Syrian revolution

The Syrian revolution was a series of mass protests and civilian uprisings throughout Syria – with a subsequent violent reaction by the Ba'athist regime – lasting from 2011 to 2024 as part of the greater Arab Spring in the Arab world. The revolution, which demanded the end of the decades-long Assad family rule, began as minor demonstrations during January 2011 and transformed into large nationwide protests in March. The uprising was marked by mass protests against the Ba'athist dictatorship of president Bashar al-Assad meeting police and military violence, massive arrests and a brutal crackdown, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and tens of thousands wounded. 13 years after the start of the revolution, the Assad regime fell in 2024 after a series of rebel offensives.

The phase of civil uprising created a platform for the emergence of armed opposition movements and massive defections from the Syrian army, which gradually transformed the conflict from a popular uprising/revolution into an armed insurgency, and subsequently a civil war. On 29 July 2011, the Free Syrian Army was formed, marking the beginning of armed operations against the Assad government. Since then, the conflict has taken the form of an armed rebellion, with the civil movement largely ceasing and members of the opposition resorting to armed struggle.

Despite Assad's attempts to crush the protests with crackdowns, censorship and concessions, the mass protests had become a full-blown revolution by the end of April. The Ba'athist government deployed its ground troops and airforce, ordering them to fight the rebels. The regime's deployment of large-scale violence against protestors and civilians led to international condemnation of the Assad government and support for the protestors.