Syria

I		INTRODUCTION

Syria (Arabic Suriyah), officially Al Jumhuriyah al Arabiyah as Suriyah (Syrian Arab Republic), republic in southwestern Asia, bounded on the north by Turkey, on the east by Iraq, on the south by Jordan and Israel, and on the west by Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea. Syria has an area of 185,180 sq km (71,498 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Damascus, also spelled Dimashq.

II

PEOPLE

        Syria is populated chiefly by Arabs, who constitute about 90 percent 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

Religion

The overwhelming majority of the Syrian population adheres to the religion of Islam. About 73 percent of the population are Sunni Muslims. Other Muslims include Ismailis, Shia Muslims, and Alawites (a schism of Shia Islam). Of the non-Muslims in Syria, most are Christians, primarily Greek and Armenian Orthodox. Religious minorities include Druze, who follows a religion related to Islam, and a very small community of Jews.

B

Education

Primary education is free and compulsory for all children aged 6 through 12. Some 78 percent of the adult Syrian population was estimated to be literate in 2005. Primary schools enrolled 2.8 million pupils in the 2000 school year, and 1.1 million students attended secondary schools and vocational institutes.

In 1998, 94,110 Syrian students were enrolled in institutes of higher education. Syria has universities in Damascus, Halab, Himş, and Al Lādhiqīyah. Also in Damascus is the Arabic Languages Academy (1919), which is devoted to the study of Arabic language, literature, history, and culture. Other institutes and colleges specialize in social work, agriculture, industry, technology, and music.

III

ECONOMY

           

Syria’s economy depends heavily on its agricultural production. The country has 4.9 million hectares (12 million acres) of cultivated land, accounting for 27 percent of its total land area. About one-fifth of the tilled acreage is irrigated, but extensive areas lie unused for 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 acreage under cultivation suffers from soil exhaustion because of insufficient use of fertilizers and failure to rotate crops. The estimated national budget in 1999 included $17.5 billion in domestic revenue and $17.5 billion in expenditure. Syria is heavily dependent on aid from the major Arab oil-producing states.

A

Agriculture

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. Other important crops include sugar beets, grapes, olives, citrus fruits, vegetables, and cotton. Cotton accounted for more than half the national export revenues before the ascendancy of oil in the mid-1970s. Syrian farmers also raise sheep, chickens, goats, and cattle.

B

Mining

Oil was first discovered in Syria in the 1950s. Significant output began after the 1968 completion of a pipeline linking the oil fields in the northeast to refineries in the west. Government efforts to encourage exploration by foreign oil companies further increased output, and by the mid-1970s petroleum had become Syria’s leading export. Since then, however, the sector has suffered from periodic declines in world oil prices and from wider Syrian economic troubles. Existing reserves are depleting rapidly and may be exhausted in the early 21st century. The Syrian government is encouraging foreign companies to explore for new oil fields near the Iraqi and Turkish borders. Production of crude petroleum was 169 million barrels in 2004. Syria also produces smaller amounts of natural gas.

C

Manufacturing

The Syrian government nationalized most major industries by the late 1960s. Large-scale heavy industry continues to be dominated by the state, but since the early 1990s Syria has encouraged the development of privately owned light industries. Textiles—cotton yarn and cotton, woolen, and silk fabrics—constitute the largest single manufacturing industry in Syria. As in centuries past, Syrian artisans continue to be noted for the fine quality of their silk brocades and rugs and for their artistic metalwork in brass, copper, silver, iron, and steel. Other major manufactured goods include cement, fertilizers, glass, olive oil, and household appliances and electronics.

D

Foreign Trade

Before the 1990s Syria imported considerably more than it exported each year. However, Syria’s closer alliance with Western nations and the Gulf States in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War (1991) stimulated high economic growth in the private sector and increased export earnings. In 2003 Syrian imports totaled $5.1 billion, and exports totaled $5.7 billion. The principal imports were manufactures of many types, including machinery, transportation equipment, iron and steel, refined petroleum, textiles, and chemical products. Syria also imported grain, livestock products, and other agricultural goods. The principal exports were petroleum, cotton and other textiles, preserved foods, beverages, tobacco, phosphates, fruits, and vegetables. The chief buyers of Syrian exports were Germany, Italy, France, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Imports were supplied chiefly by Italy, Germany, France, the United States, and South Korea. Much revenue was derived from fees charged to foreign countries for piping oil through Syria. Considerable foreign currency also came from the expenditures of the many tourists who visit the country each year. In November 1995 Syria and several other Middle Eastern and North African countries signed an agreement with the European Union to create a Mediterranean free-trade zone by 2010.

E

Transportation and Communications

Transportation and communications facilities in Syria are owned and operated by the state. Some 2,702 km (1,679 mi) of railroads connect the major cities of Syria and extend to the national frontiers of all neighboring countries except Israel. Syria has 94,890 km (58,962 mi) of roads, of which 14 percent are paved. In 2004 there were 36 vehicles in use for every 1,000 residents. Al Lādhiqīyah 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.

Telephone mainlines in Syria numbered 152 for every 1,000 inhabitants in 2005. There were 278 radio receivers per 1,000 people. Television service began in 1960, and there were 61 sets for every 1,000 Syrians in 2000. The country’s leading daily newspapers are al-Baath, Tishrin, and al-Thawrah, published in Damascus; al-Jamahir al-Arabia, published in Halab; and al-Fida, published in Hamāh.

IV

HISTORY

As early as about 1800 bc King Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria is thought to have established his capital, Shubat Enlil, at present-day Tell Leilan in the extreme northeast of Syria. The kingdom was later conquered by Hammurabi of Babylonia, and the region was long afterward influenced principally by Egypt and Babylon. Parts of the region were conquered successively by the Egyptians and the Hittites, and, in the 8th century bc, by Assyria. In the 6th century bc the region passed first to the Chaldeans and then to the Persians (538 bc). Alexander the Great made it a part of his empire in 333 and 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 Ptolemies 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, whose realm became known as the kingdom of Syria. In 64 bc Syria was made a Roman province.

After the far-flung Roman dominions were divided into two parts in ad 395, the Western Roman Empire with its capital at Rome and the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire with its capital at Constantinople, Syria remained a Byzantine province for approximately 240 years. It was conquered in 636 by the Arabs and was quickly absorbed into their rapidly expanding Islamic empire. 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. Later it was supplanted by Baghdād in present-day Iraq.

In 1099 the Crusaders incorporated part of the region into the Christian 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. The many wars centering on Syria impoverished the land and its people; its ruin was completed by a Mongol invasion in 1260.

A

Ottoman Rule

The Ottomans incorporated the region into their empire in 1516, and it remained in their possession for the next four centuries. The commercial importance of the territory as the site of overland routes to eastern Asia was greatly reduced with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

Strong nationalist movements had taken hold in many parts of the Ottoman Empire during the early years of the 20th century. When World War I (1914-1918) 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 postwar 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, the United Kingdom 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; those comprising Israel and Jordan were assigned to the United Kingdom.

B

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.

Anti-Turkish sentiment in Syria soon developed into anti-French sentiment and more determined nationalism. The French quelled one armed rebellion in 1920 and a second and better organized uprising 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 (present-day İskenderun), in which the ancient Syrian capital of Antioch is located.

These events raised Syrian hostility toward France to a high pitch. Many prominent political figures in Syria nevertheless 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 Vichy government. British and Free French forces, however, 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 to 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 the 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 United Nations (UN) in 1945.

C

The Republic

The postwar 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, and 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. 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 United Nations 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 restricted civil liberties and ruled the country as a military dictator until March 1954, when he was ousted by another military group. Shishakli’s successors reinstated Atasi as president, reconvened the 1949 chamber of deputies, and restored the constitution of 1950.

After 1954 Syria appeared increasingly anti-Western and pro-Soviet. The government protested vigorously in 1955 against the creation of the Baghdād Pact, a defensive alliance formed in that year by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom.

In July 1956 the Syrian chamber of deputies formally established a committee to negotiate the terms of a possible federation with Egypt. The attacks on Egypt in October and November 1956 by Israel, the United Kingdom, and France intensified the growing Syrian resentment toward 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 border with the intent of executing a U.S.-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.

D

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 favor 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 toward 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.

E

Baath Party Rule

A provisional constitution was approved in a referendum early in December 1961, and a new national government was established. On March 8, 1963, this government was overthrown in a bloodless military coup, 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 longtime Baathist leaders under arrest, and installed Nur ad-Din al-Atasi, a former deputy prime minister, as head of state.

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 defense agreement directed against Israel. This move was in part a response to increasing tension on the Syrian-Israeli border. 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 Qunayţirah, only 65 km (40 mi) from Damascus. On June 10 the United Nations cease-fire proposal was accepted, and observers were placed between Israeli and Syrian forces. Charging the United Kingdom and the United States with active support of Israel, Syria broke relations with both countries on June 6.