Syria
Syria (Arabic: سوريا, romanized: Sūriyā), officially the
Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية,
romanized: al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a
country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon to the southwest,
the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq
to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the
southwest. A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and
deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious
groups, including Syrian Arabs, Kurds, Turkemens, Assyrians,
Armenians, Circassians,[8] Mandeans[9] and Greeks. Religious
groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze,
Isma'ilis, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Yazidis, and Jews.
Arabs are the largest ethnic group, and Sunnis the largest
religious group.
Syria is a unitary republic consisting of 14 governorates
and is the only country that politically espouses Ba'athism.
It is a member of one international organization other than
the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement; it was
suspended from the Arab League in November 2011[10] and the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation,[11] and self-suspended
from the Union for the Mediterranean.[12]
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 the sites of several
ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan
civilization of the 3rd millennium BC. Aleppo and the
capital city Damascus are among the oldest continuously
inhabited cities in the world.[13] In the Islamic era,
Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a
provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The
modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century
after centuries of Ottoman and a brief period French
mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge
from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. It gained
de jure independence as a parliamentary republic on 24
October 1945, when the Republic of Syria became a founding
member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the
former French Mandate, although French troops did not leave
the country until April 1946. The post-independence period
was tumultuous, with many military coups and coup attempts
shaking the country from 1949 to 1971. In 1958, Syria
entered a brief union with Egypt called the United Arab
Republic, which was terminated by the 1961 Syrian coup
d'état. The republic was renamed as the Arab Republic of
Syria in late 1961 after the December 1 constitutional
referendum of that year, and was increasingly unstable until
the 1963 Ba'athist coup d'état, since which the Ba'ath Party
has maintained its power. Syria was under Emergency Law from
1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional
protections for citizens.
Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was
preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad,[14] who was in office
from 1971 to 2000. Throughout his rule, Syria and the ruling
Ba'ath Party have been condemned and criticized for various
human rights abuses, including frequent executions of
citizens and political prisoners, and massive
censorship.[15] Since March 2011, Syria has been embroiled
in an armed conflict, with a number of countries in the
region and beyond involved militarily or otherwise. As a
result, a number of self-proclaimed political entities have
emerged on Syrian territory, including the Syrian
opposition, Rojava, Tahrir al-Sham and Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant. Syria was ranked last on the Global Peace
Index from 2016 to 2018,[16] making it the most violent
country in the world due to the war. The conflict has killed
more than 570,000 people,[17] caused 7.6 million internally
displaced people (July 2015 UNHCR estimate) and over 5
million refugees (July 2017 registered by UNHCR),[18] making
population assessment difficult in recent years.
As of June 2020, the national currency has plunged to new
lows, and there are massive protests occurring due to the
economic downturn; in addition, massive punitive sanctions
about to be applied by the United States via the Caesar Act,
are raising concerns about the possible collapse of the
Syrian government, possibly resulting in massive instability
and conflict throughout the region.
The Syrian Civil War
The Syrian civil war (Arabic: الحرب الأهلية السورية,
al-ḥarb al-ʾahlīyah as-sūrīyah) is an ongoing multi-sided
civil war in Syria fought between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab
Republic led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, along with
domestic and foreign allies, and various domestic and
foreign forces opposing both the Syrian government and each
other in varying combinations.[1] The war is currently the
second deadliest of the 21st century.
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