Veysel Kurt

The role of the militaries in politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been one of the most popular issues among scholars and researchers focusing on the Middle East politics since the Arab Uprisings erupted against the autocrats. It is a common assumption that the autocrats in the MENA ruled for decades with the support of the militaries

In this research I examine the effect of the military on Syrian politics and the uprising of 2011. I consider the military’s will to protect the Assad regime in the context of the “army-party symbiosis” that has been composed in the historical process. I rename this symbiosis as a power bloc because of Assad’s designation of the military to be used not only against external threats but also to protect his regime against the Syrian opposition. The political and economic reforms implemented by Bashar Al-Assad did not affect this power structure, which is the source of the military’s will to suppress the uprisings of 2011. The armed organizations which emerged during the civil war, whether they are named as terror organizations or not, will be a challenging factor not only in the resolution of the Syrian crisis but also for the reorganization of the Syrian army.