Anthem:حُمَاةَ الدَّيَّارِ Ḥumāt ad-Diyār "Guardians of the Homeland"
Syria proper shown in dark green; Syria's territorial claims over the most of Turkey's Hatay Province and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights shown in light greenShow globe
After the 1963 seizure of power by its Military Committee, the Ba'ath party ruled Syria as a totalitarian state. Ba'athists took control over country's politics, education, culture, religion and surveilled all aspects of civil society through its powerful Mukhabarat (secret police).The Syrian Arab Armed forces and secret police were integrated with the Ba'ath party apparatus; after the purging of traditional civilian and military elites by the new regime.[17]
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 new socio-political order by enforcing its state ideology.[18] Soon after seizing power, the neo-Ba'athist military officers began initiating purges across Syria as part of the imposition of their ideological programme. Politicians of the Second Syrian Republic who had supported the separation of Syria from United Arab Republic (UAR) were purged and liquidated by the Ba'athists. This was in addition to purging of the Syrian military and its subordination to the Arab Socialist Ba'ath party. Politicians, military officers and civilians who supported Syria's secession from UAR were also stripped of their social and legal rights by the Ba'athist-controlled National Council for the Revolutionary Command (NCRC); thereby enabling the Ba'athist regime to dismantle the entire political class of the Second Syrian Republic and eliminate its institutions.[19]
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.[16] Although Nureddin al-Atassi became the formal head of state, Salah Jadid was Syria's effective ruler from 1966 until November 1970,[20] when he was deposed by Hafez al-Assad, who at the time was Minister of Defense.[21]
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.[22] 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.[23] The defeat caused a split between Jadid and Assad over what steps to take next.[24] 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 (PLO) led by Yasser Arafat during the "Black September" (also known as the Jordan Civil War of 1970) hostilities with Jordan reflected this disagreement.[25]
On 20 September 1970, Syria under president Nureddin al-Atassi and strongman Salah Jadidinvaded Jordan in support of Palestinian fedayeen forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization, as part of Black September. Syria committed 16,000 troops and more than 170 T-55 tanks to invade Jordan. By 22 September, however, the Syrian invasion attempt had been largely defeated. As Syrian forces attempted to advance toward Irbid, approximately 50 of 200 Syrian tanks became inoperable. Syrian forces withdrew from Jordan on 23 September after sustaining losses of 120 tanks and 1,500 casualties. Jordan only lost 16 tanks, an armored car, and had 112 casualties.[26][27]
The power struggle culminated in the November 1970 Syrian Corrective movement, a bloodless military coup that removed Jadid and installed Hafez al-Assad as the strongman of the government.[21] General Hafez al-Assad transformed a neo-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, urban planning, economic activity, and all aspects of civil society.[28] Embedding a system based on sectarian patronage, Hafez assigned Alawite loyalists to key posts in the military forces, bureaucracy, intelligence and the ruling elite;[29][30] establishing an Alawite minority rule to consolidate power within his family.[31][32] A cult of personality revolving around Hafiz and his family became a core tenet of Assadist ideology,[33] which espoused that Assad dynasty was destined to rule perennially.[34]
When Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1971 with the Corrective Movement, the army began to modernize and change. In the first 10 years of Assad's rule, the army increased by 162%, and by 264% by 2000. At one point, 70% of the country's GDP went only to the army. 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.[35] 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,[36] when more than 40,000 people were killed by Syrian military troops and Ba'athist paramilitaries.[37][38] It has been described as the "single deadliest act" of violence perpetrated by any state upon its own population in modern Arab history.[37][38]
Syria was invited into Lebanon by its president, Suleiman Frangieh, in 1976, to intervene on the side of the Lebanese government against Palestine Liberation Organization guerilla fighters and Lebanese Maronite forces amid the Lebanese Civil War. The Arab Deterrent Force originally consisted of a Syrian core, up to 25,000 troops, with participation by some other Arab League states totaling only around 5,000 troops.[39][40][41] In late 1978, after the Arab League had extended the mandate of the Arab Deterrent Force, the Sudanese, the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates announced intentions to withdraw troops from Lebanon, extending their stay into the early months of 1979 at the Lebanese government's request.[42] The Libyan troops were essentially abandoned and had to find their own way home, and the ADF thereby became a purely Syrian force, although it did include the Palestine Liberation Army.[43] A year after Israel invaded and occupied Southern Lebanon during the 1982 Lebanon War, the Lebanese government failed to extend the ADF's mandate, thereby effectively ending its existence, although not the Syrian or Israeli military presence in Lebanon.[44] Eventually the Syrian presence became known as the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
Syrian forces lingered in Lebanon throughout the civil war in Lebanon, eventually bringing most of the nation under Syrian control as part of a power struggle with Israel, which had occupied areas of southern Lebanon in 1978. In 1985, Israel began to withdraw from Lebanon, as a result of domestic opposition in Israel and international pressure.[45] In the aftermath of this withdrawal, the War of the Camps broke out, with Syria fighting their former Palestinian allies. The Syrian occupation of Lebanon continued until 2005.[46]
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 President Hafez al-Assad's meeting with then President Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.[47]
Hafez al-Assad died on 10 June 2000. His son, Bashar al-Assad, was elected president in an election in which he ran unopposed.[15] 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.[48] Instead, reforms have been limited to some market reforms.[33][49][50] On 5 October 2003, Israel bombed a site near Damascus, claiming it was a terrorist training facility for members of Islamic Jihad.[51] In March 2004, Syrian Kurds and Arabs clashed in the northeastern city of al-Qamishli. Signs of rioting were seen in the cities of Qamishli and Hasakeh.[52] In 2005, Syria ended its military presence in Lebanon.[53]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 withdraw its 20,000 Syrian soldiers in Lebanon and end its 29-year-long military occupation of Lebanon.[54][46] 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.[55]
The Syrian revolution began in 2011 as a part of the wider Arab Spring, a wave of upheaval throughout the Arab World. Public demonstrations across Syria began on 26 January 2011 and developed into a nationwide uprising. Protesters demanded the resignation of President Bashar al-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,[56][57] though the unrest continued. According to some witnesses, soldiers, who refused to open fire on civilians, were summarily executed by the Syrian Army.[58] The Syrian government denied reports of defections, and blamed armed gangs for causing trouble.[59] 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.[60]
Pro-Assad demonstration in the capital Damascus after US-led missile strikes in April 2018
The uprising has sectarian undertones, though neither faction in the conflict has described sectarianism as playing a major role. The opposition is dominated by Sunni Muslims, whereas the leading government figures are Alawites,[60] affiliated with Shia Islam. As a result, the opposition is winning support from the Sunni Muslim states, whereas the government is publicly supported by the Shia dominated Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah. According to various sources, including the United Nations, up to 13,470–19,220 people have been killed, of which about half were civilians, but also including 6,035–6,570 armed combatants from both sides[61][62][63][64] and up to 1,400 opposition protesters.[65] Many more have been injured, and tens of thousands of protesters have been imprisoned. According to the Syrian government, 9,815–10,146 people, including 3,430 members of the security forces, 2,805–3,140 insurgents and up to 3,600 civilians, have been killed in fighting with what they characterize as "armed terrorist groups."[66] To escape the violence, tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled the country to neighboring Jordan, Iraq and [67]Lebanon, as well to Turkey.[68] The total official UN numbers of Syrian refugees reached 42,000 at the time,[69] while unofficial number stood at as many as 130,000.
UNICEF reported that over 500 children have been killed in the 11 months until February 2012,[70][71] Another 400 children have been reportedly arrested and tortured in Syrian prisons.[72][73] Both claims have been contested by the Syrian government.[74] Additionally, over 600 detainees and political prisoners have died under torture.[75]Human Rights Watch accused the government and Shabiha of using civilians as human shields when they advanced on opposition held-areas.[76] Anti-government rebels have been accused of human rights abuses as well, including torture, kidnapping, unlawful detention and execution of civilians, Shabiha and soldiers.[60] HRW also expressed concern at the kidnapping of Iranian nationals.[77] The UN Commission of Inquiry has also documented abuses of this nature in its February 2012 report, which also includes documentation that indicates rebel forces have been responsible for displacement of civilians.[78]
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.[60] 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.[103][104][105] The Arab League suspended Syria's membership over the government's response to the crisis,[106] but sent an observer mission in December 2011, as part of its proposal for peaceful resolution of the crisis.[105] The latest attempts to resolve the crisis had been made through the appointment of Kofi Annan, as a special envoy to resolve the Syrian crisis in the Middle East.[60] Some analysts however have posited the partitioning the region into a Sunnite east, Kurdish north and Shiite/Alawite west.[107]
Frozen conflict (2020–2024)
From 2020, the conflict settled into a frozen state.[108] Although roughly 30% of the country was controlled by opposition forces, heavy fighting had largely ceased and there was a growing regional trend toward normalizing relations with the regime of Bashar al-Assad.[108]
Military situation after the fall of the regime in December 2024. Territories held by the SDF (yellow), IS (grey), the Syrian Army (red), the SNA and Turkey (light green), SOR (pink), Tahrir al-Sham (white), the SFA and the United States (teal).
On 27 November 2024, violence flared up once again. Rebel factions, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), had taken control of Aleppo, prompting a retaliatory airstrike campaign by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russia. 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. The NATO countries 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 2024, continued its advance into Hama Province following their capture of Aleppo.[109][110][111]
On 4 December 2024, fierce clashes erupted in Hama province as the Syrian army engaged Islamist-led insurgents 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 Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), around six miles from the city. However, despite reinforcements, the rebels captured the city on 5 December.[114] The fighting led to widespread displacement, with nearly 50,000 people fleeing the area and over 600 casualties reported, including 104 civilians.[115]
In the evening of 6 December 2024, Southern Front forces captured the regional capital of Suwayda, in southern Syria, following the pro-government forces' withdrawal from the city.[116][117] Concurrently, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forcescaptured the provincial capital of Deir ez-Zor from pro-government forces, which also left the town of Palmyra in central Homs Governorate.[118][119] By midnight, opposition forces in the southern Daraa Governorate captured its capital Daraa, as well as 90% of the province, as pro-government forces withdrew towards the capital Damascus.[120] Meanwhile, the Syrian Free Army (SFA), a different rebel group backed by the United States took control of Palmyra in an offensive launched from the al-Tanf "deconfliction zone".[121]
"Victory of the great Syrian revolution and the fall of the criminal al-Assad regime" on Syrian state TV after the fall of Damascus to the HTS. This was its sole broadcast for several hours.[124]
On 7 December 2024, the Southern Front entered the suburbs of Damascus, which was simultaneously attacked from the North by the Syrian Free Army. As the rebels advanced, Assad fled Damascus to Moscow, where he was granted political asylum by Russian president Vladimir Putin.[125][additional citation(s) needed] The next day, the Syrian opposition forces captured the cities of Homs and Damascus. After Damascus fell, the Syrian Arab Republic collapsed, and Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali established a transitional government with the rebels' permission.[126]
After Ba'athist Syria's adoption of a new constitution in 2012, its political system operated in the framework of a presidential state[129] that nominally permitted the candidacy of individuals who were not part of the Ba'athist-controlled National Progressive Front founded in 1972.[130][131] In practice, Ba'athist Syria remained a one-party state, which banned any independent or opposition political activity.[132][133]
Judiciary
There was no independent judiciary in the Syrian Arab Republic, since all judges and prosecutors were required to be Ba'athist appointees.[134] Syria's judicial branches included the Supreme Constitutional Court, the High Judicial Council, the Court of Cassation, and the State Security Courts. The Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) was abolished by President Bashar al-Assad by legislative decree No. 53 on 21 April 2011.[135] 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.[136]
Article 3(2) of the 1973 constitution declared Islamic jurisprudence a main source of legislation. The judicial system had elements of Ottoman, French, and Islamic laws. The Personal Status Law 59 of 1953 (amended by Law 34 of 1975) was essentially a codified sharia;[137] the Code of Personal Status was applied to Muslims by sharia courts.[138]
Elections
Elections were conducted through a sham process; characterised by wide-scale rigging, repetitive voting and absence of voter registration and verification systems.[139][140][141] 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.[142] Even before results had been announced, several nations, including Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, declared their refusal to accept the results, largely citing it "not representing the will of the Syrian people."[143] However, representatives of the Russian Federation have voiced their support of this election's results. Various independent observers and international organizations denounced the Assad regime's electoral conduct as a scam; with the United Nations condemning it as illegitimate elections with "no mandate".[144][145][146][147]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.[148][149]
Following the 1963 Syrian coup, the ruling Syrian Ba'ath Party established close relations with the Soviet Union, increasing Soviet power and influence in Syria.[156] The far-left neo-Ba'athist Syrian Ba'ath pursued a very close alliance with Soviet Union. Following the Sixth National Congress in 1963, the party publicly adopted the doctrine of ideological alliance with the Eastern Bloc:
"The Arab Socialist Ba'th Party had placed the question of the struggle against imperialism in its international and human framework and considered the socialist camp a positive, active force in the struggle against imperialism... a homeland crushed and exploited by imperialism render the fundamental starting points of the socialist camp more harmonious with the interests of our Arab homeland and more in sympathy with our Arab people."[157]
Thousands of Soviet advisors and technicians assisted the Syrian Arab Army during the 1973 Yom Kippur War with Israel. 3,750 tonnes of aid was airlifted during the war to Syria. By the end of October 1973, the Soviet Union sent 63,000 tonnes of aid, mainly to Syria to replace its losses during the war. Soviet–Syrian relations became strained in 1976 due to Hafez al-Assad's intervention in the Lebanese civil war and the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, as the Soviet Union did not want a confrontation between the Assad regime and the Palestine Liberation Organization, who were both Soviet allies. The Soviets froze weapons supplies to Syria, whereas Syria denied the Soviets access to its naval bases.[161][162] It wasn't until April 1977 that the two states improved their relations. Syria refused to condemn the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and signed a twenty-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in October 1980.[163]
Relations with Russia
Russian sappers in Aleppo during the Syrian civil war, December 2016
Syria and Iran are historic and strategic allies, with Syria being regarded as Iran's "closest ally".[170] The relationship between the Iranian and Syrian governments has sometimes been described as an Axis of Resistance.[171] Historically, the two countries shared a common animosity towards the Iraqi Ba'ath Party and Saddam Hussein, with Syria providing military aid to Iran during the Iran–Iraq War. After Hafiz al-Assad's death in 2000, Bashar al-Assad continued the relationship by supporting Hezbollah and various Iranian proxies; with the alliance being described as "the central component of his security doctrine".[172][173]
Following the outbreak of Syrian revolution in 2011, Iran began politically and militarily aiding the Assad government. The Guardian reported in May 2011 that the Iranian Irgc had increased its "level of technical support and personnel support" to strengthen Syrian military's "ability to deal with protesters".[174] Since the beginning of the insurgency in Syria, Iran has provided training, technical support, and combat troops to the Assad government.[175][176] Estimates of the number of Iranian personnel in Syria range from hundreds to tens of thousands.[177][178][179] Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, backed by Iran's government, have taken direct combat roles since 2012.[177][180] From the summer of 2013, Iran and Hezbollah provided important battlefield support to Syria, allowing it to make advances against Syrian rebels.[180] As of 2023, Iran maintains 55 military bases in Syria and 515 other military points, the majority in Aleppo and Deir Ezzor governorates and the Damascus suburbs; these are 70% of the foreign military sites in the country.[181]
In 2006, Syria recognized the post-invasion Iraqi government and resumed ties. However relations still remained poor until 2011, when American troops withdrew from Iraq and the Syrian revolution erupted, during which hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets; demanding the overthrow of the Assad regime. Both governments alongside Iran formed a tripartite regional alliance as both Iran and Maliki government in Iraq were critical of the potential rise of Saudi influence in Syria, a Sunni-majority country. Unlike most of the Arab League countries, Iraq rejected calls for al-Assad to step down.[108]
Relations between the United States and Syria deteriorated due to Syria's opposition to the Iraq War. The Syrian government also refused to prevent foreign fighters from using Syrian borders to enter Iraq and deport officials from the former Saddam Hussein government that support Iraqi insurgency. In May 2003, the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, visited Damascus to demand Syrian closure of the offices of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.[188][189]
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, the United States repeatedly called on president Bashar al-Assad to resign and imposed sanctions on his government.[190]
Military
Syria under Ba'athist rule was characterized by a military dictatorship and a police state, where the Syrian Arab Armed Forces brought the Ba'ath Party to power. The regime's survival was largely enabled by the Ba'ath Party's "Ba'athization" of the army, and its heavy reliance on the army-security apparatus. From 1963, the top army command in the Syrian Army became increasingly Ba'athist, while Ba'athist officers became progressive. After Hafez al-Assad rose to power, he purged Sunni middle- and upper-class officers, replacing them with rural minoritarian ones, and consolidated his power with the establishment of an Alawite-recruited "praetorian guard" that helped ensure regime control over the military.[191][192]
Following the Syrian loss during the Six-Day War with Israel, Hafez al-Assad initiated a huge expansion of the military to achieve military parity with Israel. The Syrian Arab Army, which was mainly a conscripted force, increased from 50,000 personnel in 1967 to 225,000 in 1973, and to over 350,000 by the 1990s. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Syria lost its main supplier of military equipment, contributing to the isolation of the Syrian Army. In 2005, 50% of Syria's national budget was contributed to military and intelligence spending, and Syria had a standing army of 215,000 soldiers, and over 400,000 upon mobilization, as well as 4,700 tanks, 4,500 personnel carriers, 850 surface-to-air missiles, 4,000 anti-aircraft guns, and 611 combat planes.[193]
Human rights in Ba'athist Syria were effectively non-existent. The government's human rights record was considered one of the worst in the world. As a result, Ba'athist Syria was globally condemned by prominent international organizations, including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International,[194][195][196] and the European Union.[197] Civil liberties, political rights, freedom of speech and assembly were severely restricted under the Ba'athist government of Bashar al-Assad, which was regarded as "one of the world's most repressive regimes".[198][199] The 50th edition of Freedom in the World, the annual report published by Freedom House since 1973, designates Syria as "Worst of the Worst" among the "Not Free" countries. The report lists Syria as one of the two countries to get the lowest possible score (1/100).[200][201]
^Sources describing Syria as a totalitarian state:
Khamis, B. Gold, Vaughn, Sahar, Paul, Katherine (2013). "22. Propaganda in Egypt and Syria's "Cyberwars": Contexts, Actors, Tools, and Tactics". In Auerbach, Castronovo, Jonathan, Russ (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 422. ISBN978-0-19-976441-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Wieland, Carsten (2018). "6: De-neutralizing Aid: All Roads Lead to Damascus". Syria and the Neutrality Trap: The Dilemmas of Delivering Humanitarian Aid Through Violent Regimes. London: I. B. Tauris. p. 68. ISBN978-0-7556-4138-3.
Meininghaus, Esther (2016). "Introduction". Creating Consent in Ba'thist Syria: Women and Welfare in a Totalitarian State. I. B. Tauris. pp. 1–33. ISBN978-1-78453-115-7.
Sadiki, Larbi; Fares, Obaida (2014). "12: The Arab Spring Comes to Syria: Internal Mobilization for Democratic Change, Militarization and Internationalization". Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring: Rethinking Democratization. Routledge. p. 147. ISBN978-0-415-52391-2.
Shively, W. Phillips; Schultz, David (2022). "7: Democracies and Authoritarian System". Power and Choice: An Introduction to Political Science. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 188. ISBN9781538151860.
Derbyshire, J. Denis; Derbyshire, Ian (2016). "Syria". Encyclopedia of World Political Systems. New York, NY: Routledge. p. 610. ISBN978-0-7656-8025-9.
Mira, Rachid (2025). Political Economy in the Middle East and North Africa. 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158, USA: Routledge. pp. 273, 274. ISBN978-1-032-21214-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Jones, Jeremy (2007). "4. Syria and Lebanon: Party Problems". Negotiating Change: The New Politics of the Middle East. 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA: I.B. Tauris. pp. 96–102. ISBN978-1-84511-269-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Roberts Clark, Golder, Nadenichek Golder, William, Matt, Sona, ed. (2013). "14. Social Cleavages and Party Systems". Principles of Comparative Politics (2nd ed.). USA: Sage Publishing. p. 611. ISBN978-1-60871-679-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
"Syrian Arab Republic". Federal Foreign Office. 13 January 2023. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. System of government: Officially a socialist,... democratic state; presidential system (ruled by the al-Assad family, with the security services occupying a powerful position)
Wieland, Carsten (2018). Syria and the Neutrality Trap: The Dilemmas of Delivering Humanitarian Aid Through Violent Regimes. London, UK: I.B. Tauris. p. 68. ISBN978-0-7556-4138-3.
Meininghaus, Esther (2016). Creating Consent in Ba'thist Syria: Women and Welfare in a Totalitarian State. I. B. Tauris. pp. 32, 69. ISBN978-1-78453-115-7.
Mira, Rachid (2025). Political Economy in the Middle East and North Africa. 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158, USA: Routledge. p. 273. ISBN978-1-032-21214-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Ben-Tzur, Avraham (1968). "The Neo-Ba'th Party of Syria". Journal of Contemporary History. 3 (3): 164–166, 172–181. doi:10.1177/002200946800300310. S2CID159345006. It was some years before the all-Arab leadership was forced to reveal the bitter truth that the structure of the new Ba'th Party in Syria had been 'artificial' from the outset, and that since its rise to power in 1963 it had been based on 'elements that served the purpose of the governmental centres represented by the Military Committee. ... The Marxist left was quick to exploit the opportunities offered in the first few months of Ba'th rule... to engineer the elections to the regional conference (the first since the party's rise to power) to their own ends. The conference, held in September 1963,... set out the new party platform, which was to become the credo of the neo-Ba'th. ... In short, the Ba'th in its latest variant is a bureaucratic apparatus headed by the military, whose daily life and routine are shaped by rigid military oppression on the home front, and military aid from abroad.
Khamis, B. Gold, Vaughn, Sahar, Paul, Katherine (2013). "22. Propaganda in Egypt and Syria's "Cyberwars": Contexts, Actors, Tools, and Tactics". In Auerbach, Castronovo, Jonathan, Russ (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 422. ISBN978-0-19-976441-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Wieland, Carsten (2018). "6: De-neutralizing Aid: All Roads Lead to Damascus". Syria and the Neutrality Trap: The Dilemmas of Delivering Humanitarian Aid Through Violent Regimes. London: I. B. Tauris. p. 68. ISBN978-0-7556-4138-3.
Ahmed, Saladdin (2019). Totalitarian Space and the Destruction of Aura. Albany, New York: Suny Press. pp. 144, 149. ISBN9781438472911.
Hensman, Rohini (2018). "7: The Syrian Uprising". Indefensible: Democracy, Counterrevolution, and the Rhetoric of Anti-Imperialism. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books. ISBN978-1-60846-912-3.
^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.
^Atassi, Karim (2018). Syria, the Strength of an Idea: The Constitutional Architectures of Its Political Regimes. New York, NY 10006, USA: Cambridge University Press. p. 258. doi:10.1017/9781316872017. ISBN978-1-107-18360-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^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)
^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)
^Cite error: The named reference The Sturdy House That Assad Built23 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference The Sturdy House That Assad Built22 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^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)
^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)
^"العدد حسب مدني/عسكري" [Number by civilian/military]. syrianshuhada.com. 7 January 2012. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
^"Syria (05/07)". State.gov. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2008. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^"Syria". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. p. 13. Archived from the original on 18 January 2006. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
^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.
^* Cavoški, Jovan (2022). Non-Aligned Movement Summits: A History. UK: Bloomsburry. p. 101. ISBN978-1-3500-3209-5. Syria, headed by the radical leftist Baath Party overtly challenged Nasser's leadership credentials by highlighting his diminished revolutionary spirit.
I. Dawisha, Adeed (1980). "3: External and Internal Setting". Syria and the Lebanese Crisis. London, UK: Macmillan Press Ltd. p. 45. ISBN978-1-349-05373-5. The change has been particularly marked under Asad. He has created a fairly popular Presidential regime: radical left, the most advanced socialist regime in the Arab world, it is progressively widening the frame to include more peasants and labourers.
The Israel Economist. Vol. 26–27. University of Minnesota: Kollek & Son, Limited. 1970. p. 61. The ideology propounded by the Ba'ath changed completely. The accent on Arab nationalism was discarded as was moderate socialism. Their place was taken by Syrian nationalism and extreme left-wing ideas verging on communism.
Abadi, Jacob (2004). Israel's Quest for Recognition and Acceptance in Asia: Garrison State Diplomacy. London, UK: Frank Class Publishers. p. 22. ISBN0-7146-5576-7. radical left-wing Ba'ath party in Syria.
S. Abu Jaber, Kamel (1966). The Arab Ba'th Socialist Party: History, Ideology and Organization. Syracuse, New York, USA: Syracuse University Press. pp. xii–xiii, 33–47, 75–97. LCCN66-25181. The leadership now in control of Syria does not represent the gamut of the Ba'th party. It is composed mainly of extreme leftists vesting almost exclusive authority in the military wing of the party.
Hopwood, Derek (2013). Syria 1945–1986: Politics and Society. Routledge. pp. 45–46, 73–75, 90. doi:10.4324/9781315818955. ISBN9781317818427. The period 1963 to 1970 when Asad finally succeeded was marked ideologically by uncertainty and even turbulence. It was a period of transition from the old nationalist politicians to the radical socialist Baathis... struggle between 'moderates' and radicals was centred on the dispute whether to impose a radical left wing government and a social revolution on Syria or to follow a more moderate Arab unionist course which would possibly appease opponents of the Baath. The radicals largely held the upper hand and worked to strengthen the control of the party over the state.
Mikhaĭlovich Vasil'ev, Alekseĭ (1993). Russian Policy in the Middle East: From Messianism to Pragmatism. University of Michigan, USA: Ithaca Press. pp. 63, 76. ISBN978-0863721687. Syrian Baathist version of Arab nationalism and socialism offered plenty of points of contact with Soviet policy... when the left-wing Baathist faction led by Nureddin Atasi came to power, accelerated Syria's rapprochement with the Soviet Union... for the USSR Syria remained an uneasy ally whose actions were beyond control, often unpredictable and the cause of complications. The ultra-leftist slogans originating from Damascus (such as a 'people's war') were not received enthusiastically in Moscow. Mustafa Tlas, the new Syrian chief of staff, was a theoretician of guerrilla warfare and had even translated works by Che Guevara who was not particularly popular among the Soviet leaders.
^Pipes, Daniel (1992). Greater Syria: the history of an ambition. Oxford University paperback. New York: Oxford Univ. Pr. p. 158. ISBN978-0-19-506022-5.
^Dam, Nikolaos van (2011). 10: Conclusions: The struggle for power in Syria: politics and society under Asad and the Ba'th Party (4 ed.). London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN978-1-84885-760-5.
^Lund, Aron (2019). "From cold war to civil war: 75 years of Russian-Syrian relations". Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
^Ginat, Rami (2000). "The Soviet Union and the Syrian Ba'th regime: from hesitation to rapprochement". Middle Eastern Studies. 36 (2): 150–171. doi:10.1080/00263200008701312. S2CID144922816.
^Lea, David (2001). A Political Chronology of the Middle East. London, United Kingdom: Europa Publications.
^Lundius, Jan (21 August 2019). "The Syrian Tragedy". Global Issues. Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. When Hafez al-Assad died in 2000, Bashar assumed power, surprising everyone by making Syria's "link with Hezbollah – and its patrons in Teheran – the central component of his security doctrine", while he continued his father´s outspoken critic of the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
^Thomas E. Ricks (17 December 2004). "General: Iraqi Insurgents Directed From Syria". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 August 2010. A top Army general said yesterday that the Iraqi insurgency was being run in part by former senior Iraqi Baath Party officials operating in Syria who call themselves the "New Regional Command."
These men, from the former governing party of deposed president Saddam Hussein, are "operating out of Syria with impunity and providing direction and financing for the insurgency," said Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the U.S. commander in Iraq. "That needs to stop," Casey said at a Pentagon briefing
^Nance, Malcolm (18 December 2014), The Terrorists of Iraq: Inside the Strategy and Tactics of the Iraq
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