The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish far-left militant and political organization based in Turkey and Iraq. Since 1984 the PKK has been involved in an armed conflict with the Turkish state, with the initial aim of achieving an independent Kurdish state, later changing it to a demand for equal rights and Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.
Anwar al-Bunni is a Syrian human rights lawyer who has defended clients such as Riad al-Turk, Riad Seif, the owner of The Lamplighter,, Kurdish protesters, and "dozens of others."
The Bahraini uprising of 2011 was a series of anti-government protests in Bahrain led by the Shia-dominant Bahraini Opposition from 2011 until 2014. The protests were inspired by the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and 2011–12 Iranian protests and escalated to daily clashes after the Bahraini government repressed the revolt with the support of Gulf Cooperation Council and Peninsula Shield Force. The Bahraini protests were a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of non-violent civil disobedience and later some violent resistance in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. As part of the revolutionary wave of protests in the Middle East and North Africa following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the Bahraini protests were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and equality for the majority Shia population, and expanded to a call to end the monarchy of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa following a deadly night raid on 17 February 2011 against protesters at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, known locally as Bloody Thursday.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from May to August 2011, including the escalation of violence in many Syrian cities.
Dr Ammar Al-Qurabi is a Syrian human rights activist and executive director of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria since April 2006. He was elected in April 2011 as member of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Human Rights Organization in Syria.
International reactions to the Syrian Civil War ranged from support for the government to calls for the government to dissolve. The Arab league, United Nations and Western governments in 2011 quickly condemned the Syrian government's response to the protests which later evolved into the Syrian Civil War as overly heavy-handed and violent. Many Middle Eastern governments initially expressed support for the government and its "security measures", but as the death toll mounted, especially in Hama, they switched to a more balanced approach, criticizing violence from both government and protesters. Russia and China vetoed two attempts at United Nations Security Council sanctions against the Syrian government.
The Siege of Hama (2011) was among the nationwide crackdowns by the Syrian Government during the early stage of the Syrian Civil War. Anti-government protests had been ongoing in the Syrian city of Hama since 15 March 2011, when large protests were first reported in the city, similar to the protests elsewhere in Syria as part of the wider Syrian Civil War. The events beginning in July 2011, were described by anti-government activists in the city as a "siege" or "blockade".
The Free Syrian Army is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces who said their goal was to bring down the government of Bashar al-Assad. A formal organization at its founding, its structure gradually dissipated by late 2012, and the FSA identity has since been used by various opposition groups.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian uprising from September to December 2011. This period saw the uprising take on many of the characteristics of a civil war, according to several outside observers, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, as armed elements became better organized and began carrying out successful attacks in retaliation for the ongoing crackdown by the Syrian government on demonstrators and defectors.
Yahya Shurbaji is a Syrian political activist and part of the Daraya Youth, a group of activists known for non-violence convictions and change through civic actions. It is reported that he was killed in Sednaya Prison under detention and torture.
The Siege of Homs was a military confrontation between the Syrian military and the Syrian opposition in the city of Homs as a part of the Syrian Civil War. The siege lasted three years from May 2011 to May 2014, and resulted in an opposition withdrawal from the city.
The Syrian opposition is an umbrella term for the political structure represented by the Syrian National Coalition and associated anti-government Syrian groups with certain territorial control in the form of a proto-state as an alternative Syrian government, claiming to be the legitimate Syrian Arab Republic and also sometimes known just as the Republic of Syria. The Syrian opposition evolved since the beginning of the Syrian conflict from groups calling for the overthrow of the Assad government in Syria and who have opposed its Ba'athist government. Prior to the Syrian Civil War, the term "opposition" had been used to refer to traditional political actors, for example the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change; that is, groups and individuals who have had a history of dissidence against the Syrian state.
Human rights violations during the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious, with United Nations reports stating that the war has been "characterized by a complete lack of adherence to the norms of international law" by the warring parties who have "caused civilians immeasurable suffering".
Mazen Darwish is a Syrian lawyer and free speech advocate. He is the president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (CMFE). News organizations including Reuters and the Associated Press have described him as one of Syria's most prominent activists. He was imprisoned in Syria from 2012 until his release in August 2015.
Law enforcement in Syria is carried out by police forces for general policing duties; internal security duties are carried out by several intelligence agencies. The Political Security Directorate is one of these agencies and is under the guidance of the Ministry of Interior. The Directorate operates independently and generally outside the control of the legal system to repress internal dissent and monitor individual citizens. Syria is INTERPOL member since 1953.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, commonly abbreviated to SDF, HSD, and QSD, is an alliance in the Syrian Civil War comprised primarily of Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian/Syriac militias, as well as some smaller Turkmen and Chechen forces. The SDF is militarily led by the People's Protection Units (YPG), a mostly Kurdish militia. Founded in October 2015, the SDF states its mission as fighting to create a secular, democratic and federal Syria. The updated December 2016 constitution of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) names the SDF as its official defence force.
The Free Officers Movement, also called the Free Officers Brigade was a Syrian rebel group that operated during the early phase of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. The group consisted of defected officers and soldiers from the Syrian Armed Forces.
The early insurgency phase of the Syrian Civil War lasted from late July 2011 to April 2012, and was associated with the rise of armed oppositional militias across Syria and the beginning of armed rebellion against the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic. Though armed insurrection incidents began as early as June 2011 when rebels killed 120–140 Syrian security personnel, the beginning of organized insurgency is typically marked by the formation of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) on 29 July 2011, when a group of defected officers declared the establishment of the first organized oppositional military force. Composed of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel, the rebel army aimed to remove Bashar al-Assad and his government from power.
