188-715: Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant . It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast , Jordan to the south , and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest . It is a republic that consists of 14 governorates as subdivisions. Damascus
376-559: A 1954 coup and the parliamentary system was restored. However, by this time, power was increasingly concentrated in the military and security establishment. The weakness of Parliamentary institutions and the mismanagement of the economy led to unrest and the influence of Nasserism and other ideologies. There was fertile ground for various Arab nationalist , Syrian nationalist , and socialist movements, which represented disaffected elements of society. Notably included were religious minorities, who demanded radical reform. In November 1956, as
564-418: 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 and all aspects of civil society. He assigned Alawite loyalists to key posts in the military forces , bureaucracy , intelligence and the ruling elite. A cult of personality revolving around Hafiz and his family became
752-677: A Maoist term, as the Six-Day War was proclaimed as a "people's war" against Israel). The Syrian Communist Party played an important role in Jadid's government, with some communists holding ministerial posts, and Jadid established "fairly close relations" with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . The government supported a more radical economic program including state ownership over industry and foreign trade , while at
940-449: A deadly civil war began after Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown of the 2011 Syrian revolution , which continues to this day. Michel Aflaq is today considered the founder of the Ba'athist movement, or at least its most notable contributor. Other notable ideologues include Zaki Arsuzi , who influenced Aflaq, and Salah al-Din al-Bitar , who worked directly with Aflaq. From the founding of
1128-470: A millet . The religious heads of each community administered all personal status laws and performed certain civil functions as well. In 1831, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt renounced his loyalty to the Empire and overran Ottoman Syria , capturing Damascus. His short-term rule over the domain attempted to change the demographics and social structure of the region: he brought thousands of Egyptian villagers to populate
1316-468: A "new society". Aflaq supported the idea of a committed activist revolutionary party based on the Leninist model, which in practice was based on democratic centralism . The revolutionary party would seize political power and from there on transform society for the greater good. While the revolutionary party was numerically a minority, it was an all-powerful institution which had the right to initiate
1504-456: A Ba'ath party would ensure a policy of proselytization to keep the uneducated masses out of the party until the party leadership was imbued with the thoughts of enlightenment. However, the party was also a political organisation, and, as Aflaq notes, politics was "a means [... and] is the most serious of matters at this present stage". Ba'athism was similar to Leninist thought in that a vanguard party would rule for an unspecified length to construct
1692-554: A French Mandate. The newly created state represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman -ruled Syrian provinces. It gained de jure independence as a parliamentary republic in 1945 when the new Republic became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the former French mandate. French troops departed in April 1946, granting de facto independence. The post-independence period
1880-733: A Palmyrene emigrant at the site of Fort Arbeia . Control of Syria eventually passed from the Romans to the Byzantines , with the split in the Roman Empire. The largely Aramaic -speaking population of Syria during the heyday of the Byzantine Empire was probably not exceeded again until the 19th century. Prior to the Arab Islamic Conquest in the 7th century AD, the bulk of the population were Arameans , but Syria
2068-724: A battle ground between Babylonia and another former Assyrian colony, that of Egypt . The Babylonians, like their Assyrian relations, were victorious over Egypt. Lands that constitute modern day Syria were part of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and had been annexed by the Achaemenid Empire in 539 BC. Led by Cyrus the Great , the Achaemenid Persians retained Imperial Aramaic as one of the diplomatic languages of their empire (539 BC – 330 BC), as well as
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#17327576277862256-727: A confusion which would continue into the modern world. Eventually parts of southern Seleucid Syria were taken by the Jewish Hasmoneans dynasty upon the slow disintegration of the Hellenistic Empire. Syria briefly came under Armenian control from 83 BC, with the conquests of the Armenian king Tigranes the Great , who was welcomed as a savior from the Seleucids and Romans by the Syrian people. However, Pompey
2444-403: A consequence of the split, Arsuzi took Aflaq's place as the official father of Ba'athist thought in the pro-Syrian Ba'ath movement, while in the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath movement Aflaq was still considered the de jure father of Ba'athist thought. The Iraqi Ba'ath wing granted asylum to Aflaq after seizing power through the coup of 1968 . The Al-Assad family and Saddam Hussein emerged dominant in
2632-525: A core tenet of Ba'athist ideology , which espoused that Assad dynasty was destined to rule perennially. 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. The village of Quneitra was largely destroyed by the Israeli army. In the late 1970s, an Islamist uprising by
2820-522: A direct result of the Suez Crisis , Syria signed a pact with the Soviet Union . This gave a foothold for Communist influence within the government in exchange for military equipment. Turkey then became worried about this increase in the strength of Syrian military technology, as it seemed feasible that Syria might attempt to retake İskenderun . Only heated debates in the United Nations lessened
3008-517: A few thousand meters high, and can close down airports for short periods of time. These winds can last for a full day at the beginning and end of the season, and for several days during the middle of the season. The shamal is a summer northwesterly wind blowing over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states (including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), often strong during the day, but decreasing at night. This weather effect occurs anywhere from once to several times
3196-476: A major problem was the disillusionment of the Arab youth. Disillusionment led to individualism and individualism was not a healthy sign in an underdeveloped country , in contrast to developed countries , where it was seen as a healthy sign. The party's main task before the revolution was to spread enlightened ideas to the people and to challenge reactionary and conservative elements in society. According to Aflaq,
3384-823: A major shift in relations with both other Arab states and the Western world, Syria participated in the United States-led Gulf War against Saddam Hussein . The country participated in the multilateral Madrid Conference of 1991 , and during the 1990s engaged in negotiations with Israel along with Palestine and Jordan . These negotiations failed, and there have been no further direct Syrian-Israeli talks since President Hafiz al-Assad's meeting with then President Bill Clinton in Geneva in March 2000. Hafiz al-Assad died on 10 June 2000. His son, Bashar al-Assad ,
3572-583: A number of provinces under the Roman Empire (but politically independent from each other): Judaea , later renamed Palaestina in AD 135 (the region corresponding to modern-day Israel , the Palestinian Territories, and Jordan) in the extreme southwest; Phoenice (established in AD 194) corresponding to modern Lebanon, Damascus and Homs regions; Coele-Syria (or "Hollow Syria") and south of
3760-491: A person truly believed these lies; ultimately, it was whether they acted as though they did." —Tamara Al-Om, British-Syrian political scientist Israeli historian Avraham Ben-Tzur labeled the Ba'ath Party which took power in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état as the "Neo-Ba'ath", claiming they had gone beyond their pan-Arab ideological basis by stressing the preeminence of the military apparatus. This ideological transformation
3948-589: A policy, even if the majority of the population were against it. As with the Leninist model, the Ba'ath party would dictate what was right and what was wrong, since the general population were still influenced by the old value and moral system. According to Aflaq, the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) against the Ottoman Empire failed to unify the Arab world because it was led by a reactionary class. He believed
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#17327576277864136-424: A reality all of its own – far removed from reality itself – derived from its own ideology , creating 'a world of appearances' that perpetuated its power and dominance over its people. Constructing a reality that was 'permeated with hypocrisy and lies' where ... 'the repression of culture is called its development' ... its people were forced to ‘ live within a lie ’ ... It was not important whether or not
4324-626: A religious party, nor should it be one". During his vice presidency, at the time of the Shia riots, Saddam discussed the need to convince large segments of the population to convert to the party line 's stance on religion. When Aflaq died in 1989, an official announcement by the Iraqi Regional Command stated that Aflaq had converted to Islam before his death, but an unnamed Western diplomat in Iraq told William Harris that Aflaq's family
4512-603: A revolutionary process, and a revolution could only succeed if the revolutionaries were pure and devoted nearly religiously to the task. Aflaq supported the Leninist view of the need for a vanguard party following a successful revolution, which was not an "inevitable outcome". In Ba'athist ideology, the vanguard was the Ba'ath party. Aflaq believed that the youth were the key for a successful revolution. The youth were open to change and enlightenment because they still had not been indoctrinated with other views. According to Aflaq,
4700-641: A rich and sometimes powerful native Aramaic -speaking kingdom arose in northern Syria in the 2nd century; the Palmyrene established a trade network that made the city one of the richest in the Roman empire. Eventually, in the late 3rd century AD, the Palmyrene king Odaenathus defeated the Persian emperor Shapur I and controlled the entirety of the Roman East while his successor and widow Zenobia established
4888-619: A secret Military Committee; its initial members were Lieutenant-Colonel Muhammad Umran , Major Salah Jadid and Captain Hafiz al-Assad. Syria seceded from the union with Egypt on 28 September 1961, after a coup and terminated the political union. The instability which followed the 1961 coup culminated in the 8 March 1963 Ba'athist coup . The takeover was engineered by members of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party , led by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar . The new Syrian cabinet
5076-511: A semiarid steppe zone, to arid desert in the east. The country consists mostly of arid plateau, although the northwest part bordering the Mediterranean is fairly green. Al-Jazira in the northeast and Hawran in the south are important agricultural areas. The Euphrates , Syria's most important river, crosses the country in the east. Syria is one of the fifteen states that comprise the so-called " cradle of civilization ". Its land straddles
5264-529: A suspected nuclear reactor under construction by North Korean technicians. The Syrian civil war is an ongoing internal violent conflict in Syria. It is a part of the wider Arab Spring , a wave of upheaval throughout the Arab World . Public demonstrations across Syria began on 26 January 2011 and developed into a nationwide uprising. Protesters demanded the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad ,
5452-467: A truly free society. We did not adopt socialism out of books, abstractions, humanism, or pity, but rather out of need ... for the Arab working class is the mover of history in this period. Socialism is an important pillar of the Ba'athist programme. Although influenced by Western socialists and Marxist parties, the Ba'ath party founders constructed a socialist vision which they believed to be more adaptable to Arab historical context. Articles 26–37 of
5640-624: A year. West Asia contains large areas of mountainous terrain. The Anatolian Plateau is sandwiched between the Pontus Mountains and Taurus Mountains in Turkey . Mount Ararat in Turkey rises to 5,137 m (16,854 ft). The Zagros Mountains are located in Iran, in areas along its border with Iraq. The Central Plateau of Iran is divided into two drainage basins . The northern basin
5828-532: Is Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert), and Dasht-e-Lut is the southern basin. In Yemen , elevations exceed 3,700 m (12,100 ft) in many areas, and highland areas extend north along the Red Sea coast and north into Lebanon . A fault zone also exists along the Red Sea, with continental rifting creating trough -like topography with areas located well below sea level . The Dead Sea , located on
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6016-560: Is Syria's capital and largest city. With a population of 25.0 million, it is the 57th most populous country in the world and 8th most populous in the Arab world. Syria is spread across an area of 185,180 square kilometres (71,500 sq mi), making it 87th largest country in the world. The name "Syria" historically referred to a wider region , broadly synonymous with the Levant, and known in Arabic as al-Sham . The modern state encompasses
6204-600: Is a presidential state that nominally permits the candidacy of individuals who do not form part of the Ba'ath -controlled National Progressive Front . Despite this, Syria remains a one-party state with an extensive secret police apparatus that curtails any independent political activity. The new constitution introduced single-handedly by the Assad regime , without participation of the Syrian opposition , has bolstered its authoritarian character by bestowing extraordinary powers on
6392-595: Is a geographical term with more consistency. It excludes most of Egypt and the northwestern part of Turkey , and includes the southern part of the Caucasus . West Asia covers an area of 5,994,935 km (2,314,657 sq mi), with a population of about 313 million. Of the 20 UN member countries fully or partly within the region, 13 are part of the Arab world . The most populous countries in West Asia are Iran , Turkey , Iraq , Saudi Arabia and Yemen . In
6580-551: Is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation and development of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a socialist revolutionary government. The ideology is officially based on the theories of the Syrian intellectuals Michel Aflaq (per the Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party ), Zaki al-Arsuzi (per the Syrian-led Ba'ath Party ), and Salah al-Din al-Bitar . Ba'athist leaders of
6768-549: Is as fearful of Islam today as she has been in the past. She now knows that the strength of Islam (which in the past expressed that of the Arabs) has been reborn and has appeared in a new form: Arab nationalism. Though a Christian, Aflaq viewed the creation of Islam as proof of "Arab genius" and a testament of Arab culture, values, and thought. According to Aflaq, the essence of Islam was its revolutionary qualities. Aflaq called on all Arabs, both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to admire
6956-528: Is based on the principles of secularism , Arab nationalism , pan-Arabism , and Arab socialism . Ba'athism advocates socialist economic policies such as state ownership of natural resources, protectionism , distribution of lands to peasants, and planned economies . Although inspired by Western socialist thinkers, early Ba'athist theoreticians rejected the Marxist class-struggle concept, arguing that it hampers Arab unity. Ba'athists contend that socialism
7144-533: Is extremely limited, and the country is ranked 2nd worst in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index . Syria is the most corrupt country in the Middle East and was ranked the 2nd lowest globally on the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index . The country has also become the epicentre of a state-sponsored multi-billion dollar illicit drug cartel , the largest in the world. The civil war has resulted in more than 600,000 deaths, with pro-Assad forces causing more than 90% of
7332-510: Is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups . Arabs are the largest ethnic group, and Sunni Muslims are the largest religious group. It is now the only country that is governed by Ba'athists , who advocate Arab socialism and nationalism . The country's current Ba'athist government is a totalitarian dictatorship with a comprehensive cult of personality around the Assad family , and has attracted widespread criticism for its severe domestic repression and war crimes . Being ranked 4th worst in
7520-451: Is not a luxury in the life of the nation but its basis and its essence and its meaning. Fundamentally, Aflaq had an authoritarian perspective on liberty . In contrast to the liberal democratic concept of liberty, in Aflaq's vision, liberty would be ensured by a Ba'ath party which was not elected by the populace because the party had the common good at heart. Historian Paul Salem considered
7708-437: Is represented by rectangular houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used containers made of stone, gyps, and burnt lime ( Vaisselle blanche ). The discovery of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidence of early trade. The ancient cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria
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7896-504: Is the only way to develop modern Arab society and unite it. The two Ba'athist states which have existed ( Iraq and Syria ) prevented criticism of their ideology through authoritarian means of governance. Ba'athist Syria has been labelled " neo-Ba'athist " because the form of Ba'athism developed by the leadership of the Syrian Ba'ath party is quite distinct from the Ba'athism which Aflaq and Bitar wrote about. Ba'athism originated in
8084-454: Is the true goal of Arab unity... Arab unity is the obligatory basis for constructing a socialist society". With the rise of the Syrian neo-Ba'athists, however, this focus shifted. As American scholar John F. Devlin writes, the "Ba'ath Party, which started with unity as its overwhelming top priority, which was prepared to work within a variety of Middle Eastern political systems, which wanted social justice in society, had pretty much disappeared by
8272-616: The Arab Ba'ath Movement until the mid-1950s in Syria and the early 1960s in Iraq , the ideology of the Ba'ath Party was largely synonymous with that of Aflaq's. For more than 2 decades, Michel Aflaq's 1940 essay compilation, titled, " Fi Sabil al-Ba’ath " (trans: "The Road to Renaissance") was the primary ideological book of the Ba'ath party . Additionally, Aflaq's views on Arab nationalism are considered by some, such as historian Paul Salem of
8460-523: The Arabian Peninsula numbering more than 3 million. Christian communities have played a vital role in West Asia. Judaism is the predominant religion in Israel , and there are small ancient Jewish communities in West Asia such as in Turkey (14,300), Azerbaijan (9,100), and Iran (8,756). The Druze Faith or Druzism originated in West Asia. It is a monotheistic religion based on
8648-870: The Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt. Aleppo fell to the Mongols of Hulegu in January 1260, and Damascus 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
8836-453: The Baháʼí Faith , Yarsanism , Yazidism , Zoroastrianism , Mandaeism , and Shabakism . The economy of West Asia is diverse and the region experiences high economic growth. Turkey has the largest economy in the region, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Petroleum is the major industry in the regional economy, as more than half of the world's oil reserves and around 40 percent of
9024-582: The Battle of Maysalun . French troops occupied Syria later that year after the San Remo conference proposed that the League of Nations put Syria under a French mandate. General Gouraud had according to his secretary de Caix two options: "Either build a Syrian nation that does not exist... by smoothing the rifts which still divide it" or "cultivate and maintain all the phenomena, which require our arbitration that these divisions give". De Caix added "I must say only
9212-454: The Cold War . Michel Aflaq supported the Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri 's view that language was the principal defining and unifying factor of the "Arab nation" because language led to the unity of thought, norms and ideals. History was another unifying feature for them, as it was the "fertile ground in which our consciousness took shape". The centre of Aflaq's Ba'athist thought was
9400-537: The Eleutheris river . Since approximately the 11th millennium BC, Syria was one of the centers of Neolithic culture (known as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A ), where agriculture and cattle breeding first began to appear. The site of Tell Qaramel in Aleppo Governorate has several round stone towers dated to 10650 BC, making them the oldest structures of this kind in the world. The Neolithic period ( PPNB )
9588-550: The European Union states , the Gulf Cooperation Council states , and other countries have condemned the use of violence against the protesters. China and Russia have avoided condemning the government or applying sanctions, saying that such methods could escalate into foreign intervention. However, military intervention has been ruled out by most countries. The Arab League suspended Syria's membership over
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#17327576277869776-496: The Gulf of Oman . The population of West Asia was estimated at 272 million as of 2008, projected to reach 370 million by 2030 by Maddison (2007; the estimate excludes the Caucasus and Cyprus). This corresponds to an annual growth rate of 1.4% (or a doubling time of 50 years), well above the world average of 0.9% (doubling time 75 years). The population of West Asia is estimated at 4% of world population , up from about 39 million at
9964-661: The Indo-European Hittites from Asia Minor circa 1600 BC. From this time, Syria became a battle ground for various foreign empires, these being the Hittite Empire , Mitanni Empire, Egyptian Empire , Middle Assyrian Empire , and to a lesser degree Babylonia . The Egyptians initially occupied much of the south, while the Hittites, and the Mitanni, much of the north. However, Assyria eventually gained
10152-456: The Levant , and from this point the Greeks applied the term without distinction between the Assyrians of Mesopotamia and Arameans of the Levant. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favors the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία , Assyria , ultimately derived from the Akkadian Aššur . The Greek name appears to correspond to Phoenician ʾšr "Assur", ʾšrym "Assyrians", recorded in
10340-416: The Levant , the island of Cyprus , the Sinai Peninsula and the South Caucasus . The region is separated from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt , and separated from Europe by the waterways of the Turkish Straits and the watershed of the Greater Caucasus . Central Asia lies to its northeast, while South Asia lies to its east. Twelve seas surround the region (clockwise): the Aegean Sea ,
10528-408: The March 1949 Syrian coup d'état by Col. Husni al-Za'im , described as the first military overthrow of the Arab World since the start of the Second World War. This was soon followed by another overthrow, by Col. Sami al-Hinnawi , who was himself quickly deposed by Col. Adib Shishakli , all within the same year. Shishakli eventually abolished multipartyism altogether, but was himself overthrown in
10716-414: The Mediterranean , including building colonies in Malta , Sicily, the Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal ), and the coasts of North Africa and most significantly, founding the major city-state of Carthage (in modern Tunisia ) in the 9th century BC, which was much later to become the center of a major empire, rivaling the Roman Republic . Syria and the Western half of Near East then fell to
10904-427: The Middle East Institute , as romantic and poetic. Aflaq's ideology was developed in the context of decolonisation and other events in the Arab world during his life. It recast conservative Arab nationalist thought to reflect strong revolutionary and progressive themes. For example, Aflaq insisted on the overthrow of the old ruling classes and supported the creation of a secular society by separating Islam from
11092-498: The Muslim Brotherhood was aimed against the government. Islamists attacked civilians and off-duty military personnel, leading security forces to also kill civilians in retaliatory strikes. The uprising had reached its climax in the 1982 Hama massacre , when more than 40,000 people were killed by Syrian military troops and Ba'athist paramilitaries. It has been described as the "single deadliest act" of violence perpetrated by any state upon its own population in modern Arab history In
11280-409: The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Yasser Arafat during the " Black September (also known as the Jordan Civil War of 1970)" hostilities with Jordan reflected this disagreement. The power struggle culminated in the November 1970 Syrian Corrective movement , a bloodless military coup that installed Hafiz al-Assad as the strongman of the government. General Hafiz al-Assad transformed
11468-447: The Palmyrene Empire , which briefly conquered Egypt, Syria, Palestine, much of Asia Minor, Judah and Lebanon, before being finally brought under Roman control in 273 AD. The northern Mesopotamian Assyrian kingdom of Adiabene controlled areas of north east Syria between 10 AD and 117 AD, before it was conquered by Rome. The Aramaic language has been found as far afield as Hadrian's Wall in Ancient Britain, with an inscription written by
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#173275762778611656-407: The Presidency and a Ba'athist political committee continues to be responsible for authorization of political parties. The ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party governs Syria as a totalitarian police state , through its control of the Syrian military and security apparatus. 50th edition of Freedom in the World , the annual report published by Freedom House in 2023, designates Syria as "Worst of
11844-419: The Sea of Marmara , the Black Sea , the Caspian Sea , the Persian Gulf , the Gulf of Oman , the Arabian Sea , the Gulf of Aden , the Red Sea , the Gulf of Aqaba , the Gulf of Suez , and the Mediterranean Sea . West Asia contains the majority of the similarly defined Middle East . The Middle East is a political term that has changed many times depending on political and historical context while West Asia
12032-417: The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Initially, the two territories were separated by a border that ran in an almost straight line from Jordan to Iran . However, the discovery of oil in the region of Mosul just before the end of the war led to yet another negotiation with France in 1918 to cede this region to the British zone of influence, which was to become Iraq. The fate of the intermediate province of Zor
12220-496: The Tigris and Euphrates rivers contribute very well. West Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid , and can be subject to drought , but it also contains vast expanses of forest and fertile valleys. The region consists of grasslands , rangelands , deserts , and mountains . Water shortages are a problem in many parts of West Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water, while salinization and pollution threaten water supplies. Major rivers, including
12408-522: The Tigris and Euphrates , provide sources for irrigation water to support agriculture . There are two wind phenomena in West Asia: the sharqi and the shamal . The sharqi (or sharki ) is a wind that comes from the south and southeast. It is seasonal, lasting from April to early June, and comes again between late September and November. The winds are dry and dusty, with occasional gusts up to 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour) and often kick up violent sand and dust storms that can carry sand
12596-528: The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD), West Asia excludes the Arabian Peninsula and includes Afghanistan . The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) excludes Egypt and includes Afghanistan. The United Nations Environment Programme excludes Cyprus , Israel , Turkey , and Iran from West Asia. The term West Asia is used pragmatically and has no "correct" or generally accepted definition. Its typical definitions overlap substantially, but not entirely, with definitions of
12784-435: The interwar period . He was inspired by the French Revolution , the German and Italian unification movements, and the Japanese economic "miracle" . His views were influenced by a number of prominent European philosophical and political figures, among them Georg Hegel , Karl Marx , Friedrich Nietzsche and Oswald Spengler . Arsuzi left the League of Nationalist Action (LNA) in 1939 after its popular leader died and
12972-409: The total civilian casualties . The war led to a massive refugee crisis , with an estimated 7.6 million internally displaced people (July 2015 UNHCR figure) and over 5 million refugees (July 2017 registered by UNHCR ). The war has also worsened economic conditions, with more than 90% of the population living in poverty and 80% facing food insecurity . The Arab League , the United States ,
13160-435: The "Arab spirit against materialistic communism " and "Arab history against dead reaction ". It holds ideological similarity and a favourable outlook to the Non-Aligned Movement politics of Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru , Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser , and Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito and historically opposed affiliation with either the American -led Western Bloc or the Soviet -led Eastern Bloc during
13348-458: The "northwest of the Arabian plate ". Petroleum in commercial quantities was first discovered in the northeast in 1956. The most important oil fields are those of al-Suwaydiyah , Karatchok , Rmelan near al-Hasakah , as well as al-Omar and al-Taym fields near Dayr az–Zawr . The fields are a natural extension of the Iraqi fields of Mosul and Kirkuk . Petroleum became Syria's leading natural resource and chief export after 1974. Natural gas
13536-547: The 1947 Ba'ath Party Charter outlines the key principles of Ba'athist socialism. Some of them are: " Michel Aflaq was a deep admirer of Marxist tenets, and he considered the Marxist concept of the importance of material economic conditions in life to be one of modern humanity's greatest discoveries. However, he disagreed with the Marxist view that dialectical materialism was the only truth, as Aflaq believed that Marxism had forgotten human spirituality. While believing that
13724-495: The 2024 Fragile States Index , Syria is one of the most dangerous places for journalists . Freedom of press is extremely limited, and the country is ranked 2nd worst in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index . It is the most corrupt country in the MENA region and was ranked the 2nd lowest globally on the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index . Syria has also become the epicentre of a state-sponsored multi-billion dollar illicit drug cartel ,
13912-542: The 8th century BC Çineköy inscription . The area designated by the word has changed over time. Classically, Syria lies at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, between Arabia to the south and Asia Minor to the north, stretching inland to include parts of Iraq, and having an uncertain border to the northeast that Pliny the Elder describes as including, from west to east, Commagene , Sophene , and Adiabene . By Pliny's time, however, this larger Syria had been divided into
14100-455: The Arab world together and liberty provided the Arab people with freedom, socialism was the cornerstone which made unity and liberty possible as no socialism meant no revolution. In Aflaq's view, a constitutional democratic system would not succeed in a country such as Syria that was dominated by a "pseudo-feudalist" economic system in which the repression of the peasant nullified the people's political liberty. Liberty meant little to nothing to
14288-482: The Arab world, all classes, not just the working class, were working against capitalist domination of the foreign powers . What was a struggle between various classes in the West was in the Arab world a fight for political and economic independence. For Aflaq, socialism was a necessary means to accomplish the goal of initiating an Arabic " renaissance " period, in other words, a period of modernisation. While unity brought
14476-716: The Assyrian name for the new satrapy of Aram/Syria Eber-Nari . Syria was later conquered by the Macedonian Empire which was ruled by Alexander the Great c. 330 BC, and consequently became Coele-Syria province of the Seleucid Empire (323 BC – 64 BC), with the Seleucid kings styling themselves 'King of Syria' and the city of Antioch being its capital starting from 240. Thus, it was the Greeks who introduced
14664-639: The Assyrians greatly weakened themselves in a series of brutal internal civil wars, followed by attacks from: the Medes , Babylonians , Chaldeans , Persians , Scythians and Cimmerians . During the fall of Assyria, the Scythians ravaged and plundered much of Syria. The last stand of the Assyrian army was at Carchemish in northern Syria in 605 BC. The Assyrian Empire was followed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire (605 BC – 539 BC). During this period, Syria became
14852-411: The Ba'ath party's main priorities, according to Aflaq, was to disseminate new ideas and thoughts and to give individuals the liberty they needed to pursue ideas. To do this, the party would interpose itself between the Arab people and both their foreign imperialist oppressors and those forms of tyranny that arise within Arab society. While the notion of liberty was an important ideal to Aflaq, he favored
15040-512: The Ba'ath party's slogan, "One Nation, Bearing an Eternal Message". Aflaq thought that the Arab nation could only reach this renaissance through a revolutionary process towards the goals of "unity, liberty, and socialism". In Aflaq's view, a nation could only "progress" or "decline", and Arab states of his time were consistently declining because of their "illnesses"—" feudalism , sectarianism , regionalism , intellectual reactionism ". These problems, Aflaq believed, could only be resolved through
15228-406: The Ba'athist Old Guard ( Aflaq and Bitar ), imprisoned President Amin al-Hafiz and designated a regionalist, civilian Ba'ath government on 1 March. Although Nureddin al-Atassi became the formal head of state, Salah Jadid was Syria's effective ruler from 1966 until November 1970, when he was deposed by Hafiz al-Assad , who at the time was Minister of Defense. The coup led to the schism within
15416-550: The British forced the French to evacuate their troops in April 1946, leaving the country in the hands of a republican government that had been formed during the mandate. Upheaval dominated Syrian politics from independence through the late 1960s. In May 1948, Syrian forces invaded Palestine , together with other Arab states, and immediately attacked Jewish settlements. Their president Shukri al-Quwwatli instructed his troops in
15604-615: The Eblaite language have shown that it was an East Semitic language , closely related to the Akkadian language . Ebla was weakened by a long war with Mari , and the whole of Syria became part of the Mesopotamian Akkadian Empire after Sargon of Akkad and his grandson Naram-Sin 's conquests ended Eblan domination over Syria in the first half of the 23rd century BC. By the 21st century BC, Hurrians settled in
15792-752: The Egypt-based Ikhshidids and still later 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 AD during the Crusades and were known collectively as the Crusader states among which the primary one in Syria was the Principality of Antioch . The coastal mountainous region
15980-561: The French to regain many cities, although resistance lasted until the spring of 1927. The French sentenced Sultan al-Atrash to death, but he had escaped with the rebels to Transjordan and was eventually pardoned. He returned to Syria in 1937 after the signing of the Syrian-French Treaty. Syria and France negotiated a treaty of independence in September 1936, and Hashim al-Atassi was the first president to be elected under
16168-424: The Great , a general of the Roman Empire , rode to Syria and captured Antioch , its capital, and turned Syria into a Roman province in 64 BC, thus ending Armenian control over the region which had lasted two decades. Syria prospered under Roman rule, being strategically located on the silk road, which gave it massive wealth and importance, making it the battleground for the rivaling Romans and Persians. Palmyra ,
16356-538: The Hittites for centuries. The Egyptians fought the Hittites for control over western Syria; the fighting reached its zenith in 1274 BC with the Battle of Kadesh . The west remained part of the Hittite empire until its destruction c. 1200 BC, while eastern Syria largely became part of the Middle Assyrian Empire, who also annexed much of the west during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I 1114–1076 BC. With
16544-554: The Iraqi government's war against the British and organized volunteers to go to Iraq and fight for the Iraqi government. However, Arsuzi opposed Gaylani's government, considering the coup to be poorly planned and a failure. Because of this, Arsuzi's party lost members and support that transferred to Aflaq's movement. Arsuzi's direct influence in Arab politics collapsed after Vichy French authorities expelled him from Syria in 1941. Aflaq's Arab Ba'ath Movement's next major political action
16732-528: The Leninist model of a continuous revolutionary struggle and he did not develop concepts for a society in which liberty was protected by a set of institutions and rules. His vision of a one-party state ruled by the Ba'ath party, which disseminated information to the public, was in many ways contrary to his view on individual interactions. The Ba'ath party through its preeminence would establish "liberty". According to Aflaq, liberty could not just come from nowhere as it needed an enlightened progressive group to create
16920-779: The Mongols on 29 October 1281, in the Second Battle of Homs , which was won by the Mamluks . 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 . Tamurlane also conducted specific massacres of the Aramean and Assyrian Christian populations, greatly reducing their numbers. By
17108-533: The Syrian Army. The insurgents unified under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and fought in an increasingly organized fashion; however, the civilian component of the armed opposition lacked an organized leadership. The uprising has sectarian undertones, though neither faction in the conflict has described sectarianism as playing a major role. The opposition is dominated by Sunni Muslims, whereas
17296-546: The Syrian and Iraqi Ba'ath parties, respectively, eventually building personalist dictatorships in the two countries. Hostilities between the two Ba'ath movements lasted until the death of Hafez al-Assad in 2000, after which his successor Bashar al-Assad pursued reconciliation with Iraq. Throughout their reigns, the two Ba'athist autocracies built police states that enforced mass surveillance and ideological indoctrination and subordinated all student organisations , trade unions , and other civil society institutions to
17484-448: The Syrian government, 9,815–10,146 people, including 3,430 members of the security forces, 2,805–3,140 insurgents and up to 3,600 civilians, have been killed in fighting with what they characterize as "armed terrorist groups." To escape the violence, tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled the country to neighboring Jordan , Iraq and Lebanon , as well to Turkey . The total official UN numbers of Syrian refugees reached 42,000 at
17672-510: The Worst" among the "Not Free" countries and gives it the lowest score (1/100) alongside South Sudan . West Asia West Asia , also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia , is the westernmost region of Asia . As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia , the Arabian Peninsula , Iran , Mesopotamia , the Armenian highlands ,
17860-471: The beginning of the 20th century, or about 2% of world population at the time. The most populous countries in the region are Turkey and Iran , each with around 79 million people, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia with around 33 million people each, and Yemen with around 29 million people. Numerically, West Asia is predominantly Arab , Persian , Turkish , and the dominating languages are correspondingly Arabic , Persian and Turkish , each with of
18048-754: The border between the West Bank , Israel , and Jordan , is situated at 418 m (1,371 ft) below sea level, making it the lowest point on the surface of the Earth . Rub' al Khali , one of the world's largest sand deserts, spans the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula in Saudi Arabia, parts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Jebel al Akhdar is a small range of mountains located in northeastern Oman, bordering
18236-849: The boundary between the Aegean and Anatolian plate in eastern Turkey is also seismically active. Several major aquifers provide water to large portions of West Asia. In Saudi Arabia, two large aquifers of Palaeozoic and Triassic origins are located beneath the Jabal Tuwayq mountains and areas west to the Red Sea. Cretaceous and Eocene -origin aquifers are located beneath large portions of central and eastern Saudi Arabia, including Wasia and Biyadh which contain amounts of both fresh water and saline water . Flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation , covering nearly 90,000 km (35,000 sq mi) across West Asia for agriculture. Also,
18424-631: The cause of the progressive revolution and its effect. A major obstacle to the success of the revolution in Aflaq's mind was the Arab League . He believed that the Arab League strengthened both regional interests and the reactionary classes, thus weakening the chance of establishing an Arab nation. Because the majority of Arab states were under the rule of the reactionary classes, Aflaq revised his ideology to meet reality. Instead of creating an Arab nation through an Arab-wide progressive revolution,
18612-649: The chaotic years of the 1950s and 1960s, the Military Committee of the Syrian Ba'ath party , led by its civilian leadership, launched a coup in 1963 that established a one-party state in Syria. In 1966, the military wing of the Syrian Ba'ath initiated another coup which overthrew the Old Guard led by Aflaq and Bitar, resulting in a schism within the Ba'athist movement : one Syrian-dominated and one Iraqi-dominated . Scholar Ofra Bengio claims that as
18800-595: The city, most of which were halted after his death. Syria is significant in the history of Christianity ; Saulus of Tarsus, better known as the Apostle Paul , was converted on the Road to Damascus and emerged as a significant figure in the Christian Church at Antioch in ancient Syria, from which he left on many of his missionary journeys. Muhammad 's first interaction with the people and tribes of Syria
18988-479: The classical Ba'athist leaders of the old guard, including Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar . The coup led a permanent schism between the Syrian and Iraqi regional branches of the Ba'ath Party, and many Syrian Ba'athist leaders defected to Iraq. In the original Ba'ath ideology, pan-Arabism was the means to reach the end of both economic and social transformation. As an early party document states, " [s]ocialism
19176-537: The concept would work for small and weak societies, he thought that the concept of dialectical materialism as the only truth in Arab development was wrong. For a people as spiritual as the Arabs, the working class was just a group, albeit the most important group, in a much larger movement to free the Arab nation. Unlike Karl Marx , Aflaq was uncertain what place the working class had in history. In contrast to Marx, Aflaq also believed in nationalism and believed that in
19364-413: The conflict appears to have settled into a frozen state. Although roughly 30% of the country is controlled by opposition forces, heavy fighting has largely ceased and there is a growing regional trend toward normalizing relations with the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Syria lies between latitudes 32° and 38° N , and longitudes 35° and 43° E . The climate varies from the humid Mediterranean coast, through
19552-629: The destruction of the Hittites and the decline of Assyria in the late 11th century BC, the Aramean tribes gained control of much of the interior, founding states such as Bit Bahiani , Aram-Damascus , Hamath , Aram-Rehob , Aram-Naharaim , and Luhuti . From this point, the region became known as Aramea or Aram . There was also a synthesis between the Semitic Arameans and the remnants of the Indo-European Hittites , with
19740-488: The dominant language in Israel in the second half of the 20th century, and Neo-Aramaic (spoken by modern Arameans , Assyrians , and Chaldeans ) and Greek both remain present in their respective territories as minority languages. Significant native minorities include, in alphabetical order: Arameans , Assyrians , Chaldeans , Druze , Jews , Lurs , Mandeans , Maronites , Shabaks and Yezidis . Religion in West Asia (2020) Four major religious groups (i.e.
19928-466: The early 1960s. In its place rose Ba'ath organisations which focused primarily on their own region, which advocated, and created where possible, authoritarian centralised governments, which rested heavily on military power and which were very close to other socialist movements and were less distinctively Ba'athist". Munif al-Razzaz , the former Secretary General of the National Command of
20116-628: 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
20304-467: The existing monarchy and the reactionary class. To copy the German example, he thought, would be disastrous and would lead to the enslavement of the Arab people. The only way to combat the reactionary classes lay in "progressive" revolution, Aflaq claimed, central to which is the struggle for unity. This struggle could not be separated from the social revolution, for to separate these two would be to weaken
20492-640: The expedition was important as Muhammad followed by 1000 men reached the confines of Syria, where distant tribes had now learnt his name, while the political horizon of Muhammad was extended. By AD 640, Syria was conquered by the Arab Rashidun army led by Khalid ibn al-Walid . In the mid-7th century, the Umayyad dynasty , then rulers of the empire, placed the capital of the empire in Damascus. The country's power declined during later Umayyad rule; this
20680-466: The feature baʽth (literally meaning " renaissance "). This renaissance, according to Aflaq, could only be reached by uniting the Arab nation, and it would transform the Arab world politically, economically, intellectually, and morally. This "future renaissance" would be a "rebirth", while the first Arab renaissance had been the seventh-century emergence of Islam , according to Aflaq. The new renaissance would bring another Arab message, summed up in
20868-583: The first incarnation of the modern republic of Syria. However, the treaty never came into force because the French Legislature refused to ratify it. With the fall of France in 1940 during World War II , Syria came under the control of Vichy France until the British and Free French occupied the country in the Syria-Lebanon campaign in July 1941. Continuing pressure from Syrian nationalists and
21056-569: The founding of a number of Syro-Hittite states centered in north central Aram (Syria) and south central Asia Minor (modern Turkey), including Palistin , Carchemish and Sam'al . A Canaanite group known as the Phoenicians came to dominate the coasts of Syria, (and also Lebanon and northern Palestine ) from the 13th century BC, founding city states such as Amrit , Simyra , Arwad , Paltos , Ramitha , and Shuksi . From these coastal regions, they eventually spread their influence throughout
21244-570: The front, "to destroy the Zionists". The Invasion purpose was to prevent the establishment of the State of Israel . Toward this end, the Syrian government engaged in an active process of recruiting former Nazis , including several former members of the Schutzstaffel , to build up their armed forces and military intelligence capabilities. Defeat in this war was one of several trigger factors for
21432-407: The general poverty-stricken populace of Syria, and Aflaq saw socialism as the solution to their plight. According to Aflaq, the ultimate goal of socialism was not to answer the question of how much state control was necessary or economic equality, but instead socialism was "a means to satisfy the animal needs of man so he can be free to pursue his duties as a human being". In other words, socialism
21620-759: The god El-Gabal . Her great nephews, also Arabs from Syria, would also become Roman Emperors, the first being Elagabalus and the second, his cousin Alexander Severus . Another Roman emperor who was a Syrian was Philip the Arab (Marcus Julius Philippus), who was born in Roman Arabia . He was emperor from 244 to 249, and ruled briefly during the Crisis of the Third Century . During his reign, he focused on his home town of Philippopolis (modern day Shahba ) and began many construction projects to improve
21808-615: The government's response to the crisis, but sent an observer mission in December 2011, as part of its proposal for peaceful resolution of the crisis. The latest attempts to resolve the crisis has been made through the appointment of Kofi Annan, as a special envoy to resolve the Syrian crisis in the Middle East. Some analysts however have posited the partitioning the region into a Sunnite east, Kurdish north and Shiite / Alawite west. Twelve years into Syria's devastating civil war,
21996-687: The hand of the Sea Peoples. Aleppo and the capital city Damascus are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world . Yamhad (modern Aleppo ) dominated northern Syria for two centuries, although Eastern Syria was occupied in the 19th and 18th centuries BC by the Old Assyrian Empire ruled by the Amorite Dynasty of Shamshi-Adad I , and by the Babylonian Empire which was founded by Amorites. Yamhad
22184-520: The initial founding of the Military Committee by disgruntled Syrian officers exiled in Cairo in 1959, the chain of events and the total corruption of Ba'athism proceeded with intolerable logic". Salah al-Din al-Bitar , a member of the Ba'ath old guard, agreed, stating that the 1966 Syrian coup d'état "marked the end of Ba'athist politics in Syria". Ba'ath party founder Michel Aflaq shared
22372-438: The kidnapping of Iranian nationals. The UN Commission of Inquiry has also documented abuses of this nature in its February 2012 report, which also includes documentation that indicates rebel forces have been responsible for displacement of civilians. Being ranked 8th last on the 2024 Global Peace Index and 4th worst in the 2024 Fragile States Index , Syria is one of the most dangerous places for journalists . Freedom of press
22560-409: The largest in the world. Several sources indicate that the name Syria is derived from the 8th century BC Luwian term "Sura/i", and the derivative ancient Greek name: Σύριοι , Sýrioi , or Σύροι , Sýroi , both of which originally derived from Aššūr ( Assyria ) in northern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). However, from the Seleucid Empire (323–150 BC), this term was also applied to
22748-665: The latter), Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, and Yemen as West Asian countries. By contrast, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in its 2015 yearbook includes Armenia and Azerbaijan, and excludes Israel (as Other) and Turkey (as Europe). Unlike the UNIDO, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) excludes Iran from West Asia and includes Turkey, Georgia, and Cyprus in
22936-794: The leading government figures are Alawites , affiliated with Shia Islam. As a result, the opposition is winning support from the Sunni Muslim states, whereas the government is publicly supported by the Shia dominated Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah . According to various sources, including the United Nations , up to 13,470–19,220 people have been killed, of which about half were civilians, but also including 6,035–6,570 armed combatants from both sides and up to 1,400 opposition protesters. Many more have been injured, and tens of thousands of protesters have been imprisoned. According to
23124-417: The main task would be of progressive revolutionaries spreading the revolution from one Arab country to the next. Once successfully transformed, the created progressive revolutionary countries would then one by one unite until the Arab world had evolved into a single Arab nation. The revolution would not succeed if the progressive revolutionary governments did not contribute to spreading the revolution. Liberty
23312-548: The mantle of defenders of the faith. Damascus was made the major entrepot for Mecca , and as such it acquired a holy character to Muslims, because of the beneficial results of the countless pilgrims who passed through on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. Ottoman administration followed a system that led to peaceful coexistence. Each ethno-religious minority— Arab Shia Muslim , Arab Sunni Muslim , Aramean - Syriac Orthodox , Greek Orthodox , Maronite Christians , Assyrian Christians , Armenians , Kurds and Jews —constituted
23500-613: The modern era include the former president of Iraq Saddam Hussein , former president of Syria Hafez al-Assad , and his son, the current president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad . The Ba'athist ideology advocates the " enlightenment of the Arabs " as well as the renaissance of their culture , values and society. It also advocates the creation of one-party states and rejects political pluralism in an unspecified length of time—the Ba'ath party theoretically uses an unspecified amount of time to develop an "enlightened" Arabic society. Ba'athism
23688-457: The most important of the Roman and Byzantine provinces, particularly during the 2nd and 3rd centuries (AD). Syrians held considerable amounts of power during the Severan dynasty . The matriarch of the family and Empress of Rome as wife of emperor Septimius Severus was Julia Domna , a Syrian from the city of Emesa (modern day Homs ), whose family held hereditary rights to the priesthood of
23876-495: The movement. The reactionary classes, who are content with the status quo , would oppose the "progressive" revolution. Even if the revolution succeeded in one "region" (country), that region would be unable to develop because of the resource constraints, small populations and anti-revolution forces held by other Arab leaders. For a revolution to succeed, the Arab world would have to evolve into an "organic whole" (literally become one). In short, Aflaq though that Arab unity would be both
24064-661: The name "Syria" to the region. Originally an Indo-European corruption of "Assyria" in northern Mesopotamia (Iraq), the Greeks used this term to describe not only Assyria itself but also the lands to the west which had for centuries been under Assyrian dominion. Thus in the Greco-Roman world both the Arameans of Syria and the Assyrians of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq ) to the east were referred to as "Syrians" or "Syriacs", despite these being distinct peoples in their own right,
24252-705: The northeastern city of al-Qamishli . Signs of rioting were seen in the cities of Qamishli and Hasakeh . In 2005, Syria ended its military presence in Lebanon. Assassination of Rafic Hariri in 2005 led to international condemnation and triggered a popular Intifada in Lebanon , known as "the Cedar Revolution" which forced the Assad regime to end its 29-year old of military occupation in Lebanon . On 6 September 2007, foreign jet fighters, suspected as Israeli, reportedly carried out Operation Orchard against
24440-701: The northern east parts of Syria while the rest of the region was dominated by the Amorites . Syria was called the Land of the Amurru (Amorites) by their Assyro-Babylonian neighbors. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages . Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia . Ugaritic
24628-456: The northwest and north, the region is delimited from Europe by the Turkish Straits and drainage divide of the Greater Caucasus , to the southwest, it is delimited from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez , while to the northeast and east, the region adjoins Central Asia and South Asia . The region is located east of Southern Europe and south of Eastern Europe . The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran naturally delimit
24816-412: The northwest, in Asia Minor . Gifts from Pharaohs , found during excavations, confirm Ebla's contact with Egypt . One of the earliest written texts from Syria is a trading agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c. 2300 BC. Scholars believe the language of Ebla to be among the oldest known written Semitic languages after Akkadian . Recent classifications of
25004-414: The order of 70 million speakers, followed by smaller communities of Kurdish , Azerbaijani , Hebrew , Armenian and Neo-Aramaic . The dominance of Arabic and Turkish is the result of the medieval Arab and Turkic invasions beginning with the Islamic conquests of the 7th century AD, which displaced the formerly dominant Aramaic in the region of Syria , and Greek in Anatolia, although Hebrew became
25192-448: The original pan-Arab Ba'ath Party : one Iraqi-led ba'ath movement (ruled Iraq from 1968 to 2003) and one Syrian-led ba'ath movement was established. In the first half of 1967, a low-key state of war existed between Syria and Israel . Conflict over Israeli cultivation of land in the Demilitarized Zone led to 7 April pre-war aerial clashes between Israel and Syria. When the Six-Day War broke out between Egypt and Israel, Syria joined
25380-591: The overthrow of his government, and an end to nearly five decades of Ba’ath Party rule . Since spring 2011, the Syrian government deployed the Syrian Army to quell the uprising, and several cities were besieged, though the unrest continued. According to some witnesses, soldiers, who refused to open fire on civilians, were summarily executed by the Syrian Army. The Syrian government denied reports of defections, and blamed armed gangs for causing trouble. Since early autumn 2011, civilians and army defectors began forming fighting units, which began an insurgency campaign against
25568-453: The part of Asia known in classical antiquity, as opposed to the reaches of "interior Asia", i.e. Scythia , and "Eastern Asia" the easternmost reaches of geographical knowledge in classical authors, i.e. Transoxania and India . In the 20th century, "Western Asia" was used to denote a rough geographical era in the fields of archaeology and ancient history , especially as a shorthand for "the Fertile Crescent excluding Ancient Egypt " for
25756-402: The party and the state. Both regimes pursued Arabization of ethnic minorities and legitimized their authoritarian rule by implanting conspiratorial anti-Zionist , anti-Western sentiments upon the citizens. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003 during the United States invasion , and the Iraqi Ba'ath party was subsequently banned under the new De-Ba'athification policy . In Syria,
25944-439: The party fell into disarray, founding the short-lived Arab National Party. It dissolved later that year. On 29 November 1940, Arsuzi founded the Arab Ba'ath . A significant conflict and turning point in the development of Ba'athism occurred when Arsuzi's and Aflaq's movements sparred over the 1941 Iraqi coup d'etat by Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani and the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War . Aflaq's movement supported Gaylani's government and
26132-468: The plains of Southern Syria , rebuilt Jaffa and settled it with veteran Egyptian soldiers aiming to turn it into a regional capital, and he crushed peasant and Druze rebellions and deported non-loyal tribesmen. By 1840, however, he had to surrender the area back to the Ottomans. From 1864, Tanzimat reforms were applied on Ottoman Syria, carving out the provinces (vilayets) of Aleppo , Zor , Beirut and Damascus Vilayet ; Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon
26320-403: The political thought of Syrian philosophers Michel Aflaq , Salah al-Din al-Bitar , and Zaki Arsuzi . They are considered the founders of the ideology, despite forming different organizations. In the 1940s, Bitar and Aflaq co-founded the Ba'ath Party , while Arsuzi founded the Arab National Party and later the Arab Ba'ath . The closest they ever came to being members of the same organization
26508-428: The purging of traditional civilian and military elites by the new regime. The 1963 Ba'athist coup marked a "radical break" in modern Syrian history , after which Ba'ath party monopolised power in the country to establish a one-party state and shaped a new socio-political order by enforcing its state ideology . On 23 February 1966, the neo-Ba'athist Military Committee carried out an intra-party rebellion against
26696-413: The purposes of comparing the early civilizations of Egypt and the former. Use of the term in the context of contemporary geopolitics or world economy appears to date from at least the mid-1960s. The region is surrounded by eight major seas; the Aegean Sea , the Black Sea , the Caspian Sea , the Persian Gulf , the Arabian Sea , the Gulf of Aden , the Red Sea , and the Mediterranean Sea . To
26884-415: The region from Balochistan and South Asia. Three major tectonic plates converge on West Asia, including the African , Eurasian , and Arabian plates. The boundaries between the tectonic plates make up the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge , extending across North Africa , the Red Sea , and into Iran. The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate (Turkey) at the East Anatolian Fault , and
27072-422: The region's sports organisations are the West Asia Basketball Association , West Asian Billiards and Snooker Federation , West Asian Football Federation , and the West Asian Tennis Federation . "Western Asia" was in use as a geographical term in the early 19th century, before " Near East " became current as a geopolitical concept. In the context of the history of classical antiquity , "Western Asia" could mean
27260-663: The region. In the United Nations geopolitical Eastern European Group , Armenia and Georgia are included in Eastern Europe, whereas Cyprus and East Thracian Turkey are in Southern Europe. These three nations are listed in the European category of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). National members of West Asian sports governing bodies are limited to Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The Olympic Council of Asia 's multi-sport event West Asian Games are contested by athletes representing these 13 countries. Among
27448-449: The role Islam had played in creating an Arab character, but his view on Islam was purely spiritual and Aflaq emphasized that it "should not be imposed" on state and society. Time and again, Aflaq emphasized that the Ba'ath party was against atheism , but also against fundamentalism , as the fundamentalists represented a "shallow, false faith". According to Ba'athist ideology, all religions were equal. Despite his anti-atheist stance, Aflaq
27636-502: The ruling class, who supported the monarchy as the leaders of the Arab Revolt did, were synonymous with a reactionary class. In Ba'athist ideology, the ruling class is replaced by a revolutionary progressive class. Aflaq was bitterly opposed to any kind of monarchy and described the Arab Revolt as "the illusions of kings and feudal lords who understood unity as the gathering of backwardness to backwardness, exploitation to exploitation and numbers to numbers like sheep". According to Aflaq, it
27824-472: The second option interests me". This is what Gouraud did. In 1925, Sultan al-Atrash led a revolt that broke out in the Druze Mountain and spread to engulf the whole of Syria and parts of Lebanon. Al-Atrash won several battles against the French, notably the Battle of al-Kafr on 21 July 1925, the Battle of al-Mazraa on 2–3 August 1925, and the battles of Salkhad, al-Musayfirah and Suwayda. France sent thousands of troops from Morocco and Senegal, leading
28012-558: The seizure of power by Hafiz al-Assad . He effectively established an Alawi minority rule to consolidate power within his family. After Assad's death , his son Bashar al-Assad inherited the presidency in 2000. Since 2011, Syria has been embroiled in a multi-sided civil war , with involvement of different countries . Three political entities – the Syrian Interim Government , Syrian Salvation Government , and Rojava – have emerged in Syrian territory to challenge Assad's rule. A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria
28200-437: The sentiment by stating, "I no longer recognise my party!" The coup left Salah Jadid in power, and under him, the Syrian government abandoned the traditional goal of pan-Arab unity and replaced it with a radical form of Western socialism. The far-left shift was reflected strongly in the ideological propaganda of the new government, marked by widespread usage of terminology such as " class struggle " and " people's war " (itself
28388-420: The sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the 3rd millennium BC . Damascus and Aleppo are cities of great cultural significance. During the Islamic rule, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital for the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt . The modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule , as
28576-416: The state. Not all these ideas were his, but it was Aflaq who succeeded in turning these beliefs into a transnational movement. The core basis of Ba'athism is Arab socialism , socialism with Arab characteristics which is separate from the international socialist movement and pan-Arab ideology. Ba'athism as developed by Aflaq and Bitar is a unique left-wing , Arab-centric ideology. It claims to represent
28764-417: The teachings of figures like Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad and Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle . The number of Druze people worldwide is around one million, with about 45% to 50% living in Syria , 35% to 40% living in Lebanon , and less than 10% living in Israel ; recently there has been a growing Druze diaspora. There are also important minority religions like
28952-436: The terms Middle East , Eastern Mediterranean , and Near East (which is historically familiar but widely deprecated today). The National Geographic Style Manual as well as Maddison 's The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) include only Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine (called West Bank and Gaza in
29140-414: The threat of war. On 1 February 1958, Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli and Egypt's Nasser announced the merging of Egypt and Syria, creating the United Arab Republic , and all Syrian political parties, as well as the communists therein, ceased overt activities. Meanwhile, a group of Syrian Ba'athist officers, alarmed by the party's poor position and the increasing fragility of the union, decided to form
29328-685: The time, while unofficial number stood at as many as 130,000. UNICEF reported that over 500 children have been killed, Another 400 children have been reportedly arrested and tortured in Syrian prisons. Both claims have been contested by the Syrian government. Additionally, over 600 detainees and political prisoners have died under torture. Human Rights Watch accused the government and Shabiha of using civilians as human shields when they advanced on opposition held-areas. Anti-government rebels have been accused of human rights abuses as well, including torture, kidnapping, unlawful detention and execution of civilians, Shabiha and soldiers. HRW also expressed concern at
29516-876: The two largest religions in the world: Christianity and Islam , plus Judaism and Druze faith ) originated in West Asia. Islam is the largest religion in West Asia, but other faiths that originated there, such as Judaism and Christianity , are also well represented. In Armenia and Georgia , Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodoxy respectively are the predominant religions, and there are still different ancient communities of Eastern Christians in Azerbaijan . There are still large ancient communities of Eastern Christians (such as Assyrians , Middle Eastern Christians and Arab Christians ) in Lebanon , Iraq , Iran , Turkey , Syria , Jordan , Israel and Palestine numbering more than 3 million in West Asia. There are also large populations of expatriate workers which include sizeable Christian communities living in
29704-438: The unitary Ba'ath Party, agreed with the distinction of "neo-Ba'ath", writing that from 1961 onwards there existed two Ba'ath parties: "the military Ba'ath Party and the Ba'ath Party, and real power lay with the former". According to Razzaz, the military Ba'ath (as paraphrased by Martin Seymour) "was and remains Ba'athist only in name; that it was and remains little more than a military clique with civilian hangers-on; and that from
29892-427: The upper hand, destroying the Mitanni Empire and annexing huge swathes of territory previously held by the Hittites and Babylon. Around the 14th century BC, various Semitic peoples appeared in the area, such as the semi-nomadic Suteans who came into an unsuccessful conflict with Babylonia to the east, and the West Semitic speaking Arameans who subsumed the earlier Amorites. They too were subjugated by Assyria and
30080-438: The vast Neo Assyrian Empire (911 BC – 605 BC). The Assyrians introduced Imperial Aramaic as the lingua franca of their empire. This language was to remain dominant in Syria and the entire Near East until after the Arab Islamic conquest in the 7th and 8th centuries AD, and was to be a vehicle for the spread of Christianity. The Assyrians named their colonies of Syria and Lebanon Eber-Nari . Assyrian domination ended after
30268-407: The war and attacked Israel as well. In the final days of the war, Israel turned its attention to Syria, capturing two-thirds of the Golan Heights in under 48 hours. The defeat caused 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 1970 retreat of Syrian forces sent to aid
30456-493: The weakness of such a system "quite obvious". Aflaq saw liberty as one of the defining features of Ba'athism. Articulation of thoughts and the interaction between individuals were a way of building a new society. According to Aflaq, it was liberty which created new values and thoughts. Aflaq believed that living under imperialism , colonialism , or a religious or non-enlightened dictatorship weakened liberty as ideas came from above, not from below through human interaction. One of
30644-502: The world's natural gas reserves are located in the region. Notes: Ramallah is the actual location of the government, whereas the proclaimed capital of Palestine is Jerusalem , which is disputed . Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital of Israel and the actual location of the Knesset , Israeli Supreme Court , etc. Due to its disputed status, most embassies are in Tel Aviv . British Overseas Territory Neo-ba%27athism Ba'athism , also spelled Baathism ,
30832-470: Was 800 kilometres (500 mi) from Medina, and Watt says that there was no immediate threat to Muhammad, other than the possibility that his communications to Syria and supplies to Medina would be interrupted. Watt says "It is tempting to suppose that Muhammad was already envisaging something of the expansion which took place after his death", and that the rapid march of his troops must have "impressed all those who heard of it". William Muir also believes that
31020-414: Was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet , considered to be the world's earliest known alphabet. The Ugaritic kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC in what was known as the Late Bronze Age Collapse which saw similar kingdoms and states witness the same destruction at
31208-402: Was a strong supporter of secular government and stated a Ba'athist state would replace religion with a state "based on a foundation, Arab nationalism, and a moral; freedom". During the Shia riots against the Iraqi Ba'ath government in the late-1970s , Aflaq warned Saddam Hussein of making any concessions to the rioters, exclaiming that the Ba'ath Party "is with [religious] faith, but is not
31396-458: Was a system which freed the population from enslavement and created independent individuals. However, economic equality was a major tenet in Ba'athist ideology, as the elimination of inequality would "eliminate all privilege, exploitation, and domination by one group over another". In short, if liberty was to succeed, the Arab people needed socialism. Aflaq labeled this form of socialism Arab socialism to signify that it existed in harmony with and
31584-590: Was also home to Greek and Roman ruling classes, Assyrians still dwelt in the north east, Phoenicians along the coasts, and Jewish and Armenian communities were also extant in major cities, with Nabateans and pre-Islamic Arabs such as the Lakhmids and Ghassanids dwelling in the deserts of southern Syria. Syriac Christianity had taken hold as the major religion, although others still followed Judaism , Mithraism , Manicheanism , Greco-Roman Religion , Canaanite Religion and Mesopotamian Religion . Syria's large and prosperous population made Syria one of
31772-400: Was also occupied in part by the Nizari Ismailis , the so-called Assassins , who had intermittent confrontations and truces with the Crusader States. Later in history when "the Nizaris faced renewed Frankish hostilities, they received timely assistance from the Ayyubids." After a century of Seljuk rule, Syria was largely conquered (1175–1185) by the Kurdish liberator Salah ad-Din , founder of
31960-422: Was carried out by the Ottomans and their allies in the form of the Armenian genocide and Assyrian genocide , of which Deir ez-Zor , in Ottoman Syria, was the final destination of these death marches. In the midst of World War I , two Allied diplomats (Frenchman François Georges-Picot and Briton Mark Sykes ) secretly agreed on the post-war division of the Ottoman Empire into respective zones of influence in
32148-431: Was continued after the 1966 Syrian coup d'état , led by radical leftist officers including Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad , which moved the party further into a militarist "neo-Ba'ath" organization that became independent of the National Command of the unified Ba'ath party . Following its violent seizure of power, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 400 people, the neo-Ba'athist military committee purged
32336-412: Was created, as well, and soon after the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem was given a separate status. During World War I , the Ottoman Empire entered the conflict on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire . It ultimately suffered defeat and loss of control of the entire Near East to the British Empire and French Empire . During the conflict, genocide against indigenous Christian peoples
32524-411: Was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh , Qatna , the Hurrians states and the Euphrates Valley down to the borders with Babylon. The army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam (modern Iran). Yamhad was conquered and destroyed, along with Ebla, by
32712-430: Was discovered at the field of Jbessa in 1940. Syria contains four terrestrial ecoregions: Syrian xeric grasslands and shrublands , Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests , Southern Anatolian montane conifer and deciduous forests , and Mesopotamian shrub desert . The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 3.64/10, ranking it 144th globally out of 172 countries. Syria
32900-430: Was dominated by Ba'ath members. Since the 1963 seizure of power by its Military Committee , the Ba'ath party has ruled Syria as a totalitarian state . Ba'athists took control over country's politics, education, culture, religion and surveilled all aspects of civil society through its powerful Mukhabarat (secret police). Syrian Arab Armed forces and secret police were integrated with the Ba'ath party apparatus; after
33088-424: Was during the Invasion of Dumatul Jandal in July 626 where he ordered his followers to invade Duma, because Muhammad received intelligence that some tribes there were involved in highway robbery and preparing to attack Medina itself. William Montgomery Watt claims that this was the most significant expedition Muhammad ordered at the time, even though it received little notice in the primary sources. Dumat Al-Jandal
33276-497: Was elected president in an election in which he ran unopposed. His election saw the birth of the Damascus Spring and hopes of reform, but by autumn 2001, the authorities had suppressed the movement, imprisoning some of its leading intellectuals. Instead, reforms have been limited to some market reforms. On 5 October 2003, Israel bombed a site near Damascus , claiming it was a terrorist training facility for members of Islamic Jihad . In March 2004, Syrian Kurds and Arabs clashed in
33464-412: Was in 1939, when, together with Michel Quzman, Shakir al-As and Ilyas Qandalaft, they briefly tried to establish a party. The party likely failed due to personal animosity between Arsuzi and Aflaq. Arsuzi formed the Arab Ba'ath in 1940 and his views influenced Aflaq, who alongside the more junior Bitar founded the Arab Ihya Movement in 1940, later renamed the Arab Ba'ath Movement in 1943. Though Aflaq
33652-429: Was in some ways subordinate to Arab nationalism . According to Aflaq, who was a Christian , the teaching and reforms of Muhammad had given socialism an authentic Arab expression. Socialism was viewed by Aflaq as justice, and the reforms of Muhammad were both just and wise. According to Aflaq, modern Ba'athists would initiate another way of just and radical forms just as Muhammad had done in the seventh century. Europe
33840-422: Was influenced by him, Arsuzi initially did not cooperate with Aflaq's movement. Arsuzi suspected that the existence of the Arab Ihya Movement, which occasionally titled itself "Arab Ba'ath" during 1941, was part of an imperialist plot to prevent his influence over the Arabs by creating a movement of the same name. Arsuzi was an Arab from Alexandretta who had been associated with Arab nationalist politics during
34028-435: Was its support of Lebanon 's war of independence from France in 1943. Still, the movement did not solidify for years until it held its first party congress in 1947 and formally merged with Arsuzi's Arab Ba'ath Party. Although socialist values existed in the two Ba'ath movements from their inception, they weren't emphasized until the party merged with Akram Al-Hawrani 's Arab Socialist Movement in 1953. Taking advantage of
34216-406: Was left unclear; its occupation by Arab nationalists resulted in its attachment to Syria . This border was recognized internationally when Syria became a League of Nations mandate in 1920 and has not changed to date. In 1920, a short-lived independent Kingdom of Syria was established under Faisal I of the Hashemite family. However, his rule over Syria ended after only a few months, following
34404-427: Was mainly due to totalitarianism, corruption and the resulting revolutions. The Umayyad dynasty was then 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 once
34592-480: Was not aware that he had undergone any religious conversion. Prior to, during, and after the Gulf War of 1990–91, the government became progressively more Islamic, and by the beginning of the 1990s, Saddam proclaimed the Ba'ath party to be the party "of Arabism and Islam". "Much like Vaclav Havel 's description in The Power of the Powerless of life under a totalitarian regime which 'demands conformity, uniformity and discipline' ... Syrian regime narrated
34780-433: Was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only that of Mesopotamia . The earliest recorded indigenous civilization in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib , northern Syria. Ebla appears to have been founded around 3500 BC, and gradually built its fortune through trade with the Mesopotamian states of Sumer , Assyria , and Akkad , as well as with the Hurrian and Hattian peoples to
34968-407: Was taken by Qalawun . In the meantime, an emir named Sunqur al-Ashqar had tried to declare himself ruler of Damascus, but he was defeated by Qalawun on 21 June 1280, and fled to northern Syria. Al-Ashqar, who had married a Mongol woman, appealed for help from the Mongols. The Mongols of the Ilkhanate took Aleppo in October 1280, but Qalawun persuaded Al-Ashqar to join him, and they fought against
35156-414: Was the reactionary class's view of Arab unity which had left the Arab Revolt "struggling for unity without blood and nerve". He saw the German unification as proof of this, putting him at odds with some Arab nationalists who were Germanophiles . In Aflaq's view, Bismarck 's unification of Germany established the most repressive nation the world had ever seen, a development which could largely be blamed on
35344-634: Was tumultuous, with multiple military coup attempts shaking the country between 1949 and 1971. In 1958, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt , which was terminated in the 1961 coup d'état and was renamed as the Arab Republic of Syria in constitutional referendum . The 1963 coup d'état carried out by the military committee of the Ba'ath Party established a one-party state and ran Syria under emergency law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending constitutional protections for citizens. Internal power-struggles within Ba'athist factions caused further coups in 1966 and 1970 , which eventually resulted in
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