It supposedly began as a protest for democratic & humanitarian reforms. The rebels against Assad are essentially Sunni, with some Kurds thrown in.
from Wiki : “A United Nations report in late 2012 described the conflict as being “overtly sectarian in nature”, between mostly Alawite government forces, militias and other Shia groups[86], fighting largely against Sunni-dominated rebel groups,[87][88] although both opposition and government forces have denied it.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War
>>>>”Actually, he’s Alawite, which is more aligned with shia, but the majority of the country is Sunni. “The control” as you put it, has been thru the Iranian regime with aid from Russia.”<<<<
The above is a quote from one of your earlier comments here. I add it in relevant context to this of #16.
I know the Shia/Sunni divide has been there since time immemorial. But, what if we don’t constantly add fuel to fire and reinforce that divide?
What if the main issue was about ‘representative government and governance”, and fair treatment, even in that part of the world for most or many ordinary people there?
Some “Kurds are against Assad” because they aren’t represented or included in the political process. Equally, the same can be said about Kurds in Iran and Turkey.
In Iran, based on religious grounds because the gov’t there is clearly shia 12ers oriented; socially & economically favoring shia 12ers over any other religion or Islamic denomination.
The situation re Kurds in Turkey is even more convoluted, and is not on religious grounds. In Turkey, the Turks started killing Kurds FIRST (awful history there), but the U.S. doesn’t recognize PKK, labelled them a terrorist group, because they try to get even and return fire at Turkish gov’t.
Let’s also remember that the Iraqi Kurds (predominantly Sunni, but Secular) have allied with Iran, and yes, Shia Iranian gov’t to date against all others (ISIS inclusive), and previously Arabs e.g. Saddam.
Humanitarian and democracy issues are really talking points. Same as who needs to be the “policeman” in the M.E. and N. Africa. Perhaps, we just need commonsense... this religious divide has been further cemented and reinforced by those “policemen” who use it to further their own whatevers as part of an ongoing power struggle in the region, between themselves (Russia & the U.S.) - hegemony at its worst and best.