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Syrian protests (2016)
The Syrian protests (2016) were a series of large-scale protests against the Syrian government and in support of the Syrian opposition taking place throughout opposition-controlled territory in Syria. The protests spread throughout the country due to the implementation of a partial ceasefire taking place after 27 February 2016. The goal of the protests in 2016 was the resignation of president Bashar al-Assad. In addition, the activists demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria, displaced people to be returned to their homes and adequate humanitarian aid.

UN resolution ceasefire
Over the course of the Syrian civil war there have been multiple ceasefires during the conflict. These are part of the ongoing Syrian peace process. The first ceasefire took place on 27th of february 2016, after United Nations Security Council unanimous adopted Resolution 2268 on february 26, 2016. This resolution, among other things, called for a ceasefire, and access for humanitarian aid into Syria. It also presses for a Syrian owned political transition, in which the  Syrian people will decide the future of Syria  . The cease fire was mainly initiated by the United States and Russia, both countries backing opposite sides of the conflict.

The Syrian opposition called for the demonstrations a week after the ceasefire under the slogan  The Revolution Continues . Referring to the 2011 protests that took place before the outbreak of the civil war. The protesters took advantage of the diminishing airstrikes due to the ceasefire, and took to the street demanding political change.

Reaction Assad Regime
UN resolution 2268 was to be strictly implemented. However, the ceasefire would not apply to terrorist organisations, and US and Russian troops would work together to target these. The fight against organizations like ISIS and Jabat al-Nusura would continue. In reaction to the protests, the Assad regime would target specific towns and areas with airstrikes where political activism was organised. Justifying this by claiming that it was targeting terrorist groups, which were also present in civilian areas. Hospital personnel, children and rescue workers were among these civilian casualties.

Solidarity across the world
On april 19th, 2016 a group of Syrian activists called for a worldwide protest against the Assad regime and the Russian army targeting civilians. The protest was organized through a facebook event and through Twitter. It got a lot of attention around the globe. The goal was to press the global powers to pressure the Assad regime and the Russian troops to stop bombarding civilian areas in Aleppo. The demonstrations took place in big cities, among which were Paris, New York, and Brussels.

Turkish involvement in the Syrian civil war
Before the Turkish government condemned the actions of the Syrian government after the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, the two countries had a rather good bond from the beginning of the 21st century. This bond could even be referred to as a close alliance. . Since the Justice and Development Party (or the AKP) was chosen as the ruling party in Turkey in 2002, it took a new direction in its policy in Middle eastern relations, which led to an improvement of the relations between Syria and Turkey. The normalization of relations started in late 2004, when the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan flew to Damascus to sign a free trade agreement. Moving away from a mainly Western oriented policy, towards a geopolitical strategy aiming to become the regional power. Turkey wanted to change the idea that all the neighboring countries were its enemies. This more 'liberal' approach towards neigboring countries could be seen in Syria by the open border-policies, and more dialogue between the countries, for example on cultural and civil-society levels.

Since 1999, when Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez al-Assad expelled Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, relations between Syria and Turkey warmed. The Turkish Parliament's refusal to cooperate militarily with the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a turning point in Syrian-Turkish bilateral relations as Syria's perceptions of Turkey as incapable of acting independently were altered.