European tourists and Syrian refugees meet each other on the Greek island Lesvos. Sitting on a bench looking out over the sea they talk about war, fleeing, home, work, cars and pets.
The Syrian Civil War is an ongoing multisided armed conflict with international interventions taking place in Syria. The unrest began in the early spring of 2011 within the context of Arab Spring protests, with nationwide protests against President Bashar al-Assad‘s government, whose forces responded with violent crackdowns. The conflict gradually morphed from mass protests to an armed rebellion after months of military sieges. A United Nations report released in December, 2012, stated that the conflict had “become overtly sectarian in nature“, between mostly Alawite government forces, militias and other Shia groups fighting primarily against Sunni-dominated rebel groups; however both opposition and government forces denied that.
