrian regime did not back down by any means, killing 150 people on the day the plan was announced. Despite extensive protests in recent weeks, Syrians have yet to obtain any real power of their own and are caught in the constant feedback loop of violence and frustration.
Though the future for Syria is anything but certain, the change it faces will not be positive until the citizens can agree on what it means to be "Syrian." The disconnect has reached a level which citizens no longer can stand, and the outcome of the upheaval is sure to reflect this fact.
Denise Taylor's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at d.taylor@cavalierdaily.com.
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