Lebanese Civil War and The Syrian Occupation of Lebanon
According to historians William Cleveland and Martin Bunton, Beirut became an international banking center because of its “laissez-faire economic system”. Business owners from Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad moved to Beirut for economic opportunities. Despite Lebanon’s cultural liberalism and economic prosperity, sectarian tensions remained as citizens identified themselves through their sects. With Muslims calling for greater representation and with Cold War tensions, Lebanese leadership had to decide whether to ally with the West or with Egypt, Syria and its Arab history. Christians wanted to continue alliances with the West but Muslims were drawn to Nasser’s pan-Arabism. Multiple factors including sectarian tensions and Palestinian refugee settlement in southern Lebanon contributed to the beginnings of the Lebanese Civil War. In 1976, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad sent troops into Lebanon to fight PLO forces on behalf of Christian militias. This led to escalated fighting until a cease-fire agreement later that year that allowed for the stationing of Syrian troops within Lebanon. The Syrian presence in Lebanon quickly changed sides; soon after they entered Lebanon they had flip-flopped and began to fight the Christian nationalists in Lebanon they allegedly entered the country to protect. The Kateab Party and The Lebanese Forces under Bachir Gemayel strongly resisted the Syrians in Lebanon. Following the Israeli invasion into Lebanon in 1982, new Lebanese President Amin Gemayel sought the support of Syrian troops to stabilize the region. Syria fought Israeli troops after the latter's invasion of Lebanon.
In 1989, 40,000 Syrian troops remained in central and eastern Lebanon under the supervision of the Syrian government. The Taif Accord, established in the same year, called for the removal of Syrian troops and transfer of arms to the Lebanese army. Syrian troops would supervise this transfer and militias would also transfer their arms to the Lebanese army. General Michel Aoun, appointed as acting Prime Minister by Gemayon, sought independence from Syrian forces at all costs. Aoun led attacks against Syrian troops that resulted in heavy civilian casualties. While he was Maronite Christian, Aoun's expeditions led Christian militias to fight against Aoun’s troops. The fighting ended with Syrian troops' “all-out attack” on Aoun’s forces and bases. With the placement of a more pro-Syria leadership in the Lebanese government, Syrian troops began to follow the Taif Accord which called for an Arab Deterrent Force to maintain peace. However, Syrian troops made the majority of the Arab Deterrent Force and Lebanese citizens felt that their country had lost its sovereignty. Full withdrawal of Syrian troops though happened in 2005; Syrian President al-Assad had hoped to impose his power over Lebanon, Jordan, and the PLO. However, his involvement in the Lebanese Civil War carried a negative impact on his leadership; Syrian citizens questioned his decisions. According to Naomi Joy Winberger, “After years of intervention and subsequent occupation, Syria suffered reduced stature in each domain ”.
Read more about this topic: Lebanon-Syria Relations
Famous quotes containing the words civil, war, syrian and/or occupation:
“They have been waiting for us in a foetor
Of vegetable sweat since civil war days,
Since the gravel-crunching, interminable departure
Of the expropriated mycologist.”
—Derek Mahon (b. 1941)
“Signal smokes, war drums, feathered bonnets against the western sky. New messiahs, young leaders are ready to hurl the finest light cavalry in the world against Fort Stark. In the Kiowa village, the beat of drums echoes in the pulsebeat of the young braves. Fighters under a common banner, old quarrels forgotten, Comanche rides with Arapaho, Apache with Cheyenne. All chant of war. War to drive the white man forever from the red man’s hunting ground.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,
You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night
The hate you died to quench and could but fan,
Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)
“For myself I found that the occupation of a day-laborer was the most independent of any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year to support one. The laborer’s day ends with the going down of the sun, and he is then free to devote himself to his chosen pursuit, independent of his labor; but his employer, who speculates from month to month, has no respite from one end of the year to the other.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)