The Role of Geographic (Central and Marginal) Locations in Political Developments in Syria (Since the Start of the Protest Movements in 2011 until the End of 2012)

Abstract

Political geographers are interested in studying the role of political behaviors and events in political developments. Accordingly, it seems that central and marginal locations played an important role in political developments in the Arab countries of the Middle East (launched in late 2010). Hence, the main question of this research is as follows: "what is the relationship between the different (central and marginal) locations and the political events and behaviors in Syrian protest movements? "

Hence, the present study aims at investigating the role of central and marginal geographic locations in the protest movements in Syria. The research was performed by descriptive and analytical methods. The required data was collected from credible international news agencies using event logging method. The collected data was qualitatively analyzed based on author’s arguments.

According to the results of the present study, despite the influential role of central and marginal locations in political behaviors and events in Syria,  some issues such as interventions of external forces (regional and international), ethnic and cultural conflicts, armed opposition forces, the formation of religious fundamentalist terrorism have brought the country into a civil war. These factors resulted in prolonged conflicts and continuation of the civil war in Syria. Based on the findings of the present study, the central and marginal locations cannot be considered as the only factor influencing the political developments in Syria. Therefore, further studies are necessary to understand the underlying causes of political developments in Syria.

Keywords: Marginal location, Central location, Political developments, Syria