The outrage sparked by the photo of a little 3-year-old boy whose body had washed up on a Turkish beach gave urgent impetus to the international community to address the Syrian crisis from which the boy and his family were trying to flee.
Indeed, a new and serious effort to forge a political settlement of the war that has raged for more than four years has been set in motion. It must be acknowledged that the seeds of this effort were planted by Russia, with its military intervention and fierce airstrikes that began on Sept. 30.
In the international media the Syrian crisis is usually summed up as follows: the Syrian people started peaceful protests demanding freedom and democracy, but the government from the very beginning used the military to mercilessly crush the protesters. The people, out of necessity to protect themselves, were obliged to take up arms against the government forces and since then the situation has spiraled into an abyss of violence and devastation.