After World War I, France acquired a mandate over the northern portion of the former Ottoman Empire province of Syria. The French administered the area until granting it independence in 1946. The new country lacked political stability and experienced a series of military coups. Syria united with Egypt in 1958 to form the United Arab Republic. In 1961, the two entities separated, and the Syrian Arab Republic was reestablished. In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Syria lost control of the Golan Heights region to Israel. During the 1990s, Syria and Israel held occasional, albeit unsuccessful, peace talks over its return. In 1970, Hafiz al-ASAD, a member of the socialist Ba'ath Party and the minority Alawi sect, seized power in a bloodless coup and brought political stability to the country. Following the death of al-ASAD, his son, Bashar al-ASAD, was approved as president by popular referendum in 2000. Syrian troops that were stationed in Lebanon since 1976 in an ostensible peacekeeping role were withdrawn in 2005. During the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hizballah, Syria placed its military forces on alert but did not intervene directly on behalf of its ally Hizballah. In 2007, Bashar al-ASAD's second term as president was again approved in a referendum.
In the wake of major uprisings elsewhere in the region, antigovernment protests broke out in the southern province of Dar'a in 2011. Protesters called for the legalization of political parties, the removal of corrupt local officials, and the repeal of the restrictive Emergency Law allowing arrests without charge. Demonstrations and violent unrest spread across Syria, and the government responded with concessions, but also with military force and detentions that led to extended clashes and eventually civil war. International pressure on the Syrian Government intensified after 2011, as the Arab League, the EU, Turkey, and the US expanded economic sanctions against the ASAD regime and those entities that supported it. In 2012, more than 130 countries recognized the Syrian National Coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. In 2015, Russia launched a military intervention on behalf of the ASAD regime, and domestic and foreign-government-aligned forces recaptured swaths of territory from opposition forces. With foreign support, the regime continued to periodically regain opposition-held territory until 2020, when Turkish firepower halted a regime advance and forced a stalemate between regime and opposition forces. The government lacks territorial control over much of the northeastern part of the country, which the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hold, and a smaller area dominated by Turkey.
Since 2016, Turkey has conducted three large-scale military operations to capture territory along Syria's northern border. Some opposition forces organized under the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army and Turkish forces have maintained control of northwestern Syria along the Turkish border with the Afrin area of Aleppo Province since 2018. The violent extremist organization Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly the Nusrah Front) emerged in 2017 as the predominant opposition force in Idlib Province, and still dominates an area also hosting Turkish forces. Negotiations have failed to produce a resolution to the conflict, and the UN estimated in 2022 that at least 306,000 people have died during the civil war. Approximately 6.7 million Syrians were internally displaced as of 2022, and 14.6 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance across the country. An additional 5.6 million Syrians were registered refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa. The conflict in Syria remains one of the two largest displacement crises worldwide (the other is the full-scale invasion of Ukraine).
dust storms, sandstorms
volcanism: Syria's two historically active volcanoes, Es Safa and an unnamed volcano near the Turkish border have not erupted in centuries
" }, "Geography - note": { "text": "the capital of Damascus - located at an oasis fed by the Barada River - is thought to be one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities; there are 42 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights (2017)" } }, "People and Society": { "Population": { "total": { "text": "23,865,423" }, "male": { "text": "11,981,578" }, "female": { "text": "11,883,845 (2024 est.)" } }, "Nationality": { "noun": { "text": "Syrian(s)" }, "adjective": { "text": "Syrian" } }, "Ethnic groups": { "text": "Arab ~50%, Alawite ~15%, Kurd ~10%, Levantine ~10%, other ~15% (includes Druze, Ismaili, Imami, Nusairi, Assyrian, Turkoman, Armenian)" }, "Languages": { "Languages": { "text": "Arabic (official), Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian, French, English" }, "major-language sample(s)": { "text": "several previous; latest issued 15 February 2012, passed by referendum and effective 27 February 2012; note – UN-sponsored talks, which began in late 2019 between delegates from government and opposition forces to draft a new constitution; in June 2022, the 8th round of the Syrian Constitutional Committee ended in Geneva with no results, and the 9th round, scheduled for July 2022, was cancelled due to lack of Russian and regime participation
" }, "amendments": { "text": "proposed by the president of the republic or by one third of the People’s Assembly members; following review by a special Assembly committee, passage requires at least three-quarters majority vote by the Assembly and approval by the president" } }, "Legal system": { "text": "mixed legal system of civil and Islamic (sharia) law (for family courts)" }, "International law organization participation": { "text": "has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; non-party state to the ICC" }, "Citizenship": { "citizenship by birth": { "text": "no" }, "citizenship by descent only": { "text": "the father must be a citizen of Syria; if the father is unknown or stateless, the mother must be a citizen of Syria" }, "dual citizenship recognized": { "text": "yes" }, "residency requirement for naturalization": { "text": "10 years" } }, "Suffrage": { "text": "18 years of age; universal" }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { "text": "President Bashar al-ASAD (since 17 July 2000); Vice President Najah al-ATTAR (since 23 March 2006)" }, "head of government": { "text": "Prime Minister Hussein ARNOUS (since 30 August 2020); Deputy Prime Minister Ali Abdullah AYOUB (Lt. Gen.) (since 30 August 2020)" }, "cabinet": { "text": "Council of Ministers appointed by the president" }, "elections/appointments": { "text": "president directly elected by simple majority popular vote for a 7-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 26 May 2021 (next to be held in 2028); the president appoints the vice president, prime minister, and deputy prime minister" }, "election results": { "text": " Bashar al-ASAD elected president; percent of vote - Bashar al-ASAD (Ba'th Party) 95.2%, Mahmoud Ahmad MAREI (Democratic Arab Socialist Union) 3.3%, other1.5%" } }, "Legislative branch": { "description": { "text": "unicameral People's Assembly or Majlis al-Shaab (250 seats; members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by simple majority preferential vote to serve 4-year terms)" }, "elections": { "text": "last held on 19 July 2020 (next to be held on 31 July 2024)" }, "election results": { "text": "percent of vote by party - NPF 80%, other 20%; seats by party - NPF 200, other 50; composition - men 224, women 26, percentage women 10.4%" } }, "Judicial branch": { "highest court(s)": { "text": "Court of Cassation (organized into civil, criminal, religious, and military divisions, each with 3 judges); Supreme Constitutional Court (consists of 7 members)" }, "judge selection and term of office": { "text": "Court of Cassation judges appointed by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), a judicial management body headed by the minister of justice with 7 members, including the national president; judge tenure NA; Supreme Constitutional Court judges nominated by the president and appointed by the SJC; judges serve 4-year renewable terms" }, "subordinate courts": { "text": "courts of first instance; magistrates' courts; religious and military courts; Economic Security Court; Counterterrorism Court (established June 2012)" } }, "Political parties and leaders": { "text": "legal parties/alliances:de facto governance entities:
Democratic Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria or DAANES [Mahmoud al-MESLET, Layla QAHRAMAN]
Syrian Interim Government or SIG [Abdurrahman MUSTAFA]
Syrian Salvation Government or SSG [Ali Abdulrahman KEDA]
increasing drug trafficking particularly the synthetic stimulant captagon, a mixture of various amphetamines, methamphetamine, and/or other stimulants; drug smuggling of captagon and other stimulants linked to the Syrian government and Hizballah
" } } }