REVIEW - Russia Marks 5th Anniversary Since Start Of Anti-Terrorist Operation In Syria

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th September, 2020) This Wednesday, September 30, Russia celebrates the fifth anniversary of the beginning of its military operation in Syria against various militant groups operating against the government of Bashar Assad.

The operation, launched as an airstrike campaign as in 2015, became Russia's first military engagement outside of the former Soviet territories since the fall of communism, and, over time, obtained both peacekeeping and humanitarian dimensions in order to save the middle Eastern country from falling into hands of a radical element.

Today, Russia is heavily involved not only in military and peacekeeping activities but also in helping rebuild the war-torn country, facilitating return of refugees and displaced people and restoring peaceful way of life, denied to Syrians for almost ten years.

Syria was but one of many countries that were plunged into chaos by the events known as the Arab Spring, which started in 2011 in Tunisia but quickly spread across the Arab world like a wildfire. It was motivated by the dissatisfaction of people around the world with the way things were and inability of their leaders to solve the most pressing social issues of the day.

Initially hailed as democratic and liberatory, it created a power vacuum seized by terrorist and militant groups throughout the Middle East and North Africa, including the notorious Islamic State and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra (both groups are banned in Russia).

Syria was not spared those developments and had to face massive protests that soon morphed into a nationwide insurgency against Damascus.

Four years later, on September 30, the Russian parliament approved a request by President Vladimir Putin to initiate airstrikes in Syria on Assad's request.

Prior to that, Russia supported the Assad government by providing armaments and defending it in the international arena, especially at the UN Security Council.

The decision to launch airstrikes, however, was the beginning of more direct involvement in the armed struggle that was taking place in the country, to deal a blow to international terrorist groups that were illegally seizing the country's territory and using to further their goals in the region.

Over time, Russia expanded its involvement in the country by sending its special forces and military police as well as military advisers to boost the military capability of the Syrian armed forces.

In the next five years, Russian air support made it possible for Assad to reclaim Syrian territories occupied by insurgent groups as well as striking against terrorist organizations within the country.

By now, Assad controls most of Syria's territory, with the rest being divided between various armed groups, including the Turkey-supported Syrian National Army and the Kurdish forces in the north and northeast.

But the most important achievement of the joint Syria-Russia effort was the total elimination of the IS presence in the region by December 2017.

"Imagine that the Russians were not really intervening in Syria, we might have had ISIS controlling all of Syria, and really disturbing Lebanon, and as well as creating this big, let's say, this caliphate, so having a great power in Syria really blocked all of this, and defeated terrorism. And in this Russia asserted itself, created a hub, and found itself like a pivot in the region being in Syria, and moreover protected itself," General Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese army general and lecturer on strategy, geopolitics & history of Lebanon at the American University of Beirut and Notre Dame University - Lebanon, told Sputnik.

His sentiment is echoed by Mais Krydee, the secretary general of the Syrian opposition Patriotic Democratic Front as well as a participant in the Syrian Constitutional Committee.

"The whole world knows that Russia helps the Syrian people and contributes to peace in Syria by supporting Syrians in their fight against terrorism. It's the support that comes from the Russian people, from the Russian government and from the Russian army. We are very grateful for it," she told Sputnik.

Nevertheless, the Turkish presence in the north of the country remains a serious threat, according to Hanna, who is critical of Erdogan's policy for the region, including his alleged use of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces to promote the Turkish agenda in the region.

"Having Idlib and this area with HTS [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham], but under the control of President Erdogan, this has a neo-Ottomanist approach to recreate the caliphate, and rebuilt what we call 'the greater Turkey' of the National Pact of 1920, which has part of Northern Syria as well as of Iraq, and is trying to rebuild the caliphate," the expert said.

Military effort was not the only significant Russian contribution to helping to bring Syria from the brink of collapse.

Almost a decade of warfare has decimated the country's economy, left with severely damaged infrastructure, and led thousands of people to abandon their homes. The last but not the least is reaffirming social and political stability.

"The problems of reconstruction after the war will probably be even bigger than the problem of the war itself. Final peace will require a lot of forgiveness and brave steps on the part of the Syrians," Krydee said.

Moscow has been at the forefront of the Syrian economic revival, pledging to invest in various infrastructure projects such as the modernization of the Tartus� port and a chemical fertilizer factory in Homs.

Meanwhile, Russian bomb squads have been operating throughout the country so that renewed peaceful life and economic activity are not disturbed by a hidden explosive. At the same time, the Russian Centre for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and Refugee Migration Monitoring has been carrying out humanitarian actions almost every day.

Despite tensions, between Damascus and Ankara, significant progress has been made in Russia-Turkey security cooperation via joint patrols in northern Syria to deprive terrorists of any opportunity to operate in the region.

While the work to restore what was destroyed by the war is far from over and the country is not yet completely free from remnants of militant forces, the contribution by Russia has been noted and greatly appreciated in both the halls of power in Damascus and among common people.

"One day when we finish the war, these miserable days pass and our lives return to normality, we will still remember the help of the Russian people against the evil of terrorism ... Russian and Syrian people must keep this proximity also afterward. It is not just about the memory, it's the fact that we are going through the hard times [of war] together that brings us even closer," Krydee said.