Syria's proper shown in dark green; Syria's territorial claims over most of Turkey's Hatay Province and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights shown in light greenShow globe
The name "Syria" historically referred to a wider region, broadly synonymous with the Levant and known in Arabic as ash-Sham. The modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the 3rd millennium BC. Damascus and Aleppo are cities of great cultural significance. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital for the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule, as a French Mandate. The state represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. It gained de jure independence as a parliamentary republic in 1945 when the First Syrian Republic became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the French Mandate. French troops withdrew in April 1946, granting the nation de facto independence.
Several sources indicate that the name Syria is derived from the 8th century BC Luwian term "Sura/i", and the derivative ancient Greek name: Σύριοι, Sýrioi, or Σύροι, Sýroi, both of which originally derived from Aššūr (Assyria) in northern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and north-eastern Syria).[18][19] However, from the Seleucid Empire (323–150 BC), this term was also applied to the Levant,[20] and from this point the Greeks applied the term without distinction between the Assyrians of Mesopotamia and Arameans of the Levant.[21][22] Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favors the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, ultimately derived from the AkkadianAššur.[23] The Greek name appears to correspond to Phoenicianʾšr "Assur", ʾšrym "Assyrians", recorded in the 8th century BC Çineköy inscription.[24]
The area designated by the word has changed over time. Classically, Syria lies at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, between Arabia to the south and Asia Minor to the north, stretching inland to include parts of Iraq, and having an uncertain border to the northeast that Pliny the Elder describes as including, from west to east, Commagene, Sophene, and Adiabene.[25]
By Pliny's time, however, this larger Syria had been divided into a number of provinces under the Roman Empire (but politically independent from each other): Judaea, later renamed Palaestina in AD 135 (the region corresponding to modern-day Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Jordan) in the extreme southwest; Phoenice (established in 194) corresponding to modern Lebanon, Damascus and Homs regions; Coele-Syria (or "Hollow Syria") and south of the Eleutheris river.[26]
The Natufian culture was the first to become sedentary around the 11th millennium BC[27] and became one of the centers of Neolithic culture (known as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A), where agriculture and cattle breeding first began to appear. The site of Tell Qaramel has several round stone towers dated to 10650 BC, making them the oldest structures of this kind in the world.[28][29] The Neolithic period (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) is represented by rectangular houses of Mureybet culture. At the time, people used containers made of stone, gyps, and burnt lime (Vaisselle blanche). The discovery of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidence of early trade. The ancient cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only that of Mesopotamia.
Ishqi-Mari, king of the Second Kingdom of Mari, circa 2300 BC
The earliest recorded indigenous civilization in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla[30] near present-day Idlib, northern Syria. Ebla appears to have been founded around 3500 BC[31][32][33][34][35] and gradually built its fortune through trade with the Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Assyria, and Akkad, as well as with the Hurrian and Hattian peoples to the northwest, in Asia Minor.[36] Gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Ebla's contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is a trading agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c. 2300 BC. This is known as the Treaty between Ebla and Abarsal.[37][38] Scholars believe the language of Ebla to be among the oldest known written Semitic languages after Akkadian. Recent classifications of the Eblaite language have shown that it was an East Semitic language, closely related to the Akkadian language.[39] Ebla was weakened by a long war with Mari, and the whole of Syria became part of the Mesopotamian Akkadian Empire after Sargon of Akkad and his grandson Naram-Sin's conquests ended Eblan domination over Syria in the first half of the 23rd century BC.[40][41]
By the 21st century BC, Hurrians settled in the northern east parts of Syria while the rest of the region was dominated by the Amorites. Syria was called the Land of the Amurru (Amorites) by their Assyro-Babylonian neighbors. The Northwest Semitic Amorite language is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages. Mari reemerged during this period until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia. Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages and developed the Ugaritic alphabet,[42] considered to be the world's earliest known alphabet. The Ugaritic kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC in what was known as the Late Bronze Age Collapse.
Aleppo and Damascus are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.[43]Yamhad (modern Aleppo) dominated northern Syria for two centuries,[44] although eastern Syria was occupied in the 19th and 18th centuries BC by the Old Assyrian Empire ruled by the Amorite dynasty of Shamshi-Adad I, and by the Babylonian Empire which was founded by Amorites. Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi.[44] Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh,[45]Qatna,[46] the Hurrians states, and the Euphrates valley down to the borders with Babylon.[47] The army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam (modern Iran).[48] Yamhad was conquered and destroyed, along with Ebla, by the Hittites from Asia Minor circa 1600 BC.[49] From this time, Syria became a battle ground for various foreign empires, these being the Hittite Empire, Mitanni Empire, Egyptian Empire, Middle Assyrian Empire, and to a lesser degree Babylonia. The Egyptians initially occupied much of the south, while the Hittites and the Mitanni occupied much of the north. However, Assyria eventually gained the upper hand, destroying the Mitanni Empire and annexing huge swathes of territory previously held by the Hittites and Babylon.
Syrians bringing presents to Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, as depicted in the tomb of Rekhmire, circa 1450 BCE (actual painting and interpretational drawing). They are labeled "Chiefs of Retjenu".[50][51]
Around the 14th century BC, various Semitic people appeared in the area, such as the semi-nomadic Suteans who came into an unsuccessful conflict with Babylonia to the east, and the West Semitic speaking Arameans who subsumed the earlier Amorites. They too were subjugated by Assyria and the Hittites for centuries. The Egyptians fought the Hittites for control over western Syria; the fighting reached its zenith in 1274 BC with the Battle of Kadesh.[52][53] The west remained part of the Hittite empire until its destruction c. 1200 BC,[54] while eastern Syria largely became part of the Middle Assyrian Empire,[55] who also annexed much of the west during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I 1114–1076 BC. With the destruction of the Hittites and the decline of Assyria in the late 11th century BC, the Aramean tribes gained control of much of the interior, founding states such as Bit Bahiani, Aram-Damascus, Hamath, Aram-Rehob, Aram-Naharaim, and Luhuti. From this point, the region became known as Aramea or Aram. There was also a synthesis between the Semitic Arameans and the remnants of the Indo-European Hittites, with the founding of a number of Syro-Hittite states centered in north central Aram (Syria) and south central Asia Minor (modern Turkey), including Palistin, Carchemish and Sam'al.
A Canaanite group known as the Phoenicians came to dominate the coasts of Syria, (and also Lebanon and northern Palestine) from the 13th century BC, founding city states such as Amrit, Simyra, Arwad, Paltos, Ramitha, and Shuksi. From these coastal regions, they eventually spread their influence throughout the Mediterranean, including building colonies in Malta, Sicily, the Iberian peninsula, and the coasts of North Africa and most significantly, founding the major city-state of Carthage in the 9th century BC, which was much later to become the center of a major empire, rivaling the Roman Republic.
Syria and the western half of Near East then fell to the vast Neo Assyrian Empire (911 BC – 605 BC). The Assyrians introduced Imperial Aramaic as the lingua franca of their empire. This language was to remain dominant in Syria and the entire Near East until after the Islamic conquest in the 7th and 8th centuries AD, and was to be a vehicle for the spread of Christianity. The Assyrians named their colonies of Syria and Lebanon Eber-Nari. Assyrian domination ended after the Assyrians greatly weakened themselves in a series of brutal internal civil wars, followed by attacks from: the Medes, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Persians, Scythians and Cimmerians. During the fall of Assyria, the Scythians ravaged and plundered much of Syria. The last stand of the Assyrian army was at Carchemish in northern Syria in 605 BC. The Assyrian Empire was followed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire (605 BC – 539 BC). During this period, Syria became a battle ground between Babylonia and another former Assyrian colony, that of Egypt. The Babylonians, like their Assyrian relations, were victorious over Egypt.
Lands that constitute modern-day Syria were part of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and had been annexed by the Achaemenid Empire in 539 BC. Led by Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenid Persians retained Imperial Aramaic as one of the diplomatic languages of their empire, as well as the Assyrian name for the new satrapy of Aram/Syria Eber-Nari. Syria was conquered by the Macedonian Empire which was ruled by Alexander the Great c. 330 BC and consequently became Coele-Syria province of the Seleucid Empire (323 BC – 64 BC), with the Seleucid kings styling themselves "King of Syria" and the city of Antioch being its capital starting from 240 BC. Thus, it was the Greeks who introduced the name "Syria" to the region. Originally an Indo-European corruption of "Assyria" in northern Mesopotamia (Iraq), the Greeks used this term to describe not only Assyria itself but also the lands to the west which had for centuries been under Assyrian dominion.[56] Thus in the Greco-Roman world both the Arameans of Syria and the Assyrians of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) to the east were referred to as "Syrians" or "Syriacs", despite these being distinct peoples in their own right, a confusion which would continue into the modern world. Eventually parts of southern Seleucid Syria were taken by the JewishHasmonean dynasty upon the slow disintegration of the Hellenistic Empire.
Syria briefly came under Armenian control from 83 BC, with the conquests of the Armenian king Tigranes the Great, who was welcomed as a savior from the Seleucids and Romans by the Syrian people. However, Pompey the Great, a general of the Roman Empire, rode to Syria and captured Antioch and turned Syria into a Roman province in 64 BC, thus ending Armenian control over the region which had lasted two decades. Syria prospered under Roman rule, being strategically located on the Silk Road, which gave it massive wealth and importance, making it the battleground for the rivaling Romans and Persians.
Palmyra, a rich and sometimes powerful native Aramaic-speaking kingdom, arose in northern Syria in the 2nd century; the Palmyrene established a trade network that made the city one of the richest in the Roman Empire. Un the late 3rd century the Palmyrene king Odaenathus defeated the Persian emperor Shapur I and controlled the entirety of the Roman East while his successor and widow Zenobia established the Palmyrene Empire, which briefly conquered Egypt, Syria, Palestine, much of Asia Minor, Judah and Lebanon, before being finally brought under Roman control in 273.
The northern Mesopotamian Assyrian kingdom of Adiabene controlled areas of north east Syria between 10 and 117, before it was conquered by Rome.[57] The Aramaic language has been found as far afield as Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain,[58] with an inscription written by a Palmyrene emigrant at the site of Fort Arbeia.[59] Control of Syria eventually passed from the Romans to the Byzantines with the split in the Roman Empire.[36] The largely Aramaic-speaking population of Syria during the heyday of the Byzantine Empire was probably not exceeded again until the 19th century. Prior to the Arab Islamic Conquest in the 7th century, the bulk of the population were Arameans, but Syria was also home to Greek and Roman ruling classes, Assyrians still dwelt in the north east, Phoenicians along the coasts, and Jewish and Armenian communities were also extant in major cities, with Nabateans and pre-Islamic Arabs such as the Lakhmids and Ghassanids dwelling in the deserts of southern Syria. Syriac Christianity had taken hold as the major religion, although others still followed Judaism, Mithraism, Manicheanism, Greco-Roman Religion, Canaanite Religion and Mesopotamian Religion. Syria's large and prosperous population made Syria one of the most important of the Roman and Byzantine provinces, particularly during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.[60]
The ancient city of Apamea, an important commercial center and one of Syria's most prosperous cities in classical antiquity
Syrians held considerable power during the Severan dynasty. The matriarch of the family and empress of Rome as wife of emperor Septimius Severus was Julia Domna, a Syrian from the city of Emesa (modern day Homs), whose family held hereditary rights to the priesthood of the god El-Gabal. Her great nephews, also Arabs from Syria, would also become Roman emperors, the first being Elagabalus and the second his cousin Alexander Severus. Another Roman emperor who was a Syrian was Philip the Arab (Marcus Julius Philippus), who was born in Roman Arabia. He was emperor from 244 to 249[60] and ruled briefly during the Crisis of the Third Century. During his reign, he focused on his home town of Philippopolis (modern day Shahba) and began many construction projects to improve the city, most of which were halted after his death.
Muhammad's first interaction with the people of Syria was during the invasion of Dumatul Jandal in July 626[61] where he ordered his followers to invade Duma, because Muhammad received intelligence that some tribes there were involved in highway robbery and were preparing to attack Medina.[62]William Montgomery Watt claims that this was the most significant expedition Muhammad ordered at the time, even though it received little notice in the primary sources. Dumat Al-Jandal was 800 kilometres (500 mi) from Medina, and Watt says that there was no immediate threat to Muhammad, other than the possibility that his communications to Syria and supplies to Medina would be interrupted. Watt says "It is tempting to suppose that Muhammad was already envisaging something of the expansion which took place after his death", and that the rapid march of his troops must have "impressed all those who heard of it".[63]William Muir also believes that the expedition was important as Muhammad followed by 1,000 men reached the confines of Syria, where distant tribes had learnt his name, while the political horizon of Muhammad was extended.[61]
By 640, Syria was conquered by the Rashidun army led by Khalid ibn al-Walid. In the mid-7th century, the Umayyad dynasty placed the capital of the empire in Damascus. The country's power declined during later Umayyad rule; this was mainly through totalitarianism, corruption and the resulting revolutions. The Umayyad dynasty was overthrown in 750 by the Abbasid dynasty, which moved the capital of empire to Baghdad. Arabic – made official under Umayyad rule[64] – became the dominant language, replacing Greek and Aramaic of the Byzantine era. In 887, the Egypt-based Tulunids annexed Syria from the Abbasids and were later replaced the Egypt-based Ikhshidids and then by the Hamdanids originating in Aleppo founded by Sayf al-Dawla.[65]
Sections of Syria were held by French, English, Italian and German overlords between 1098 and 1189 during the Crusades and were known collectively as the Crusader states, among which the primary one in Syria was the Principality of Antioch. The coastal mountainous region was occupied in part by the Nizari Ismailis, the so-called Assassins, who had intermittent confrontations and truces with the Crusader States. Later in history when "the Nizaris faced renewed Frankish hostilities, they received timely assistance from the Ayyubids."[66] After a century of Seljuk rule, Syria was largely conquered (1175–1185) by the Kurdish liberator Salah ad-Din, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt. Aleppo fell to the Mongols of Hulegu in January 1260; Damascus fell in March, but then Hulegu was forced to break off his attack to return to China to deal with a succession dispute.
A few months later, the Mamluks arrived with an army from Egypt and defeated the Mongols in the Battle of Ain Jalut in Galilee. The Mamluk leader, Baibars, made Damascus a provincial capital. When he died, power was taken by Qalawun. In the meantime, an emir named Sunqur al-Ashqar had tried to declare himself ruler of Damascus, but he was defeated by Qalawun on 21 June 1280 and fled to northern Syria. Al-Ashqar, who had married a Mongol woman, appealed for help from the Mongols. The Mongols of the Ilkhanate took Aleppo in October 1280, but Qalawun persuaded Al-Ashqar to join him, and they fought against the Mongols on 29 October 1281 in the Second Battle of Homs, which was won by the Mamluks.[67] In 1400, the Muslim Turco-Mongol conqueror Tamurlane invaded Syria, in which he sacked Aleppo[68] and captured Damascus after defeating the Mamluk army. The citys' inhabitants were massacred, except for the artisans who were deported to Samarkand.[69] Tamurlane conducted massacres of the Assyrian Christian population, greatly reducing their numbers.[70] By the end of the 15th century, the discovery of a sea route from Europe to the Far East ended the need for an overland trade route through Syria.
In 1516, the Ottoman Empire invaded the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, conquering Syria and incorporating it into its empire. The Ottoman system was not burdensome to Syrians because the Turks respected Arabic as the language of the Quran and accepted the mantle of defenders of the faith. Damascus was made the major entrepot for Mecca, and as such it acquired a holy character to Muslims, because of the beneficial results of the countless pilgrims who passed through on the hajj.[71]
Ottoman administration followed a system that led to peaceful coexistence. Each ethno-religious minority—Arab Shia Muslim, Arab Sunni Muslim, Syriac Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Maronite Christians, Assyrian Christians, Armenians, Kurds and Jews—constituted a millet.[72] The religious heads of each community administered all personal status laws and performed certain civil functions as well.[71] In 1831, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt renounced his loyalty to the empire and overran Ottoman Syria, capturing Damascus. His short-term rule over the domain attempted to change the demographics and social structure of the region: he brought thousands of Egyptian villagers to populate the plains of southern Syria, rebuilt Jaffa and settled it with veteran Egyptian soldiers aiming to turn it into a regional capital, and he crushed peasant and Druze rebellions and deported non-loyal tribesmen. By 1840, however, he had to surrender the area back to the Ottomans. From 1864, Tanzimat reforms were applied on Ottoman Syria, carving out the provinces (vilayets) of Aleppo, Zor, Beirut and Damascus Vilayet; Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon was created, and soon after the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem was given a separate status.
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire entered the conflict as a Central Power. It ultimately suffered defeat and loss of control of the entire Near East to the British Empire and French Empire. During the conflict, genocide against indigenous Christian peoples was carried out by the Ottomans and their allies in the form of the Armenian genocide and Assyrian genocide, of which Deir ez-Zor in Ottoman Syria was the final destination of these death marches.[73] In the midst of World War I, two Allied diplomats (Frenchman François Georges-Picot and BritonMark Sykes) secretly agreed on the post-war division of the Ottoman Empire into respective zones of influence in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Initially, the two territories were separated by a border that ran in an almost straight line from Jordan to Iran. However, the discovery of oil in the region of Mosul just before the end of the war led to yet another negotiation with France in 1918 to cede this region to the British zone of influence, which was to become Iraq. The fate of the intermediate province of Zor was left unclear; its occupation by Arab nationalists resulted in its attachment to Syria. This border was recognized internationally when Syria became a League of Nations mandate in 1920[74] and has not changed to date.
In 1920, a short-lived independent Kingdom of Syria was established under Faisal I of the Hashemite family. However, his rule over Syria ended after only a few months, following the Battle of Maysalun. French troops occupied Syria later that year after the San Remo conference proposed that the League of Nations put Syria under a French mandate. General Gouraud had according to his secretary de Caix two options: "Either build a Syrian nation that does not exist... by smoothing the rifts which still divide it" or "cultivate and maintain all the phenomena, which require our arbitration that these divisions give". De Caix added "I must say only the second option interests me". This is what Gouraud did.[75][76]
In 1925, Sultan al-Atrash led a revolt that broke out in the Druze Mountain and spread to engulf the whole of Syria and parts of Lebanon. Al-Atrash won several battles against the French, notably the Battle of al-Kafr on 21 July 1925, the Battle of al-Mazraa on 2–3 August 1925, and the battles of Salkhad, al-Musayfirah and Suwayda. France sent thousands of troops from Morocco and Senegal, leading the French to regain many cities, although resistance lasted until the spring of 1927. The French sentenced al-Atrash to death, but he had escaped with the rebels to Transjordan and was eventually pardoned. He returned to Syria in 1937 after the signing of the Syrian-French Treaty.
Syria and France negotiated a treaty of independence in September 1936, and Hashim al-Atassi was the first president to be elected under the first incarnation of the modern republic of Syria. However, the treaty never came into force because the French Legislature refused to ratify it. With the fall of France in 1940 during World War II, Syria came under the control of Vichy France until the British and Free French occupied the country in the Syria-Lebanon campaign in July 1941. Continuing pressure from Syrian nationalists and the British forced the French to evacuate their troops in April 1946, leaving the country in the hands of a republican government that had been formed during the mandate.[77]
Upheaval dominated Syrian politics from independence through the late 1960s. In May 1948, Syrian forces invaded Palestine, together with other Arab states, and immediately attacked Jewish settlements.[78] President Shukri al-Quwwatli instructed his troops in the front, "to destroy the Zionists".[79][80] The invasion purpose was to prevent the establishment of the state of Israel.[81] Toward this end, the Syrian government engaged in an active process of recruiting former Nazis, including several former members of the Schutzstaffel, to build up their armed forces and military intelligence capabilities.[82] Defeat in this war was one of several trigger factors for the March 1949 Syrian coup d'état by Colonel Husni al-Za'im, described as the first military overthrow of the Arab World[81] since the start of the Second World War. This was soon followed by another overthrow, by Colonel Sami al-Hinnawi, who was quickly deposed by Colonel Adib Shishakli, all within the same year.[81]
Aleppo in 1961
Shishakli eventually abolished multipartyism altogether but was overthrown in a 1954 coup, and the parliamentary system was restored.[81] However, by this time, power was increasingly concentrated in the military and security establishment.[81] The weakness of Parliamentary institutions and the mismanagement of the economy led to unrest and the influence of Nasserism and other ideologies. There was fertile ground for various Arab nationalist, Syrian nationalist, and socialist movements, which represented disaffected elements of society. Notably included were religious minorities, who demanded radical reform.[81]
In November 1956, as a direct result of the Suez Crisis,[83] Syria signed a pact with the Soviet Union. This gave a foothold for communist influence within the government in exchange for military equipment.[81]Turkey then became worried about this increase in the strength of Syrian military technology, as it seemed feasible that Syria might attempt to retake İskenderun. Only heated debates in the United Nations lessened the threat of war.[84]
On 1 February 1958, Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli and Egypt's Nasser announced the merging of Egypt and Syria, creating the United Arab Republic, and all Syrian political parties, as well as the communists therein, ceased overt activities.[77] Meanwhile, a group of Syrian Ba'athist officers, alarmed by the party's poor position and the increasing fragility of the union, decided to form a secret Military Committee; its initial members were Lieutenant-Colonel Muhammad Umran, Major Salah Jadid and Captain Hafiz al-Assad. Syria seceded from the union with Egypt on 28 September 1961, after a coup and terminated the political union.
The 1963 Ba'athist coup marked a "radical break" in modern Syrian history, after which Ba'ath party monopolised power in the country to establish a one-party state and shaped a socio-political order by enforcing its state ideology.[86] On 23 February 1966, the neo-Ba'athist Military Committee carried out an intra-party rebellion against the Ba'athist Old Guard (Aflaq and Bitar), imprisoned President Amin al-Hafiz and designated a regionalist, civilian Ba'ath government on 1 March.[81] Although Nureddin al-Atassi became the formal head of state, Salah Jadid was Syria's effective ruler from 1966 until November 1970,[87] when he was deposed by Hafiz al-Assad, who at the time was Minister of Defense.[88]
The coup led to the schism within the original pan-Arab Ba'ath Party: one Iraqi-led ba'ath movement (ruled Iraq from 1968 to 2003) and one Syrian-led ba'ath movement was established. In the first half of 1967, a low-key state of war existed between Syria and Israel. Conflict over Israeli cultivation of land in the Demilitarized Zone led to 7 April pre-war aerial clashes between Israel and Syria.[89] When the Six-Day War broke out between Egypt and Israel, Syria joined the war and attacked Israel as well. In the final days of the war, Israel turned its attention to Syria, capturing two-thirds of the Golan Heights in under 48 hours.[90] The defeat caused a split between Jadid and Assad over what steps to take next.[91] Disagreement developed between Jadid, who controlled the party apparatus, and Assad, who controlled the military. The 1970 retreat of Syrian forces sent to aid the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat during the "Black September (also known as the Jordan Civil War of 1970)" hostilities with Jordan reflected this disagreement.[92]
The power struggle culminated in the November 1970 Syrian Corrective movement, a bloodless military coup that installed Hafiz al-Assad as the strongman of the government.[88] Assad transformed a Ba'athist party state into a totalitarian dictatorship marked by his pervasive grip on the party, armed forces, secret police, media, education sector, religious and cultural spheres and all aspects of civil society. He assigned Alawite loyalists to key posts in the military forces, bureaucracy, intelligence and the ruling elite. A cult of personality revolving around Hafiz and his family became a core tenet of Ba'athist ideology,[93] which espoused that Assad dynasty was destined to rule perennially.[94] On 6 October 1973, Syria and Egypt initiated the Yom Kippur War against Israel. The Israel Defense Forces reversed the initial Syrian gains and pushed deeper into Syrian territory.[95] The village of Quneitra was largely destroyed by the Israeli army. In the late 1970s, an Islamist uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood was aimed against the government. Islamists attacked civilians and off-duty military personnel, leading security forces to also kill civilians in retaliatory strikes. The uprising had reached its climax in the 1982 Hama massacre,[96] when more than 40,000 people were killed by Syrian military troops and Ba'athist paramilitaries.[97][98] It has been described as the "single deadliest act" of violence perpetrated by any state upon its own population in modern Arab history[97][98]
In a major shift in relations with both other Arab states and the Western world, Syria participated in the United States-led Gulf War against Saddam Hussein. The country participated in the multilateral Madrid Conference of 1991, and during the 1990s engaged in negotiations with Israel along with Palestine and Jordan. These negotiations failed, and there have been no further direct Syrian-Israeli talks since Assad's meeting with U.S. President Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.[99]
21st century, civil war and fall of the Ba'athist regime
Hafiz al-Assad died on 10 June 2000. His son, Bashar al-Assad, was elected president in an election in which he ran unopposed.[77] His election saw the birth of the Damascus Spring and hopes of reform, but by autumn 2001 the authorities had suppressed the movement, imprisoning some of its leading intellectuals.[100] Instead, reforms have been limited to some market reforms.[93][101][102] On 5 October 2003 Israel bombed a site near Damascus, claiming it was a terrorist training facility for members of Islamic Jihad.[103] In March 2004, Syrian Kurds and Arabs clashed in al-Qamishli. Signs of rioting were seen in Qamishli and Hasakeh.[104] In 2005, Syria ended its military presence in Lebanon.[105]Assassination of Rafic Hariri in 2005 led to international condemnation and triggered a popular Intifada in Lebanon, known as "the Cedar Revolution" which forced the Assad regime to end its 29-year old of military occupation in Lebanon.[106] On 6 September 2007, foreign jet fighters, suspected as Israeli, reportedly carried out Operation Orchard against a suspected nuclear reactor under construction by North Korean technicians.[107]
Military situation in December 2015. Islamic State-controlled territory is in grey.
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing internal violent conflict in Syria. It is a part of the wider Arab Spring, a wave of upheaval throughout the Arab World. Public demonstrations across Syria began on 26January 2011 and developed into a nationwide uprising. Protesters demanded the resignation of Assad, the overthrow of his government, and an end to nearly five decades of Ba'ath Party rule. Since spring 2011, the Syrian government deployed the Syrian Army to quell the uprising, and several cities were besieged,[108][109] though the unrest continued. According to some witnesses, soldiers, who refused to open fire on civilians, were summarily executed by the Syrian Army.[110] The Syrian government denied reports of defections, and blamed armed gangs for causing trouble.[111] Since early autumn 2011, civilians and army defectors began forming fighting units, which began an insurgency campaign against the Syrian Army. The insurgents unified under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and fought in an increasingly organized fashion; however, the civilian component of the armed opposition lacked an organized leadership.[112]
Pro-Assad demonstration in the capital Damascus after US-led missile strikes in April 2018
The Arab League, the United States, the European Union states, the Gulf Cooperation Council states, and other countries have condemned the use of violence against the protesters.[112] China and Russia have avoided condemning the government or applying sanctions, saying that such methods could escalate into foreign intervention. However, military intervention has been ruled out by most countries.[137][138][139] The Arab League suspended Syria's membership over the government's response to the crisis,[140] but sent an observer mission in December 2011, as part of its proposal for peaceful resolution of the crisis.[139]
In December 2024, violence flared up once again. Rebel factions, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took control of Aleppo in a lightning offensive, prompting a retaliatory airstrike campaign by Syrian regime forces, supported by Russian aviation assets. The strikes, which targeted population centers and several hospitals in rebel-held city of Idlib, resulted in at least 25 deaths according to the White Helmets rescue group. NATO issued a joint statement calling for the protection of civilians and critical infrastructure to prevent further displacement and ensure humanitarian access. They stressed the urgent need for a Syrian-led political solution, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which advocates for dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition forces.
The rebel offensive, which had begun on 27 November, continued its advance into Hama province following their capture of Aleppo.[141][142][143] On 4 December, fierce clashes erupted in Hama province as the Syrian army engaged rebel forces in a bid to halt their advance on the key city of Hama. Government forces claimed to have launched a counteroffensive with air support, pushing back rebel factions, including HTS, around six miles from the city. However, despite reinforcements, the rebels captured the city on 5 December.[144] The fighting led to widespread displacement, with nearly 50,000 people fleeing the area and over 600 casualties reported, including 104 civilians.[145]
Rebel forces reached the outskirts of Homs on 5 December, beginning a three-day battle for the city. Simultaneously, an HTS-coordinated[146][147]mass uprising led by a coalition of Druze tribes and opposition forces captured the southern cities of Suwayda and Daraa by 6 December,[148] and rapidly advanced northwards to encircle Damascus over the following day.[149] Homs was captured by rebel forces by the early morning of 8 December, leaving no major regime strongholds between the rebel advance and Damascus itself.[150]
Cut off from the Alawite heartland of Tartus and Latakia governorates, faced with a rebel pincer from both north and south bearing down on Damascus, and with no hope of foreign intervention from the regime's Russian and Iranian benefactors, Assadist authority over remaining regime-held territories rapidly disintegrated.[151][152] The Syrian Arab Armed Forces melted away as its soldiers abandoned their weapons and uniforms,[153] many deserting across the border to Iraq and Lebanon. Opposition forces captured the capital Damascus on 8 December, toppling Bashar al-Assad's government and ending the Assad family's 53-year-long rule over the country.[154] Assad fled to Moscow with his family, where he was granted asylum.[155][156]
Shortly after the fall of the Assad regime, Israel commenced a ground invasion of the Purple Line buffer zone near the Golan Heights, as well as commencing a series of airstrikes against Syrian military depots and naval bases.[161][162] The Israeli Defense Forces claims that it is destroying Ba'athist military infrastructure, including chemical weapons plants, so that the rebels cannot use them.[161] Despite the collapse of the Assad regime, Turkish-backed Syrian National Army fighters in northern Syria continued their offensive against U.S.-backed SDF forces until a ceasefire was reached on 11 December.[163][164]
Some transitional government figures, such as PM Mohammed al-Bashir, have promised to allow Christians and other minorities to continue practicing their religion without interference. However, this has been met with significant doubts as many rebel forces had connections to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.[165][166][167] The widespread use of an Islamic flag by the new government alongside the opposition flag also raised worries, as it implies that the new state will be less secular.[168][169]
On 12 December 2024, a spokesman of the transitional government speaking to Agence France-Presse said that during the government's three-month term, the constitution and parliament would be suspended and that a 'judicial and human rights committee' would be established to review the constitution, prior to making amendments.[170]
Syria is the twelfth most water-stressed country in the world.
Syria's climate varies from the humid Mediterranean coast, through a semi-arid steppe zone, to arid desert in the east. The country consists mostly of arid plateau, although the northwest part bordering the Mediterranean is fairly green. Al-Jazira in the northeast and Hawran in the south are important agricultural areas. The Euphrates, Syria's most important river, crosses the country in the east. Syria is one of the fifteen states that comprise the so-called "cradle of civilization".[171] Its land straddles the northwest of the Arabian plate.[172]
Petroleum in commercial quantities was first discovered in the northeast in 1956. The most important oil fields are those of al-Suwaydiyah, Karatchok, Rmelan near al-Hasakah, as well as al-Omar and al-Taym fields near Dayr az–Zawr. The fields are a natural extension of the Iraqi fields of Mosul and Kirkuk. Petroleum became Syria's leading natural resource and chief export after 1974. Natural gas was discovered at the field of Jbessa in 1940.[77]
The Syrian Arab Republic was a presidential state[175] that nominally permitted the candidacy of individuals who were not part of the Ba'ath-controlled National Progressive Front.[176][177] Despite this, Syria remained a one-party state with an extensive secret police apparatus that curtailed any independent political activity.[178][179] The constitution introduced unilaterally by the Assad regime, without the participation of the Syrian opposition, had bolstered its authoritarian character by bestowing extraordinary powers on the presidency, and a Ba'athist political committee continued to be responsible for authorization of political parties.[180]
The ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party governed Syria as a totalitarian police state through its control of the Syrian military and security apparatus.[181] The 50th edition of Freedom in the World, published by Freedom House in 2023, designated Syria as "Worst of the Worst" among the "Not Free" countries and gave it the lowest score (1/100) alongside South Sudan.[178][182]
The executive branch consisted of the president, two vice presidents, the prime minister, and the Council of Ministers (cabinet). The constitution required the president to be a Muslim but did not make Islam the state religion.[191][192] On 31 January 1973, Hafiz al-Assad implemented a new constitution, which led to a national crisis. Unlike previous constitutions, this one did not require that the President of Syria be a Muslim, leading to fierce demonstrations in Hama, Homs, and Aleppo organized by the Muslim Brotherhood and the traditional ulama. They labelled Assad the "enemy of Allah" and called for a jihad against his rule.[193] The government survived a series of armed revolts led mostly by Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, between 1976 and 1982, through a series of repressions and massacres. The constitution gave the president the right to appoint ministers, to declare war and state of emergency, to issue laws (which, except in the case of emergency, require ratification by the People's Council), to declare amnesty, to amend the constitution, and to appoint civil servants and military personnel.[191] According to the 2012 constitution, the president was elected by Syrian citizens in a direct election. Syria's legislative branch was the unicameral People's Council. The People's Council primarily served as an institution to validate Syria's one-party system and re-affirm the legislative proceedings of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath party.[194]
There was no independent judiciary in Syria, since all judges and prosecutors were required to be Ba'athist appointees.[178] Syria's judicial branches include the Supreme Constitutional Court, the High Judicial Council, the Court of Cassation, and the State Security Courts. Islamic jurisprudence was a main source of legislation and Syria's judicial system had elements of Ottoman, French, and Islamic laws. Syria had three levels of courts: courts of first instance, courts of appeals, and the constitutional court, the highest tribunal. Religious courts handled questions of personal and family law.[191] The Supreme State Security Court was abolished by Bashar al-Assad in 2011.[195] As a result of the ongoing civil war, various alternative governments were formed, including the Syrian Interim Government, the Democratic Union Party and localized regions governed by sharia. Representatives of the Syrian Interim government were invited to take up Syria's seat at the Arab League in 2013 and[196] was recognised as the "sole representative of the Syrian people" by several nations including the United States, United Kingdom, and France.[197][198][199]
Syria's elections are conducted through a sham process; characterised by wide-scale rigging, repetitive voting and absence of voter registration and verification systems.[200][201][202] Parliamentary elections were held on 13 April 2016 in the government-controlled areas of Syria, for all 250 seats of Syria's unicameral legislature, the Majlis al-Sha'ab, or the People's Council of Syria.[203] Even before results had been announced, several nations, including Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, have declared their refusal to accept the results, largely citing it "not representing the will of the Syrian people."[204] However, representatives of the Russian Federation have voiced their support of this election's results. Various independent observers and international organizations have denounced the Assad regime's electoral conduct as a scam; with the United Nations condemning it as illegitimate elections with "no mandate".[205][206][207][202]Electoral Integrity Project's 2022 Global report designated Syrian elections as a "facade" with the worst electoral integrity in the world alongside Comoros and Central African Republic.[208][209] Three alternative governments formed during the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Interim Government (formed in 2013), Rojava (formed in 2016) and the Syrian Salvation Government (formed in 2017), control northern areas of the country and operated independently of the Syrian Arab Republic.
Administrative divisions
Syria is divided into 14 governorates, which are subdivided into 61 districts, which are further divided into sub-districts.
While entertaining some foreign relations, the region is not officially recognized as autonomous by the government of Syria or any state[217] though it has been recognized by the regional Catalan Parliament.[218][219] The AANES has widespread support for its universal democratic, sustainable, autonomous pluralist, equal, and feminist policies in dialogues with other parties and organizations.[220][221][222][223] Northeastern Syria is polyethnic and home to sizeable ethnic Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian populations, with smaller communities of ethnic Turkmen, Armenians, Circassians,[224] and Yazidis.[225][226][227]
The supporters of the region's administration state that it is an officially secular polity[228][229] with direct democratic ambitions based on an anarchistic, feminist, and libertarian socialist ideology promoting decentralization, gender equality,[230][231] environmental sustainability, social ecology and pluralistic tolerance for religious, cultural and political diversity, and that these values are mirrored in its constitution, society, and politics, stating it to be a model for a federalized Syria as a whole, rather than outright independence.[232][233][234][235] The region's administration has also been accused by some partisan and non-partisan sources of authoritarianism and support of the Syrian government.[236] However, despite this the AANES has been the most democratic system in Syria, with direct open elections, universal equality, respecting human rights within the region, as well as defense of minority and religious rights within Syria.[237][238][239][220][240][241][242][excessive citations]
In 2019 the SDF announced that it had reached an agreement with the Syrian Army which allowed the latter to enter the SDF-held cities of Manbij and Kobani in order to dissuade a Turkish attack on those cities as part of the cross-border offensive by Turkish and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels.[243] The Syrian Army also deployed in the north of Syria together with the SDF along the Syrian-Turkish border and entered into several SDF-held cities such as Ayn Issa and Tell Tamer.[244][245] Following the creation of the Second Northern Syria Buffer Zone the SDF stated that it was ready to work cooperatively with the Syrian Army if a political settlement between the Syrian government and the SDF was achieved.[246]
Ensuring national security, increasing influence among its Arab neighbors, and securing the return of the Golan Heights, have been the primary goals of Syria's foreign policy. At many points in its history, Syria has seen virulent tension with its geographically cultural neighbors, such as Turkey, Israel, Iraq, and Lebanon. Syria enjoyed an improvement in relations with several of the states in its region in the 21st century, prior to the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war.
Since the ongoing civil war of 2011 and associated killings and human rights abuses, Syria has been increasingly isolated from the countries in the region and the wider international community. Diplomatic relations have been severed with several countries including: Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, United States, Belgium, Spain, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.[247]
Map of world and Syria (red) with military involvement:
Countries that supported the government of Bashar al-Assad
Countries that supported the Syrian opposition
From the Arab league, Syria continues to maintain diplomatic relations with Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen. Following its violent suppression of the Arab Spring protests of the 2011 Syrian Revolution, the Syrian government was suspended from the Arab League in November 2011 for over 11 years, until its reinstatement in 2023.[248] Syria also quit the Union for the Mediterranean.[249] After 11 years, the Arab League readmitted Syria.[250] The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria in August 2012 citing "deep concern at the massacres and inhuman acts" perpetrated by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad.[16]
In 1939, while Syria was still a French mandate the French allowed a plebiscite regarding the Sanjak of Alexandretta joining to Turkey as part of a treaty of friendship in World War II. In order to facilitate this, a faulty election was done in which ethnic Turks who were originally from the Sanjak but lived in Adana and other areas near the border in Turkey came to vote in the elections, shifting the election in favor of secession. Through this, the Hatay Province of Turkey was formed. The move by the French was very controversial in Syria, and only five years later Syria became independent.[251] Despite the Turkish annexation of the Sanjak of Alexandretta, the Syrian government has refused to recognize Turkish sovereignty over the region since Independence, except for a short period in 1949.[252]
The western two-thirds of Syria's Golan Heights region are since 1967 occupied by Israel and were in 1981 effectively annexed by Israel,[253][254] whereas the eastern third is controlled by Syria, with the UNDOF maintaining a buffer zone in between, to implement the ceasefire of the Purple Line. Israel's 1981 Golan annexation law is not recognized in international law. The UN Security Council condemned it in Resolution 497 (1981) as "null and void and without international legal effect." Since then, General Assembly resolutions on "The Occupied Syrian Golan" reaffirm the illegality of Israeli occupation and annexation.[255] The Syrian government continues to demand the return of this territory.[256]
In early 1976, Syria entered Lebanon, beginning their 29-year military presence. Syria entered on the invitation of Suleiman Franjieh, the Maronite Christian president at the time to help aid the Lebanese Christian militias against the Palestinian militias.[257][258] Over the following 15 years of Lebanese civil war, Syria fought for control over Lebanon. The Syrian military remained in Lebanon until 2005 in response to domestic and international pressure after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.[259]
Another disputed territory is the Shebaa farms, located in the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The farms, which are 11km long and about 3 kilometers wide were occupied by Israel in 1981, along with rest of the Golan Heights.[260] Yet following Syrian army advances the Israeli occupation ended and Syria became the de facto ruling power over the farms. Yet after Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah claimed that the withdrawal was not complete because Shebaa was on Lebanese – not Syrian – territory.[261] After studying 81 different maps, the United Nations concluded that there is no evidence of the abandoned farmlands being Lebanese.[262] Nevertheless, Lebanon has continued to claim ownership of the territory.
The President of Syria is commander in chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, comprising some 400,000 troops upon mobilization.The military is a conscripted force; males serve 30 months in the military upon reaching the age of 18.[263] The obligatory military service period is being decreased over time, in 2005 from two and a half years to two years, in 2008 to 21 months and in 2011 to year and a half.[264]
The breakup of the Soviet Union—long the principal source of training, material, and credit for the Syrian forces—may have slowed Syria's ability to acquire modern military equipment. It has an arsenal of surface-to-surface missiles. In the early 1990s, Scud-C missiles with a 500-kilometre (310-mile) range were procured from North Korea, and Scud-D, with a range of up to 700 kilometres (430 miles), is allegedly being developed by Syria with the help of North Korea and Iran, according to Zisser.[265]
Syria received significant financial aid from Arab states of the Persian Gulf as a result of its participation in the Persian Gulf War, with a sizable portion of these funds earmarked for military spending. Iran and Russia are biggest suppliers of military aid to the Assad-led Syrian Government.
The authorities are accused of arresting democracy and human rights activists, censoring websites, detaining bloggers, and imposing travel bans. Arbitrary detention, torture, and disappearances are widespread.[271][272][275] Although Syria's constitution guarantees gender equality, critics say that personal statutes laws and the penal code discriminate against women and girls. Moreover, it also grants leniency for so-called honour killing.[275] As of 9 November 2011 during the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations reported that of the over 3,500 deaths, over 250 deaths were children as young as two years old, and that boys as young as 11 years old have been gang-raped by security services officers.[276][277]People opposing President Assad's rule claim that more than 200, mostly civilians, were massacred and about 300 injured in Hama in shelling by the government forces on 12 July 2012.[278]
In August 2013, the government was suspected of using chemical weapons against its civilians. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said it was "undeniable" that chemical weapons had been used in the country and that al-Assad's forces had committed a "moral obscenity" against his own people. "Make no mistake," Kerry said. "President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapon against the world's most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny".[279] The Emergency Law, effectively suspending most constitutional protections, was in effect from 1963 until 21 April 2011. It was justified by the government in the light of the continuing war with Israel over the Golan Heights.[191][195]
In August 2014, UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay criticized the international community over its "paralysis" in dealing with the civil war gripping the country, which by 2014 had resulted in 191,369 deaths with war crimes, according to Pillay, being committed with total impunity on all sides in the conflict. Minority Alawites and Christians were targeted by Islamists and other groups.[280][281][282][274] Three years later in April 2017, the U.S. Navy carried out a missile attack against a Syrian air base[283] which had allegedly been used to conduct a chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians, according to the U.S. government.[284] In November 2021, the U.S. Central Command called a 2019 airstrike that killed civilians in Syria "legitimate". The acknowledgement came after a New York Times investigation said the military had concealed the death of dozens of non-combatants.[285]
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2024)
Historical development of real GDP per capita in Syria, since 1820Bank Al-Sharq and the Blue Tower Hotel in Damascus
As of 2015[update], the Syrian economy relies upon inherently unreliable revenue sources such as dwindling customs and income taxes which are heavily bolstered by lines of credit from Iran.[286] Iran is believed to have spent between $6billion and US$20billion per year on Syria during the civil war.[287] The economy has contracted 60%, and the Syrian pound has lost 80% of its value, with the economy becoming part state-owned and part war economy.[288] At the outset of the civil war, Syria was classified by the World Bank as a "lower middle income country."[289] In 2010, Syria remained dependent on the oil and agriculture sectors.[290] The oil sector provided about 40% of export earnings.[290] Proven offshore expeditions have indicated that large sums of oil exist on the Mediterranean Sea floor between Syria and Cyprus.[291] The agriculture sector contributes to about 20% of GDP and 20% of employment. Oil reserves are expected to decrease in the coming years, and Syria has become a net oil importer.[290] The government increasingly relies on credit from Iran, Russia and China.[292]
The economy is highly regulated by the government, which has increased subsidies and tightened trade controls to assuage protesters and protect foreign currency reserves.[12] Long-run economic constraints include foreign trade barriers, declining oil production, high unemployment, rising budget deficits, and increasing pressure on water supplies caused by heavy use in agriculture, rapid population growth, industrial expansion, and water pollution.[12] The UNDP announced in 2005 that 30% of the population lives in poverty, and 11.4% live below the subsistence level.[77]
Syria's share in global exports has eroded gradually since 2001.[293] The real per capita GDP growth was just 2.5% per year in the 2000–2008 period.[293] Unemployment is high at above 10%. Poverty rates have increased from 11% in 2004 to 12.3% in 2007.[293] In 2007, main exports included crude oil, refined products, raw cotton, clothing, fruits, and grains. The bulk of imports are raw materials essential for industry, vehicles, agricultural equipment, and heavy machinery. Earnings from oil exports as well as remittances from Syrian workers are the government's most important sources of foreign exchange.[77]
Political instability poses a significant threat to future economic development.[294] Foreign investment is constrained by violence, government restrictions, economic sanctions, and international isolation. Syria's economy also remains hobbled by state bureaucracy, falling oil production, rising budget deficits, and inflation.[294] Prior to the civil war the government hoped to attract new investment in the tourism, natural gas, and service sectors to diversify its economy and reduce its dependence on oil and agriculture. The government began to institute economic reforms aimed at liberalizing most markets, but those reforms were slow and ad hoc, and have been completely reversed since the outbreak of conflict.[295]
As of 2012[update], the value of overall exports has been slashed by two-thirds, from the figure of US$12billion in 2010 to only US$4billion in 2012.[296] Since 2012, oil and tourism industries in particular have been devastated, with US$5billion lost.[296] Reconstruction will cost as much as US$10billion.[296] Sanctions have sapped the government's finances. U.S. and European Union bans on oil imports, which went into effect in 2012, are estimated to cost Syria about $400million per month.[297] Around 40% of all employees in the tourism sector lost their jobs since the beginning of the war.[298] In May 2015, ISIS captured Syria's phosphate mines, one of the Syrian government's last chief sources of income.[299] The following month, ISIS blew up a gas pipeline to Damascus that was used to generate heating and electricity in Damascus and Homs; "the name of its game for now is denial of key resources to the regime" an analyst stated.[300] In addition, ISIS was closing in on Shaer gas field and three other facilities in the area—Hayan, Jihar and Ebla—with the loss of these western gas fields having the potential to cause Iran to further subsidize the Syrian government.[301]Aleppo soap is a popular product of Syria.
Agrarian reform measures were introduced which consisted of three interrelated programs: legislation regulation the relationship between agriculture laborers and landowners: legislation governing the ownership and use of private and state domain land and directing the economic organization of peasants; and measures reorganizing agricultural production under state control.[302] Despite high levels of inequality in land ownership these reforms allowed for progress in redistribution of land from 1958 to 1961 than any other reforms in Syria's history, since independence.
The first law passed (Law 134; passed 4 September 1958) was in response to concern about peasant mobilization and expanding peasants' rights.[303] This was designed to strengthen the position of sharecroppers and agricultural laborers in relation to land owners.[303] This law led to the creation of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, which announced the implementation of new laws that would allow the regulation of working condition especially for women and adolescents, set hours of work, and introduce the principle of minimum wage for paid laborers and an equitable division of harvest for sharecroppers.[304] Furthermore, it obligated landlords to honor both written and oral contracts, established collective bargaining, contained provisions for workers' compensation, health, housing, and employment services.[303] Law 134 was not designed strictly to protect workers. It also acknowledged the rights of landlords to form their own syndicates.[303]
Energy in Syria is mostly based on oil and gas.[305] Some energy infrastructure was damaged by the Syrian civil war. There is high reliance on fossil fuels for energy in Syria,[306] and electricity demand is projected to increase by 2030, especially for industry activity such as automation.[307] However, conflict in Syria has caused electricity generation to decrease by nearly 40% in recent years due to plant destruction and fuel shortages.[308] Electricity access in daily life for Syrians has also been altered due to conflict. Electricity to residents of Syria is largely provided by private diesel generators, which is costly and limited in hours of use.[309] Conflict has increased household electricity expenditures while also decreasing household income.[309] Some households have since turned to solar energy as a supplementary source of energy, though high costs limit widespread adoption.[309]
Despite the crisis in Syria, agriculture remains a key part of the economy. The sector still accounts for an estimated 26 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and represents a critical safety net for the 6.7 million Syrians – including those internally displaced – who still remain in rural areas. However, agriculture and the livelihoods that depend on it have suffered massive losses
. Today, food production is at a record low and around half the population remaining in Syria are unable to meet their daily food needs.[310]
Until the mid-1970s, agriculture in Syria was the primary economic activity in Syria. At independence in 1946, agriculture (including minor forestry and fishing) was the most important sector of the economy, and in the 1940s and early 1950s, agriculture was the fastest growing sector. Wealthy merchants from urban centers such as Aleppo invested in land development and irrigation. The rapid expansion of the cultivated area and increased output stimulated the rest of the economy. However, by the late 1950s, there was little land left that could easily be brought under cultivation. During the 1960s, agricultural output stagnated because of political instability and land reform. Between 1953 and 1976, agriculture's contribution to GDP increased (in constant prices) by only 3.2%, approximately the rate of population growth. From 1976 to 1984 growth in agriculture declined to 2% a year, and its importance in the economy declined as other sectors grew more rapidly.
In 1981, as in the 1970s, 53% of the population was still classified as rural, although movement to the cities continued to accelerate. However, in contrast to the 1970s, when 50% of the labor force was employed in agriculture, by 1983 agriculture employed only 30% of the labor force. Furthermore, by the mid-1980s, unprocessed farm products accounted for only 4% of exports, equivalent to 7% of non-petroleum exports. Industry, commerce, and transportation still depended on farm produce and related agro-business, but agriculture's preeminent position had clearly eroded. By 1985 agriculture (including a little forestry and fishing) contributed only 16.5% to GDP, down from 22.1% in 1976.
By the mid-1980s, the Syrian government had taken measures to revitalize agriculture. The 1985 investment budget saw a sharp rise in allocations for agriculture, including land reclamation and irrigation. The government's renewed commitment to agricultural development in the 1980s, by expanding cultivation and extending irrigation, promised brighter prospects for Syrian agriculture in the 1990s.
During the Syrian Civil War, the agricultural sector has witnessed a drop in producing all kinds of commodities such as wheat, cotton and olives,[311] due to the lack of security and immigration of agricultural workforce,[312] especially in Al-Hasakah Governorate and Aleppo Governorate.
Syria has four international airports (Damascus, Aleppo, Lattakia and Qamishli), which serve as hubs for Syrian Air and are also served by a variety of foreign carriers.[313] The majority of Syrian cargo is carried by Syrian Railways.[citation needed] As of 2024 there are no international rail services, but high-speed rail in Turkey is being extended close to the border.[314] The road network in Syria is 69,873 kilometres (43,417 miles) long, including 1,103 kilometres (685 miles) of expressways. The country also has 900 kilometres (560 miles) of navigable but not economically significant waterways.[12]
Syria is a semiarid country with scarce water resources. The largest water consuming sector in Syria is agriculture. Domestic water use stands at only about 9% of total water use.[319] A big challenge for Syria before the civil war was its high population growth (in 2006 the growth rate was 2.7%[320]), leading to rapidly increasing demand for urban and industrial water.[321]
Prior to the fall of the Ba'athist regime on 8 December 2024, Syria was home to a burgeoning illegal drugs industry run by associates and relatives of Bashar al-Assad.[322] It mainly produced captagon, an addictive amphetamine popular in the Arab world. As of 2021, the export of illegal drugs eclipsed the country's legal exports, leading the New York Times to call Syria "the world's newest narcostate".[322] The drug exports allow the government to generate hard currency and bypass international sanctions.[322][323][120] Captagon is Syria's primary export, valued at a minimum of US$3.4 billion annually, surpassing the country's largest legal export, olive oil, which is valued at around US$122 million per year.[324]
Most people live in the Euphrates River valley and along the coastal plain, a fertile strip between the coastal mountains and the desert. Overall population density before the civil war was about 99 per square kilometre (258 per square mile).[327] According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Syria hosted a population of refugees and asylum seekers numbering approximately 1,852,300. The vast majority of this population was from Iraq (1,300,000), but sizeable populations from Palestine (543,400) and Somalia (5,200) also lived in the country.[328]
In what the UN has described as "the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era",[329] by 2014 about 9.5million Syrians, half the population, had been displaced since March 2011;[330] 4million were outside the country as refugees.[331] By 2020, the UN estimated that over 5.5 million Syrians were living as refugees in the region, and 6.1 million others were internally displaced.[332]
Syrians are an overall indigenous Levantine people, closely related to their immediate neighbors, such as Lebanese, Palestinians, Jordanians and Jews.[333][334] Syria has a population of approximately 18,500,000 (2019 estimate). Syrian Arabs, together with some 600,000 Palestinian not including the 6million refugees outside the country make up roughly 74% of the population.[12] The indigenous Assyrians and Western Aramaic-speakers number around 400,000 people,[335] with the Western Aramaic-speakers living mainly in the villages of Ma'loula, Jubb'adin and Bakh'a, while the Assyrians mainly reside in the north and northeast (Homs, Aleppo, Qamishli, Hasakah). Many (particularly the Assyrian group) still retain several Neo-Aramaic dialects as spoken and written languages.[336]
The second-largest ethnic group in Syria are the Kurds. They constitute about 9%[337] to 10%[5] of the population, or approximately 2 million people (including 40,000 Yazidis[5]). Most Kurds reside in the northeastern corner of Syria and most speak the Kurmanji variant of the Kurdish language.[337] The third largest ethnic group are the Turkish-speaking Syrian Turkmen/Turkoman. There are no reliable estimates of their total population, with estimates ranging from several hundred thousand to 3.5million.[338][339][340] The fourth largest ethnic group are the Assyrians (3–4%),[5] followed by the Circassians (1.5%)[5] and the Armenians (1%),[5] most of which are the descendants of refugees who arrived in Syria during the Armenian genocide. Syria holds the 7th largest Armenian population in the world. They are mainly gathered in Aleppo, Qamishli, Damascus and Kesab.
The ethno-religious composition of Syria
There are also smaller ethnic minority groups, such as the Albanians, Bosnians, Georgians, Greeks, Persians, Pashtuns and Russians.[5] However, most of these ethnic minorities have become Arabized to some degree, particularly those who practice the Muslim faith.[5] The largest concentration of the Syrian diaspora outside the Arab world is in Brazil, which has millions of people of Arab and other Near Eastern ancestries.[341] Brazil is the first country in the Americas to offer humanitarian visas to Syrian refugees.[342] The majority of Arab Argentines are from either Lebanese or Syrian background.[343]
Islam is the largest and predominant religion in Syria, comprising 87% of the population. Sunni Muslims make up around 74% of the population[12] and Sunni Arabs account for 59–60% . Most Kurds (8.5%)[347] and most Turkmens (3%)[347] are Sunni, while 3% of Syrians are Shia Muslims (particularly Ismailis, and Twelvers but there are also Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens), 10% are Alawites, 10% are Christians[12] (the majority are Antiochian Greek Orthodox, the rest are Syriac Orthodox, Greek Catholic and other Catholic Rites, Armenian Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, Protestants and other denominations), and 3% Druzes.[12] Druze number around 500,000 and concentrate mainly in the southern area of Jabal al-Druze.[348] According to Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), 94.17% of Syrians are Muslims–79.19% are Sunnis and 14.10% are Shias (including Alawites)–and 3.84% are Syrian are Christians at 2020.[7]
Former President, Assad's family was Alawite, hence Alawites had dominated key government and military positions.[93][349][350] In May 2013, SOHR stated that out of 94,000 killed during the civil war, at least 41,000 were Alawites.[351]
Christians numbering 1.2million, a sizable number of whom are found among Syria's population of Palestinian and Iraqi refugees, are divided into several sects. The Greek Orthodox make up 45.7% of the Christian population; the Syriac Orthodox make up 22.4%; the Armenian Orthodox make up 10.9%; the Catholics (including Greek Catholic, Syriac Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Maronite, Chaldean Catholic and Latin) make up 16.2%; Assyrian Church of the East and several smaller Christian denominations account for the remainder. Many Christian monasteries also exist. Many Christian Syrians belong to a high socio-economic class.[352] As per one estimate, the count of Christians affiliated with established denominations in Syria has dropped from approximately 2.5 million before the civil war, to about 500,000 in 2023.[353]
Syria was once home to a substantial population of Jews, with large communities in Damascus, Aleppo, and Qamishii.[354] Due to a combination of persecution in Syria and opportunities elsewhere, the Jews began to emigrate in the second half of the 19th century to Great Britain, the United States, and Israel.[354] The process was completed with the establishment of Israel in 1948.[354] The remaining Jewish population dwindled as a result of the civil war. Today 100 Jews live in Syria.[354] The United States is home to a large Syrian Jewish community, which is still considered as Syrian citizens by the Syrian government.
Education is free and compulsory from ages 6 to 12. Schooling consists of six years of primary education followed by a three-year general or vocational training period and a three-year academic or vocational program. The second three-year period of academic training is required for university admission. Total enrollment at post-secondary schools is over 150,000. The literacy rate of Syrians aged 15 and older is 90.7% for males and 82.2% for females.[355][356]
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2024)
In 2010, spending on healthcare accounted for 3.4% of the GDP. In 2008, there were 14.9 physicians and 18.5 nurses per 10,000 inhabitants.[363] The life expectancy at birth was 75.7 years in 2010, or 74.2 years for males and 77.3 years for females.[364]
Dabke combines circle dance and line dancing and is widely performed at weddings and other joyous occasions.
Syria is a traditional society with a long cultural history.[365] Importance is placed on family, religion, education, self-discipline and respect. Syrians' taste for the traditional arts is expressed in dances such as the al-Samah, the Dabkeh in all their variations, and the sword dance. Marriage ceremonies and the births of children are occasions for the lively demonstration of folk customs.[366]
Ba'ath Party rule has brought about renewed censorship.[367][368] In this context, the genre of the historical novel, spearheaded by Nabil Sulayman, Fawwaz Haddad, Khyri al-Dhahabi and Nihad Siris, is sometimes used as a means of expressing dissent, critiquing the present through a depiction of the past. Syrian folk narrative, as a subgenre of historical fiction, is imbued with magical realism, and is also used as a means of veiled criticism of the present. Salim Barakat, a Syrian émigré living in Sweden, is one of the leading figures of the genre. Contemporary Syrian literature also encompasses science fiction and futuristic utopiae (Nuhad Sharif, Talib Umran), which may also serve as media of dissent.
Nearly all of Syria's media outlets are state-owned, and the Ba'ath Party controls nearly all newspapers.[370] The authorities operate several intelligence agencies,[371] among them Shu'bat al-Mukhabarat al-'Askariyya, employing many operatives.[372] During the civil war many of Syria's artists, poets, writers and activists have been incarcerated, and some have been killed, including famed cartoonist Akram Raslan.[373]
Syrian cuisine is rich and varied in its ingredients, linked to the regions where a specific dish has originated. Syrian food mostly consists of southern Mediterranean, Greek, and Southwest Asian dishes. Some Syrian dishes also evolved from Turkish and French cooking: dishes like shish kebab, stuffed zucchini/courgette, and yabraʾ (stuffed grape leaves, the word yabraʾ deriving from the Turkish word yaprak, meaning leaf).
Drinks vary, depending on the time of day and the occasion. Arabic coffee is the most well-known hot drink, usually prepared in the morning at breakfast or in the evening. It is usually served for guests or after food. Arak, an alcoholic drink, is a well-known beverage, served mostly on special occasions. Other Syrian beverages include ayran, jallab, white coffee, and a locally manufactured beer called Al Shark.[374]
^The name "Rojava" ("The West") was initially used by the region's PYD-led government, before its usage was dropped in 2016.[210][211][212] Since then, the name is still used by locals and international observers.
References
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^ abcdefghKhalifa, Mustafa (2013), "The impossible partition of Syria", Arab Reform Initiative: 3–5, Arabs constitute the major ethnic group in Syria, making up between 80 and 85% of the population. Kurds are the second largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 10% of the Syrian population and distributed among four regions...with a Yazidi minority that numbers around 40,000... Turkmen are the third-largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 4–5% of the population. Some estimations indicate that they are the second biggest group, outnumbering Kurds, drawing on the fact that Turkmen are divided into two groups: the rural Turkmen who make up 30% of the Turkmen in Syria and have kept their mother tongue, and the urban Turkmen who have become Arabised and no longer speak their mother language... Assyrians are the fourth-largest ethnic group in Syria. They represent the original and oldest inhabitants of Syria, today making up around 3–4% of the Syrian population... Circassians are the fifth-largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 1.5% of the population... Armenians are sixth-largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 1% of the population... There are also a small number of other ethnic groups in Syria, including Greeks, Persians, Albanians, Bosnian, Pashtuns, Russians and Georgians...
^Shoup, John A. (2018), The History of Syria, ABC-CLIO, p. 6, ISBN978-1440858352, Syria has several other ethnic groups, the Kurds... they make up an estimated 9 percent...Turkomen comprise around 4-5 percent of the total population. The rest of the ethnic mix of Syria is made of Assyrians (about 4 percent), Armenians (about 2 percent), and Circassians (about 1 percent).
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^Montgomery Watt W. (1956). Muhammad At Medina. Osmania University, Digital Library Of India. Oxford At The Clarendon Press. p. 35. This expedition receives scant notice in the sources, but in some ways it is the most significant so far. As Dumah was some 800 km (500 mi) from Medina there can have been no immediate threat to Muhammad, but it may be, as Caetani suggests, 1 that communications with Syria were being interrupted and supplies to Medina stopped. It is tempting to suppose that was already envisaging something of the expansion which took place after his death.
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^a b Stanford J. Shaw, "Dynamics of Ottoman Society and administration", in "History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey"
^"Pouring a People into the Desert:The "Definitive Solution" of the Unionists to the Armenian Question", Fuat Dundar, A Question of Genocide, ed. Ronald Grigor Suny, Fatma Muge Gocek and Norman M. Naimark, (Oxford University Press, 2011), 280–281.
^Wieland, Carsten (2021). Syria and the Neutrality Trap. New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN978-0-7556-4138-3.
^Atassi, Karim (2018). "6: The Fourth Republic". Syria, the Strength of an Idea: The Constitutional Architectures of Its Political Regimes. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 252. doi:10.1017/9781316872017. ISBN978-1-107-18360-5.
^P. Miller, H. Rand, Andrew, Dafna (2020). "2: The Syrian Crucible and Future U.S. Options". Re-Engaging the Middle East. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. p. 28. ISBN9780815737629.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^F. A. Schaeffer, Claude (2003). Syria and the Cradle of Civilization: The Findings of Claude F a Schaeffer in Ras Shamra. Trubner & Company. ISBN978-1-84453-129-5.
^Szmolk, Inmaculada (2017). Political Change in the Middle East and North Africa: After the Arab Spring. Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 132–133, 414–417. ISBN978-1-4744-1528 6.
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^Wedeen, Lisa (2015). Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. ix–xii, 1–4, 16–18, 30–40. doi:10.7208/9780226345536 (inactive 1 November 2024). ISBN978-0-226-33337-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
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^Phillips, Christopher (2013). Everyday Arab Identity. New York: Routledge. pp. 49–70. ISBN978-0-415-68488-0.
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^Schlager, Weisblatt, Neil, Jayne; A. Faksh, Mahmud (2006). "Syrian Arab Republic". World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties (4th ed.). New York: Facts on File. p. 1303. ISBN0-8160-5953-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Norris, Pippa; Martinez i Coma, Ferran; Grömping, Max (2015). "The Year in Elections, 2014". Election Integrity Project. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2023. The Syrian election ranked as worst among all the contests held during 2014.
^Schmidinger, Thomas (2019). The Battle for the Mountain of the Kurds. Translated by Schiffmann, Thomas. Oakland, CA: PM Press, Kairos. p. 12. ISBN978-1-62963-651-1. Afrin was the home to the largest Ezidi minority in Syria.
^*"The international community maintains that the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan is null and void and without international legal effect." International Labour Office (2009). The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories (International government publication ed.). International Labour Office. p. 23. ISBN978-92-2-120630-9.. * "...occupied Syrian Golan Heights..." (The Arab Peace Initiative, 2002Archived 4 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine, www.al-bab.com. Retrieved 1 August 2010.)
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^Peyrouse, Sebastien (2015), Turkmenistan: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development, Routledge, p. 62, ISBN978-0-230-11552-1, There are nearly one million [Turkmen] in Syria...
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