The Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria and Its Consequences
The Syrian government deeply shocked the international community with its chemical weapons attack in the Eastern Ghouta region of the capital Damascus on August 21, 2013. Over 1,400 innocent civilians lost their lives in this treacherous attack. The majority of those martyred were women and children. As a result of the attack, many civilians were severely affected by the poisonous gases and died in agony.
Following this massacre, the Eastern Ghouta region became one of the most intensely sieged and attacked areas by the Syrian government. In 2018, opposition groups in the region were forced to make a forced agreement with the Damascus government and Russia. As a result of this agreement, they were forced to leave Eastern Ghouta in April 2018. Following the end of the five-year siege, civilians who left the region are currently struggling to survive in opposition-held areas in northern Syria.
According to reports by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, the Damascus government has carried out a total of 217 chemical weapons attacks on opposition-held settlements. This situation, in violation of international human rights norms, reveals how brutal and destructive the war has reached.
These horrific events have had a huge impact not only in Syria but also around the world, drawing the attention of the international community. This ongoing human tragedy is recorded in history as an indicator of the suffering and loss suffered by the Syrian people.
