What happened in Syria and why did these events happen so quickly? Commentary by Sergei Medvedko, orientalist, candidate of hist

What happened in Syria and why did these events happen so quickly? Commentary by Sergei Medvedko, orientalist, candidate of historical sciences at the Department of International Security of the Russian State University of Humanities, military interpreter in Syria, in different years - correspondent of TASS and ‘Literaturnaya Gazeta’ in the Middle East: I think what happened was probably a surprise for most people who follow the situation. But for specialists, it was probably expected. The fact is that the rebels who are entrenched in the Idlib enclave in north-western Syria, you could say that since the Arab Spring, they have received considerable help from Turkey, from other countries. And they quite skilfully calculated the relaxation of the current regime, the unpreparedness of the Syrian army, for which such an unexpected military success of the militants was a complete surprise, and managed to move forward quite quickly, capturing Aleppo, then Hama and even Homs, not to mention ... Source: International Reporters_eng