Syria

Discovering Syria: A Country of Rich History and Turbulent Present

Syria is a country in West Asia with a population of 25 million, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon. Can you imagine living in such a diverse and strategically important region? The modern state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule, as a French Mandate. Post-independence Syria experienced multiple military coups, civil wars, and internal power struggles that resulted in the establishment of an Alawite minority rule by Hafiz al-Assad.

Since the Arab Spring in 2011, Syria has been embroiled in a multi-sided civil war with over 6 million refugees displaced from the country. The country is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Arabs, Sunni Muslims, and Alawites. Syria is ranked 4th-worst in the Fragile States Index, extremely limited press freedom, and the most corrupt country in the MENA region. Syria has become an epicenter of an Assad-sponsored Captagon industry, exporting billions of dollars worth of illicit drugs annually.

Etymology

The name Syria is derived from the Luwian term ‘Sura/i’ and the ancient Greek name Σύριοι, Sýrioi, or Σύροι, which originally referred to Assyria in northern Mesopotamia. How fascinating that such a name has such an interesting history!

History

The Natufian culture was sedentary around 11th millennium BC and became a center of Neolithic culture. The site of Tell Qaramel has round stone towers dated to 10650 BC, making them the oldest structures of this kind in the world. The Kingdom of Ebla was founded around 3500 BC and built its fortune through trade with Mesopotamian states and Asia Minor.

The earliest recorded indigenous civilization in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla, which had contact with Egypt and traded with other ancient civilizations. Syria was later weakened by war with Mari and became part of the Akkadian Empire. Hurrians settled in the northern east parts of Syria while Amorites dominated the rest of the region.

Ugarit arose circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet, considered to be the world’s earliest known alphabet. Aleppo and Damascus are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Yamhad dominated northern Syria for two centuries before being conquered by the Hittites around 1600 BC.

Syria became a battle ground for various foreign empires, including the Hittite Empire, Mitanni Empire, Egyptian Empire, Middle Assyrian Empire, and Babylonian Empire. Semitic people such as the Suteans and Arameans appeared in the area around the 14th century BC and were eventually subjugated by Assyria and the Hittites for centuries.

The Egyptians fought the Hittites for control over western Syria, with the Battle of Kadesh reaching its zenith in 1274 BC. The west remained part of the Hittite empire until its destruction c. 1200 BC, while eastern Syria became part of the Middle Assyrian Empire.

With the decline of Assyria in the late 11th century BC, the Aramean tribes gained control of much of the interior and founded states such as Bit Bahiani and Aram-Damascus. The Phoenicians came to dominate the coasts of Syria from the 13th century BC, founding city states such as Amrit and Simyra.

Syria fell to the Neo Assyrian Empire in 911 BC, which introduced Imperial Aramaic as its lingua franca. The Assyrians were eventually weakened by internal civil wars and attacks from other empires, leading to their downfall in 605 BC. The Neo-Babylonian Empire took over Syria after the fall of Assyria, with the Babylonians being victorious over Egypt during this period.

Lands constituting modern-day Syria were part of various empires, including Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid, Macedonian, Seleucid, Roman, and Byzantine. The Greeks introduced the name ‘Syria’ to the region, and it was also used to describe Assyria and other lands under Assyrian dominion.

Syria briefly came under Armenian control from 83 BC before being conquered by Pompey the Great and incorporated into the Roman Empire in 64 BC. Under Roman rule, Syria prospered as a strategic location on the Silk Road, making it a battleground for rival powers.

Ancient Antiquity

A Palmyrene kingdom arose in northern Syria in the 2nd century and briefly conquered Egypt and other territories before being brought under Roman control. The Aramaic language spread throughout the region, including to Roman Britain. Control of Syria passed from the Romans to the Byzantines, with a largely Aramaic-speaking population existing during the heyday of the Byzantine Empire.

Prior to the Arab Islamic Conquest in the 7th century, Syria was home to various ethnic and religious groups, including Arameans, Greeks, Romans, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Jews, Armenians, Nabateans, Lakhmids, Ghassanids, and Christians. Syrians held significant power during the Severan dynasty, with Roman emperors including Julia Domna’s family members and Alexander Severus.

The region is also significant in the history of Christianity, as Saul of Tarsus was converted on the road to Damascus and became a prominent figure in the Christian Church at Antioch. Muhammad’s first interaction with the people of Syria occurred during an expedition to Dumatul Jandal in July 626, where he ordered his followers to invade nearby areas suspected of being involved in highway robbery.

Modern History

It is tempting to suppose that Muhammad was already envisaging something of the expansion which took place after his death. The rapid march of his troops impressed all those who heard of it. 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 – 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 by the Egypt-based Ikhshidids and then by the Hamdanids originating in Aleppo founded by Sayf al-Dawla.

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. 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 1400, the Muslim Turco-Mongol conqueror Tamurlane invaded Syria, in which he sacked Aleppo and captured Damascus after defeating the Mamluk army. The city’s inhabitants were massacred, except for the artisans who were deported to Samarkand.

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. 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.

His short-term rule attempted to change Syria’s demographics and social structure. He brought Egyptian villagers, rebuilt Jaffa, and settled it with veteran soldiers. However, by 1840 he had to surrender the area back to the Ottomans. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire suffered defeat and lost control of the Near East.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement divided the empire into zones of influence. The discovery of oil in Mosul led to a negotiation with France, ceding the region to the British zone. In 1920, a short-lived independent Kingdom of Syria was established under Faisal I. However, his rule ended after a few months.

French troops occupied Syria later that year and General Gouraud proposed maintaining divisions among Syrian factions. In 1925, Sultan al-Atrash led a revolt against the French. The French regained control with the help of thousands of troops from Morocco and Senegal. Al-Atrash was sentenced to death but escaped and returned to Syria in 1937 after being pardoned.

Syria negotiated a treaty of independence in September 1936, but it never came into force due to the French Legislature’s refusal to ratify it. With the fall of France during World War II, Syria became under Vichy France control until the British and Free French occupied the country.

Upheaval dominated Syrian politics from independence through the late 1960s. In May 1948, Syrian forces invaded Palestine with other Arab states, attacking Jewish settlements. President Shukri al-Quwatli’s troops were instructed to destroy Zionists. The invasion aimed to prevent the establishment of Israel.

The Syrian government recruited former Nazis to build their armed forces and military intelligence capabilities. Defeat in this war led to a series of coups, including those by Colonel Husni al-Za’im, Colonel Sami al-Hinnawi, and Colonel Adib Shishakli. In 1956, Syria signed a pact with the Soviet Union, gaining communist influence within the government.

In 1958, President Shukri al-Quwatli and Egypt’s Nasser merged their countries to form the United Arab Republic. A group of Syrian Ba’athist officers formed a secret Military Committee in response to the union’s instability. They staged a coup on September 28, 1961, and Syria seceded from the union with Egypt.

The 8 March 1963 Ba’athist coup led to the takeover by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar. The new government was dominated by Ba’ath members, who ruled as a totalitarian state. The Ba’ath party monopolized power and enforced its ideology, creating a one-party state.

The Military Committee carried out an intra-party rebellion against the Old Guard in 1966, leading to a schism within the original pan-Arab Ba’ath Party. A low-key war between Syria and Israel existed from April to June 1967, with conflict over Israeli cultivation of land in the Demilitarized Zone.

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 captured two-thirds of the Golan Heights in under 48 hours, causing a split between Jadid and Assad over what steps to take next.

Disagreement developed between Jadid, who controlled the party apparatus, and Assad, who controlled the military. The power struggle culminated in the November 1970 Syrian Corrective movement, which installed Hafiz al-Assad as the strongman of the government.

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. He assigned Alawite loyalists to key posts in the military forces, bureaucracy, intelligence and the ruling elite.

The Syrian Civil War

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. In the late 1970s, an Islamist uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood was aimed against the government.

The uprising had reached its climax in the 1982 Hama massacre, when more than 40,000 people were killed by Syrian military troops and Ba’athist paramilitaries. Syria participated in the United States-led Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, and engaged in negotiations with Israel along with Palestine and Jordan.

The conflict continues to evolve, with rebel factions taking control of Aleppo and other cities, and the Syrian army engaging in counteroffensives to halt their advance. The rebels captured the city of Hama on December 5, despite government claims of launching a successful counterattack. The fighting led to widespread displacement with nearly 50,000 people fleeing the area and over 600 casualties reported.

Rebel forces reached Homs on December 5 and captured it by December 8, leading to a rapid collapse of regime authority in Syria. The Syrian Arab Army melted away, and opposition forces captured Damascus on December 8, toppling Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Current Situation

Following the fall of the Assad regime, a transitional government was formed, and a caretaker prime minister remained in office until fresh elections were called. Israel launched a ground invasion and airstrikes against Syrian military depots, while Turkish-backed fighters clashed with US-backed SDF forces.

The transitional government promised to allow Christians and other minorities to practice their religion without interference. Various independent observers and international organizations have condemned the Assad regime’s electoral conduct as a scam. The Electoral Integrity Project has designated Syrian elections as a ‘facade’ with the worst electoral integrity in the world alongside Comoros and Central African Republic.

Geography

Syria’s climate varies from humid Mediterranean coast to arid desert, with important agricultural areas in Al-Jazira and Hawran. Petroleum was first discovered in 1956, and it became Syria’s leading natural resource after 1974. Natural gas was discovered in 1940, and the country contains four terrestrial ecoregions.

Syria’s biodiversity is ranked 144th globally out of 172 countries with a Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 3.64/10. The Syrian Arab Republic was a presidential state with an extensive secret police apparatus, despite nominally permitting non-Ba’athist candidates.

Foreign Policy

The country has severed diplomatic relations with several countries due to its ongoing civil war and human rights abuses. Syria continues to maintain diplomatic relations with some regional states and was readmitted to the Arab League in 2023. International disputes include the 1939 plebiscite regarding the Sanjak of Alexandretta joining Turkey, which led to the formation of the Hatay Province.

Armed Forces

Syria has around 400,000 troops upon mobilization and is a conscripted force. The country has an arsenal of surface-to-surface missiles and receives military aid from Iran and Russia. Human rights in Syria have long been a concern, with organizations such as Human Rights Watch citing ‘among the worst in the world’ records.

Economy

The economy is heavily reliant on credit from Iran and has contracted significantly due to the civil war, with the Syrian pound losing 80% of its value. The country is estimated to lose around $400 million per month due to EU bans on oil imports. The tourism sector has also been severely affected, with around 40% of employees losing their jobs since the beginning of the war.

ISIS’s capture of phosphate mines in May 2015 and a gas pipeline in June 2015 further strained the economy. The loss of western gas fields could lead to Iran subsidizing the Syrian government. Agrarian reform measures were introduced, allowing for progress in land redistribution from 1958 to 1961, with Law 134 being passed in response to peasant mobilization and expanding peasants’ rights.

Drugs Industry

Syria is home to an illegal drugs industry run by associates of al-Assad, producing captagon, a popular amphetamine in the Arab world. The drug exports have surpassed the country’s legal exports and generate hard currency for the government. The petroleum industry has declined sharply since 2014, with ISIS capturing oil fields and reducing production to less than 6,000 barrels per day.

Infrastructure

Syria has four international airports and a well-maintained railway system despite being an underdeveloped country. The road network is 69,873 km long, with 1,103 km of expressways. Telecommunications are overseen by the Ministry of Communications and Technology, but internet censorship laws have led to arrests of activists.

Water Resources

Syria has scarce water resources, with agriculture being the largest consumer. Domestic water use is only about 9% of total use. Most people live in the Euphrates River valley and coastal plain, with a population density of about 99 per square kilometer.

Population

As of 2014, around 10 million Syrians had been displaced since March 2011, with half living outside the country. By 2020, the UN estimated over 5.5 million were living as refugees in the region and 6.1 million internally displaced.

Demographics

Syrians are an indigenous Levantine people, closely related to their neighbors. The population is approximately 18,500,000 (2019 estimate). Syrian Arabs make up 74% of the population with some 600,000 Palestinians not included. Assyrians (400,000) and Western Aramaic-speakers live mainly in villages north and northeast of Syria.

Kurds constitute about 9-10% or approximately 2 million people, mostly residing in northeastern corner of Syria. Turkish-speaking Syrian Turkmen/Turkoman estimate ranges from several hundred thousand to 3.5 million, while Assyrians follow with 3-4%, Circassians 1.5%, and Armenians 1%. Other minority groups include Albanians, Bosnians, Georgians, Greeks, Persians, Pashtuns, and Russians.

Languages

Arabic is the official language, but several modern Arabic dialects are used in everyday life, with Kurdish being the second-most spoken language. Neo-Aramaic languages are also spoken among Assyrians. English and French are widely spoken as second languages.

Religion

Sunni Muslims account for 74% of the population, while Shia Muslims (3%), Alawites (10%), Christians (10%), Druzes (500,000), and other minorities exist. President Assad’s family is Alawite and dominate the government. In May 2013, SOHR stated that at least 41,000 Alawites were killed during the civil war, out of 94,000 total killed.

Christians make up 1.2 million of Syria’s population, divided into several sects including Greek Orthodox (45.7%), Syriac Orthodox (22.4%), and Catholics (16.2%). The Christian population has dropped to about 500,000 in 2023. Jews were once a substantial population in Syria but have largely emigrated.

Education

Education is free and compulsory from ages 6-12, with a literacy rate of 90.7% for males and 82.2% for females. In 2010: – Healthcare spending accounted for 3.4% of GDP. – There were 14.9 physicians and 18.5 nurses per 10,000 inhabitants. – Life expectancy at birth was 75.7 years.

Culture

Syria is a traditional society with cultural importance placed on family, religion, education, self-discipline, and respect. Literature: Syrian writers have contributed to Arabic literature. Prominent contemporary Syrian writers include Adonis, Muhammad Maghout, Haidar Haidar, Ghada al-Samman, Nizar Qabbani, and Zakariyya Tamer.

Music: Syria has produced several pan-Arab stars, including Asmahan, Farid al-Atrash, and singer Lena Chamamyan. The city of Aleppo is known for its muwashshah, a form of Andalous sung poetry popularized by Sabri Moudallal.

Cuisine

Syrian cuisine is rich and varied, influenced by southern Mediterranean, Greek, and Southwest Asian dishes. Main dishes include kibbeh, hummus, tabbouleh, fattoush, labneh, shawarma, mujaddara, shanklish, pastırma, sujuk, and baklava. Appetizers like meze are often served before the main course, accompanied by khubz (Arabic flatbread). Drinks vary depending on time of day and occasion, with Arabic coffee being a popular hot drink, arak an alcoholic beverage for special occasions, and ayran, jallab, white coffee, and Al Shark beer also available.