Dr Spyridon Plakoudas
(Defence Analyst, RIEAS Research Associate)
Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 24 March 2016
Syria: A Divided Country
After five years of sectarian violence, the country has been reduced to rubble and partitioned de facto in several warring statelets: a) the titular state of Syria under Assad that still controls the populous urban centres of eastern Syria along the Damascus-Latakia central road, b) a mosaic of dominions and enclaves under the shaky rule of the anti-Assad opposition in northern and southern Syria, c) the sprawling jihadist state in the eastern Syrian desert under the black banner of the Islamic State and d) an almost continuous Kurdish state along the long Turkish-Syrian frontier. A few days ago, the Kurds of Syria proclaimed the establishment of a federal government in northern Syria – in stark defiance to Turkey's stern opposition to a second independent Kurdish entity...Read more