Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development, cilt.11, sa.2, ss.101-119, 2021 (Hakemli Dergi)
Syrian humanitarian sector was limited to two types of NGOs till the Syrian conflict
started; traditional charities composing of religious or ethnic focus NGOs, and the
Government Organised Non-Governmental Organisations (GONGOs) that were
affiliated by governmental figures. They both failed to respond to the needs of
civilians in non-governmental controlled areas. This has forced Syrians with limited
or no previous experience in this sector to act immediately and independently.
However, after the crisis erupted, the commitment to their case, availability of
funds, and hospitality from the neighbouring countries evolved them very quickly to
become the primarily organised responders in the non-governmental controlled
territories. Those newly formed humanitarian groups tried to link humanitarian
interventions with early recovery activities without losing the scope of being a voice
advocating for the human rights of the innocents. The Syrian Humanitarian NGOs
based in Turkey were delivering their assistance to the vulnerable communities
inside Syria further than where they physically reach without even evaluating the
risks that might affect their lives or their beloved families. In some cases, they were
the only humanitarian actors in besieged areas as Rural Damascus or Eastern
Aleppo and hard to reach locations as Rural Homs or Northern Hama. Those
security threats are now less impactful on their existence compared with the
political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental external
challenges that they are facing and can highly affect their presence. The external
challenges that they are witnessing that might affect not only the way they are
operating but their sustainability as well. Those external challenges were focusing
on political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental to form the
well-known PESTLE analysis that categorises these external threats and risks. As
new Syrian NGOs have spread within countries nearby as well as in the diaspora,
this article will only focus on those that were based mainly in Turkey due to several
reasons explained in the article.