Why Syria and Many other Countries Have to be Split Up into Several States

Recently I watched this video from Warfronts Channel. It scratched on the truth but fail short to fully expose it. It ended with a wishful thinking conclusion that some sort of federal arrangement between different ethno-religious groups can be found to solve Syria's problems. That is not possible, Syria will have to split into several smaller states.

Syria, just like Iraq, Afghanistan or Bosnia have unworkable borders unsuitable for modern world. Syria does not work as a nation, because different ethnic and religious groups do not see themselves as part of one nation. Instead, they see their ethno-religious group as a sort of nation they belong to and see other ethno-religious groups as internal enemies of their group. Because of that every ethno-religious community only care for themselves and treat other communities with open or hidden hostility.

That is not a uniquely Syrian problem. To have a western example of similar behavior, look at Northern Ireland and see just how unworkable multi-community state is. It took UK many years of hard negotiations to end bloodshed there and government there still gets deadlocked over the same old internal conflict between communities. Both sides do not care for the Northern Ireland whole and screws the other group for the benefit of their own.

It is more or less the same dynamics in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and many more. I wrote detailed articles about some of them on this blog; there are more if you search. Foreign powers might force them to smile on camera, but behind the scenes they will still mind who is who and will make sure people outside of their own faith do not get anything and will only distribute benefits or offer good jobs to their own.

It is different from former colonial states like the US, Canada or Australia, where everyone is a migrant, disconnected from their original community and any claims they have on this or that land or privilege. The very process of migration severs community ties and make people more individualistic. Because of that post-colonial states can be meritocratic and treat everyone equally. In old states where everyone is somehow related to others and there is often a long history of animosity between ethno-religious groups, that does not work. Old hatred prevents it.

Europe could get over it by re-drawing borders along the ethno-religious lines. Once a state is monoethnic and mono-religious, the is only one group left and there are no more outsiders to discriminate against. Sometime after that point they can do what post-colonial states do and welcome migrants, expecting them to eventually integrate with the main society. 

However, without division along ethno-religious lines, the animosity will never go away, and it will be eternal Northern Ireland problem. Both sides will think the land and the state is theirs by right of what not and will fight against all they perceive as outsiders.

For places like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo North Macedonia or Montenegro to work, they have to be re-divided along the ethnic lines. Only then the sectarian violence and conflict can truly go away. Otherwise, there will always be these outsiders who do not belong here.