Abstract
This article clarifies the roots and the complicated nature of the civil war in Syria, the primary source country of Europe's current wave of migration. The initial analysis returns to the roots of the conflict, focusing on internal structural factors - particularly on the nature of the political regime and system in the context of the ethnic and religious makeup of Syria's society.
The central portion of the article is an analysis of the sides fighting in the civil war, their mutual relations within the backdrop of geopolitical influences - the interests of global and regional powers. The article concludes with the observation that the stabilisation and, therefore, the prevention of the mass exodus of the civil population can only be achieved by defeating the Islamic State and resolving the political order of the region.