Why Is The Syrian Army Carrying Out Al-Assad’s Orders?
Bashar al-Assad and Military Leaders
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is continuing undisturbed his shootout against his “subjects” with an incursion of his armies into northwestern city of Saraqib, where the people were calling for him to step down on Thursday early, soon after the morning Muslim prayer.
Human rights reported heavy fire in the city as soon as the troops arrived in buses and tanks. This action comes as international community demanded a stop of violence in the country and after the lifting of the siege of Hama, that lasted an entire week and left more than 100 people killed.
Syrian state-run agency announced on Wednesday that the troops left the city after restoring peace and calm that had been disturbed by the acts of terrorism and sabotage performed by “armed terrorist groups.”
Two people were killed in Hama on Wednesday morning, when, after the morning prayer, people took to the streets, and security forces opened fire on them.
The withdrawal of the tanks and troops from Hama was confirmed by Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who said that a Turkish envoy in the region saw the troops leaving.
Turkish foreign minister visited Syria two days ago, and delivered a message to Bashar al-Assad, who replied that his government would continue to hunt down terrorists and thugs on the national territory of Syria.
Riot in Hama
Upon returning to Turkey, Davutoglu expressed hope that more steps would be taken to end the conflict.
His point of view was confirmed by Prime Minister Erdogan, who said that al-Assad must stop what he is doing, and then must implement the reforms he had promised, showing by that that he may be the only leader who still sees al-Assad as the continuing president of Syria when this crisis is over, one way or another.
The United Nations Security Council was convened on Wednesday, but its members were not capable to move forward from a presidential statement to a clear resolution against Syria. The leaders of the UN Security Council expressed concern, disappointment, and urged al-Assad to end violence.
The general impression is that everybody would be relieved if al-Assad were to crush this rebellion as soon as possible and disappear from the front page of newspapers. No one seems to actually be committed to a serious action, even though the Syrian regime outpassed by far what Qaddafi had done in his country a few months ago, by having caused 2,417 people to die, and 13,000 to be arrested by security forces.
No international arrest warrant was issued in al-Assad’s name, no declaration of illegitimacy of his regime, as it was the case with Libya. No UN Security Council resolution that would condemn what he is doing. No French President threatening him to stop or else.
The only things done were the calling of ambassadors by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain, the issuance of a presidential statement by the UN Security Council, the sending of envoys to Damascus by Turkey, Brazil, and South Africa, the slamming of the regime’s actions by most of the governments in the democratic world, and the freezing of some assets of the Syrian government.
With such a fainted reaction to his actions, Bashar al-Assad is expected to meet the deadline expressed by Turkish PM on Wednesday, when he said that he was expecting things to end within 10-15 days and the president of Syria to become a project of reforms.
On Wednesday, Syrian foreign minister explained the ambassadors of Brazil, India and South Africa, who have a status of non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council that “mistakes have been made” and that the regime was making sure they do not repeat again.
Syrian Army
The thing that intrigues most in the development in Syria is the loyalty of the troops, which is different from the one of the troops in every other Arab Spring country that fought for freedom from oppression.
The military in Libya for instance opposed the regime’s commend to kill innocent people and defected.
The military in Egypt advised Mubarak to stand down, thus avoiding to “end up like Ceausescu.” They seized the power and are now leading the people toward democracy.
Even Ceausescu, 21 years ago, fell the minute the national army of Romania decided that they would not shoot the people who were shouting their freedom in the streets of Bucharest and Timisoara.
The Syrian troops are committing an act of treason against their own nation they were sworn to protect, and that is making the prospect of ending the bloodshed unlikely to come to pass before the last protestor lies dead.
There are some explanations to this situation. First off, there is some sort of sectarian explanation. The troops are, for the most part, members of the Sunni Islam, while their leaders, and commending officers belong to the Alawite branch to which the presidential family also belongs.
Another explanation is that the structure of the Syrian army is infiltrated with many members of the presidential family, who hold positions and key ranks and who do not shy away from enforcing the military discipline and obedience by any means necessary. There are witnesses that say soldiers who refused to open fire were in turn executed on sight.
Out of one million and a half soldiers of the Syrian army, only one of a dozen defectors arrived in Lebanon and demanded the troops to refuse al-Assad’s orders.
The most important reason why they do not discard the order to kill their own families, and neighbors and friends lies with the complex power structure within the army, devised by the president Hafez al-Assad, who wanted to make sure no revolt came from among the troops, and no military coup was possible.
The military power structures are infiltrated and intertwined with security forces, after the former Communist model in the Eastern Europe, unlike the Egyptian army for instance, that was an independent body from security forces.
Military and political experts consider that if the Syrian government is to fall it will fall along with the military, but that the possibility of the army refusing to carry out al-Assad’s orders is very remote.
