The long-running Syrian Civil War refuses to end as Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish strongpoints in Syria in retaliation for an attack on a state-affiliated defense company.
The National Intelligence Organization targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party — the PKK — or by Syrian Kurdish militia that are affiliated with the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported. The targets included military, intelligence, energy, and infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots, the report said. A security official said armed drones were used in the strikes.
“Our noble nation should rest assured that we will continue with increasing determination our struggle to eliminate the evil forces that threaten the security and peace of our country and people until the last terrorist disappears from this geography,” Defense Minister Yasar Guler said.
War in Syria
Currently, Syria is in three pieces. The government of longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad controls most of the country, including the entire western portion, including the capital city of Damascus. Fragmented rebel groups, mostly ISIS, the SDF (Syrian Defense Force, a U.S.-backed rebel group), and the Kurds control part of the extreme east. That conflict has been raging since 2011.
In 2016, Turkey occupied the northernmost part of Syria, including the large city of Aleppo. The Turks claimed their “intrusion” was to rid the area of terrorist groups, but their true motives remain unclear.
In a larger sense, the entire region has been in pieces since 1916. Amidst the violence and turmoil of World War I, two obscure British and French diplomats, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, reached a secret agreement to divide the Middle Eastern territories of the tottering Ottoman Empire.
The British obtained a “sphere of influence” over most of the territory, including what is today Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and southern Iraq, as well as the ports of Haifa and Acre to allow access to the Mediterranean. The British were keen to obtain the oil reserves in Iraq and ports to maintain contact with India, the crown jewel of the British Empire at the time.
France could exert influence over whatever was left, including most of modern-day Lebanon and Syria. Lawrence of Arabia was leading the Arabs to victory after victory at the time. So, the French probably reasoned they were lucky to get anything.
Sykes and Picot froze Russia out of the negotiations, even though this territory was almost literally on their doorstep and Czarist Russia was still an important British and French ally. Sykes and Picot also drew the line without any consideration for the people currently living there.
This line moved diagonally through much of the region. It cut Kurdistan, the unofficial home of the Kurds, to pieces. Today, the Kurds are the largest stateless people in the world. The erratic line also chopped up parts of modern-day Syria, which partially explains the extreme volatility in this country.
The current civil war peaked in 2014, when ISIS seized control of large parts of Eastern Syria and Western Iraq, prompting the U.S.-led CJTF coalition to launch an aerial bombing campaign against it while it provided ground support to the Kurdish-majority Syrian Democratic Forces. These forces routed ISIS in the 2017 Battle of Raqqa.
But Turkey did not wait for that battle. Instead, in August 2016, Turkey launched a multi-pronged invasion of northern Syria. Since the March 2020 Idlib ceasefire, the frontline fighting during the conflict has mostly subsided, except for regular skirmishes.
“Peace” in Syria
The Syrian Civil War has been expensive to fight, and the cost increases every day. Many observers believe that rebuilding costs may be even higher. The intense fighting in many areas of the country has destroyed much of the transportation infrastructure. It must be rebuilt from scratch. This infrastructure includes roads, bridges, rail lines, gas pipelines, and airports.
Additionally, many areas have no schools, hospitals, power stations, or other such essential service facilities. At least the existing facilities are not in one piece. Most refugees will not return home until they can turn on the lights, send their kids to school, turn on the water, and do other such things we take for granted. Moreover, it’s a given that businesses won’t start up again as long as conditions are difficult.
The collapse of the Syrian economy adds to this turmoil. Beginning in 2011, many nations imposed economic sanctions on Syria, none greater than the 2020 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which the U.S. enacted in 2020.
The economy was teetering before 2020. According to the World Bank, a cumulative total of $226 billion in GDP was lost due to the conflict from 2011 to 2016. Then came the knockout punch. By 2021, The pound, which traded at LS 47 to the dollar before the 2011 uprising, plunged to over LS 3,000 to the dollar.
Ironically, once it begins, the economic collapse may support rebuilding. Many Syrians are desperate for jobs that pay in dollars or Euros. Construction jobs fit that bill.
Contractors in Syria
In a nutshell, U.S. private military contractors helped expel ISIS and Russian mercenaries from Syria. They will also help rebuild what they broke.
Military contractors support military operations. They also verify IDs at checkpoints, patrol marketplaces, and otherwise hold down the fort while other military assets do their thing. Once the shooting stops, contractors usually supervise the aforementioned reconstruction projects. They help ensure the work is done on time and under budget.
Injury Compensation Available
When private military contractors are injured overseas, regardless of their role, a Defense Base Act lawyer can obtain compensation for reasonably necessary medical bills.
“Reasonably necessary” is a lawyer phrase that means different things to different people. For example, insurance adjusters usually believe that “reasonably necessary” is synonymous with “cheapest available.” But in this context, this phrase usually covers all medical expenses in a deployment-related illness or injury case, such as:
- Transportation: These expenses are usually high in gunshot wounds and other trauma injury cases. Generally, these injured contractors are stabilized at field hospitals and then med-evacced to larger offsite facilities. The transportation bill could be $20,000 or even two or three times larger.
- Emergency Care: Many seriously injured trauma victims require two or three rounds of surgery. They are not physically strong enough to take everything at once. Multiple procedures significantly inflate medical bills.
- Physical Therapy: The recovery process has barely begun after injured victims are released from the hospital. Usually, physical therapists must work with these victims for months before they retain any semblance of the mobility and overall health they enjoyed before their injuries.
- Ancillary Costs: These expenses usually include prescription drugs and medical devices. Since a health insurance company usually pays most of the cost, most people do not realize how expensive prescription drugs are. Drug companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing drugs. To recoup these costs and make money, they charge astronomical prices.
Maximum medical benefits are usually available even if a pre-existing or non-deployment condition contributed to the risk and/or severity of a deployment-related injury or illness.
For more information about the DBA process, contact Barnett, Lerner, Karsen, Frankel & Castro, P.A.