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Syria is located here,

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an eight-hour flight from Spain.

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It is half the size and its population
concentrates here.

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Why? because this whole area is a huge desert, a very important desert.

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It has a third of the World oil
and also natural gas reserves,

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some say the new oil.

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To take the oil from here to Europe,
It has to go around this peninsula.

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exiting through the Suez Canal.

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As you can imagine,

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you are charged here.

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But there is an easier way
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a straight line.

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Which control of these oil pipelines
you can open and close them

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like a tap.

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If you don’t pay, there is no oil or gas.

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This region is a awesome.

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The civilization on the planet began
in three places and this is one of them.

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MESOPOTAMIA, here.

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SUMER, that would sound less familiar, but it is the fucking beginning of everything

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also here.

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Do you remember the Tower of Babel in the Bible?

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These guys made it.
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EGYPT here.

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It has always been a contact point
between East and West

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giving to Asia access to the Mediterranean Sea.

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Maybe that's why here the
major monotheistic religions were born

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Judaism , Christianity and Islam.

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Islam is the last to arrive,
and indeed welcomes the two previous.

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Adam, Noah , Moses, Jesus Christ are
considered Islamic prophets.

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Ok, Let’s come to the point.

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As the area is fucking awesome ALL
have wanted to control it and it has always

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been under control by an Empire.
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Persians [Persian Empire]

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Greek [Greek Empire]

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The Romans [Roman Empire]

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The Roman Empire ended divided in two.

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and finally only this part survived.
[Eastern Roman Empire]

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Now is when the last monotheistic religion, Islam

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built its own Empire. [Islamic Empire]

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Do you remember of the Crusades?

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Well, they were the Christian Europeans
trying to recover this area which

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we are talking about.

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Latecomers
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were Turks.

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Careful, they were not from Turkey

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but rather fucking far away from Asia

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with Genghis Khan.

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They conquered all
and founded the Ottoman Empire.

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The Ottoman Empire

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stayed there until World War I

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SIX HUNDRED YEARS.

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When World War I ended

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small countries appeared before
it was the Ottoman Empire,

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and for the first time,
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We see Syria on a map.

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Until now we had drawn it so we don’t get lost.

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And who invented these countries?

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What I’m going to tell you is Top Secret.

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Well, it was top secret in 1916.

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This super secret is called
Sykes-Picot Agreement

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French government and English government

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they could not defeat the Ottoman Empire
alone

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They could only with the support of the people who lived within,

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mostly

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Arabs.
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How did they win their trust?

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They were promised

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THE GREAT ARABIA

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a country just for them.
The only problem

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is that it was a scam.

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Before going further remember one thing

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Arabs are a group of people but not a religion.

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That means that an Arab can be Muslim

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or it can be Christian

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and before Islam seems to have been tribes
Arab with Jewish traditions.

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Well, the Arabs were not given that
only country that had been promised.
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In their place, French and British created
many small countries.

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These countries obviously
were not really countries

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but areas under their control
with rulers set by them.

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During this time, they did whatever they wanted with the area.

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Remember there is Oil.
Although Syria did not have large reserves

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it has easy access to the sea,
and France that has kept Syria,

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gave it to Foreign Companies.

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After World War II, Europeans left

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in the case of Syria , they are kicked out.

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but before they left they created another state
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Israel

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It is not the time to talk about it but
It is a very controversial state that its

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neighbors did not recognize.

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Proof of this is that as soon as the British left

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it was attacked by all these states.

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The area, from that moment,
became a fucking time bomb.

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And meanwhile, what about Syria?

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Well it is not very stable.

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It has been constant coups.

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At that time it appeared in Syria an
ideology that takes control and

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spreads across the Arab world,
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the Baath.

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This ideology mixes
one Arab nation old dream

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with socialist ideas
and something very important

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it is secular , so it's not religious.

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Syria became bounded with Egypt,
a country with which it has no borders

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but it is not uncommon,

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many of these countries
tried to do it also.

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As you will remember these people
were promised one country

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and they still had the desire

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but the union failed.
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Egypt at this time convinced them to nationalize oil.

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Al- Assad in Syria,

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the father of current Al-Assad,

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became head of Baath state.

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In Iraq, also Baath

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Saddam Hussein began to gain strength

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the differences between the two countries, divided the Baath parties of other countries

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in Pro-Syria

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or Pro-Irak

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Now the Cold War occurred,
the world is divided into two

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Either you support the U.S.
or the Soviet Union.
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They were very shaky years,
and they constantly confronted Israel,

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invaded neighboring Lebanon,

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and began an Islamist opposition
of Al- Assad Baath regime

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The Muslim Brotherhood.

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OK, let's go back a moment.

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Remember that most Arabs were Muslims , right?

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Well within Muslim
There are two main branches:

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Sunnis , most

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and Shiites.

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In the case of Syria
despite being a secular state

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Assad and the rulers and military leaders
they were Shiites

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which represented less than 13%,

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whereas nearly 70 % of the population
is Sunni.

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A curious fact is that Christians
were almost 10%.

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The fact Shiites controlled the government and the army

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angered Sunni population,

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and this feeling is exploited by
The Muslim Brotherhood.

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Sunni radical Islamists.

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These took up arms in the city of Hama

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against the government,

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And Assad ended the revolt
at the cost of killing thousands of civilians,
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and put in jail many people.

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In the year 2000

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Assad's father died
and he was succeeded by Assad son.

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Due to pressures,
He released many prisoners

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brought the Internet

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and hopes for change.

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There was a period of great political debate and the opposition appeared.

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The Muslim Brotherhood also came back.

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The following years were difficult and the opposition was arrested.

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Bush included Syria in the " Axis of Evil "
And it gets isolated.

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It is frowned upon to negotiate with Syria.

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Kurds, who lived distributed by several countries in the region,

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started to also protest.

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There was repression and deaths.

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In 2011 , it will sound familiar, The Arab Spring occurs.

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What is this?

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Well, it was a protest to be spreading in all Arab countries calling for more democracy.

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As you can see, the Arab world, despite being divided into countries

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has general trends.

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When it reached Syria,

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Assad son used the army

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and in the clashes, a thousand people died.
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The fighting escalated
until it became a civil war.

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There is no exact start time.

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The important thing is that today
There are many factions in game.

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Let’s see them.

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But first think that everything is divided

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between Shiites

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the minority

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and Sunni

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the majority.

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Secular Shiite , that is not religious

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are Al- Assad’s government
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He controls all of this with basically if you remember, just the Shiite areas in the country.

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Assad 's government faces the rest

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Also secular but predominantly Sunni

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is the Free Syrian Army FSA in English.

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along with the Islamic Front that is
religious and other groups seventy-odd more

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form a coalition that
press and mass media simply calls

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the Opposition.

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Also Sunnis and Islamists

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but radicals

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are Al-Nusra.

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They are called "Al-Qaeda in Syria"
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because they are basically that, Al-Qaeda in Syria.

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Other radical Islamists are
ISIS or "Islamic State"

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They came out of a spin-off of Al-Qaeda in Iraq

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They control most of Syria and Iraq

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and they have become famous
for atrocities.

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Its theoretical target impacts many

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It is an Islamic state along
Asia , Africa and Levant ( Middle East )

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Although, Are you already sound familiar , right?

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In orange we have the Kurdish people

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that you will remember because
President al - Assad repressed them.

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as other governments from next countries did also.

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Now, they militarily control this area.

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Before closing, let's review the International support
as of October 2015.

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Al-Assad forces

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are supported by Russia that already had
a military base in the country before the conflict.

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by Iran

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and by China.

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All are countries from what Europe calls Eastern.

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Against Assad supporting the Opposition

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fight United States, Turkey ,
France, Britain and Saudi Arabia.

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We may end up with some
Conclusions.
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I warn you that this is already pure opinion.

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If we recapitulate, we see
the region is strategic.

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Because of its privileged location, everybody wants it.

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Syria has always been under
the umbrella of great empires.

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Think that a 100 years ago
France was France,

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Britain was Britain

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But they also were, 200 years ago

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and also 300 hundred years ago

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and 400 hundred years ago too.

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In the other hand, Syria is only Syria
from less than 100 hundred years ago,

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and it only governs itself

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from just over 50 years ago.

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They also never decided its borders

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They were imposed.

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Europe, divided the Middle East at will
to control it.

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designing countries regardless of their population.

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Many historians say

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the people have the need to manage their own destiny.

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But these ingredients we have seen

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play against projects like the Syrian Baath,

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that also use repression to stay.

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Utimately
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it caused a civil war.

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In this context it is not surprising
that actors appear to feed on

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despair, like Sunni feeling of oppression

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and the vision of the West as invaders.

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ISIS uses the Arab identity and mythology of ancient empires.

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When you want to understand the present, ask yourself:

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What about the past?

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There are things that cannot be represented on a map,
like the suffering of the population today
caught in this civil war.

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If in any way the video generates a profit
will go to the Syrian campaign of Save the Children.

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#WHYMAPS thanks Frank Durban
for helping us with this english subtitles