Introduction
Every decade, century or millennium in the history of mankind has been marked by human conflict. These conflicts 
always vary in terms of magnitude, cause, as well as the severity of their results. It is worth noting, however, that the weapons used in the course of these conflicts have only aggravated the severity of the results thanks to technology. Conflicts may be within countries (otherwise known as civil wars) or between countries or regions. While the effects of civil wars may be more pronounced within the affected country’s boundaries, other countries neighboring it or within the region and the world at large often feel the ripple effects of the conflicts (Holliday 4). This is the case for Syrian conflict. While the Syrian conflict may have had positive and negative effects on varied countries, the conflict has negative effects on Turkey and its relationship with other countries.
The Syrian conflict refers to an ongoing armed conflict in Syria that pits the forces whose loyalty lies with the ruling Syrian Ba’ath Party government and other forces that aim at eliminating it from power. This civil was started in March 15th 2011 as popular demonstrations that eventually spread throughout the nation by April 2011. It is worth noting that the demonstrations were part of a wider uprising that was taking place in the Middle East, a protest that was going by the term Arab Spring (Holliday 4). In the Syrian conflict, the protestors have been demanding that the President al-Assad resigns from the presidency. The president’s family has been holding the presidency for more than four decades (since 1971). Their relinquishing of the presidency would also bring an end to the more than four decades of ruling by the Ba’ath party. However, the Syrian government responded by deploying the Syrian army to fight the demonstrators with express orders to open fire on the protestors. Eventually, the protests became armed rebellions where the opposition forces became more organized and armed as they increased in size due to uniting into larger groups ((Rochelle 3). These groups were mainly made up of civilian volunteers and defected soldiers. However, their lack of organized leadership and fractured structure has made it impossible for them to topple the government, which has characterized the uprising as the work of “foreign mercenaries and armed terrorist groups” (Rochelle 4). The clashes usually occur in cities and towns all over the country with no discernible or clear fronts.