For nearly half a century, the Assad dictatorship ruled Syria
On December 8, 2024, armed opposition forces put an end to this dictatorship by capturing the capital, Damascus, after taking several key cities.
Assad's regime could have collapsed earlier if it weren't for military support from Russia. Ultimately, the rebels were fragmented, lacking unity and sufficient weaponry. However, everything changed abruptly.
In a new episode of the YouTube project "Kashtan. Interview," Oleksandr Aulin, president of the Ukrainian Center for Islamic Studies and senior researcher at the Institute of World History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, reflects on the reasons behind the downfall of Assad's clique and who benefits from the change of power in Syria.
He specifically believes that the defeat of Assad's army was due to the unification of the most capable opposition forces, which operated under a single plan. Their offensive actions turned into a powerful military-political operation. There may have been some secret agreements with the Syrian military command, similar to the arrangements made during the 2003 war against Saddam Hussein, when U.S. intelligence and military had agreements with the Iraqi high command.
Oleksandr Aulin suggests that the swift overthrow of the regime was also aided by other countries, such as Israel. This could have been a response to last year's attack by Hamas, which struck Israel.
Watch the continuation of the conversation with Oleksandr Aulin in the new episode of the YouTube project “Kashtan. Interview“