Who has left Syria, and who has stayed - and who are the Russians trying to eject from Syria

[Reality Check]

It is important to remember who, is fighting who, in Syria, and how many there are on each side.

The answer to this will tell us how many "millions of legitimate war refugees from Syria", using John's definition of a "legitimate war refugee", is heading Western Europe's way, as illegal aliens crossing border after border, over the next year or two. Then, when they reach the country they wish to relocate to, they apply for "Syrian War Refugee Status"

It is primarily the 45% to 55% of the Syrian population that are Sunni Arabs, against every other combination of Religious/Ethnic group in Syria.

The 15% of the Sunni Muslims in Syria that are not Arabs, Primarily the Kurds, are not on the Rebel Side because their lands ( the Kurdish Lands ) are rich and they fear the Sunni Arabs will take away their lands if the Sunni Arabs win.

The same is true of the Arabs who are not of the Sunni Religion, they own rich lands and they fear they will lose them if the Sunni-Arabs win the civil war.

The rebel groups, and there are many, many different rebel groups, are almost all made up of Sunni-Arab fighters.

Keep in mind ISIS ( one of the many Sunni-Arab rebel groups ) is centered on the majority Sunni-Arab lands along the Mesopotamian portion of Syria ( the Sunni-Arab population centers and lands that are along the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers that extend into Syria from Iraq ).

The following maps tell the story graphically

Key Points when Considering below Divisions within Syria: Ethnic Kurds ( Including Sunni Kurds ), Christians, Alewites,
Druze, and almost all other Minorities Including the non-Sunni Arabs - Oppose ( and Fear ) a Sunni Arab Take Over in Syria
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Ethnic Kurds ( almost all Sunni Kurds ) are the Largest Minority making up - up to 15% of the Syrian population

Syrian born Sunni Arabs make up between 45% and 55% of the population - and are called the Majority

The vast majority of the productive - food growing - lands are the current and historic lands of non-Sunni and Sunni Kurds
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The minorities fear - with good reason in the Mid-East - they will be driven off their Farms and Their Orchards if Sunni Arabs control the government
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Religious Schism Map:


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Note Below: Only the Narrow Euphrates Valley region is both Arable and Sunni Arab Majority

Note Above: Only the Narrow Euphrates Valley region is both Arable and Sunni Arab Majority
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Note Below: Only the Narrow Euphrates Valley region is both Arable and Sunni Arab Majority

Note Above: Only the Narrow Euphrates Valley region is both Arable and Sunni Arab Majority
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Sunni Muslims 68.4%. This includes not just Sunni Arabs ( 45% to 55% ), but also most Kurds (up to 15% of total Syria Population ) (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Kurds), Circassians (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Circassians), Kabarda (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Kabarda), Chechens (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Chechens), Roma (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Roma) and some Turkomans (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Turkomans).

Gnostic 27% (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Gnostic) religions such as Alawism (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Alawism) (11.0%), Druze (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Druze) (3.2%), Nusairism (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Nusairi) (1.3%), Alevism (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Alevism) (0.7% all Turkomans (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Turkomans)) and Yezidism (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Yezidism) (0.2%) are supplemented by various Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christianity (11.2%).

Shi'a Muslims 2.1% (http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Shi%27a) include the Imami ( Twelvers )(http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Imami)/Twelvers http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Twelvers (1.1%) and Ismailis ( Seveners) http://thepoliticalforums.com/wiki/Seveners) (1.0%).

In Summary:

The Total population of Syria was between 20 Million and 24 Millions before the Civil War started. So call it 22 Million.

45% to 55% of the Syrian population was Sunni Arab before the war. So call it 51% and 11,220,000 ( 11 Million ) Sunni-Arab Syrian people who primarily support the rebel side of the Civil War when the War started.

Now IF, all the people who are in the Syrian refuge camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon are Sunni Arabs, and they all came from Syria that accounts for about 4 Million Sunni Arab Syrians - add another 1 Million Syrians who left there homes in Syria - but are already in Europe or are living with family members outside of their homes ( outside the original homes of Syrians who left their homes in Syria because of the war ) and are now living, outside of refugee camps, in private housing in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Europe.

That would leave about 6,000,000 Million Sunni Arab Syrians from before the war in Syria, who support the rebels.

Consider also that there are many Sunni Muslim foreign supporters who entered Syria to help the Sunni Arab rebel cause, but are not Syrian citizens who can vote in elections.

If Russia was able to convince half of the remaining Syrian Sunni Arab citizens to leave Syria permanently ( another 3 million people ) then the Sunni Arab voting population in Syria would be reduced to about 3 Million people - making them a distinct minority compared to the over 10 Million non Sunni Arab citizens.

For these reason it appears very unlikely that the "legitimate war refugees from Syria", some 4 million to 8 million more of them, will slow down any time soon. Double that number to 8 to 16 million when you consider the number that show in Europe without papers, using the same easy route through Turkey and into Greece via the Greek Islands just off the cost of Turkey, but who are falsely claiming to be Syria War Refugees. The next two years for Europe should be very interesting, if the EU does not shut down the illegal alien smuggling routes form the Turkish mainland to the Turkish Coastal Islands ( that have Greek sovereignty ) just off the Turkish coast.