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Later, it became an important city of the Hellenistic period and a key trading post for
merchants passing between the Mediterranean and lands to the east. It was eventually
absorbed into the Roman Empire and then prospered as a hub for caravan traffic under
Byzantine rule. In 636 AD, Aleppo was conquered by Arab Muslim troops. About 80 years
later, during the rule of the Umayyad Caliph Sulaiman, its Great Mosque was built. In the
10th Century, Aleppo became the capital of the northern Syrian Hamdanid dynasty, but it
then suffered a period of war and disorder, as the Byzantine Empire, Crusaders, Fatamids and
Seljuks fought to gain control of it and the surrounding region. Aleppo did not recover until
the middle of the 12th Century. Then, under Ayyubid rule in the 13th Century, the city
enjoyed a period of great prosperity and expansion. But this came to an abrupt end in 1260,
when Aleppo was conquered by the Mongols. The city then suffered an outbreak of plague in
1348 and a devastating attack by Timur in 1400.
In 1516, Aleppo became part of the Ottoman Empire. It was soon made the capital of
its own province and emerged as a nexus of trade between the Orient and Europe. Aleppo's
role as a transit centre for trade declined in the late 18th Century and was hindered further by
France and Great Britain's demarcation of the borders of modern Syria - which cut the city off
from southern Turkey and northern Iraq - and the loss of the Mediterranean port of
Alexandretta to Turkey in 1939. Following Syrian independence, the city developed into a
major industrial centre, rivalling the capital Damascus, and its population expanded
massively from 300,000 to about 2.3 million by 2005. Today, Aleppo's population is made up
mainly of Sunni Muslims, most of whom are Arabs but some of whom are Kurds and
Turkomans. The city also has the largest population of Christians in Syria, including many
Armenians, as well as Shia and Alawite communities.1
1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18957096 (Date of Access: October 4, 2016)
The Conflict in Aleppo
Pro-democracy protests erupted in March 2011 in the southern city of Deraa after the
arrest and torture of some teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall.
After security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several, more took to the streets.
The unrest triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad's resignation. The
government's use of force to crush the dissent merely hardened the protesters' resolve. By
July 2011, hundreds of thousands were taking to the streets across the country. Opposition
supporters eventually began to take up arms, first to defend themselves and later to expel
security forces from their local areas.
Violence escalated and the country descended into civil war as rebel brigades were
formed to battle government forces for control of cities, towns and the countryside. Fighting
reached the capital Damascus and second city of Aleppo in 2012. The conflict is now more
than just a battle between those for or against Mr Assad. It has acquired sectarian overtones,
pitching the country's Sunni majority against the president's Shia Alawite sect and drawn in
regional and world powers. The rise of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has added a
further dimension.2
International political divisions over Syria have had deadly consequences. The
Security Council has not only failed to fulfill its basic function the maintenance of
international peace and security it has also dismally failed to uphold its Responsibility to
Protect (R2P) the Syrian people.
As the Syrian conflict worsened over the summer of 2011 and debate over the
ongoing military intervention in Libya intensified, cynicism arose amongst some Security
2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26116868 (Date of Access: October 4, 2016)
Council members to suggestions that the Council needed to impose an arms embargo and
targeted sanctions upon the Syrian government.
Nevertheless, it was under Indias Security Council Presidency during August that the
body was able to produce its first formal statement on the conflict. Requiring consensus for
adoption, the Presidential Statement condemned widespread violations of human rights and
the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities. Calling for an immediate end to
all violence, the statement urged all sides to refrain from reprisals, including attacks
against state institutions. Acknowledging the announced commitments by the Syrian
authorities to reform, the statement reaffirmed the Security Councils commitment to the
sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria.
In a situation where atrocities were already being perpetrated, the Security Council
was divided between a majority who wanted a vigorous response in keeping with R2P and a
veto-wielding minority who did not, while the influential IBSA member states appeared to be
abstaining, both literally and figuratively, from the process of finding a solution.3
With neither side able to inflict a decisive defeat on the other, the international
community long ago concluded that only a political solution could end the conflict in Syria.
The UN Security Council has called for the implementation of the 2012 Geneva
Communique, which envisages a transitional governing body with full executive powers
"formed on the basis of mutual consent".4
Council members should support any resolution that would condemn in the strongest
terms the unlawful attacks in Aleppo and demand an immediate halt to such attacks by all
3
Adams, Simon, (2015), Failure to Protect Syria and the United Nations Council. Global Centre for the
Responsibility to Protect Occasional Paper Series No. 5, March 2015
4
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26116868 (Date of Access: October 4, 2016)
parties and allow UN and other aid agencies immediate, safe, and sustained access to
civilians in need, Human Rights Watch said. Such a resolution should remind all parties of
the duty to permit civilians to safely leave an urban area under siege, deriving from the
absolute ban on starvation under the laws of war, as a method of warfare. A resolution should
also underline the importance of accountability for serious crimes committed by all parties
involved in the conflict in Syria.5
Russia and China have vetoed a draft UN resolution calling for the crisis in Syria to
be referred to the international criminal court ignoring support for the measure by 65 other
countries and all other members of the Security Council.
France first circulated a proposal after briefing the Security Council on the evidence,
provided by Caesar of the mass killings of detainees. It called for the ICC to be given a
mandate over crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Syria. Sixty-five
countries had appealed to all 193 UN member states to co-sponsor the resolution, under
which the ICC would be authorized to investigate allegations of heinous crimes by the Syrian
government, pro-government militias, and armed opposition groups. The 65 countries
condemned "widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law
committed in a pervasive climate of impunity by the Syrian authorities and pro-government
militias as well as by non-state armed groups". The draft resolution deliberately did not target
one side.6
As of now, Syria is not a member state of the Rome Statute, the treaty that established
the ICC. Unless the Syrian government ratifies the treaty or accepts the jurisdiction of the
court through a declaration, the ICC could only obtain jurisdiction if the United Nations
Security Council refers the situation there to the court. The Security Council, with what is
called an ICC referral, could give the court jurisdiction stretching back to the day the Rome
Statute entered into force, on July 1, 2002.
The ICC is by no means a panacea for the situation in Syria, and nobody claims that
the courts involvement will stop the killing overnight. Others will have vital parallel roles in
5
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/10/03/un-demand-end-unlawful-aleppo-attacks (Date of Access: October
4, 2016)
6
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/22/russia-china-veto-un-draft-resolution-refer-syria-
international-criminal-court (Date of Access: October 4, 2016)
resolving the crisis there, including through diplomatic and humanitarian activities. But a
Security Council decision to support a role for the ICC in Syria would signal that the body
and its individual members are serious about ending the current state of impunity.7
7
https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/09/17/qa-syria-and-international-criminal-court#1 (Date of Access:
October 4, 2016)
8
http://www.peaceandjusticeinitiative.org/implementation-resources/command-responsibility (Date of
Access: October 4, 2016)
9
https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/ij/ictr/7.htm (Date of Access: October 4, 2016
The Conflict in Aleppo, Syria:
A Research Paper