Syria


I- INTRODUCTION



Syria (in Arabic, Suriyah), officially al-Jumhuriyah al-Arabiyah as-Suriyah (Syrian Arab Republic), republic in the Middle East, bordered to the north by Turkey, to the east by Iraq, to the south by Jordan and Israel, and to the west by Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea. Syria has an area of about 185,180 sq km (71,498 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Damascus.

II - LAND AND RESOURCES

Syria has an extreme east-to-west distance of about 830 km (515 mi) and an extreme north-to-south distance of about 740 km (460 mi). Along the Mediterranean coast, which is about 160 km (100 mi) long, is a narrow plain extending inland as far as 32 km (20 mi). Parallel to this plain is the Jabal an Nuşayrīyah, a narrow range of mountains and hills, south of which, along the border of Syria and Lebanon, are the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, the site of Mount Hermon, the highest point in the country at 2,814 m (9,232 ft).
The Anti-Lebanon range tapers off into a hilly region called the Golan Heights (captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War) in the south-western corner of Syria. Much of the rest of the country consists of a plateau, which is bisected in the north-east by the valley of the River Euphrates (known in Syria as Al Furāt). The plateau area north of the Euphrates is called the plain of al-Jazirah. The semicircular plateau area in the south-east is in the Syrian Desert.

A - Rivers and Lakes

The Euphrates, the longest river in Syria, flows diagonally across the country from Turkey in the north to Iraq in the east. The second longest river, the Orontes, originates in the Lebanese portion of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and flows north through western Syria to Turkey.

B - Climate

West of the Jabal an Nuşayrīyah, Syria has a Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Yearly rainfall ranges from about 510 to 1,020 mm (20 to 40 in) in the coastal area, from about 255 to 510 mm (10 to 20 in) between Aleppo and Damascus, and from 127 mm (5 in) to less than 25 mm (1 in) in the desert area in the south-east. Regional variations in temperature are comparatively slight. At Aleppo, in the north-west, the average August temperature is about 30° C (86° F) and the average January temperature is about 4.4° C (40° F). At Tudmur, in the central region at the edge of the Syrian Desert, the corresponding temperatures are about 30.8° C (87.5° F) and about 6.4° C (43.5° F).

C - Natural Resources

Petroleum, natural gas, phosphate rock, asphalt, and salt are the main Syrian minerals found in sufficiently large quantities for commercial exploitation. Small deposits of coal, iron ore, copper, lead, and gold exist, primarily in mountainous regions. Good farmland is located in the coastal region and in parts of the valleys of the Orontes and Euphrates.

D - Plants and Animals

Syria has comparatively limited areas of abundant natural vegetation. On the whole the non-arable areas are too dry to support extensive plant life, and virtually all of the arable areas have been stripped of natural cover. Along the coast, however, are found some reed grasses, wild flowers, trees, and shrubs, including buckthorn and tamarisk. In the Anti-Lebanon Mountains are forests of Aleppo pine and Syrian and valonia oak.
The mammalian wildlife of Syria includes the antelope, deer, wildcat, porcupine, squirrel, and hare. Birds native to the country include the flamingo, pelican, bustard, ostrich, eagle, and falcon. Lizards and chameleons are found in the desert.

E - Environmental Concerns

Syria's farmland suffers from desertification and soil erosion, in part because of the country's rapid rate of deforestation. About 2.2 per cent (1990-1996) of the nation's forests are felled each year to clear land for farms and housing. For many years, the fertility of Syria's farmland declined because many of the country's farmers did not practise crop rotation. Since the 1980s, the government has been educating farmers about crop rotation and other principles of land management. Irrigation projects are gradually making more of the country agriculturally productive, but most farmers continue to depend on rainfall to water their crops.
Oil production and refining are major industries in Syria, generating about 45 per cent of the country's export revenue. Wastes generated during the refining process have polluted the Euphrates, Oronte, and Barrada river basins. Raw sewage flowing from urban centres is also degrading Syria's supply of fresh water. Syria has ratified international agreements to protect biodiversity, endangered species, wetlands, and the ozone layer. The country has also signed treaties that limit nuclear testing, chemical and biological weapons production, marine pollution, and hazardous waste. Under the Ramsar Convention protection is given to the wetland nature reserve of Sabkhat al-Jabbul.

III - POPULATION

Syria is populated chiefly by Arabs, who constitute about 90 per cent of the population. The largest non-Arab minorities are Kurds, most of whom are pastoral people concentrated along the Turkish border, and Armenians, who dwell chiefly in the larger cities. The Syrian Desert is the most sparsely populated part of Syria. The most densely settled area of the country is in the west.

A - Population Characteristics

Syria has a population of 18,881,361 (2006 estimate). Population growth was estimated at 2.29 per cent a year. The overall population density in 2006 was about 103 people per sq km (266 per sq mi). Average life expectancy at birth in 2006 was 69 years for men and 72 years for women.

B - Political Divisions

Syria is divided into 13 governorates (muḩafazat) and the municipality of Damascus. They are Al Ḩasakah, Latakia (Al Lādhīqiyah), Al Qunayţirah, Ar Raqqah, As Suwaydā', Dar'ā, Dayr az Zawr, Ḩalab (Aleppo), Ḩamāh, Ḩimş, Idlib, Rif Dimashq, Ţarţūs.

C - Principal Cities

The capital and largest city of the country is Damascus, with a population of 2,270,000 (1999 estimate). Major cities include Aleppo, or Ḩalab (1994, 1,582,930), Homs (1994, 540,133), Latakia (1994, 311,784), and Hamāh (1994, 264,348).

D - Religion

The overwhelming majority of the Syrian population are Sunni Muslims. Other Muslim groups include Alawites, Ismailis, and Shiites. Of the non-Muslims in Syria, most are Christians, primarily of the Greek and Armenian Orthodox Church. Religious minorities include Druzes, who follow a religion related to Islam, and a community of around 4,000 Jews.

E - Language

The official language is Standard Arabic, a second language taught in schools and used in official domains only. North Levantine Spoken Arabic is the more popular Arabic language, a mother tongue for nearly 9 million Syrians, along with four other types of Arabic. Kurmanji, an Indo-Iranian language, is a first language for over 6 per cent of the population and Armenian is spoken by some. Seven other minority languages are spoken, mainly Semitic languages.

F - Education

Primary education is free and compulsory for all children; adult literacy was 78.4 per cent in 2005. In 2000 2,835,023 primary-school pupils were enrolled, about 1,124,752 students attended secondary schools, and about 76,000 students were enrolled in vocational and teacher-training institutes.
Syria has universities in the major cities, including the University of Damascus (1903), the University of Aleppo (1946), the Al-Baath University in Homs (1979), and Tishreen University (1971) in Latakia, with a total enrolment in 1995 of about 170,000 students. There are also institutes of applied science, technology, and political science. In 2001–2002, 4.2 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP) was spent on education.

G - Culture

The public libraries in Aleppo, Damascus, Homs, and Latakia house the principal collections of the country. Other major repositories include the Damascus University Library, with more than 150,000 volumes, and the Assad National Library, also in Damascus. The most notable museum is the National Museum, in Damascus, which has collections that include Oriental, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic art. The museums at the site of the ancient city of Palmyra and in Aleppo are noted for their archaeological holdings. A collection of mosaic pavements is held at the Chaba Mosaics Museum and the Musée de Calligraphie et Epigraphie Arabe is the repository for ancient scripts and documents.

H - Heritage

The country has four listed World Heritage Sites: the ancient cities of Damascus (inscribed in 1979), Palmyra (1980), Bosra (1980), and Aleppo (1986).

IV - ECONOMY

Syria is primarily a state-dominated country and is heavily dependent on aid from the major Arab oil-producing states. The economy benefited from the Gulf War and increased oil production (petroleum being the main export). The war led to an aid windfall of nearly US$5,000 million from Arab, European, and Japanese donors. Most positive economic trends stalled in the early 1990s due to the dissipation of the Gulf War boom and a domestic financial crisis. Oil production is likely to slow, and much depends on liberalization of the economy, which showed some improvement in the mid-1990s, and on political developments, most notably a successful peace settlement with Israel. The GNP of Syria in 2004 (World Bank figure) was US$22,783 million, or US$1,230 per capita. The estimated annual national budget included revenues of US$17,470 million (1999) and expenditures of US$16,953 million (1999).

A - Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Syria’s agriculture depends on irrigation. The country has 4,593,000 hectares (11,349,551 acres) of arable land and about 8.3 million hectares (20.5 million acres) of permanent meadows and pastureland. Much of the tilled land is irrigated, but extensive areas lie unused due to lack of water. Irrigation is necessary even in many regions that receive substantial annual rainfall, because most of the rainfall occurs during the winter rather than during the growing season.
Much of the land under cultivation suffers from soil exhaustion because of insufficient use of fertilizers and failure to rotate crops. A major irrigation project in the Euphrates valley is designed to bring an additional 640,000 hectares (1.6 million acres) under cultivation.
Despite climatic handicaps Syria produces a wide variety of crops, some in sufficient quantity for export. The major crops are cereals, primarily wheat and barley. Cotton accounted for more than half of export revenues before the ascendancy of oil in the mid-1970s, and remains an important crop. Other crops include tobacco, grapes, olives, citrus fruits, and vegetables.
In 2005 Syrian wheat production totalled about 4.67 million tonnes; barley, 767,416 tonnes; seed cotton, 1.02 million tonnes; and grapes, 310,000 tonnes. Livestock in the same period included approximately 15.3 million sheep, 1.02 million goats, and 940,000 cattle.

B - Manufacturing

During the period when Syria was federated with Egypt in the United Arab Republic (from February 1958 to September 1961), industrialization and governmental involvement in the economic sector was greatly expanded, and in July 1961, shortly before Syria seceded from the union, most industrial concerns were nationalized. After the secession most of Syrian industry was denationalized, then renationalized in 1965.
Petroleum products, chemicals, cement, wheat flour, and textiles are the main manufacturing industries, and the soap, glass, tobacco, tanning, vegetable oil, and food-processing industries are growing. Cotton textile production was about 37,000 tonnes per year in 1994; annual cement production was about 4 million tonnes. Syrian artisans continue to be noted, as in centuries past, for the fine quality of their silk brocades and rugs and for their artistic metalwork in brass, copper, silver, iron, and steel.

C - Tourism

Considerable foreign currency comes from tourist expenditures ($US630 million in 1999). There were 3,032,000 tourist arrivals in 2004.

D - Energy

About 41 per cent of Syria’s electricity is generated in hydroelectric facilities, and the remainder is produced in thermal installations. The output in 2003 was 27.2 billion kWh.

E - Currency and Banking

The monetary unit of Syria is the Syrian pound of 100 piastres (52.92 pounds equalled US$1; early 2006). Syrian banking was formerly controlled by foreign companies. After the achievement of full independence in 1946, banking operations were conducted to an increasing extent by Syrian-owned banks. Until 1956 currency was issued by the largest commercial bank in Syria, the French-owned Banque de Syrie et du Liban. In that year the Syrian government established a new, state-owned bank, the Central Bank of Syria (Masrif Suriyah al-Markaz), which issues the currency of the country.

F - Commerce and Trade

In 2003 imports amounted to about US$5,111 million, and exports, US$5,731 million. Imports included machinery, transport equipment, iron and steel, refined petroleum, textiles, and chemical products. The principal exports were petroleum, cotton and other textile items, preserved foods, beverages, tobacco, phosphates, fruits, and vegetables. The chief buyers of Syrian exports were Romania, Italy, France, and Russia. Imports were supplied chiefly by Iran, Libya, Germany, France, Italy, and Russia. Much revenue is also derived from fees charged to foreign countries for piping oil through Syria.

G - Transport

Transport facilities in Syria are state-owned. Some 2,798 km (1,739 mi) of railways connect the major cities and extend to the national frontiers of all neighbouring countries, except Israel. These include three lines connecting Ḩimş to Damascus, Damascus to Aleppo, and Tartus to Latakia. Syria has about 91,795 km (57,039 mi) of roads, of which 14 per cent are paved. There were approximately 12 passenger cars per 1,000 people in Syria in 1996. Latakia is the main seaport; port facilities at Tartus were developed in the 1980s. The national air carrier is Syrian Arab Airlines; the main international airport serves Damascus. Other major airports include those at Aleppo and Latakia.

H - Communications

Communications are owned and operated by the government though private radio broadcasts began in early 2002 providing music output only. Telephones numbered about 82 per 1,000 people and radios about 4 million in 1997. The telephone network is being digitized. Television transmission began in 1960, and around 1 million sets were in use in 2000. The country’s leading daily newspapers are al-Baath and al-Thawrah, published in Damascus; al-Jamahir al-Arabia, published in Aleppo; and al-Fida, published in Hamāh.

V - GOVERNMENT

An interim constitution issued in 1964 (suspended 1966) declared Syria to be a democratic socialist republic. In 1971 a provisional constitution was decreed by the head of state, General Hafez al-Assad. In 1973 a permanent constitution creating a People’s Council as the national legislature was approved by referendum.

A - Executive and Legislature

The president is the chief executive and head of state, and is popularly elected to a seven-year term. The president appoints a council of ministers, which is headed by a prime minister. Three vice-presidents were appointed in March 1984. The legislature of Syria is the People’s Assembly, made up of 250 members who are popularly elected for terms of about four years.

B - Political Parties

Syria has an autocratic political system. The leading political grouping in Syria is the National Progressive Front, formed in 1972. Its main component is the Baath Arab Socialist Party, founded in 1947, whose leading position is underwritten by the constitution.

C - Judiciary

The highest tribunal in Syria is the High Constitutional Court, which sits in Damascus. Other judicial bodies include the Court of Cassation and lesser courts of appeal in each of the country’s 13 governorates, summary courts, and courts of first instance.

D - Health and Welfare

In 1993 there were 966 people per doctor, while the infant mortality rate in 2006 was 29 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 1999 around 2.3 per cent of government expenditure was spent on health care.

E - Defence

Military service is compulsory for males in Syria for a period of 30 months. The country’s armed forces in 2004 totalled 307,600 personnel, 200,000 of whom are in the army, including conscripts. There is an air force of about 100,000, and a navy of about 7,600. The remainder are reserves and paramilitary forces. A comparatively high proportion of GNP (over 8 per cent) is devoted to military spending.

F - International Organizations

Syria is a member of the United Nations (UN), the Arab League, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

VI - HISTORY

Prehistoric remains show that the region of Syria was inhabited as far back as the Palaeolithic Period. The earliest recorded civilization, dating from around 2500-2200 BC, centred on the ancient city of Ebla near modern Aleppo. This was apparently the seat of a merchant oligarchy that elected a monarch, part of a flourishing north Syrian civilization contemporaneous with early Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Akkadian dynasty of Sumer destroyed Ebla around 2300 BC, and the region was subsequently dominated by Ur. Syria later produced the Amorites, who migrated into Babylonia around 2000 BC, as well as the Hyksos, who conquered Egypt.
As early as about 1800 BC King Shamshi-Adad I (reigned c. 1814-1781 BC) of Assyria is thought to have established his capital, Shubat Enlil, at present-day Tell Leilan in the extreme north-east of Syria. The kingdom was later conquered by Hammurabi of Babylonia, and the region was long afterwards influenced principally by Egypt and Babylon. Northern Syria was overrun by the Hittites around 1600 BC, while descendants of the Hyksos established the Syrian kingdom of Mitanni. Though allies of Egypt, they were defeated by the Hittites around 1350 BC, and subsequently by Assyria.
The Aramaeans, a new immigrant group who spoke the Aramaic language, filled Syria with petty kingdoms around 1200 BC, establishing a capital (the biblical Aram) near modern Damascus. Assyria finally conquered Aram in 732 BC, and after Assyria’s collapse in 612 BC, Syria was ruled by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean kings of Babylonia. The region fell, along with the rest of Babylonia, to Cyrus the Great of Persia in 539 BC; and it remained in Persian hands until the conquests of Alexander the Great.

A - Hellenistic and Roman Rule

Alexander made Syria a part of his empire in 333-332 BC, and at the close of the 4th century BC it was appropriated by Seleucus I, one of Alexander’s generals, who founded Antioch as the capital. During the 3rd century BC the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and the Seleucids contended for the possession of lower Syria and Palestine. Both areas, and much of western Asia, passed to the Seleucids under the great kings Antiochus III and Antiochus IV (conqueror of Jerusalem), and their realm became known as the kingdom of Syria. However, the region fragmented under later kings, with Seleucid authority often confined to Damascus and Antioch while the Nabataeans and Jews feuded over the rest. Pompey the Great finally made Seleucid Syria a Roman province in 64 BC.
Syria remained a peaceful and important province under the Roman Empire, absorbing the Nabataean kingdom in AD 106. Antioch was one of the greatest cities of the age, and the area enjoyed rich trade, manufacturing, and agriculture. After the Roman Empire was divided in AD 395 into the Western Roman Empire with its capital at Rome and the Eastern Byzantine Empire with its capital at Constantinople, Syria remained a Byzantine province for approximately 240 years. Though still prosperous and important, Syria was increasingly disturbed by wars against Sasanian Persia: the Sasanian king Khosrau I captured Antioch in 570, and Khosrau II invaded once more in 606, only to be expelled after 622 by Heraclius. Weakened by the wars, Syria fell in 636 before the Arabs, who quickly absorbed it into the rapidly expanding caliphate of Islam.

B - The Early Caliphates

The caliphate tolerated the native Syrian Christian and Jewish communities, confining Islam initially to the ruling Arabs; Damascus surrendered peacefully on the promise of security of property and religious tolerance. Minority groups such as the Nestorian Church and Jacobite Church benefited especially. Muawiya of the powerful Umayyad House of Mecca became governor of Syria in 639, and he made it his base in the struggle against Ali ibn Abi Talib, which ended in his elevation as caliph in 661. Damascus became the seat of the powerful Umayyad caliphs. At that time it was one of the most important and splendid cities of the Muslim world, reaping the wealth of an expanding empire. Later Umayyads, however, lost control and were finally overthrown by the Abbasids in 750. They transferred the caliphate capital to Baghdad in present-day Iraq, and Syria ceased to be the political centre of Islam.
Abbasid rule led to greater discrimination against non-Muslims in Syria, and more conversions to Islam. Abbasid weakness led to the annexing of Syria by Egypt in 877, which after 944 had to share control with local Arab rulers until the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt reconquered the region. In the 1060s the Turkish Seljuks conquered Syria, but their empire soon collapsed, and in 1099 the first of the Crusades led to the incorporation of part of the region into the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and part into the principality of Antioch. In a subsequent campaign (1174-1187), Saladin, sultan of Egypt, took Syria and overthrew the kingdom of Jerusalem. His heirs, the Ayubbids, divided the region, stimulating commerce and cultural life.
By 1250 the Ayubbids had been supplanted by the Egyptian Mamelukes, who met and defeated a Mongol invasion of Syria in 1260. The Mameluke leader killed his overlord and, as Sultan Baybars I, destroyed the Crusader principality of Antioch. By 1300 the Mamelukes had driven the last Crusaders from Syria and created a well-organized state staffed by local officials. They persecuted local sects, such as the Druzes and Ismailis, for fear of subversion. In 1401, however, the conqueror Tamerlane devastated Syria; the weakened and depopulated land continued to decline, until in 1516 it was seized by the Ottoman Empire.

C - Turkish Rule

Syria remained an Ottoman possession (with intermissions) for the next four centuries. The commercial importance of the territory as the site of overland routes to the Orient was considerable, and Aleppo and Damascus flourished as commercial centres. Ottoman rule was generally light, with communities left to administer themselves and Christians tolerated. In the 18th century, however, Ottoman control weakened, governors and Janissaries became oppressive, and trade routes were menaced by Bedouin intrusion from the Arabian Peninsula.

D - 19th Century Decline

By the early 19th century Syria’s most prosperous regions were the semi-autonomous mountain districts outside Ottoman control. In 1831 Muhammad Ali, Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, dispatched an army led by his son which conquered and held Syria for almost a decade. Anxious to prop up the weakening Ottomans, Britain and Austria sent forces which in 1840 compelled the Egyptians to withdraw. Syria reverted to the Ottomans, but tensions remained: in 1860 a massacre of Christians in Damascus led to renewed European involvement. Syria’s economic importance was greatly reduced with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and its artisans were threatened by cheap European imports. Some modernization took place, however, with the French building a railway line from Damascus to Beirut.

E - World War I

Syrian Muslims generally supported the pan-Islamist ambitions of the reformist Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid II, so his deposition in 1909 by the Young Turks strengthened anti-Turkish feeling and Arab self-awareness. When World War I broke out and Turkey took the side of the Central Powers, the Allies, in order to enlist support against Turkey, held out to the Arabs the hope of post-war independence.
In January 1916, by the terms of letters between the British government and Husein ibn Ali, Grand Sharif of Mecca, the latter promised Arab participation in the war on the Allied side in return for a British guarantee of independence for all Arab lands south of a line roughly corresponding to the northern frontiers of present-day Syria and Iraq. In May of the same year, however, Britain and France secretly concluded a separate accord, known as the Sykes-Picot agreement, by which most of the Arab lands under Turkish rule were to be divided into British and French spheres of influence. The areas now comprising Syria and Lebanon were assigned to France; and those comprising Israel and Jordan to Britain.

F - The French Mandate

The Arabs, in alliance with the British and French, fought the Turks for the rest of the war and participated in the capture of Damascus in 1918. In 1919 British forces withdrew from the area assigned to France, leaving French troops in control. The following year France, with the understanding that Syria and Lebanon were to become independent within a reasonably short time, was granted a mandate over them by the League of Nations.

G - Growth of Nationalism

Anti-Turkish sentiment in Syria soon developed into anti-French sentiment and more determined nationalism. The French quelled a first armed rebellion in 1920 and then a second and better organized uprising that lasted from 1925 to 1927. In 1938, soon after French and Syrian leaders had reached agreement on a treaty providing for substantial Syrian independence, the French government refused to ratify the treaty, partly because France regarded control of the area as vital to its military position. The following year France ceded to Turkey the former Turkish administrative district (sanjak) of Alexandretta, in which the ancient Syrian capital of Antioch is located.
These events raised Syrian hostility towards France to a high pitch. Nevertheless, many prominent political figures in Syria declared their loyalty to France and the Allies, when World War II broke out in 1939. After the surrender of France to Germany in 1940, Syria came under the control of the government of Vichy France.

H - Towards Independence

British and Free French forces invaded and subdued Syria in 1941. Later in the same year, the Free French government formally recognized the independence of Syria but continued to occupy the country. With the elections in 1943, a new government was formed under the presidency of the Syrian nationalist Shukri al-Kuwatli, one of the leaders of the 1925-1927 uprising against the French. After the end of World War II in 1945, France persisted in trying to exercise influence over Syria. Resultant anti-French uprisings subsided only after British military intervention on the side of the French and the withdrawal of all French troops and administrative personnel. In 1946 the British troops left Syria. Syria became a charter member of the UN in 1945.

I - The Syrian Republic

The post-war period was marked by serious political instability. In 1944 a “Greater Syria” movement had been initiated to found a Syrian Arab state that would include Lebanon, Syria, present-day Jordan, and Israel. Many Syrian opponents of the movement feared the absorption of Syria into a larger Arab state and the consequent loss of Syrian national identity.
The movement nevertheless gave impetus to Syrian adherence to the Arab League, which was formed primarily to prevent the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Syrian forces participated in the 1948 war between Arab forces and the newly established state of Israel. An armistice was concluded in July of the same year.

J - Post-War Instability

On March 30, 1949, a military junta led by General Husni al-Zaim, a member of the Kurdish minority, seized power. Essentially a dictatorship and highly unpopular, the new regime was overthrown in August by another military junta, and Zaim was executed. General elections were held in November for a constituent assembly. A third coup d’état, led by Colonel Adib al-Shishakli, a former chief of police and head of security, occurred in December. The constituent assembly promulgated a new constitution in September 1950, and, assuming responsibility as the chamber of deputies, elected the provisional chief of state Hashim al-Atasi, an elderly and respected politician, to the presidency.
Syrian and Israeli frontier forces clashed on numerous occasions in the spring of 1951. The hostilities, which stemmed from Syrian opposition to an Israeli drainage project in the demilitarized zone between the two countries, ceased on May 15, after intercession by the UN Security Council. Successive governmental crises during 1951 culminated, on November 29, in another coup d’état engineered by Shishakli. President Atasi resigned shortly thereafter; and Shishakli and his associates formed a government.
Shishakli promulgated a new constitution in 1953. He severely curbed civil liberties and ruled the country as a military dictatorship until March 1954, when he was ousted by another military group that reinstated Atasi as President, reconvened the 1949 chamber of deputies, and restored the constitution of 1950.

K - Growing Anti-Western Resentment

After 1954 Syria appeared to become increasingly anti-Western and pro-Soviet. The government protested vigorously in 1955 against the creation of the Baghdad Pact, a defensive alliance formed in that year by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Britain.
In July 1956 the Syrian chamber of deputies approved the establishment of a committee to negotiate the terms of a possible federation with Egypt. The attacks on Egypt in October and November 1956 by Israel, Britain, and France served to intensify the growing Syrian resentment towards the West.
Syria denounced the Eisenhower Doctrine, promulgated in January 1957 to combat potential communist aggression in the Middle East. In September, Syria accused Turkey of massing troops on the Syrian-Turkish frontier with the intent of executing a US-backed attack on Syria. The USSR supported the Syrian charge, and the matter was brought before the UN General Assembly in October. The Syrian complaint was withdrawn, however, by consent of all the parties concerned, before any UN action was taken. Throughout 1957 Syria accepted increasing aid from the USSR. In October, the USSR agreed to provide aid to Syria, over a period of 12 years, for the construction of many large-scale development projects.

L - Union with Egypt

On February 21, 1958, a plebiscite held in Syria and Egypt gave nearly unanimous approval to the federation of the two countries as the United Arab Republic (UAR), with Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt as President. The following month Nasser dissolved all Syrian political parties, including the Communist Party, and dismissed pro-Soviet army officers.
Under a system of land reform introduced in September, individual holdings were limited to 80 hectares (200 acres) of irrigated and 300 hectares (750 acres) of unirrigated land. Separate ministries for Syria and Egypt were abolished on October 7 in favour of central ministries in Cairo. The first distributions of confiscated land occurred in Syria on February 23, 1959. Elections for local councils, held on July 8, resulted in a setback for socialists in Syria. On March 18, 1960, Nasser appointed several Syrians to his Cabinet in a move to strengthen his hold on the country. The National Union, the single legal party of the UAR, held its first congress in Cairo during July.
A further step towards unification, taken on August 16, 1961, was the establishment of a single UAR Cabinet. Meanwhile, a vigorous policy of nationalization, including steamship lines and banking and insurance firms, intensified conservative opposition to the UAR. Army units seized Damascus on September 28 and the following day proclaimed the renewed independence of Syria. Nasser decided not to resist the new regime.

M - Militant Governments

A provisional constitution was approved in a referendum early in December 1961, and a new national government was set up. In a bloodless military coup on March 8, 1963, this government was overthrown and a national council of a revolutionary command assumed control. Major-General Amin el-Hafez, a former military attaché in Argentina, became Chairman of the National Council.
In May 1964 the national council was replaced by a presidency council of three civilian and two military members vested with full executive powers. Tensions within the ruling Baath Party, especially the long-standing hostility between its older civilian members and the extreme leftists among the young military officers, mounted steadily in 1964 and throughout 1965. In February 1966 the radicals seized power, placed several long-time Baathist leaders under arrest, and installed Nur ad-Din al-Atasi, a former deputy prime minister, as head of state.

N - Wars Against Israel

In July and September 1966 two abortive attempts to overthrow the regime were followed by extensive purges in the army and the government. On November 4, 1966, Syria and Egypt entered into a defence agreement directed against Israel. This move was in part a response to increasing tension on the Syrian-Israeli border.

N1 - The Six-Day War

During 1966 and early 1967 the border was repeatedly violated by Syrian-based guerrilla attacks and Israeli reprisals. Border incidents were an important catalyst in the chain of events leading to the outbreak of the Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab nations in 1967. During the conflict Israeli forces overran the Syrian positions on the Golan Heights, advanced rapidly, and occupied al-Qunaytirah, only 65 km (40 mi) from Damascus.
On June 10 the UN ceasefire proposal was accepted and observers were placed between Israeli and Syrian forces. Charging Britain and the United States with active support of Israel, Syria broke relations with both countries on June 6.
In November 1970 General Hafez al-Assad seized power. Becoming President in March 1971, he formed a new Cabinet in December 1972, giving the Baathists more than half the posts and dividing the rest among the other parties.

N2 - The Yom Kippur War

During the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, Syrian troops attacked Israel on the Golan Heights, while Egypt struck along the Suez Canal. After early Syrian gains, Israel drove the Syrian forces off the Golan Heights and advanced to within 32 km (20 mi) of Damascus. Syria belatedly agreed to a UN-sponsored ceasefire accepted by the other belligerents, but refused to discuss prisoner exchanges. After mediation by US Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, Syria and Israel signed a disengagement agreement in May 1974; the accord provided for a neutral zone, patrolled by UN forces, and for the repatriation of prisoners of war. In June, Syria and the United States resumed diplomatic relations, broken in 1967.
As it became clear in 1975 that Egypt would pursue a bilateral agreement with Israel, Syria forged closer ties with Jordan. The following year, Syria intervened in the Lebanese civil war and subsequently became bogged down in the continuing conflict. In 1980 Syria signed a 20-year treaty of friendship and cooperation with the USSR. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, and Syrian and Israeli forces clashed the following year when Israel invaded Lebanon.

O - Strife and Rapprochement

Domestically, Assad’s regime was shaken by growing civil disturbances. An extremist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, was accused of several assassinations. In 1982 government troops suppressed a full-scale rebellion by the brotherhood in and around Hamāh, reducing much of the city to rubble. Britain broke diplomatic relations with Syria in 1986 and the United States imposed sanctions, both accusing Syria of sponsoring international terrorism. Syria was one of the few Arab nations to support Iran in the long Iran-Iraq War with Iraq during the 1980s.
In February 1987 Syria, which maintained 25,000 troops in Lebanon, sent a force of 7,000 into the Muslim sector of Beirut in an attempt to restore order between warring factions there. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Syria sent troops to Saudi Arabia and later joined the anti-Iraq coalition in the Gulf War. In Lebanon, a Syrian-led assault in October 1990 crushed Christian resistance in East Beirut, reuniting the Lebanese capital. The following month, Assad met US President George Bush in Geneva, Switzerland, marking improved relations between their countries.

P - The Gulf War and Beyond

About 21,000 Syrian ground forces served with the anti-Iraq coalition in the Gulf War. In May 1991 Syria and Lebanon signed a friendship treaty that called for cooperation. In 1994 Syria entered into negotiations with Israel concerning the status of the Golan Heights. Israel offered to return the territory, seized in the 1967 Six-Day War, for normalization of relations with Syria.
Negotiations between Israel and Syria towards a peace treaty during 1995 and 1996 stalled and then became deadlocked over the question of future ownership of the Golan Heights. A series of suicide bomb attacks in Israel which Syria refused to condemn led to the negotiations being put on hold until after the Israeli general election in May 1996. The election of a hard-line right-wing prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the formation of a Likud-led coalition in Israel, made it less likely that a settlement with Syria would be reached.
In March 1997 the talks between Syria and Israel continued in Maryland in the United States. A degree of opposition to the talks was expressed by Iran but this did not threaten relations between the two countries, which concluded a series of economic agreements in August. Relations with Turkey, however, declined in 1996, mainly due to water access problems.
In January 1997 a bomb attack in Damascus killed 11 and injured 42. This and several preceding explosions in Syria and Syrian targets in Lebanon were blamed by Syria on Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, although official responsibility was claimed by a Syrian Islamist group.
In June, relations between Syria and Iraq entered a phase of improvement, with the reopening of the border at three points, the exchange of trade delegations, and, in November, Syria’s stated opposition to planned US military strikes against Iraq. This rapprochement was linked to the failure of the peace talks with Israel, who had embarked on a programme of military co-operation with Turkey; Syria sought to counterbalance the threat by nurturing closer relations with Iraq.
Peace negotiations with Israel resumed in December 1999, in the United States, but ended without agreement in March 2000.

Q - Rule of Bashar al-Assad

Aged 69, President Hafez al-Assad died of a heart attack on June 10, 2000. He was taken to his birthplace, Qardahah, to be buried. He had been endorsed as president for a fifth seven-year term in February 1999. Three months before his death, he had accepted the resignation of the entire government. A new administration was formally appointed on March 13.
His son, Bashar, was endorsed as president in July. In his inauguration address, President Bashar al-Assad indicated that he would be a cautious reformer, though he spoke of restructuring the economy, cutting down bureaucracy, and stamping out corruption.
In March 2001 Assad met Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat at a summit of Arab leaders in Jordan. It was the first time the heads of Syria and the Palestinian National Authority had met since 1993. In a speech to the summit, Assad signalled the reconciliation between them. In May 2001, Pope John Paul II visited the country, followed by Cuban premier Fidel Castro. In June Syrian troops were withdrawn from Beirut, 25 years after the start of the civil war in the Lebanon; Syria was elected to sit on the 15-member UN Security Council. UK prime minister Tony Blair met for high-profile talks with Assad in November 2001 in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. They spoke about the war on terrorism but failed to reach an obvious understanding. Matters were exacerbated the following May when the US administration added Syria to its “axis of evil”—countries that it believes sponsor terrorism or have the ability to attack using weapons of mass destruction—as defined in the previous January’s state of the union address of President George Bush. In the war on Iraq launched by coalition forces in March 2003, Syria seemed to avoid direct involvement, but did attempt to prevent an exodus of refugees into the country from neighbouring Iraq.
Assad appointed a new prime minister in September 2003. Muhammad Naji al-Otari, the former speaker, is being expected to carry through reforms at an increased pace. The following months saw Israeli air strikes within Syrian territory on alleged training military camps inside the border. In January 2004, in what was seen as a thaw in relations between the two countries, President Assad paid a visit to Turkey for talks.


Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation.

Adnan Adahhik

 
Adnan,

What a long topic !
OK I will read it then I'll come back
Thank u

 
Good work, but my question, are you employed in ministry of tourism?
Good Work

 
Syria, what can I say……………
Your country is not some rules that were there since you were born. It’s not some places and streets. The meaning of your country is your beloved…..it’s your family, your trusted friends, your home, your neighbors, it’s the place where you can’t be left alone, as you may be in any other country.
The only way to know how much your country counts to you is just to leave it, try to do it and you will find out the truth. You are inferior in any other place, even if you knew lots of people but you will still feel it, you are stranger out side ………..
I love my country because I love being there, having my family near me, people that I know well, friends who cares and always there for me, I’m not saying that you won’t find good people out, but the thing is you will not be able to trust them immediately, you can’t tell them every thing, and believe me, you will know how much you need to talk to someone when you become alone……..
Some might say , “well, if you are right, why would I love my country?? What did it give me?”
It’s enough to know that you learned at free school, free colleges, see other countries such as the US, their schools are not for free, nor there medical services, they start to raise money since they are in the high school to enter college…it’s enough to be secure in your country, look at our nearest neighbor, Lebanon, you can’t tell when they will kill each others, they can’t tell when a bomb will hit the ceiling of their house, they don’t feel secure…it’s hard……………
Look, your mother sometimes slaps you, cures you at times, and even yells that she wish to die due to you , but the question is, do you love your mother or not?? If she did all that, does that means that she hates you? No at all………….she will always love you, and you as well will never hate her…….she is the only reason why you are alive. Try to think of your country as your mother, your beloved and act upon it…your problem is not with the country itself, it’s with bad people who are taking responsibility of it…
Finally, I would like to end quoting from John F. Kennedy’s words, he said: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Hope that you got what I mean………………………..
thank you for this topic

 
Hi
Adnan, Yeah it is nice to have Adnan as the new Iben Batuta of Homs, as long as iben batuta of Casablanca or el dar al baydaa.

You would better study history, you will be real rover.