Essay on the political history of Syria in the 20th and early 21st centuries. A Brief History of Syria

SYRIA. STORY
The modern Syrian state appeared after the First World War, when France received from the League of Nations a mandate to govern Syria and Lebanon, and Great Britain - to Palestine and Transjordan. Until that time, the concept of Syria included all these four countries plus small areas that are currently located in southern Turkey and northwestern Iraq. Thus, the history of Syria before the 1920s refers to a much larger area, sometimes called Greater Syria, than the current lands of the country, whose own political history begins only from this time.
Ancient culture and history. Excavations in the area of ​​Tell Mardiha, immediately south of Aleppo, have shown that c. 2500 BC in this area was the capital of the rich and powerful state of Ebla. Its elected head and senate, which consisted of the nobility, ruled northern Syria, Lebanon and part of the territory of northern Mesopotamia, with the main enemy being the kingdom of Mari, which existed in the Euphrates valley. Ebla carried on an active trade in wood, fabrics and metal products with the small city-states of the Euphrates valley and northern Persia, as well as with Cyprus and Egypt; treaties of friendship were concluded between her and the Assyrian city of Ashur, in the north of Mesopotamia, and the city of Hamazi, in the north of Persia. In the 23rd century BC. Ebla was conquered by Akkad, its capital was destroyed to the ground. Around 1760 BC the territory of Syria was included in Babylonia, and a century later it was conquered by the Hittites. In turn, the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II challenged the Hittites, but his army failed to capture Syria, suffering around 1285 BC. defeat in the battle of Kadesh (in the vicinity of modern Homs). Over the next century, the Jordan Valley was settled by ancient Hebrew tribes, who soon began to fight the Philistines who inhabited the Mediterranean cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Gaza. At about the same time, most of the Mediterranean coast was in the sphere of trade influence of the Phoenicians, active overland trade with the region indian ocean led by the Arameans. In the 9th century BC. Syrian lands fell mainly under the rule of the Assyrians. They, in turn, were subjugated by the Chaldeans, whose most famous ruler was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who captured in 587 BC. Jerusalem. After 50 years, the state of the Chaldeans was conquered by the Achaemenids, who continued their offensive to the west and subjugated the main regions of Syria and Anatolia. After the campaign of Alexander the Great in the 4th c. BC. Syria, under the Seleucid dynasty, enters the era of Hellenism. His influence affected primarily the nobility of the Syrian cities, which was Hellenized, and they themselves entered into rivalry with the cities of Asia Minor and Alexandria. By the end of the Seleucid era, several small kingdoms emerged in the region, such as the State of Israel established by the Maccabees. In the 1st century BC. Syrian territory was conquered by Rome. For the next seven centuries, it was an important province, first of the Roman and then of the Byzantine empires. The Syrians were famous in the Mediterranean for their merchants, military leaders, scientists, jurists, priests and officials. The semi-Syrian dynasty of Sevres ruled Rome for almost 40 years from 193 to 235 AD. Syria turned out to be the center of the formation and spread of Christianity: the Patriarchates of Antioch and Alexandria were the oldest and most influential in the East until the primacy passed to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In the 3rd century AD, as political fragmentation intensified, various kingdoms and tribes fought for the possession of Syria in the Mediterranean zone. Some of these states, such as Palmyra, Edessa and Hatra, were Arab and had close political and economic ties with the Bedouins of Northern Arabia and Transjordan. For the loyalty of the Arab leaders of southern Syria, first the Roman governors fought, and then the kings of Sasanian Iran. When in the middle of the 6th c. the Byzantines began building new fortifications, the Sassanids launched a large retaliatory offensive, as a result of which Antioch was devastated. The war in southern Syria lasted 50 years and ended with the capture of Jerusalem by the Persians in 614. Sassanid generals ruled Syria until about 630, when Byzantium regained the largest cities in the region and tried to revive the alliance with the Bedouins of eastern Syria and northern Arabia. The intervention of the Byzantines in the affairs of the tribes inhabiting the areas bordering Syria became an obstacle to the spread of Islam from central Arabia and southern Iraq. The Islamic rulers of Mecca and Medina for a long time maintained good relations with the merchants of the Syrian cities of Bostra and Gaza, whose caravans transported grain and spices between Yemen and Transjordan. In order to secure these trade routes and persuade the South Syrian Bedouins to accept Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, beginning in 631, sent several expeditions to the desert regions around Damascus and Gaza. After all attempts to achieve a convincing victory over the Byzantines and their allied tribes ended unsuccessfully, the most talented Arab commander Khalid ibn al-Walid was transferred from southern Iraq to Damascus in 634. After victories at Ajnadayn, Fahl and Marj es-Suffar, his troops entered Bostra and Damascus, and in 635 they occupied Baalbek and Homs. However, the Byzantine army of approx. 100 thousand people, which also included Armenians, residents of Aleppo and Antioch and Syrian Bedouins, launched a counteroffensive. In the autumn of 636, she met in a fierce battle at the Yarmuk River with much smaller forces of Muslims, on whose side women also fought in this battle. The defeated Byzantines fled, and their victors recaptured Damascus and Homs. In 637, shortly after the fall of Jerusalem and Gaza, Aleppo, Antioch, Hama, and the strategically important city of Qinnasrin surrendered to them. In the mountainous regions around Caesarea, Latakia, Tripoli and Sidon, Muslim resistance continued until the mid-640s.
First Muslim period. Even during the lifetime of the generation that conquered Syria, the wealth, the level of development of crafts and the population of Syrian cities prompted the supporters of Islam to move the center of the Islamic state to Damascus (from Mecca and Medina). Starting from 661, when the ruler of Syria, Muawiyah, declared himself caliph, and up to 750, Damascus remained the seat of the Umayyad dynasty and the capital of the Arab Caliphate. The Umayyad state was ruled by the Syrians, both Muslims and Christians, and the Syrian soldiers fought with the troops of the Byzantine emperors. Arabic replaced Greek as the official language. However, elements of the Hellenistic heritage survived as the Arabs gradually adopted the culture, social organization and political system they encountered in the Syrian cities. In the 8th c. regional, religious and dynastic contradictions led to the fact that Damascus, and with it Syria, lost their significance. The Umayyads were replaced by the Abbasid dynasty, which made Baghdad its capital. The population of Syria has decreased, the wealth of local cities has faded. Over the next three centuries, amid relative impoverishment and political instability in the region, many Syrians converted to Islam. Arabic came into use, although Aramaic continued to be spoken in some remote villages. Christians, fearing for their safety, whole communities moved to the mountains. With the onset of the decline of the Abbasids, the northern borders of Syria became more vulnerable to Byzantine attacks. Small Muslim and Christian principalities arose in the region, which turned to Baghdad or Constantinople for help. Various heretical sects flourished, Shiism spread widely, becoming the basis of the teachings of the Alawites and Druzes. From Egypt (the center of the Fatimid Ismailis), Persia (the center of the Assassins) and Mesopotamia, secret teachings penetrated that preached revolutionary political, social, religious and philosophical views. The general intellectual potential of the country contributed to the creativity of poets and writers. At the Shiite court of the Hamdanids in Al-Farabi, the philosopher al-Farabi created treatises on the worldview of Plato and Aristotle, wrote books on medicine, mathematics, occult sciences and music. At the same time, the great Abu-l-Faraj al-Isfahani lived, the compiler of the anthology of Arabic-language poetry of the Book of Songs, which was called "the fundamental source for the study fiction". The largest representatives of the Syrian culture of that era were the poets Abu-l-Ala al-Maarri and al-Mutanabbi. The first received particular fame for his Message of Forgiveness, many of the quatrains from which had a strong influence on the poetry of Omar Khayyam, and a number of experts believe that Dante's Divine Comedy was influenced by this work Al-Mutanabbi was a Hamdanid court poet whose flamboyant style still makes him the most popular classical poet in the Arab world.
Invasion of the Seljuk Turks. The period of the revival of Syria, which fell on the 10th - early 11th centuries, was slowed down by the conquest of its interior regions by the Seljuk Turks, who came from Asia Minor and northern Mesopotamia. The tribes that invaded Syria were part of the huge Persian power of the Seljukids, but soon broke off their vassal relations with it and created two independent states, with capitals in Damascus and Aleppo. The Seljuks never penetrated into southern Syria, which remained under the rule of local rulers such as the Tanukids, or was in vassalage to the Egyptian Fatimids. At the end of the 11th century, as a result of the invasion of the crusaders who arrived from Western Europe, there was a further fragmentation and weakening of Syria.
Crusades. At the end of the 11th c. European knights appeared in the country, landing in Antioch, and then in other points on the Mediterranean coast. By the beginning of the 12th century. Four crusader states were created on Syrian territory: the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the County of Edessa. Following the Christians, the Seljuks rushed into the region. The governor of Mosul, Emir Maudud, organized a campaign in northern Syria and in 1111 laid siege to Aleppo. The Seljuks were opposed by local Turkic and Arab leaders, in particular the ruler of Damascus, who hired the Assassins to raid the Seljuks. However, with his death in 1128, cooperation between the city authorities and the Assassins ceased, and the new Mosul emir Zengi immediately invaded the northern regions of Syria and occupied Aleppo. After that, the Zengid dynasty, with the support of Kurdish cavalry hired as a strike force, under the pretext of an impending threat from the crusader states, established its control over all of Syria. One of the Kurdish commanders Salah-ad-Din (Saladin), who became famous for his campaign in Egypt in the 1160s, after the death of Nur-ad-Din ibn Zengi in 1174, became the head of the Zengid state and at the same time opposed the crusaders and the Abbasid caliphate in Iraq. In 1187, his troops defeated the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but were exhausted by the 3rd crusade that followed, led by Richard I, Philip II Augustus and Frederick I Barbarossa. Salah ad-Din's successors, the Ayyubids, retained control of the interior of Syria, but were forced to fight hard against the Seljuk Sultanate of Konya in the north, the crusader states in the west, and various Turkic states that existed in the Mosul region and western Persia in the east. In 1260, the declining Ayyubid state was invaded by the Mongols led by Hulagu Khan, who captured Aleppo and Damascus, but was stopped by Mamluk forces led by Qutuz at the Battle of Ain Jalut, in northern Palestine.
Mamluk rule. Immediately after the defeat of the Mongols, Qutuz was killed by Baybars, who assumed the title of Sultan and laid the foundation for the Mamluk dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria. During the 1260s Baibars captured the most important of the remaining Ismaili strongholds in the mountains of Syria. At the end of the century, Sultan Ashraf Salah ad-Din Khalil captured the last Crusader strongholds on the Syrian Mediterranean coast. Already during the first century of Mamluk rule, an effective administrative system was established in Syria, trade with both East and West was restored, and the rise of handicrafts and agriculture began. Syria reached its peak when it was ruled by Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalaun (1310-1341). But already under his immediate successors, due to the plague that swept through Syria and increased trade competition from the states of Anatolia and North Africa, the Mamluk state entered a period of relative decline, which opened the way for the Turkic-Mongolian commander Timur (Tamerlane) to capture Aleppo and Damascus. Having occupied them in 1401 for a short time, Timur began to move talented artisans from these cities to his capital Samarkand. Meanwhile, the Mamluk sultans in Cairo turned their eyes to Arabia and the lands on the shores of the Red Sea, and northern Syria became the object of the claims of the Timurids, the Ottomans and other Turks. By the end of the 15th century rivalry between the Mamluks, Ottomans and Iranian Safavids grew into real war. Taking advantage of the struggle that the Mamluks were forced to wage against the Portuguese, who were raiding the Red Sea zone, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Selim I in 1516 easily conquered Syria.
Ottoman period. For the next four centuries, Syria was part of the Sultanate and ruled from Istanbul. Soon after the Ottoman conquest, it was divided into three provinces: Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, which included all the lands south of Damascus to the borders with Egypt. Later, several more provinces were created, including Sidon and Acre (modern Akka). At the head of each province was a pasha, who was directly subordinate to the metropolitan administration. Each pasha governed his subject territory with the help of local cavalry detachments and a cohort of civil and judicial officials who enjoyed a significant degree of independence. The order established in the region contributed to the revival of trade and production in the 16th century, but after 1600, as a result of the struggle between the authorities on the periphery, the central treasury in Istanbul and large trading houses, the economy began to degrade. The growth of Dutch and English trade in the Mediterranean and in the countries of the Indian Ocean hastened the decline of the Ottoman economy. In the 18th century Aleppo and Beirut have become the main trading centers of Syria; colonies of European merchants were established in several cities (most of the trade with Europe passed through their hands). Missionaries began to arrive in large numbers to work among the local Christians, especially Franciscans and Jesuits. Contacts between missionaries and local authorities led to further stratification of Syrian society. Taking advantage of the situation, strong local clans broke away from the central Ottoman government. Internecine strife intensified, and as a result of one such conflict, a defeated Druze sect moved to an isolated mountainous region southeast of Damascus, and the area itself was called Jabal ed-Druz. At the end of the 18th century much of southern Syria fell under the rule of Ahmad al-Jazzar, Pasha of Acre, who tried to modernize the administrative system and promote the economy. By the end of the 18th century European powers began to actively interfere in the internal affairs of Syria, establishing their own spheres of influence. Thus, the French supported the Maronites and other Syrian Catholics, the Russians declared their right to defend the Orthodox, and the British offered their friendship to the Druzes. In 1798-1799, the troops of Napoleonic France, unable to capture Egypt, landed on the Syrian coast. Al-Jazzar, with the help of the British fleet, managed to stop the French at Acre, forcing Napoleon to return to France. The success of Syria in the development of branches of material production and trade attracted the attention of the powerful Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali, whose army invaded the country in the autumn of 1831. The Egyptian military leader Ibrahim Pasha established a centralized government oversight of the Syrian economy. Commerce and agriculture continued to develop, but they were no longer controlled by the local nobility. Trade with Europe flourished, passing in particular through the port of Beirut. The import of cheap British fabrics destroyed the local textile crafts in Aleppo and Damascus, while the increased demand for olive oil, cotton and silk in European states and Egypt strengthened the position of Syrian Christian traders. Clashes between Egyptian troops stationed in Syria and Ottoman forces in Anatolia forced the European powers to intervene in 1839 in order to maintain the authority of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. British and Ottoman agents pushed the Druze to revolt against the Egyptian army. At the same time, the combined Anglo-Austrian fleet established a blockade of Beirut, which forced Ibrahim Pasha to withdraw his troops from the country in 1840. With the restoration of the power of the Sultan, Syria fell under the Anglo-Ottoman trade convention of 1838, which opened the imperial market for European goods. Their influx destroyed the main branches of handicraft industry and prompted urban merchants and nobles of the country to start actively buying up agricultural land. The trend towards their transfer to the possession of townspeople who did not live on their estates intensified after 1858, when a new law was passed in the Ottoman Empire, allowing the transfer of communal lands in villages to private ownership in exchange for payment of higher. In the last quarter of the 19th century French companies received numerous concessions in Syria in exchange for granting loans to the Ottoman Empire. The French invested in Syrian ports, railways and roads. As material production declined, anti-Christian and anti-European sentiment began to grow. This trend led to increased European interference in the political life of Syria, which contributed to the growing dissatisfaction of the local Arab elite with Ottoman rule. In the 1890s, societies arose in Aleppo, Damascus, and Beirut to advocate Syrian independence from the Ottoman Empire. The number of these societies increased rapidly at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Arab national sentiment reached its peak after the July Revolution of 1908 in Istanbul, which brought the Young Turks to power. When it became obvious that the Young Turks would primarily protect the interests of the Turkic-speaking population, the Syrians stood at the head of several organizations that advocated the autonomy of the Arab provinces.
World War I. With the outbreak of the First World War, the Ottoman high command transferred the Arab divisions of the 4th Ottoman army to Gelibolu (in Europe). Many leaders of the national movement, the military governor of Syria, Jamal Pasha, ordered the arrest or deportation. Nevertheless, support for Arab nationalists on the ground continued to grow as a result of a serious crisis in all sectors of the economy caused by increased taxes on military needs and the British blockade of Mediterranean ports during the war. The impetus for the further upsurge of the movement was the uprising, which was raised in Arabia, with the support of the British, by the sheriff of Mecca, Hussein ibn Ali, who thus hoped to create an independent Arab kingdom. When the Arab army, led by his son Faisal ibn Hussein, entered Damascus in October 1918, she was greeted as a liberator. The city was declared the seat of the independent government of all Syria. Simultaneously, Beirut established its own Arab administration. In both cases, people from Syria who gained managerial experience in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt were appointed to responsible posts. Both administrations sent their representatives to the General Syrian Congress, convened in July 1919 in Damascus, which adopted a resolution calling for the declaration of full independence for Syria, the creation of a constitutional monarchy led by Faisal, and legal protection for all minorities. While Syrian nationalists advocated autonomy, British and French representatives began to discuss the future of state structure countries. The agreements between them were embodied in the decisions of the San Remo conference in April 1920, according to which the Faisal government in Damascus was dissolved, France received a League of Nations mandate to govern Syria and Lebanon, and Great Britain to govern Palestine and Transjordan. The news of the decisions of the San Remo conference provoked mass protests in the largest Syrian cities, and representatives of the national bourgeoisie suggested that Hashim al-Atasi, a large landowner, head an openly anti-French government. Faisal tried to act as an intermediary between the militant nationalists and the French, recognizing in July 1920 the mandate of the League of Nations and using recruits to suppress uprisings in the cities. When the French troops undertook a campaign against Damascus in order to take power, a group of volunteers led by Yusuf Azme took up defensive positions in the area of ​​the city of Maisalun, trying to stop their advance. Azme's detachment was defeated, and at the end of July the French established control over all of Syria. (In 1921, the British declared Faisal the king of Iraq, for which they also received a mandate, and made his older brother Abdallah first emir and then king of Transjordan.)
French mandate. The French authorities in Syria tried to suppress the Arab national movement, using the principles of "divide and rule." To do this, they strengthened religious minorities and contributed to strife on a confessional basis. The Maronite region in Mount Lebanon was expanded by annexing the predominantly Muslim Beqaa Valley and the cities of Tripoli, Beirut, Saida and Sur (Tyre). The rest of Syria was divided into five semi-autonomous units: Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia (area of ​​the Alawites), Jabal ed-Druze (area of ​​the Druze) and Alexandretta (modern Iskanderun, transferred to Turkey in 1939). In addition, in the extreme northeast of the country, in the region of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, a separate district was allocated, which was controlled directly from the center. The political affairs of these territories were in charge of the High Commissioner in Damascus, who appointed all government and local officials and was responsible for the state of emergency introduced in 1920. The terms of the mandate opened the Syrian market for free access to it by all member states of the League of Nations. As a result, overseas goods flooded the country. Imports played a particularly disastrous role for the Syrian textile industry: between 1913 and 1926, the number of weavers in Aleppo was reduced by half, and the number of operating looms by 2/3. Due to unemployment, which reached almost 25% in the cities, and the influx of a large number of Armenian refugees from Turkey, who were looking for even low-paid work, there was a drop in wages. In 1925, the Druze from Jebel ed-Druz rebelled against the French. In October, the leaders of the national movement organized an uprising in Aleppo and Damascus, but after two days of artillery shelling of Damascus, which led to the death of 5,000 Syrians, it was crushed. In 1926-1927, against the backdrop of the ongoing struggle of the Druze, the first wave of protests of workers, dissatisfied with their plight, swept across the country. Separate spontaneous strikes began in Aleppo and Homs, which soon spread to Damascus, but they were brutally suppressed by armed force. The strangulation of the labor movement led to an increase in sympathy for the People's Party. This liberal nationalist organization was created by the urban bourgeoisie and supported by the small urban merchants and rural landowners, who found themselves in a difficult position as a result of the mandated economic policy. Soon the People's Party established control over the Constituent Assembly, convened by the administration in 1925 in order to bring down the wave of popular discontent. In 1928, the successor to the People's Party, the National Bloc, put forward a draft constitution for the country, which provided for the reintegration of Syria and left no room for colonial authorities in it. Following this, the High Commissioner dismissed constituent Assembly , and in 1930 put into effect a new constitution that confirmed French control over the country, but provided for an elected president and a unicameral parliament. In 1935, the authorities approved a new labor law, which limited the list of professions whose representatives were allowed to join trade unions, and placed workers' syndicates under strict state control. In response to the adoption of this law, a second wave of workers' protests swept through the country. In 1936, the Damascus trade unions united into a single trade union, and two years later, the General Federation of Trade Unions was formed in Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs. The actions of the workers' organizations created the conditions for the adoption by the National Bloc in January 1936 of the "National Pact", which again raised the question of declaring independence and drafting a new constitution. The publication of this pact coincided with a fifty-day general strike that paralyzed markets, schools, utilities, and factories throughout the country. The French authorities tried to suppress the strike, but in vain. As a result, the High Commissioner was left with no choice and began negotiations with the National Bloc. As a result of the negotiations, an agreement was prepared, according to which the independence of Syria was de jure recognized and a new parliament was convened, but at the same time the broad rights of the French in the military and economic fields were confirmed. In the November 1936 elections, Hashim al-Atasi was elected president of the country, and the National Bloc received most of the seats in parliament. The suppression of the Arab uprising in Palestine in April 1936 split the national liberation movement in Syria along class lines. Workers and urban merchants, under the auspices of various Islamist groups, organized the collection of food, money and weapons to send to Palestine, and also held strikes in support of the rebels who opposed British rule and Jewish immigration. Wealthier merchants and industrialists, in particular in Damascus, tried to limit the amount of Syrian aid: their main concern was to protect the most profitable markets and convince the British of the need for Syrian independence. They also feared that the uprising in Palestine would push the Syrian workers and peasants into political action. Dissatisfaction with the moderate position of the National Bloc on the Palestinian issue ultimately led to the alienation of the pan-Arab wing, whose center of activity was Aleppo, and to a split in the ruling coalition. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the French again introduced a state of emergency in Damascus, and in 1939 the High Commissioner suspended the Constitution, dissolved Parliament, and arrested some of the most active leaders of the national movement. In managing the internal affairs of the country, the government was replaced by the Board of Directors. World War II and the Declaration of Independence. After the capitulation of France in 1940, there were shortages of bread, sugar, and gasoline in the country, which hastened the revival of the national movement. In February 1941, the National Bloc, headed by Shukri Kuatli, organized a strike in Damascus; it soon spread to Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Deir ez-Zor. The strike continued for two months, forcing the high commissioner of the Vichy government in France to dissolve the previously appointed Board of Directors. Instead, a Committee was formed, headed by the moderate nationalist Khaled al-Azem, who ruled Syria until the autumn of 1941, when British and Free French troops occupied the country and restored the Constitution. An agreement was reached between Kuatli, the Free French authorities, and British representatives, according to which new parliamentary elections were held in the country in July 1943. They were again won by the National Bloc (transformed into the National Patriotic Union), which won the overwhelming majority of seats in parliament. The new government included prominent figures of the national movement from Damascus, Aleppo and Homs, but at the same time representatives of Hama, Alawites and Druze were left behind. As a result, there was a consolidation of forces in opposition to the government around the leaders of Hama and the mountainous territories in the west and south of the country. Akram Haurani, a firm opponent of the landlord elite, who dominated the leadership of the National Patriotic Union, was elected to parliament. Meanwhile, separatists from the Alawite and Druze areas called for autonomy for them. Various Islamist organizations began campaigning among poor artisans and small traders in the cities of the north and among the inhabitants of the poorest Damascus quarters, where migrant peasants from the villages settled. The socialists, led by Michel Aflaq, demanded economic security for both the workers of Damascus and the impoverished small proprietors in the western and southern regions of the country. There was also a weakening of the positions of the former Syrian leaders as a result of the toughening of the French policy towards their political opponents and the break after 1944 of Damascus' trade and financial ties with Beirut and Haifa due to the creation of autonomous states in Lebanon and Palestine. Nominally, Syria became an independent state in 1945, when the creation of a national army was announced, and the country joined the United Nations and the League of Arab States. However, full independence was gained only after the final evacuation of French troops, which ended on April 15, 1946. The collapse of the parliamentary form of government. With the withdrawal of the last French troops from the country, the unity that had previously existed among the leaders of the national movement disappeared, and four forces arose that began to fight for control of the state. Large landowners and wealthy merchants, who profited from the shortage of grain and manufactured goods during the war, controlled the National Party and parliament. Independent small-scale producers concentrated in the Alawite and Druze areas, as well as the poor and landless peasants of the central plains, criticized the corruption and nepotism that prevailed among the former leaders and advocated the implementation of political and economic reforms. In early 1947, a peasant movement led by Akram Haurani initiated a campaign to change the law on parliamentary elections. In response, Shukri Kuatli, who was elected president in 1943, introduced a state of emergency and limited the activities of the Arab Socialist Party of the Haurani and the pan-Arab Arab Renaissance Party, led by Michel Aflaq and Salah ad-Din Bitar. This ensured the victory of the candidates of the National Party in the parliamentary elections in July 1947 and the re-election of Kuatli as president. Since 1948, the party began to split along the regional principle (Damascus and Aleppo). Both factions sought favor with the large landowners, who were able to attract votes from the rural electorate. The political infighting over the government's efforts to amend the constitution in a way that would allow President Kouatli to serve a second term has made it difficult for Syria to resist the escalation of the civil war in Palestine. After the proclamation of the State of Israel in May 1948, the Syrian brigade invaded Northern Galilee, being the only Arab military unit that managed to move forward during the first Arab-Israeli war. However, immediately after the ceasefire in parliament, the executive branch was accused of incompetence and misappropriation of funds. At the end of November, the strike of schoolchildren and university students escalated into riots. The government was forced to resign, and the chief of the general staff, Colonel Husni al-Zaima, ordered the troops to restore order. After gaining independence, the creation of their own armed units became a means of improving the economic and social position for people from various Syrian minorities. This was especially evident among the Alawites and Druze, who, starting from 1946, actively entered the military academy in Homs. There they were introduced to new political ideas, in particular the Ba'ath Party and local communities. Young graduates of the academy gradually became more and more intolerant of the old elite, from which they were separated by their class origin and regional affiliation. Growing discontent within the army spurred the high command, many of whom were Sunni townspeople, to come out in support of social change and to rally with leaders of the nationalist movement in neighboring Arab states. In the winter of 1948-1949, on a wave of dissatisfaction with the population and deputies of parliament over a military defeat in Palestine, a group of senior officers led by al-Zaima, disillusioned with the previous regime, overthrew the legitimately elected government. Having come to power in March 1949, al-Zaima repealed the 1930 Constitution, banned the activities of political parties, and began to rule by decree. In June, he proclaimed himself president, but already in mid-August he was killed by his opponents in the armed forces, during the second military coup. The leader of the coup, Colonel Sami Hinawi, announced the restoration of the civilian regime and the holding of elections in People's Council which was to create a new constitution. In these elections, which for the first time allowed women to vote, the Aleppo branch of the National Party, calling itself the People's Party, after an organization active in northern Syria in the 1920s, won a parliamentary majority. Its deputies, many of whom had close trade and financial ties with the northern regions of Iraq, advocated a political union with that country. However, opponents of the union, in particular hardline Syrian nationalists such as Haurani and senior army officials, blocked the normal work of the newly elected parliament during the last two months of 1949. As a result, on December 19, young officers, led by Colonel Adib Shishekli, in an attempt to find a way out of this situation replaced Hinawi. Şişekli resumed the activities of the parliament and asked him to continue working on the draft constitution. The new Constitution, promulgated on September 5, 1950, proclaimed a parliamentary form of government, declared broad civil rights and the implementation of socio-economic reforms. However, Shishekli and his associates, behind the cabinet leapfrog of 1950-1951, resorted to harsh measures in an attempt to control the resurgent trade unions and the peasant movement. In November 1951 they dissolved Parliament and suspended the Constitution. For six months, the leadership of the country was carried out directly by the military in the absence of a government. In April 1952 political parties were banned. In 1953, Shishekli promulgated a new constitution and became president as a result of a referendum. The military-civilian coalition, which came to power in February 1954, nominated Sabri al-Asali for the post of prime minister, whose government restored the Constitution of 1950 and allowed the activity of political parties. In September 1954, parliamentary elections were held, in which the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party, which was formed as a result of the merger of the Arab Socialist Party of Haurani and the Arab Renaissance Party of Aflak and Bitar, won a significant part of the mandates. However, the left could not agree on a coalition-based government, which was eventually formed by Faris al-Khouri. In February 1955, al-Khouri was replaced as prime minister by the leader of the National Party, Sabri al-Asali. The government immediately announced broad reforms in industry and the agricultural sector. Frightened by this prospect, and by demands from the PASP and the Communists for further dramatic changes, conservatives in parliament blocked the proposed law on the rights of agricultural workers and began campaigning in favor of former President Kouatli, who soon returned to the country from Egypt, where he was in exile. In the August 1955 elections, Kuatli was elected president with the financial support of Saudi Arabia. In the early 1950s, as a result of the US Middle East policy, Syria was drawn into the Cold War. In 1955, the country joined Egypt in its struggle against the Baghdad Pact (later the Central Treaty Organization, CENTO) created by Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan under the auspices of the United States and Great Britain. In December, Syria became the second (after Egypt) state in the Arab world to sign an agreement with the USSR on the supply of military equipment. In 1955 and 1956, Syria reached an agreement with Egypt on the unification of military command and the creation of a common Military Council. The Suez Crisis of 1956, which led to a joint British-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt, further strengthened bilateral ties. The country's close ties with Egypt, along with attempts by the US and Iraq to undermine the position of its leadership, led by President Kouatli, have strengthened the influence of the head of Syrian military intelligence, Colonel Abd al-Hamid Saraj. His agents in 1956 uncovered a carefully prepared conspiracy behind which stood the secret services of Baghdad. The danger of the situation became apparent in August 1956, when Iraqi weapons were secretly transferred to Jabal al-Druz. In December, 47 prominent People's Party members with close ties to Iraqi traders were court-martialed on charges of treason. Prime Minister al-Asali removed the People's Party from his cabinet, replacing them with anti-American independents. The US tried to destabilize the new government by offering American wheat in the traditional Syrian markets of Greece and Italy. This led to increased popular support for the PASW, which accused the US of interfering in Syria's internal affairs. Meanwhile, the revelation of American plans to overthrow Kouatli and seize power by a pro-Western military junta forced Saraj and the Chief of the General Staff to visit Cairo to discuss possible Egyptian assistance. At the end of 1957 political games pro-American, pro-Egyptian and pro-Syrian figures led to the postponement of municipal elections. In January 1958, the chief of the general staff, Afif al-Bizri, made a secret trip to Egypt, turning to Abdel Nasser with a proposal to immediately unite Syria and Egypt into single state. In February, Kuatli flew to Cairo, where the creation of the United Arab Republic (UAR) was announced.
Union with Egypt. The Syrians enthusiastically approved the creation of the UAR in a referendum on February 21, 1958. The Interim Constitution of the Union State was adopted, providing for a single president and government, as well as the existence of separate Executive Councils for the two regions of the UAR: Northern (Syrian) and Southern (Egyptian). In 1959 the Egyptian National Union Party was declared the only legal political party of the UAR. Saraj became the interior minister and head of all Syrian intelligence agencies. By his order, trade unions and peasant organizations were crushed. The desire of the Egyptians to unify the economic structure of both countries provoked a widespread increase in discontent in Syria. In Cairo, it was considered possible to mechanically extend to it development programs designed and suitable only for the Nile Valley. When the nationalization and redistribution of property began to be carried out in Syria in the summer of 1961, Syrian small and medium-sized urban traders began to agitate for leaving the UAR. Even the left-wing PASV spoke out against socialist innovations, motivating its position with a desire to soften criticism of the process of unification of the two states and referring to the fact that these measures would rather lead to increased centralized control over the economy than to achieve social justice. Widespread opposition to the unification and the weakening of the pro-Egyptian forces in Syria after the transfer of Saraj to work in Cairo helped a coalition of civilian politicians and the military to achieve the country's withdrawal from the UAR in September 1961.
Parliamentary Interregnum. From the end of 1961 to the beginning of 1963, three party coalitions operated on the Syrian political scene. The socialists, led by Haurani and Khaled al-Azem, advocated maintaining state control over heavy industry and greater citizen participation in political life . Large landlords, wealthy merchants and financiers called for the restoration of private enterprises and the political order that existed in the 1950s. The moderates, including the Aflaq wing of the PASW, advocated the preservation of the political and economic system of the UAR period. The Syrian political parties that had functioned until 1958 were destroyed by the Egyptian secret services, and the old National and People's Parties no longer enjoyed the support of the people. At the same time, the Nasserists still occupied the highest positions in the trade unions and the central state apparatus. Under these conditions, the leaders of the supporters of disengagement were initially unable to nominate a candidate for the post of head of the new Syrian cabinet of ministers. In the end, Maamoun Kuzbari, who had previously served as general secretary of the National Union of Damascus, was entrusted with forming a government that included former members of the National and People's Parties. This coalition did not receive the support of the country's main political forces, but due to a split in the left camp, the National and People's Parties managed to win a majority in parliament in the December 1961 elections. enterprises. The decisions made in the UAR, which had led to the expropriation of British, French and Belgian property, were canceled, and the UAR law on land reform was revised. These changes were opposed by peasants and small-scale rural producers from the outlying governorates. They were supported by young officers who shared Baathist principles, a group of whom, led by recent supporters of the separation of Syria and Egypt, in March 1962 arrested the bulk of the members of parliament and tried to force them to continue the previous reforms. Nasserist officers from the garrisons of Homs attempted a counter-coup, but were unsuccessful. In April, the commander of the Syrian army, Major General Abdel Kerim al-Din, convened a meeting of top commanders in Homs, at which it was decided to remove the socialist left from the armed forces and restore civilian rule. Simultaneously, Parliament was dissolved and al-Din was appointed Minister of Defense. In September, the Military High Command restored Parliament and appointed Khaled al-Azem as Prime Minister. He formed a government of representatives of all parties and groups, with the exception of those that advocated reunification with Egypt. At the same time, al-Azem firmly spoke out against the further participation of the military in the political life of the country. The current situation, which was aggravated by popular protests initiated by the Nasserists and the Islamists who were gaining strength in January 1963 in Damascus and the geographical region of Hauran (southwest of the capital), provoked a new military coup in March 1963.
Ba'athist regime. This coup was organized by the Military Committee of the Baath Party, which was not officially considered part of the party organization, but shared the goals of its leadership. During the first months after coming to power, the leaders of the March coup nationalized banks and insurance companies and began a new agrarian reform, limiting the size of private landholdings. Prime Minister Salah al-Din Bitar said that private property will remain "in the efficient sector of industry." However, in May 1964, militant socialists from the provincial party organizations nationalized a number of large industrial firms in Aleppo and Homs and introduced a system of self-government over them. By summer, they had convinced the government to allow the formation of nationwide trade unions and to agree to a new labor law that increased the role of the state in protecting workers' rights. In the fall, the General Federation of Peasants was founded, and in mid-December the government decided that all future oil revenues in Syria should remain in the hands of the state. These measures created the basis for a radical transformation of the economy in 1965. In January, the "Ramadan Socialist Decree" was adopted, placing all the most significant Syrian enterprises under state control. Over the next six months, a program of further nationalization was implemented. In the course of it, the ties between the trade unions and peasants, who formed the backbone of the PASV, and the artisans and merchants of large and small cities, who began to deviate from the nationalist principles proclaimed by the party, were finally broken. Tensions between these two categories of the population resulted in riots and demonstrations that engulfed the cities during the spring and summer. This marked the beginning of a struggle between moderate Baathist figures associated with Interior Minister Amin Hafez and Baathist left-wing leaders led by General Salah Jadid to determine the future course of the Baathist revolution. Amin Hafez, who headed the government in mid-1964, turned to the national (pan-Arab) leadership of the party for support. In turn, Salah Jadid strengthened his positions in the regional (Syrian) leadership, placing his associates in strategically important positions in the Syrian army. At the end of February 1966, Jadid's supporters, including the commander of the air force, General Hafez Assad, managed to finally eliminate Amin Hafez and his supporters from power structures. The new government set about creating state cooperatives, approved measures to concentrate wholesale trade in the public sector, and in 1968 introduced a system of central planning. The new regime entered into an alliance with the Syrian Communist Party, and prominent communists were included in the government. This course was opposed in the provincial cities by representatives of the middle strata, who were forced to obey party directives under the supervision of the numerically growing people's militia. In the spring of 1967, anti-Baathist speeches began, provoked by an editorial in the army weekly, which was perceived by the general public as atheistic in content. In response, the ruling regime mobilized its armed supporters in the workers' militia, as well as parts of the Palestinian partisans based in Syria since 1964, who sought to re-engage the Arab world in their liberation struggle. The spiral of militarization that began to unwind helped them push Syria into the war with Israel in June 1967. Israeli air strikes on large Syrian enterprises and the oil refinery complex in Homs caused great harm to the country's economy, and Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights, in southern Syria, seriously undermined the reputation of the cabinet ministers Jadid, who was responsible for the defeat of the Syrian army and air force in the June 1967 war. popular uprisings was a militant Islamist organization led by Marwan Hadid from Hama. At the same time, a split was growing within the ruling elite. The radicals who grouped around Jadid set the task of strengthening the state's influence on the economy and offered to subordinate the military to the civilian wing of the PASV. The pragmatists united around Assad sought to create conditions for the development of private enterprise and preserve the autonomy of the army; at the beginning of 1970 they managed to achieve the adoption of a number of decrees on subsidizing private enterprises and easing restrictions on the import of certain goods. These measures contributed to the economic recovery of the country and created the prerequisites for a coup, which in November 1970 brought Hafez al-Assad to the top of power.
Assad regime. The new leadership opted for a development strategy that included funding and state control of large capital-intensive enterprises, while at the same time supporting trade and investment in the private sector, especially in construction and agriculture. The Assad government developed a five-year economic recovery plan for the first half of the 1970s. The October 1973 war with Israel, during which Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated attack on the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, although it was a costly action, it demonstrated that the Syrian armed forces were significantly stronger than in 1967. In addition, in 1974 Israel withdrew its troops from a number of areas in the Golan Heights, including the city of El Quneitra. Private firms that emerged in Syria in the early 1970s benefited from the rise in oil prices that brought prosperity to the Arab oil-producing states after 1973, as well as from increased ties with Lebanese banks and light industries. Syrian entrepreneurs with close ties to Lebanon and the oil-producing Gulf states benefited from Assad's involvement in the post-1976 Lebanese civil war and from increased diplomatic ties with wealthy Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which provided generous economic aid to Syria in the late 1970s. However, the use of public funds to support the regime's leading supporters, as well as the size of the profits they received from connections with state companies, led to accusations against senior officials of corruption and patronage of the Syrian Alawites, to which many of them belonged. These accusations, together with the growing competition between state enterprises and private firms, gave impetus to the revitalization of the Islamist movement in the late 1970s. In early 1976, members of several independent Islamist movements launched a campaign against the ruling regime. In 1977-1978 they organized a series of attacks on government facilities and assassinations of prominent state and party figures. These attacks, as well as the response to their suppression, accompanied by the use of force, led to mass protests and strikes of artisans and merchants in the cities. By 1980, a full-scale Civil War . In the spring of 1980, there were serious clashes between government troops and rebels in Aleppo, Hama and Homs. After that, the central authorities made a number of conciliatory gestures, but already in July they declared membership in the organization of Muslim Brotherhood a criminal offense. A group of influential religious figures brought together leaders of militant Islamist organizations in November in an attempt to create an Islamic Front to coordinate opposition to Ba'athist leaders. In response to the challenge thrown to him, the regime began to strengthen its position, strengthening the public sector of the economy. The government raised wages at state-owned enterprises, whose dependence on Damascus, according to the adopted official decrees, was reduced, and the responsibility to the local administration increased. Private companies engaged in the manufacturing industry were subject to higher taxes. A set of measures has been implemented, especially in the northern and central governorates, to divert the flow of raw materials from small private firms to state-owned enterprises. In 1981, the government obliged importers to obtain licenses for the right to import goods from abroad at the Ministry of Trade and apply for the necessary loans exclusively to state banks. Merchants who tried to circumvent these rules were arrested on charges of smuggling and tax evasion. Faced with such an attack on their rights, in February 1982 small merchants from Hama raised an open rebellion against the authorities with slogans aimed at establishing an Islamic order in Syria. The rebellion was crushed by the army after three weeks of bloody battles, in which thousands of inhabitants were killed and most of the old buildings were destroyed. The result of the speech in Hama was the creation of the National Union for the Liberation of Syria, which included groups united in the Islamic Front and other underground organizations opposing the regime. The charter they adopted called for an end to corruption, free elections to the Constituent Assembly, and liberalization of the constitution. However, the opposition failed to build on the initial success. The government brought the country's economy under even greater control in an attempt to cope with a growing shortage of productive investment and foreign exchange, and Assad's opponents turned their attention to foreign affairs, in particular to the issue of Syria's support for Islamist Iran during its war with Iraq (1980-1988). ). In the early 1980s, the economic boom of the previous decade came to an end. While Syria's military spending has skyrocketed, especially since the start of the massive Israeli offensive in Lebanon in June 1982, world oil prices began to fall, which significantly reduced foreign exchange earnings. The reason was not only a decrease in income from the export of liquid fuels; there was also a reduction in cash receipts from Syrians who worked in the rich Arab oil-producing states. As control over the country consolidated, the Assad government began the second stage of economic liberalization in the late 1980s. The final Statement of the PASV congress held in January 1985 criticized the inefficiency and corruption of the state sector of the economy, and a proposal was made to reorganize the complex system of exchange rates in order to reduce illegal currency circulation and losses from illegal black market transactions. In the spring of 1985, the country's new prime minister, Abdel Raouf Qasem, began negotiations with Western states and foreign financial institutions in an attempt to attract foreign investment in agriculture and the service sector. At the same time, the government continued to assert that such a course is consistent with the official plan for the economic development of Syria. In the mid-1990s, the Baathist regime, led by Assad, was still experiencing difficulties associated with a deficit in the country's balance of payments and budget, but he managed to stay in power thanks to the provision of additional features to develop private enterprise while suppressing existing and potential political opposition.

Collier Encyclopedia. - Open society. 2000 .

Syria(Arabic سوريا ‎), full name - Syrian Arab Republic(Arab. الجمهورية العربية السورية ‎, al-Jumhuriya al-Arabiya al-Suriyya) - a state in the Middle East, bordering with and in the southwest, with in the south, with in the east and with in the north. It is washed by the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

The modern statehood of Syria is a little over 70 years old, but civilization originated here as early as the 4th millennium BC. e. The capital is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. In addition, it is also the oldest of all modern capitals in the world.

Syria has a population of 18.5 million (2015). Almost 93% of Syrians are Muslims, 6% of the country's inhabitants adhere to different directions of Christianity. The official language is Arabic.

From 1963 to the present, the republic has been under the rule of the Syrian Baath Party and its allies. Since 2011, a civil war has been going on in Syria between supporters of the official government (“Baath” and Bashar al-Assad), the armed opposition, the Kurds, isolated by IS from the rest of Syria, and since 2014 by IS and a large number of other Islamist groups.

Etymology

Name " Syria" comes from the ancient Greek name of the colonies of Assyria, formed from the Semitic word "Sirion". The area on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea south of Cilicia, between Egypt and Mesopotamia, including the Armenian regions of Commagene, Sophene and the Assyrian region of Adiabene, is described by Pliny the Elder as "former Assyria." By the time Pliny finished his main work, Natural History, this region was divided by the Roman Empire into several provinces: Judea (later, modern, PNA and part), Phoenicia (modern), Mesopotamia and Coele-Syria (that is, " Hollow Syria).

Story

Ancient Syria

The history of Syrian civilization dates back at least to the 4th millennium BC. e.

Eblaite is the oldest known Semitic language. In the Ebla library, discovered in 1975, more than 17,000 clay tablets were found, dedicated to crafts, agriculture and art. Among the leading crafts of Ebla are the processing of wood, ivory, pearls. Other famous cities of the era include Mari, and Dura-Europos.

Roman theater in Bosra

In the XXIII century BC. e. Ebla was conquered by Akkad, and the capital was completely destroyed. Then the Canaanite tribes invaded the territory of Syria, forming many small states. During the period between the invasion of the Canaanite tribes and the conquest of Syria in 64 BC. e. The Roman Empire, its territory was successively ruled by the Hyksos, Hittites, Egyptians, Armenians, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, ancient Macedonians, the Hellenistic power of the Seleucids, the Armenian Empire of Tigranes the Great.

From the 16th century BC e. in the south of Syria there is a city that was originally subordinate to the Egyptian pharaohs.

Syria occupies an important place in the history of Christianity - according to the Bible, Paul accepted Christian faith on the road to Damascus, and then lived in Antioch, where the disciples of Christ first began to be called Christians (See Acts of the Apostles).

The famous city in the desert of Palmyra (I-II century AD)

Islamic rule

Fortress of Aleppo

Islam gained a foothold in Syria in 661, when it became the capital of the Arab Caliphate under the Umayyads. At this time, the Caliphate was already a powerful state, stretching from to. Damascus became the cultural and economic center of the entire Arab world, already in the VIII century being one of the largest cities in the world. In 750, the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasid dynasty, after which the capital of the Caliphate moved to.

In the XII century, crusader states were formed on the territory of Syria, which lasted less than a hundred years. Since the XIII century, Damascus became the provincial center of the Mamluk Empire. In 1400, Syria was attacked by the Timurids. Tamerlane defeated the Mamluk detachments, destroyed Damascus and took all his wealth to. Since 1517, Syria became part of the Ottoman Empire for 4 centuries.

On the eve of the First World War, the territory of modern Syria was part of the three vilayets of the Ottoman Empire - Beirut, Aleppo and Damascus (Syria). The eastern, sparsely populated and mostly desert part of modern Syria was the western part of the independent Zor sanjak with a center in. The territory of the Sanjak of Zor roughly coincides with the territory controlled in 2014-2017 by the Islamic State.

French Mandate

Shortly after the defeat in the First World War, the Ottoman Empire collapsed, and many of its territories were occupied. In 1920, the Syrian Arab Kingdom was founded with its center in Damascus. Faisal from the Hashemite dynasty, who later became king, was declared king. But the independence of Syria did not last long. A few months later, the French army occupied Syria, defeating the Syrian troops on July 23 at the Battle of the Maysalun Pass.

In 1922, the League of Nations decided to legalize the occupation of the lands of the Ottoman Empire and. Great Britain in 1917 occupied part of the Ottoman Empire - the region "". In 1922, the regime of direct occupation is replaced by administrative control - Mandate from the League of Nations. Subsequently, Palestine was divided. The lands east of the Jordan River were separated from it, where Transjordan was created under the protectorate of Great Britain.

Region in 1920

France, in turn, receives in 1922 the Mandate of the League of Nations for the territory of Syria. In 1926, the mandated territory was divided into Syria.

In 1926, the country's constitution was introduced in Lebanon, confirming the mandate of France and providing for an elected president and a unicameral parliament.

In 1936, a treaty was signed between Syria and France providing for the independence of Syria, but in 1939 France refused to ratify it. In 1940, France itself was occupied by German forces and Syria came under the control of the Vichy Regime (Governor-General Henri Dentz). Nazi Germany, having provoked a rebellion by Prime Minister Gailani in British Iraq, sent units of its air force to Syria.

In June - July 1941, with the support of British troops, Free French units, led by Generals Charles de Gaulle and Catru, occupied Syria during a bloody conflict with Dentz's troops. General de Gaulle in his memoirs directly pointed out that the events in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon were directly related to the German plans to invade (including the island of Crete), Yugoslavia and the USSR, since they had the task of diverting the Allied armed forces to secondary theaters military actions.

On September 27, 1941, France granted independence to Syria, leaving its troops on its territory until the end of World War II. On January 26, 1945, Syria declared war on Germany and. In April 1946, French troops were evacuated from Syria under pressure from the USSR and opposition from the United States. After that, the Syrian government for decades went in the direction of the predominance of foreign contacts with the USSR.

recent history

Shukri al-Kuatli, who fought for the country's independence under the Ottoman Empire, became the president of independent Syria. In 1947, a parliament began to operate in Syria. The main political forces were the pro-presidential National Socialist Party of Syria (currently operating only in the territory), the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party and the then underground Communist Party of Syria. The National Social Party of Syria was the bearer of the pro-fascist ideology of the "welfare state", distinguished by anti-Semitism and sympathy for the Nazis. Many Nazi criminals took refuge in Syria and became the founders of its special services.

After Syria gained independence, attacks on Syrian Jews intensified, and their businesses were boycotted. The new government banned emigration to Palestine, and the teaching of Hebrew in Jewish schools was severely restricted.

After the adoption of the UN decision on the partition of Palestine on November 27, 1947, Jewish pogroms took place in Syria. Only in Aleppo, with a Jewish community that lived in the city for 2.5 thousand years and numbered from 6 to 7 thousand Jews, on December 1, 1947, 150 houses, 5 shops and 10 synagogues were destroyed. From 8 to 75 Jews were killed, several hundred were wounded. After the pogrom, many Jews fled the city to Turkey and Lebanon, to the territory of the future Israel and to the USA. In 1948, the Jewish community of Syria, which numbered 50,000 people in 1900, was reduced to 30,000. Pogroms continued in 1948 and in subsequent years, as a result, Jews were forced to flee almost completely from Syria to, and the countries of South America, and in less than 100 Syrian Jews currently live in Damascus and Latakia.

In 1948, the Syrian army took a limited part in the Arab-Israeli war launched by the Arab League. At the end of the war, accusations against the government of incompetence and misappropriation of funds began to be heard in the parliament of the country, which forced him, after riots, to resign, and the military - to introduce a state of emergency in the country. Colonel Husni al-Zaym came to power, repealing the 1930 constitution, banning political parties, and subsequently proclaiming himself president.

President Adib al-Shishakli

On August 14, 1949, al-Zaim was killed and power passed to Colonel Sami Hinawi, who restored the civilian regime. A People's Council was chosen to adopt the new constitution, with the majority in the Aleppo branch of the National Party, which favors union with Iraq. The idea of ​​a political union with Iraq caused discontent among the military, whose leader was Adib al-Shishakli, and on December 19, Hinawi was removed. On September 5, 1950, a new constitution was proclaimed, according to which Syria became a parliamentary republic, but already in November 1951, the constitution was suspended, and the country's parliament was dissolved. In 1953, Shishakli promulgated a new constitution and, after a referendum, became president.

In February 1954, a military-civilian coalition led by Hashim Bey Khalid al-Atassi came to power in the country, returning the 1950 constitution. In 1954, following the results of the elections, the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party won the majority of seats in parliament, demanding fundamental changes in industry and agriculture. In the elections in 1955, Shukri al-Kuatli was elected president of the country, with the support of the conservatives in parliament.

March 15, 1956 between Syria and an agreement was concluded on collective security against possible aggression.

In November 1956, as a direct result of the Suez Crisis, Syria signed a treaty with the Soviet Union. This became a fulcrum for communist influence in the government in exchange for military equipment. was concerned about this increase in the strength of Syrian military equipment, since it seemed possible that Syria would try to take away. Only a heated debate in the United Nations stopped the threat of war.

United Arab Republic

On February 22, 1958, in the wake of the popularity of the pan-Arab movement, Syria united into one state - the United Arab Republic with a center in. Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser became the president of the new state, but the Syrians also held many important posts. However, Nasser soon dissolved all Syrian political parties. In Syria, large-scale nationalization of agriculture began, and then industry and the banking sector. The formation of a new state was supported by the leadership of the USSR: loans were granted to the UAR, and the participation of the USSR in more than fifty industrial construction projects was also announced.

In Syria, dissatisfaction with the unification gradually increased. The Syrians believed that all the leading positions were occupied by the Egyptians, and they are in a disadvantaged position. Soon, discontent turned into an open rebellion: on September 28, 1961, a coup d'etat took place under the leadership of a group of officers; The Egyptians tried to suppress the center of resistance, but to no avail. A national government headed by Mamun Kuzbari was created. Thus, the UAR lasted only 3.5 years.

Syrian Arab Republic

The destroyed hospital building in Quneitra in the UN buffer zone (Golan Heights). 2006

After Syria left the confederation, the country was headed by liberal Nazim al-Qudsi. He returned many nationalized enterprises to their former owners. On March 28, 1962, a coup again took place in the country under the leadership of the same group of army officers. Al-Qudsi and his prime minister were arrested. After 5 days, supporters of the former regime overthrew the interim government, and Al-Qudsi again became the president of the country.

On March 8, 1963, a military coup again took place in Syria, as a result of which the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (PASV) came to power (the name “Baath” (ar. “revival”) is often used). In 1964, a new constitution was adopted, which established the leading role of the PASV. The country was headed by Amin al-Hafez, who launched radical socialist reforms. In particular, the nationalization of the main sectors of the economy was again carried out. On February 23, 1966, Syria was shaken by the fifth coup in 4 years, led by Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad. Amin al-Hafez was overthrown, but the PASV remained in power, and the socialist path of Syria's development remained largely unchanged.

The Golan Heights were occupied in 1967 during the Six Day War. Israeli air strikes during the war caused enormous damage to the economy. The failure of the government to ensure the restoration of industry after the war led to anti-government actions in 1968-1969. In November 1970, as a result of the "corrective movement" in the PASP, which was headed by Hafez al-Assad, Salah Jadid's group was removed from power. Thus, Syria became the main ally of the Soviet Union in the Middle East. The USSR provided Syria with assistance in modernizing the economy and the armed forces.

In 1973, Syria, along with other Arab states, attacked Israel. The Arabs failed to defeat Israel and after 18 days the war was stopped. By decision of the UN Security Council, at the end of the war in 1973, a buffer zone was created separating Israel and Syria. At the moment, the Golan Heights are controlled by Israel, but Syria is demanding their return.

As of April 2015, as a result of hostilities, 3.9 million Syrians left their country, and another 7.6 million were internally displaced persons. Most refugees find shelter in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, about 200 thousand people left for European countries, which is why the number of migrants near the borders of the European Union reached in July 2015 the highest figure since the start of such a count in 2008.

After a series of serious defeats in 2015 (the loss of cities and Palmyra, as well as the capture of the Abu al-Duhur air base), at the end of September, official Damascus turned to military assistance. September 30 officially confirmed the transfer to Syria of an aviation group of several dozen aircraft and helicopters and support units.

In the period 2015-2016, hostilities continued throughout the country. The armed opposition, consisting of many groups, continued systematic shelling of cities under the control of government troops, there were street battles with the use of heavy weapons in several major cities countries, including the capital.

The turning point in the military conflict was the liberation of the city by the Syrian army on December 22, 2016. In early 2017, the Syrian army concentrated its main forces on the fight against the Islamic State, as a result of which, by the end of autumn, the Islamic State had lost most of its territories in Syria, retaining only a few small territories controlled by it in different parts of the country (Yarmouk camp to the south from , south of the governorate, Quneitra governorate, as well as small areas of the eastern bank of the Euphrates River). On December 6, 2017, Russian President V.V. Putin officially announced the complete defeat of the terrorists of the Islamic State with the preservation of separate centers of resistance. After the completion of the operation in the east of the country, the main fighting moved to the governorate.

State structure

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad

Syria is a multi-party presidential-parliamentary republic.

The head of state is the president. The president, according to the country's constitution, is elected for 7 years, the number of terms in office is limited to two consecutive terms. The president has the power to appoint a cabinet of ministers, declare martial law or a state of emergency, sign laws, grant amnesties, and amend the constitution. The president determines the country's foreign policy and is the supreme commander of the armed forces.

The legislative power in the country is represented by the People's Council (arab. مجلس الشعب ‎ - Majlis ash-Shaab). Deputies of the 250-seat parliament are directly elected for a 4-year term. Following the results of the parliamentary elections in 2003, 7 parties passed to the People's Council. Led by the Ba'ath, they form the Syrian National Progressive Front (NPF). 83 deputies do not have party affiliation. The People's Council approves the country's budget and is also involved in legislative activities.

The judicial system is a unique combination of Islamic, Ottoman and traditions. The basis of Syrian legislation is, according to the constitution, Islamic law, although the actual legislation in force is based on the Napoleonic Code. There are three levels of courts: the Court of First Instance, the Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court, which is the highest instance. The Constitutional Court is composed of five judges, one of whom is the President of Syria and four others are appointed by the President. Thus, the president has full control over both the executive and legislative and judicial powers.

In addition to this, the system of religious courts deals with family matters and other domestic matters.

Government

The Syrian government is headed by the prime minister. The current Prime Minister is Imad Khamis.

On February 15, 2006, career diplomat Farouk Sharaa was sworn in as vice president of Syria, who, as vice president, should oversee the country's foreign policy and information policy. The oath was also taken by new ministers appointed during the February 11 government reshuffle.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry was headed by Walid al-Muallem, who was the Syrian ambassador to Syria for ten years, and since the beginning of 2005 served as deputy foreign minister. The government of Mohammed Naji Otri included 14 new ministers. Supervisor military police Bassam Abdel Majid takes over as interior minister vacant after suicide former leader Syrian Interior Ministry Ghazi Kanaana in October 2005. Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Abdallah Dardari, Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani, Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Hussein, and Economy and Trade Minister Amer Lutfi retained their posts.
In the course of subsequent personnel changes, the former Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian Armed Forces, Ali Habib, became the Minister of Defense, and Lamia Asi became the Minister of Economy.

Human rights

"Allah protect Syria." A poster depicting the president in Damascus.

Since 1963, a state of emergency has been in effect in Syria, in connection with which there have been expanded powers of law enforcement agencies. Because of this, the country has often faced accusations of violating civil rights. In particular, Amnesty International has repeatedly mentioned in its reports the presence of hundreds of political prisoners in the country, the use of torture as a common practice, the absence of a fair and independent judiciary, and discrimination against women and national minorities.

Syria is one of the most secular countries in the Arab world.

In April 2011, the state of emergency was lifted.

Representatives of several religions and peoples live in the country. In the years 1960-1980, the official authorities carried out a strict assimilation of the Kurdish minority (10% of the Kurds did not have citizenship, but a residence permit, since 2011 the rights of the Kurds were increased to be secured by a separate law instead of "common grounds") . Since the 1960s, publications in the Kurdish language, its teaching in schools and even its use in personal communication in public places have been banned in the country. The Kurds did not have the right to create cultural, educational, public and sports organizations. This did not cause any armed confrontation; in parallel, in neighboring Turkey, the “Kurdish” issue is constantly in an acute military stage.

In the early 1980s, there was a local uprising by an armed, non-governmental religious group that killed up to 40,000 people.

The country has the death penalty.

A number of human rights organizations in their reports regularly characterize Syria as an extremely unfavorable country in terms of human rights. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House and others accuse the Syrian authorities of restricting freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, torture and deprivation of medical care.

Foreign policy

The foreign policy of Syria is focused, first of all, on the settlement of all, including territorial - related to the return of the Golan Heights under the jurisdiction of Damascus - disputes with. Although Syria's relations with other Arab countries were damaged after President Assad came out in support during the Iran-Iraq war, Syrian diplomacy is trying in every possible way to rally the Arab world around the problem of a Middle East settlement.

Syria has a special relationship with. Damascus Considers Russian Federation as its main military-political and trade-economic partner. The possibility of locating a Russian naval base in the Mediterranean port is being considered. Traditionally, Russia is a supplier of weapons and other military products to Syria.

Relations with the West are more strained. accuse the Syrian authorities of sponsoring international terrorism, encouraging Iraqi resistance, arming Hezbollah. Also, the United States has repeatedly accused the government of Bashar al-Assad of violating human rights and dictatorial methods of government.

Relations with France remained good for decades, thanks to the huge work and investments in the Syrian economy that began even before the 2nd World War.

Geography

Syria map

The area of ​​Syria is 185.2 thousand km².

Relief

The Ansariya (An-Nusayriya) mountain range divides the country into a humid western part and an arid eastern part. The fertile coastal plain is located in northwestern Syria and stretches for 130 km from north to south along the Mediterranean coast from to the border. Almost all of the country's agriculture is concentrated here. The highest mountain in Syria is Nabi Yunis (1575 m). Most of the Syrian territory is located on an arid plateau dotted with the mountain ranges of Dajabl-ar-Ruwak, Jabal-Abu-Rujmayn and Jabal-Bishri. The average height of the plateau above sea level ranges from 200 to 700 meters. To the north of the mountains is the Hamad desert, to the south - Homs.

Climate

The climate is generally dry. The average annual rainfall does not exceed 100 mm. The average temperature in January is +7.2 °С, in July + 26.6 °С.

Water resources

In the east, Syria is crossed by the Euphrates and flows through its territory for 675 km. In 1973, a dam was built in the upper reaches of the river, which led to the formation of a reservoir called Asada Lake. In the areas along the Euphrates, agriculture is widespread. Large tributaries of the Euphrates are Khabur and Belikh. In the extreme northeast, for 44 km, the second main river of the Middle East, the Tigris, flows along the border with. And in the west flows the river Orontes ( El Asi, 325 km), which flows from to Turkey. The Yarmouk River flows along the border with Jordan.

Flora and fauna

Ficus, magnolia, plane tree, cypress, myrtle, laurel, hibiscus grow in the west of Syria. Aleppo pine is endemic to Syria. Citrus, olive trees, figs and grapes are cultivated in irrigated areas. The forests proper (of beech and cedar) occupy a small part of the territory of Syria. In the east of Syria, desert vegetation prevails: tamarisk, astragalus, camel thorn, biyurgun, saxaul, boyalych. The animal world is not rich, there are antelopes, wild boars, jackals, foxes, hares, hyenas, the Syrian hamster and the Syrian Brown bear. Storks and herons come to Syria for the winter.

Administrative division

Syria is divided into 14 governorates, the head of which is appointed by the Minister of the Interior after the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers. Each governorate elects a local parliament. Quneitra governorate has been occupied since 1973, part of the governorate is under UN control.

golan heights

Druze settlement of Majdal-Shams.

The territory of the Golan Heights makes up the Syrian governorate of El Quneitra, with the center in the same name. Israeli troops captured the Golan Heights in 1967, and until 1981 the region was under the control of the Israel Defense Forces. In 1974, the UN Emergency Forces were introduced into the region. A demarcation line was drawn directly along the eastern border of Quneitra governorate and a demilitarized zone was established. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) is based in the area.

In 1981, the Israeli Knesset passed the "Golan Heights Law", which unilaterally declared Israeli sovereignty over the territory. The annexation was invalidated by the UN Security Council Resolution of December 17, 1981 and condemned General Assembly United Nations in 2008.

The center of the Israeli Golan was the city of Katzrin. The majority of the non-Jewish population in the Golan are Druze who retain Syrian citizenship (they are granted the right to acquire Israeli citizenship). In Syria, they enjoy some privileges, in particular, they are guaranteed free higher education.

In 2005, the population of the Golan Heights was approximately 40 thousand people, including 20 thousand Druze, 19 thousand Jews and about 2 thousand Alawites. The largest settlement in the region is the Druze village of Majdal-Shams (8.8 thousand people). Initially, only UNDOF personnel had the right to move freely between Syria and Israel. But in 1988, the Israeli authorities allowed Druze pilgrims to cross into Syria so that they could visit the Temple of Abel, located in the neighboring governorate of Dar'a. Also, since 1967, Druze brides who decide to marry a Syrian are allowed to move to the Syrian side, and they already lose their right to return. Syria and Israel are de jure at war.

Economy

Weak sides: Civil War. international sanctions.

In 2014, the decline in GDP was also caused by international sanctions, destroyed infrastructure, reduced domestic consumption and production, and high inflation. In 2014, the war and the ongoing economic downturn created a humanitarian catastrophe, with the number of people in need in Syria rising from 9.4 million to 12.2 million, and the number of refugees rising from 2.2 million to 3.3 million. Syria's problems in the long term are foreign trade barriers, reduced oil production, high unemployment, and lack of water resources.

The inflation rate in 2014 was estimated at 34.8%. In 2014, according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (an annual ranking of the states of the world, reflecting the assessment of the level of perception of corruption by international analysts), Syria was ranked 159 out of 175 countries. According to the World Bank's annual Doing Business ranking in 2014, Syria was ranked 165th in terms of ease of doing business.

The public sector, which retained the leading role in the economy (70% of the main means of production), accounts for about half of the national income and approximately 75% of the value of industrial output. The state fully controls the sphere of finance, energy, rail and air transport. As part of the course proclaimed by the Syrian leadership towards gradual liberalization and modernization of the economy, a line has been taken to provide public sector enterprises with greater economic independence, in particular, the right to enter the foreign market and attract foreign investment.

The private sector was actively developing. It produces 25% of the value of industrial products, it occupies a dominant position in agriculture (almost 100%), domestic trade (90%), foreign trade (70%), services, vehicles, housing construction.

Industry creates the bulk of the national income. The most developed industries are oil, oil refining, electric power, gas production, phosphate mining, food, textile, chemical (production of fertilizers, plastics), electrical engineering.

Agriculture (50% of the working population) accounts for about 30% of national income and 17% of export earnings (cotton, livestock products, vegetables and fruits). Only a third of the territory of Syria is suitable for agriculture.

In the future, political instability, hostilities and trade and economic sanctions imposed on Syria led to a deterioration in the country's economy.

• by May 23, 2012, the losses from international sanctions against Syria amounted to 4 billion US dollars, the sanctions led to a shortage of essential goods
• On January 10, 2013, the Syrian Foreign Ministry sent a message to the UN Security Council, in which it notified the international community about the looting of about 1,000 factories and enterprises by militants in the commercial and industrial center of Aleppo. Equipment and goods were illegally exported to Turkish territory, and the Turkish border authorities did not prevent this.

International trade

Export - 13.97 billion dollars (in 2008) - oil, minerals, fruits and vegetables, textiles.

The main buyers are Iraq 30.7%, Germany 9.8%, Lebanon 9.6%, Italy 6.4%, France 5.5%, Egypt 5.4%, Saudi Arabia 5.1%.

Import - $ 15.97 billion (in 2014) - machinery and transport equipment, food, livestock, metals and metal products, chemical products, plastics, paper

The main suppliers are Saudi Arabia (24.5%), UAE (12.1%), Iran (8.9%), Russia (8.4%), Iraq (7.3%), Turkey (6%), China (4.6%), Ukraine (4.1%).

Transport

Hejaz railway station in Damascus

Car roads

The total length of roads in Syria is 36,377 km. Of them:

• with hard surface - 26,299 km;
• without hard coating - 10,078 km.

Railways

The total length of railways is 2,750 km. In Syria, two types of gauge are used at once. 2423 km of roads were laid with a standard gauge of 1435 mm, and 327 km - with a gauge of 1050 mm. A road with a gauge of 1050 mm was built by the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century and connected with. This thread is currently inactive. Rail communication has been established with three neighboring states:, and. Currently, the construction of the line -; planned laying of railways - Dara and -.

Air Transport

The number of airports is 104 (1999), of which 24 have concrete runways. 3 have international status. The state airline, Syrianair, operates flights to more than 50 cities.

Pipeline transport

The total length of pipelines is 1,304 km, of which 515 are oil pipelines.

Sea transport

The main ports on the Mediterranean Sea:, Banyas.

Population

The demographic curve of Syria. On the vertical axis - population, thousand people. On the horizontal axis - year

Population density

According to the United Nations Population Fund, the total population of Syria in 2011 was 20.8 million, including 10.5 million men and 10.3 million women; the proportion of the urban population is 56%, the population growth rate in 2010-2015 will be 1.7%, life expectancy will be 74 years for men and 78 years for women.

Most of the population is concentrated on the Mediterranean coast and along the banks of the Euphrates. Population density - 103 people / km². Syria guarantees free education from 6 to 11 years of age and is compulsory. 12 years schooling consists of 6 years of elementary school, three years of general education and another three years of special training required for admission to the university. Literacy among Syrians over the age of 15 is 86% for men and 73.6% for women.

Largest cities

History of Syria- the history of the territory in which the Syrian Arab Republic is located. About 10 thousand years BC. e. Syria became one of the centers of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, where cattle breeding and agriculture appeared for the first time in the world. In the III millennium BC. e. on the territory of Syria there was a Semitic city-state of Ebla, which was part of the circle of the Sumerian-Akkadian civilization. One of the brightest eras of its early history was the X-VIII centuries BC. e., when after aggressive campaigns Kings Rizon I and Tab-Rimmon, the city of Damascus became the center of the powerful Aramaic kingdom, which soon became the hegemon of all Syria. In 739 B.C. e. Assyrian troops managed to take Arpad. In 738 B.C. e. they also captured 19 more Syrian cities. Under these conditions, the Syrian rulers forgot about their strife and rallied around the new Damascus king Rhizon II. After the Battle of Issus, Alexander the Great, instead of pursuing Darius, moved into Syria. Parmenion captured the entire convoy of the Persian army in Damascus, and Alexander himself occupied Phoenicia. Thus Syria in 332 BC. e. became part of the Macedonian kingdom.

In 635, Syria was devastated and then conquered by the Arabs, who converted a significant part of the Aramaic population to Islam. In the years 660-750, when Damascus served as the residence of the Caliphs, the welfare of Syria began to rise again, but with the decline of the Damascus Caliphate, the country became poorer. In 1260, the declining Ayyubid state was invaded by the Mongols under the leadership of Hulagu Khan, who captured Aleppo and Damascus, but was stopped by Mamluk forces led by Sultan Kutuz at the battle of Ain Jalut in northern Palestine. Syria was under Egyptian rule until it was conquered in 1517 by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. Under the Ottomans, Syria was divided into 4 provinces headed by governors who were directly subordinate to the Istanbul administration. During the First World War, the Arabs (mostly from the Hejaz) together with the British participated in the liberation of Syria from the Ottomans. When the Arab army led by Faisal ibn Hussein entered Damascus in October 1918, it was greeted as a liberator. In 1920, France received a mandate in San Remo to govern Syria and launched an offensive from the coast to the east with its 60,000-strong army. Soon the French entered Damascus and expelled Faisal with his 8,000 army.

On April 17, 1946, Syria gained full independence from France. In 1958, Syria tried to unite with Egypt and the United Arab Republic was formed. In 1973, Hafez al-Assad became the head of the republic. After the death of Hafez al-Assad, his son, Bashar al-Assad, became president of Syria. In 2011, an uprising broke out in Syria.

prehistoric period

About 10 thousand years BC. e. Syria became one of the centers of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, where cattle breeding and agriculture appeared for the first time in the world. The subsequent Pre-Pottery Neolithic B is characterized by the rectangular houses of the Mureybet culture. During the pre-ceramic Neolithic, local residents used vessels made of stone, gypsum and burnt lime. Finds of obsidian, originating from Anatolia, are evidence of ancient trade relations. Settlement of Tell Halula (en: Tell Halula) IX-VIII millennium BC e. in northern Syria had an area of ​​8 hectares. A DNA study of the inhabitants of Tell Halul and Tell Ramad (en: Tell Ramad) in southern Syria showed that the first European settlements were founded by the inhabitants of the Middle East.

During the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, the cities of Hamukar and Emar played an important role.

Aram

One of the brightest eras of its early history was the X-VIII centuries BC. e., when, after the conquests of the kings Rizon I and Tab-Rimmon, the city of Damascus became the center of the powerful Aramaic kingdom, which soon became the hegemon of all Syria. This dominating position remained with their descendants. At the beginning of the ninth century BC e. the son of Tab-Rimmon, Ben-Hadad I, fought with the kingdom of Israel and seized part of northern Galilee from the Israelites. But a few decades later, the hegemony of Damascus began to be threatened by the rapidly growing Assyrians. They first collected tribute from the rulers of Syria in 859 BC. e. In order to successfully resist the enemy, the local rulers decided to join forces. The son of Ben-Hadad I, Ben-Hadad II, managed to create a powerful anti-Assyrian alliance, which together with him included the kings of Hamat, Israel, Arvad, Aman and some others. In 854 BC. e. under the walls of the city of Karkara, on the banks of the Orontes River, a fierce battle took place. It was very bloody, but ended to no avail. Some time later, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III again invaded Syria, laid siege to Damascus, but could not take it.

However, the coalition of Syrian and Palestinian rulers, dangerous for the Assyrians, did not last long. Soon between the Israeli king Ahab and Ben-Hadad II (bibl. Venadad) the war began. At the battle of Rimoth Gilead in 850 BC. e. the Israelites were defeated and Ahab was killed (2 Kings). Then in 843 BC. e. Ben-Hadad II himself also died - one of his close associates, a certain Gazail, taking advantage of the fact that the king was sick, strangled him with a blanket and seized power himself. In 834 BC e. The 120,000th Assyrian army approached Damascus for the second time. The king of Assyria, Shalmaneser III, discovered that the Syrians had taken up positions on Mount Senir, one of the mountain peaks of Lebanon, and dug in there. The Assyrians managed to defeat the Syrian army, and Azail himself was forced to flee to Damascus. The Assyrians surrounded the city and cut down the groves in its vicinity. Shalmaneser III was able to capture a lot of booty, but the city was not taken this time either.

antique period

French Mandate

In 1920, France received a mandate in San Remo to govern Syria and launched an offensive from the coast to the east with its 60,000-strong army. Soon the French entered Damascus and expelled Faisal with his 8,000-strong army. In accordance with the Franco-Turkish treaty on October 20, 1921, the Alexandretta sanjak was separated into a special autonomous administrative unit within the French mandate, since, in addition to Arabs and Armenians, a significant number of Turks lived in it. On September 7, 1938, in the north-west of Syria, on the territory of the Alexandretta Sanjak, the State of Hatay was formed, which was annexed by Turkey on June 29, 1939. After the Revolt of 1925-27, France was forced to make concessions in matters of local government, and in 1932 Syria was declared a republic (with the preservation of the French mandate).

Modern Syria

Syria received full independence from France on April 17, 1946, which is celebrated as Evacuation Day. The first president was the head of the colonial administration, Kouatli. The emergence of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent Arab-Israeli war led to an acute political crisis. In 1949, three dictators were replaced in Syria as a result of three military coups: Husni al-Zaim, Sami al-Hinnawi ( English) and Adib ash-Shishakli. In 1958, Syria attempted to unite with Egypt, resulting in the formation of the United Arab Republic.

Syria, with its 15 million population, after an unsuccessful attempt to unite with Egypt, as a result of a coup in 1963, was under the rule of the leaders of the Baath Party (Party of the Arab Socialist Renaissance). The nationalist faction with a focus on total socialism, close to the Soviet model, quickly gained the upper hand in the Ba'ath. Soon the socialist emphasis in the economy was softened, but this was followed by a military coup in 1966. The course towards strengthening the role of the public sector in the economy was continued. The main opposition to the Ba'ath was Islamists. In 1976-1982, Islamist-organized mass protests and a terrorist struggle against the Baath, called the Islamic uprising, took place in the country.

The 1969 constitution defined Syria as a democratic, popular, socialist republic with a planned economy, with private property limited by law. On November 16, 1970, President Salah Jadid was overthrown in a military coup, and Hafez al-Assad became President of the Republic in 1971, whose rule was in fact a dictatorship. The obvious Soviet bias of the Syrian leadership was balanced by curtsies towards Islam. The Arab-Israeli wars in and 1973 contributed to an increase in the role of Syria in the overall confrontation.

During the years of Hafez al-Assad, Syria sought to limit Israel's influence in the region. The Syrian Golan Heights came under Israeli control, however, a kind of "compensation" for this loss was the almost complete political control of Syria over Lebanon, established during the civil war in this country. An end to this was put in when the Syrian troops were withdrawn from Lebanon.

After the death of Hafez al-Assad, his son, Bashar al-Assad, became president of Syria.

Bashar al-Assad's policy is more soft and flexible than his father's. He agreed to withdraw Syrian troops from Lebanon and even agreed to cooperate with UN investigators who suspect Syrian intelligence services in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

According to the article by K. Kapitonov, even before the 2003 Iraq War, bypassing the UN Security Council ban, Syria participated in supplying weapons to the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Russia (2008), the US, the EU, Israel and France accused Assad of logistical support for paramilitary groups that are enemies of Israel (Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad), recognized as terrorist organizations in a number of countries around the world.

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Notes

not a fire spotter, but an VKS officer Alexander Parkhomenko.

Literature

• Bikerman E. The State of the Seleucids / Per. from French L. M. Gluskina. - M.: Nauka, Main edition of Eastern literature, 1985. - 264 p.
• Woolly Leonard. The Forgotten Realm / Per. from English. E. N. Samus. - M.: Nauka, Main edition of Eastern literature, 1986. - 168 p.: ill. - Series "In the footsteps of the disappeared cultures of the East."
• Grusheva A. S. Essays on the economic history of Syria and Palestine in antiquity (I century BC - VI century AD). - St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya, 2013. - 392 p. - Series "Historical Library". - ISBN 978-5-90598-803-5
• Ancient Ebla (Excavations in Syria) / Comp. and an introduction by Pierre Matthieu. Ed. I. M. Dyakonova. - M.: Progress, 1985. - 368 p.: ill.
• Zablotska Julia. History of the Near East in antiquity (from the first settlements to the Persian conquest). - M.: Nauka, Main edition of Eastern literature, 1989. - 416 p. - Series "In the footsteps of the disappeared cultures of the East." - ISBN 5-02-016588-3
• Matveev K. P., Sazonova A. A. Five lives of ancient Suri. - M.: Young Guard, 1989. - 188 p.: ill. - Series "Eureka".
• Pigulevskaya N. V. Culture of the Syrians in the Middle Ages. - M.: Nauka, Main edition of Eastern literature, 1979. - 272 p.: ill. - Series "Culture of the peoples of the East".
• Smirnov S.V. State of Seleucus I (politics, economy, society). - M.: Russian Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Science; Dmitry Pozharsky University, 2013. - 344 p.
• Tseren Erich. Bible Hills / Per. with him. N. V. Shafranskaya. Ed. D. P. Kallistova. - M.: Nauka, Main edition of Eastern literature, 1966. - 480 p.: ill. - Series "In the footsteps of the disappeared cultures of the East."
• Tsirkin Yu. B. History of Biblical Countries. - M.: Astrel, Transitbook, 2003. - 576 p. - Series "Classical Thought". - ISBN 978-5-17-018173-6
• Shifman I. Sh. Syrian Society of the Principate Era (I-III centuries AD). - M.: Nauka, Main edition of Eastern literature, 1977. - 310 p.: ill.
• Shifman I. Sh. Ugarit society (XIV - XIII centuries BC) - M .: Nauka, Main edition of oriental literature, 1982. - 392 p.: ill.
• Shifman I. Sh. Culture of ancient Ugarit (XIV-XIII centuries BC). - M.: Nauka, Main edition of Eastern literature, 1987. - 236 p.: ill.

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An excerpt characterizing the History of Syria

Princess Mary postponed her departure. Sonya and the count tried to replace Natasha, but they could not. They saw that she alone could keep her mother from insane despair. For three weeks Natasha lived hopelessly with her mother, slept on an armchair in her room, gave her water, fed her and talked to her without ceasing - she spoke, because one gentle, caressing voice calmed the countess.
The emotional wound of the mother could not heal. Petya's death tore off half of her life. A month after the news of Petya's death, which found her a fresh and vigorous fifty-year-old woman, she left her room half dead and not taking part in life - an old woman. But the same wound that half killed the Countess, this new wound called Natasha to life.
A spiritual wound resulting from a rupture of the spiritual body, just like a physical wound, however strange it may seem, after a deep wound has healed and seems to have come together, a spiritual wound, like a physical wound, heals only from within by the protruding force of life.
Natasha's wound also healed. She thought her life was over. But suddenly love for her mother showed her that the essence of her life - love - was still alive in her. Love has awakened, and life has awakened.
The last days of Prince Andrei connected Natasha with Princess Mary. A new misfortune brought them even closer. Princess Marya postponed her departure and for the last three weeks, as if she were a sick child, she looked after Natasha. The last weeks spent by Natasha in her mother's room had sapped her physical strength.
One day, Princess Mary, in the middle of the day, noticing that Natasha was shaking in a feverish chill, took her to her and laid her on her bed. Natasha lay down, but when Princess Mary, having lowered the blinds, wanted to go out, Natasha called her to her.
- I don't want to sleep. Marie, sit with me.
- You're tired - try to sleep.
- No no. Why did you take me away? She will ask.
- She's much better. She spoke so well today,” said Princess Marya.
Natasha was lying in bed and in the semi-darkness of the room she examined the face of Princess Marya.
"Does she look like him? thought Natasha. Yes, similar and not similar. But it is special, alien, completely new, unknown. And she loves me. What's on her mind? Everything is good. But how? What does she think? How does she look at me? Yes, she's beautiful."
“Masha,” she said, timidly pulling her hand to her. Masha, don't think I'm stupid. Not? Masha, dove. I love you so much. Let's be really, really friends.
And Natasha, embracing, began to kiss the hands and face of Princess Marya. Princess Mary was ashamed and rejoiced at this expression of Natasha's feelings.
From that day on, that passionate and tender friendship was established between Princess Mary and Natasha, which happens only between women. They kissed incessantly, spoke tender words to each other, and spent most of their time together. If one went out, the other was restless and hurried to join her. Together they felt a greater harmony with each other than separately, each with himself. A feeling stronger than friendship was established between them: it was an exceptional feeling of the possibility of life only in the presence of each other.
Sometimes they were silent for whole hours; sometimes, already lying in their beds, they began to talk and talked until the morning. They talked for the most part about the distant past. Princess Marya talked about her childhood, about her mother, about her father, about her dreams; and Natasha, who previously with calm incomprehension turned away from this life, devotion, humility, from the poetry of Christian self-denial, now, feeling bound by love with Princess Marya, fell in love with Princess Marya's past and understood the side of life that she had not understood before. She did not think of applying humility and self-sacrifice to her life, because she was used to looking for other joys, but she understood and fell in love with another this previously incomprehensible virtue. For Princess Mary, who listened to stories about Natasha's childhood and early youth, a previously incomprehensible side of life was also revealed, faith in life, in the pleasures of life.
They still never talked about him in the same way, so as not to violate with words, as it seemed to them, that height of feeling that was in them, and this silence about him made them forget him little by little, not believing this.
Natasha lost weight, turned pale, and physically became so weak that everyone constantly talked about her health, and she was pleased with it. But sometimes not only the fear of death, but the fear of illness, weakness, loss of beauty suddenly came over her, and involuntarily she sometimes carefully examined her bare hand, surprised at its thinness, or looked in the mirror in the morning at her stretched out, miserable, as it seemed to her. , face. It seemed to her that it should be so, and at the same time she became frightened and sad.
Once she soon went upstairs and was out of breath. Immediately, involuntarily, she thought up a business for herself below, and from there she ran upstairs again, trying her strength and watching herself.
Another time she called Dunyasha, and her voice trembled. She called to her once more, in spite of the fact that she heard her footsteps - she called in that chesty voice with which she sang, and listened to him.
She didn’t know this, she wouldn’t have believed it, but under the impenetrable layer of silt that seemed to her that covered her soul, thin, tender young needles of grass were already breaking through, which were supposed to take root and so cover the grief that crushed her with their vital shoots that it would soon be invisible and not noticeable. The wound healed from within. At the end of January, Princess Marya left for Moscow, and the count insisted that Natasha go with her in order to consult with the doctors.

After the clash at Vyazma, where Kutuzov could not keep his troops from wanting to overturn, cut off, etc., the further movement of the fleeing French and the Russians who fled after them, to Krasnoe, took place without battles. The flight was so fast that the Russian army, which was running after the French, could not keep up with them, that the horses in the cavalry and artillery were becoming more and that the information about the movement of the French was always incorrect.
The people of the Russian army were so exhausted by this continuous movement of forty miles a day that they could not move faster.
To understand the degree of exhaustion of the Russian army, it is only necessary to clearly understand the significance of the fact that, having lost no more than five thousand people wounded and killed during the entire movement from Tarutino, without losing hundreds of people captured, the Russian army, which left Tarutino among one hundred thousand, came to Red among fifty thousand.
The rapid movement of the Russians behind the French had the same destructive effect on the Russian army as the flight of the French. The only difference was that the Russian army moved arbitrarily, without the threat of death that hung over the French army, and that the backward patients of the French remained in the hands of the enemy, the backward Russians remained at home. The main reason for the reduction of Napoleon's army was the speed of movement, and the corresponding reduction of the Russian troops serves as an undoubted proof of this.
All the activities of Kutuzov, as was the case near Tarutin and Vyazma, were aimed only at ensuring that, as far as it was in his power, not to stop this disastrous movement for the French (as Russian generals wanted in St. Petersburg and in the army), but assist him and facilitate the movement of his troops.
But, in addition, from the time of fatigue and the huge loss that appeared in the troops, which occurred from the speed of movement, another reason seemed to Kutuzov to slow down the movement of troops and to wait. The goal of the Russian troops was to follow the French. The path of the French was unknown, and therefore, the closer our troops followed on the heels of the French, the more distances they covered. Only by following at some distance, it was possible to cut the zigzags that the French made along the shortest path. All the skillful maneuvers that the generals proposed were expressed in the movement of troops, in increasing the transitions, and the only reasonable goal was to reduce these transitions. And to this end, throughout the campaign, from Moscow to Vilna, Kutuzov's activities were directed - not by chance, not temporarily, but so consistently that he never betrayed her.
Kutuzov knew not with his mind or science, but with his whole Russian being he knew and felt what every Russian soldier felt, that the French were defeated, that the enemies were fleeing and it was necessary to send them out; but at the same time he felt, along with the soldiers, the whole burden of this campaign, unheard of in speed and season.
But it seemed to the generals, especially non-Russians, who wanted to distinguish themselves, to surprise someone, to take some duke or king prisoner for some reason - it seemed to these generals now, when every battle was both disgusting and pointless, it seemed to them that now is the right time give battles and defeat someone. Kutuzov only shrugged his shoulders when, one after another, he was presented with projects of maneuvers with those badly shod, without sheepskin coats, half-starved soldiers, who in one month, without battles, melted to half and with whom, under the best conditions of continued flight, it was necessary to go to the border the space is greater than that which has been traversed.
In particular, this desire to distinguish themselves and maneuver, overturn and cut off, manifested itself when the Russian troops ran into the French troops.
So it happened near Krasnoye, where they thought to find one of the three columns of the French and stumbled upon Napoleon himself with sixteen thousand. Despite all the means used by Kutuzov, in order to get rid of this disastrous clash and in order to save his troops, for three days at Krasnoy the exhausted people of the Russian army continued to finish off the defeated gatherings of the French.
Toll wrote the disposition: die erste Colonne marschiert [the first column will go there then], etc. And, as always, everything did not go according to the disposition. Prince Eugene of Wirtemberg shot from the mountain past the fleeing crowds of the French and demanded reinforcements, which did not come. The French, running around the Russians at night, scattered, hid in the forests and made their way, as far as they could, further.
Miloradovich, who said that he did not want to know anything about the economic affairs of the detachment, which could never be found when it was needed, "chevalier sans peur et sans reproche" ["a knight without fear and reproach"], as he himself called himself , and a hunter before talking with the French, sent parliamentarians demanding surrender, and wasted time and did not do what he was ordered to.
“I give you guys this column,” he said, driving up to the troops and pointing to the French cavalrymen. And the cavalrymen on thin, skinned, barely moving horses, urging them on with spurs and sabers, trotted, after strong tensions, drove up to the donated column, that is, to the crowd of frostbitten, stiff and hungry Frenchmen; and the donated column threw their weapons and surrendered, which they had long wanted.
Near Krasnoye they took twenty-six thousand prisoners, hundreds of cannons, some kind of stick, which they called the marshal's baton, and argued about who distinguished themselves there, and were pleased with this, but very much regretted that they had not taken Napoleon or at least some hero, marshal, and reproached each other for this, and especially Kutuzov.
These people, carried away by their passions, were blind executors of only the saddest law of necessity; but they considered themselves heroes and imagined that what they did was the most worthy and noble deed. They accused Kutuzov and said that from the very beginning of the campaign he prevented them from defeating Napoleon, that he only thought about satisfying his passions and did not want to leave the Linen Factories, because he was calm there; that he stopped the movement near Krasnoe only because, having learned about the presence of Napoleon, he was completely lost; that it can be assumed that he is in a conspiracy with Napoleon, that he is bribed by him, [Wilson's Notes. (Note by L.N. Tolstoy.)], etc., etc.
Not only did contemporaries, carried away by passions, say this, - posterity and history recognized Napoleon as grand, and Kutuzov: foreigners - a cunning, depraved, weak court old man; Russians - something indefinite - some kind of doll, useful only in their Russian name ...

In the 12th and 13th years, Kutuzov was directly accused of mistakes. The sovereign was dissatisfied with him. And in a story recently written by the highest command, it is said that Kutuzov was a cunning court liar who was afraid of the name of Napoleon and, with his mistakes near Krasnoye and near the Berezina, deprived the Russian troops of glory - a complete victory over the French. [History of 1812 by Bogdanovich: characterization of Kutuzov and discussion of the unsatisfactory results of the Krasnensky battles. (Note by L.N. Tolstoy.)]
Such is the fate not of great people, not grand homme, whom the Russian mind does not recognize, but the fate of those rare, always lonely people who, comprehending the will of Providence, subordinate their personal will to it. The hatred and contempt of the crowd punish these people for the enlightenment of higher laws.
For Russian historians - it is strange and terrible to say - Napoleon is the most insignificant instrument of history - never and nowhere, even in exile, who did not show human dignity - Napoleon is an object of admiration and delight; he grand. Kutuzov, the man who, from the beginning to the end of his activity in 1812, from Borodin to Vilna, never betraying himself with a single action, not a word, is an extraordinary example of self-denial and awareness in the present of the future meaning of an event, - Kutuzov seems to them something indefinite and pathetic, and, speaking of Kutuzov and the 12th year, they always seem to be a little ashamed.
Meanwhile, it is difficult to imagine a historical person whose activity would be so invariably and constantly directed towards the same goal. It is difficult to imagine a goal more worthy and more in line with the will of the whole people. It is even more difficult to find another example in history where the goal set by a historical person would be so completely achieved as the goal to which Kutuzov's entire activity was directed in 1812.
Kutuzov never talked about the forty centuries that look from the pyramids, about the sacrifices that he brings to the fatherland, about what he intends to do or has done: he did not say anything at all about himself, did not play any role, he always seemed the most simple and ordinary man and said the most simple and ordinary things. He wrote letters to his daughters and m me Stael, read novels, loved the company of beautiful women, joked with generals, officers and soldiers, and never contradicted those people who wanted to prove something to him. When Count Rostopchin on the Yauzsky Bridge galloped up to Kutuzov with personal reproaches about who was to blame for the death of Moscow, and said: “How did you promise not to leave Moscow without giving a battle?” - Kutuzov answered: "I will not leave Moscow without a fight," despite the fact that Moscow had already been abandoned. When Arakcheev, who came to him from the sovereign, said that Yermolov should be appointed head of artillery, Kutuzov answered: “Yes, I just said that myself,” although he said something completely different in a minute. What did it matter to him, who alone then understood the whole enormous meaning of the event, among the stupid crowd that surrounded him, what did he care about whether Count Rostopchin would attribute the disaster of the capital to himself or to him? Even less could he be interested in who would be appointed chief of artillery.
Not only in these cases, but incessantly this old man, having reached the conviction by life experience that the thoughts and words that serve as their expression are not the essence of people's movers, spoke words that were completely meaningless - the first that came to his mind.
But this same man, who so neglected his words, never once in all his activity said a single word that would not be in accordance with the sole goal towards which he was going during the whole war. Obviously, involuntarily, with a heavy certainty that they would not understand him, he repeatedly expressed his opinion in the most diverse circumstances. Starting from the battle of Borodino, from which his discord with those around him began, he alone said that the battle of Borodino was a victory, and he repeated this verbally, and in reports, and reports until his death. He alone said that the loss of Moscow is not the loss of Russia. In response to Loriston's proposal for peace, he replied that there could be no peace, because such was the will of the people; he alone, during the retreat of the French, said that all our maneuvers were not needed, that everything would become better of itself than we wished, that the enemy should be given a golden bridge, that neither Tarutino, nor Vyazemsky, nor Krasnensky battles were needed, what with what someday you need to come to the border, that for ten Frenchmen he will not give up one Russian.
And he is alone, this court man, as he is portrayed to us, a man who lies to Arakcheev in order to please the sovereign - he alone, this court man, in Vilna, thus deserving the sovereign's disfavor, says that further war abroad is harmful and useless.
But words alone would not prove that he then understood the significance of the event. His actions - all without the slightest retreat, all were directed towards the same goal, expressed in three actions: 1) to strain all their forces to clash with the French, 2) to defeat them and 3) to expel them from Russia, facilitating, as far as possible, disasters of the people and troops.
He, that procrastinator Kutuzov, whose motto is patience and time, the enemy of decisive action, he gives the battle of Borodino, dressing the preparations for it in unparalleled solemnity. He, that Kutuzov, who in the battle of Austerlitz, before it began, says that it will be lost, in Borodino, despite the assurances of the generals that the battle is lost, despite the unheard-of example in history that after the battle won, the army must retreat , he alone, in opposition to everyone, claims until his death that the Battle of Borodino is a victory. He alone during the entire retreat insists on not giving battles, which are now useless, not starting a new war and not crossing the borders of Russia.
Now it is easy to understand the meaning of an event, unless we apply to the activity of the masses of goals that were in the head of a dozen people, since the whole event with its consequences lies before us.
But how then could this old man, alone, contrary to the opinion of all, guess, so correctly guessed then the meaning of the popular meaning of the event, that he never betrayed him in all his activity?
The source of this extraordinary power of insight into the meaning of occurring phenomena lay in that popular feeling, which he carried within himself in all its purity and strength.
Only the recognition of this feeling in him made the people, in such strange ways, from an old man who was in disfavor, choose him against the will of the tsar to be representatives of the people's war. And only this feeling put him on that highest human height from which he, the commander-in-chief, directed all his forces not to kill and exterminate people, but to save and pity them.
This simple, modest and therefore truly majestic figure could not fit into that deceitful form of a European hero, supposedly controlling people, which history invented.
For a lackey there can be no great person, because the lackey has his own idea of ​​greatness.

November 5 was the first day of the so-called Krasnensky battle. Before evening, when, after many disputes and mistakes of the generals, who went to the wrong place; after dispatches of adjutants with counter-orders, when it had already become clear that the enemy was fleeing everywhere and that there could not be and would not be a battle, Kutuzov left Krasnoye and went to Dobroe, where the main apartment had been transferred that day.

Syrian Arab Republic(Arabic الجمهورية العربية السورية‎‎; al-Jumhuriya al-Arabiya al-Suriyya) is a state in the Middle East, bordering Lebanon and Israel in the southwest, Jordan in the north, Iraq in the east, and Turkey It is washed by the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

The population of Syria is 20.2 million people (as of 2009). More than half of Syrians are Sunnis, but there are significant communities of Twelver Shiites, Nizari Ismailis and Alawites (16%), different denominations of Christianity (10%) and Druze in the country. The official language is Arabic. Since 1963, the republic has been under the control of the Baath Party. The modern statehood of Syria is a little over 60 years old, but civilization originated here as early as the fourth millennium BC. The capital is Damascus, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. According to Baedeker, Damascus is the oldest capital in the world today.

Story

Ancient Syria

The history of Syrian civilization dates back at least to the fourth millennium BC. Archaeologists have proved that Syria was the cradle of most of the ancient civilizations of the world. Already in 2400-2500 BC. e. the huge Semitic empire with its center in Ebla stretched from the Red Sea to Transcaucasia. The language of Ebla is considered the oldest in the family of Semitic languages. In the library of Ebla, discovered in 1975, more than 17,000 clay tablets dedicated to industry, agriculture and art were found. Among the leading crafts of Ebla are the processing of wood, ivory, and pearls. In Syria, these industries are still flourishing. Other famous cities of the era include Mari, Ugarit and Dura-Europos.

Syria in its history fell under the dominion of the Egyptians, Canaanites, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Armenians, Romans, Nabataeans, Byzantines, Arabs and Crusaders, before eventually falling under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Syria occupies an important place in the history of Christianity - according to the Bible, Paul adopted the Christian faith in Antioch, where the first church was founded.

Islamic era

Islam gained a foothold in Syria in 636 when Damascus became the capital of the Arab Caliphate under the Umayyads. At this time, the Caliphate was already a powerful state, stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Asia. Damascus became the cultural and economic center of the entire Arab world, already in the VIII century being one of the largest cities in the world. In 750, the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasid dynasty, after which the capital of the Caliphate moved to Baghdad.

In the middle of the XIII century, Damascus became the provincial center of the Mamluk Empire. In 1400, Syria was attacked by the Tatar-Mongols. Tamerlane defeated the Mamluk detachments, destroyed Damascus and took all his wealth to Samarkand. In 1517, Syria fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for several centuries.

French Mandate

Shortly after the defeat in the First World War, the Ottoman Empire collapsed. In 1920, the Syrian Arab Kingdom was founded with its center in Damascus. Faisal of the Hashemite dynasty, who later became the king of Iraq, was declared king. But the independence of Syria did not last long. A few months later, the French army occupied Syria, defeating the Syrian troops on July 23 at the Battle of the Maysalun Pass. In 1922, the League of Nations decided to divide the former Syrian dominion of Turkey between Britain and France. Great Britain received Jordan and Palestine, and France - the modern territory of Syria and Lebanon (the so-called "League of Nations mandate").

In 1936, a treaty was signed between Syria and France providing for the independence of Syria, but in 1939 France refused to ratify it. In 1940, France itself was occupied by German troops, and Syria came under the control of the Vichy Regime (Governor - General Dentz). Nazi Germany, having provoked a rebellion by Prime Minister Geilani in British Iraq, sent units of its air force to Syria. In June-July 1941, with the support of British troops, the Free French units (later renamed Fighting France), led by Generals De Gaulle and Catru, entered Syria during a bloody conflict with Dentz's troops. General De Gaulle in his memoirs directly pointed out that the events in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon were directly related to the German plans to invade the USSR (as well as Greece, Yugoslavia and Crete), since they had the task of diverting the armed forces of the allies to secondary theaters of military operations .

On September 27, 1941, France granted independence to Syria, leaving its troops on its territory until the end of World War II. On January 26, 1945, Syria declared war on Germany and Japan. In April 1946, French troops were evacuated from Syria.

recent history

Shukri al-Quwatli, who fought for the country's independence under the Ottoman Empire, became the president of independent Syria. In 1947, a parliament began to operate in Syria. The main political forces were the pro-presidential National Socialist Party of Syria (currently operating only in Lebanon), the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party and the then underground Communist Party of Syria.

In 1948, the Syrian army took a limited part in the Arab-Israeli war launched by an alliance of Arab states.

On March 15, 1956, a collective security treaty was concluded between Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia against possible Israeli aggression.

United Arab Republic

On February 22, 1958, in the wake of the popularity of the pan-Arab movement, Syria and Egypt united into one state - the United Arab Republic with its center in Cairo. Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser became the president of the new state, but the Syrians also held many important posts. However, Nasser soon dissolved all Syrian political parties. In Syria, large-scale nationalization of agriculture began, and then industry and the banking sector. On September 28, 1961, a coup d'état took place in Damascus under the leadership of a group of officers, Syria again declared independence. Nasser decided not to resist the separatists, so the UAR lasted only 3 and a half years.

Syrian Arab Republic

After Syria left the confederation, the country was headed by liberal Nazim Al-Qudsi. He returned many nationalized enterprises to their former owners. On March 28, 1962, a coup again took place in the country under the leadership of the same group of army officers. Al-Qudsi and his prime minister were arrested. After 5 days, supporters of the former regime overthrew the interim government, and Al-Qudsi again became the president of the country.

On March 8, 1963, a military coup again took place in Syria, as a result of which the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (PASV), sometimes called the Baath (ar. "revival"), came to power. In 1964 a new constitution was adopted, which fixed the leading role of the PASV. The country was headed by Amin Hafez, who launched radical socialist reforms. In particular, the nationalization of the main sectors of the economy was again carried out. On February 23, 1966, Syria was shaken by the fifth coup in 4 years, led by Salah Jedid and Hafez al-Assad. Amin Hafez was overthrown, but the PASV remained in power, and the socialist path of Syria's development remained largely unchanged. In November 1970, as a result of the "correctional movement" in the PASP, which was headed by H. al-Assad, the Saleh Jadid group was removed from power. Thus, Syria became the main ally of the Soviet Union in the Middle East. The USSR provided Syria with assistance in modernizing the economy and the armed forces.

In 1967, during the Six Day War, the Golan Heights were occupied by Israel. In 1973, in the Yom Kippur War, Syria unsuccessfully tried to reclaim them. By decision of the UN Security Council, at the end of the 1973 war, a buffer zone was created separating Israel and Syria. At the moment, the Golan Heights are controlled by Israel, but Syria is demanding their return.

In 1976, at the request of the Lebanese government, Syrian troops entered the country to stop the civil war. The war ended in 1990, when a government was established in Lebanon that maintains friendly relations with Syria. Syrian troops left Lebanon only in 2005 after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria supported Iran in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988.

After the death of Hafez al-Assad on June 10, 2000, who had led the country for almost 30 years, his son Bashar al-Assad became president.

According to some reports, during the Israeli-Lebanese war in 2006, Syria supplied weapons to Hezbollah. With this, in particular, the still strained relations of Syria with some Western countries are connected.

Etymology

The name Syria comes from the ancient Greek name of the colonies of Assyria, formed from the Semitic word "Sirion". The area on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea south of Cilicia, between Egypt and Mesopotamia, including Commagene, Sophene and Adiabene, Pliny the Elder describes as "former Assyria." By the time Pliny completed his main work, Natural History, this region was divided by the Roman Empire into several provinces: Judea (later Palestine, modern Israel, the PNA and part of Jordan), Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), Mesopotamia and Hola Syria.

State structure

Syria is a multi-party parliamentary republic. However, all parties in Syria must declare their adherence to the course of the country's socialist transformations. The constitution enshrined the leading role of the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party - PASV (Baath).

The head of state is the president. The president is usually the general secretary of the Ba'ath Party. According to the country's constitution, the presidential candidacy is nominated by the Baath Party, after which it is submitted by parliament to a popular referendum. The President is elected for 7 years, the number of consecutive terms in office is not limited. The president has the power to appoint a cabinet of ministers, declare martial law or a state of emergency, sign laws, grant amnesties, and amend the constitution. The president determines the country's foreign policy and is the supreme commander of the armed forces. According to the constitution, the president of Syria must be a Muslim, which, however, does not make Islam the state religion. It is also not specified which branch of Islam the president should belong to. Thus, the current head of state, Bashar al-Assad, is an Alawite.

The legislative power in the country is represented by the People's Council (Arabic مجلس الشعب‎‎ - Majlis ash-Shaab). Deputies of the 250-seat parliament are directly elected for a 4-year term. Following the results of the parliamentary elections in 2003, 7 parties passed to the People's Council. Led by the Ba'ath, they form the Syrian National Progressive Front (NPF). 83 deputies do not have party affiliation. The People's Council approves the country's budget and is also involved in legislative activities.

The judicial system is a unique combination of Islamic, Ottoman and French traditions. The basis of Syrian legislation is, according to the constitution, Islamic law, although the actual legislation in force is based on the Napoleonic Code. There are three levels of courts: the Court of First Instance, the Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court, which is the highest instance. The Constitutional Court is composed of five judges, one of whom is the President of Syria and four others are appointed by the President. Thus, the president has full control over both the executive and legislative and judicial powers.

In addition to this, the system of religious courts deals with family matters and other domestic matters.

Government

The government of Syria is headed by the prime minister. The current Prime Minister is Mohammed Naji al-Othari.

On February 15, 2006, career diplomat Farouk Sharaa (Syrian Foreign Minister since 1984) was sworn in as Vice President of Syria. Farooq Sharaa, a member of the leadership of the ruling Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (Baath), as vice president, will oversee the country's foreign and information policy.

The oath was also taken by new ministers appointed during the February 11 government reshuffle. The Syrian Foreign Ministry was headed by Walid Muallem, who was the Syrian ambassador to the United States for ten years, and since the beginning of 2005 served as deputy foreign minister. The government of Mohammed Naji Otri included 14 new ministers. In particular, the head of the military police, Bassam Abdel Majid, took the post of interior minister, which remained vacant after the suicide of the former head of the Syrian Interior Ministry Ghazi Kanaan in October 2005. Deputy Prime Minister for Economics Abdallah Dardari, Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani, Finance Minister Mohammed Al- Hussein, Minister of Economy and Trade Amer Lutfi.

Human rights

Since 1963, a state of emergency has been in effect in Syria, in connection with which there are expanded powers of law enforcement agencies. Because of this, the country often faces accusations of violating civil rights. In particular, Amnesty International claims that there are at least 600 political prisoners in Syria.

The country has the death penalty. It is also known that about 300,000 Kurds are unable to obtain Syrian citizenship.

A number of human rights organizations in their reports regularly characterize Syria as an extremely unfavorable country in terms of human rights. Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and others accuse the Syrian authorities of restricting freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and political repression. On all possible scales, Syria traditionally has the worst score.

Foreign policy

Syria's foreign policy is focused primarily on the settlement of all disputes with Israel, including territorial ones related to the return of the Golan Heights to the jurisdiction of Damascus. Although Syria's relations with other Arab countries were damaged after Assad came out in support of Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, Syrian diplomacy is trying in every possible way to rally the Arab world around the problem of a Middle East settlement.

Syria has a special relationship with Russia. Damascus considers Russia as the main source of investment and the main military-technical partner [source not specified 418 days]. The possibility of locating a Russian naval base in the Mediterranean port of Tartus is being considered. Traditionally, Russia is a supplier of weapons to Syria.

Relations with the West are more strained. Washington, in particular, accuses the Syrian authorities of sponsoring international terrorism, encouraging Iraqi resistance, and arming Hezbollah. The accusations of the American leadership against Assad in violation of human rights and dictatorial methods of government are also traditional.

Geography

The area of ​​Syria is 185.2 thousand km². The Ansaria (An-Nusairiya) mountain range divides the country into a humid western part and an arid eastern part. The fertile coastal plain is located in northwestern Syria and stretches for 130 km from north to south along the Mediterranean coast from the Turkish to the Lebanese border. Almost all of the country's agriculture is concentrated here. Most of the Syrian territory is located on an arid plateau dotted with the mountain ranges of Dajabl-ar-Ruwak, Jabal-Abu-Rujmayn and Jabal-Bishri. The average height of the plateau above sea level ranges from 200 to 700 meters. To the north of the mountains is the Hamad desert, to the south is Homs.

In the east, Syria is crossed by the Euphrates. In 1973, a dam was built in the upper reaches of the river, which caused the formation of a reservoir called Asada Lake. In the areas along the Euphrates, agriculture is widespread.

Climate

The climate is generally dry. The average annual rainfall does not exceed 100 mm. The average temperature in January is 7.2°, in July 26.6°.

Administrative division

Syria is divided into 14 provinces (governorate, including governorate), the head of which will be appointed by the Minister of the Interior after the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers. Each province elects a local parliament. The province of Quneitra has been occupied by Israel since 1973, part of the province is under the control of the UN.

golan heights

The territory of the Golan Heights makes up the Syrian province of Quneitra, with its center in the city of the same name. Israeli troops captured the Golan Heights in 1967, and until 1981 the region was under the control of the Israel Defense Forces. In 1974, the UN Emergency Forces were introduced into the region. Directly along the eastern border of the province of Quneitra, a demarcation line was drawn and a demilitarized zone was created. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force is based in the area.

In 1981, the Israeli Knesset passed the "Golan Heights Law", which unilaterally proclaimed Israeli sovereignty over the territory. The annexation was invalidated by the UN Security Council Resolution of 17 December 1981 and condemned by the UN General Assembly in 2008.)

The center of the Israeli Golan was the city of Katzrin. The majority of the non-Jewish population in the Golan are Druze retaining Syrian citizenship (they are granted the right to acquire Israeli citizenship). In Syria, they enjoy some privileges, in particular, they are guaranteed free higher education.

In 2005, the population of the Golan Heights was approximately 40,000 people, including 20,000 Druze, 19,000 Jews and about 2,000 Alawites. The largest settlement in the region is the Druze village of Majdal Shams (8800 people). Initially, only UNDOF personnel had the right to move freely between Syria and Israel. But in 1988, the Israeli authorities allowed Druze pilgrims to cross into Syria so that they could visit the temple of Abel, located in the neighboring province of Dara. Also, since 1967, Druze brides who decide to marry a Syrian are allowed to cross over to the Syrian side, moreover, they already lose their right to return. Syria and Israel are de jure at war, as a peace treaty between these countries has not been signed so far. This phenomenon is described in detail in the film "The Syrian Bride" by Eran Riklis.

In August 2007, for the first time since 1967, Israel began to phase out its military presence in the Golan.

Economy

Advantages: oil export; oil production is growing due to the discovery of new reserves. Growing manufacturing base. Efficient agriculture. Low inflation.

Weaknesses: High defense spending places a heavy burden on the economy. Corruption. The dominance of state inefficient enterprises. Lack of foreign investment. Large population growth. High unemployment (20%). Problems with water supply. Slow reforms.

The economic situation in the country is quite stable. The volume of GDP is 71.7 billion US dollars; GDP growth in 2005 was 2.3%. The inflation rate is 2%. Foreign exchange reserves - 4 billion dollars. External debt (excluding military) - $ 6 billion. The per capita income is about $1,000 per year. The problem of unemployment is still acute, which in 2005 reached 20% of the able-bodied population, including about 30% among young people.

The public sector, which retains the leading role in the economy (70% of the main means of production), accounts for about half of the national income and approximately 75% of the value of industrial output. The state fully controls the sphere of finance, energy, rail and air transport. As part of the course proclaimed by the Syrian leadership towards gradual liberalization and modernization of the economy, a line has been taken to provide public sector enterprises with greater economic independence, in particular, the right to enter the foreign market and attract foreign investment.

The private sector is actively developing. It produces 25% of the value of industrial products, it occupies a dominant position in agriculture (almost 100%), domestic trade (90%), foreign trade (70%), services, vehicles, housing construction.

Industry creates the bulk of the national income. The most developed industries are oil, oil refining, electric power, gas production, phosphate mining, food, textile, chemical (production of fertilizers, plastics), and electrical engineering.

Agriculture (50% of the working population) accounts for about 30% of national income and 17% of export earnings (cotton, livestock products, vegetables and fruits). Only a third of the territory of Syria is suitable for agriculture. Currently, agriculture is experiencing some growth associated with government injections into the agro-industry.

International trade

Export - 13.97 billion dollars (in 2008) - oil, minerals, fruits and vegetables, textiles.

The main buyers are Iraq 30.7%, Germany 9.8%, Lebanon 9.6%, Italy 6.4%, France 5.5%, Egypt 5.4%, Saudi Arabia 5.1%.

Import - 15.97 billion dollars (in 2008) - industrial products, food.

The main suppliers are Saudi Arabia 11.7%, China 8.7%, Russia 7.5%, Italy 5.9%, Egypt 5.8%, UAE 5.7%.

Transport

Car roads

The total length of roads in Syria is 36,377 km. Of them:
Paved - 26,299 km
Without hard surface - 10,078 km

Railways

The total length of railways is 2,750 km. In Syria, two types of gauge are used at once. 2423 km of roads were laid with a standard gauge of 1435 mm, and 327 km with a gauge of 1050 mm. The road with a gauge of 1050 mm was built by the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century and connected Damascus with Medina. This thread is currently inactive. Railway communication is established with three neighboring states: Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. At present, the construction of the Tartus-Latakia line is underway; it is planned to lay the railways Damascus - Dara and Deir ez-Zor - Abu Kemal.

Air Transport

The number of airports is 104 (1999), of which 24 have concrete runways. 3 have international status. The state-owned airline, Syrianair, operates flights to more than 50 cities.

Pipeline transport

The total length of pipelines is 1,304 km, of which 515 are oil pipelines.

Sea transport

The main ports on the Mediterranean Sea: Tartus, Latakia, Baniyas. In Tartus, there is a logistics base for the Russian Navy. Currently, work is underway to deepen the harbor with a view to the possible redeployment of the Russian Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol to Tartus.

Population

The population of Syria is about 22 million people. Most of the population is concentrated along the banks of the Euphrates and on the Mediterranean coast. The total population density is 103 people/km². Syria guarantees free education from 6 to 11 years of age and is compulsory. The 12 years of schooling consist of 6 years of elementary school, 3 years of general education and 3 more years of special training required to enter university. Literacy among Syrians over the age of 15 is 86% for men and 73.6% for women. The average life expectancy is 70 years.

Ethnic composition

Arabs (including approximately 400 thousand Palestinian refugees) make up more than 80% of the population of Syria. The largest national minority - the Kurds, make up 10% of the population. Most Kurds live in the north of the country, many still use the Kurdish language. There are also Kurdish communities in all major cities. 3% of the population of Syria are Assyrians, mostly Christians, also living in the north and northeast of the country. In addition, up to 400 thousand Circassians (Circassians) and about 200 thousand Armenians live in Syria, as well as about 900 thousand Turks live on the border with Turkey in the cities of Aleppo (Haleb), Latakia and in the capital.

Religion

90% of the population of Syria are Muslims, 10% are Christians. Of the Muslims, 75% are Sunnis, the remaining 25% are Alawites and Druze, as well as Shiites, whose number has been constantly increasing since 2003 due to the flow of refugees from Iraq. Among Christians, half are Syrian Orthodox, 18% are Catholics (mainly members of the Syrian Catholic and Melkite Catholic Churches). There are significant communities of the Armenian Apostolic and Russian Orthodox Churches. About 100-200 Syrian Jews also live in Damascus and Lattakia, the remnants of a 40,000-strong community that almost completely fled to Israel, the United States and the countries of South America as a result of the 1947 pogroms that began after the announcement of the UN plan to partition Palestine.

Languages

The official and most widely spoken language is Arabic. In the northern regions of the country, the Kurdish language is often used. The most widely spoken languages ​​also include Armenian, Adyghe (Circassian) and Turkmen. In some areas there are various dialects of Aramaic. The most popular foreign languages ​​are French and English.

culture

As one of the oldest states in the world, Syria has become the cradle of many civilizations and cultures. In Syria, the Ugaritic cuneiform was born and one of the first forms of writing - Phoenician (XIV century BC). Syrian scientists and artists made a significant contribution to the development of Hellenistic and Roman culture. Among them are Antiochus of Ascalon, Titus Livius and Plutarch.

In modern Syrian society, special attention is paid to the institution of the family and religion, as well as education.

The modern life of Syria is closely intertwined with ancient traditions. So, in the old quarters of Damascus, Aleppo and other Syrian cities, living quarters are preserved, located according to the Greek tradition around one or more courtyards, as a rule, with a fountain in the center, with citrus orchards, vines, and flowers. Outside of major cities, residential areas are often combined into small towns. Buildings in such areas are mostly very old (often hundreds of years old) and are constantly passed down from generation to generation.

The Syrians have made a significant contribution to the development of Arabic literature, especially poetry, and music. Syrian writers of the 19th century, many of whom later immigrated to Egypt, made a decisive contribution to the revival of Arab culture (a kind of "analog" of the Renaissance in Europe - Nahda). The most famous Syrian writers of the 20th century, who made the largest contribution to pan-Arab culture, are Adonis, Gada al-Samman, Nizar Qabbani and Zakariyya Tamer.

Cinema in Syria is not very developed, partly due to the fact that it is entirely in the hands of the state. On average, the Syrian National Film Organization releases 1-2 films a year, which are very often censored. As a rule, banned films receive prizes at international film festivals. Famous directors include Amirali Omar, Osama Mohammed and Abdel Hamid. Many Syrian cinematographers work abroad. Nevertheless, in the 70s, Syrian-made series were popular in the Arab world.

From 2000 to 2008, the number of Internet users in Syria grew from 30,000 to 1 million. However, the authorities block Internet access to sites such as YouTube, Blogspot and Facebook, as well as to sites of Kurdish and Islamist parties.

Education

Prior to Syria's independence, more than 90% of its population was illiterate. In 1950, free and compulsory primary education was introduced. Currently, there are about 10 thousand primary and more than 2.5 thousand secondary schools in Syria; 267 vocational schools (including 77 industrial, 65 trade, 18 agricultural and veterinary, and 107 women's); 4 universities.

Damascus University was founded in 1903. It is the leading institution of higher education in the country. The second most important is the university in Aleppo, founded in 1946 as the Faculty of Engineering of Damascus University, but in 1960 it became an independent educational institution. In 1971, Tishrin University (Teshrin) was established in Latakia. The youngest university founded in Homs is Al-Baath University. In addition, a large number of Syrians receive higher education abroad, mainly in Russia and France.

healthcare

Syria has free public health care. There are about 300 hospitals in the country, and there are about 900 inhabitants per doctor.

Armed forces

The supreme commander of the armed forces is the president of the country. Military service in the Syrian army is carried out by conscription. Young men are drafted into the army for 2 years upon reaching the draft age (18 years) and only on condition that the young man has at least one brother. Otherwise, he is declared the breadwinner of the family and is not subject to conscription.

The total number of armed forces is 320 thousand people (16th in the world). About 14,000 Syrian troops were on Lebanese territory before Syria withdrew its foreign contingent in April 2005 (introduced at the request of the Lebanese leadership). The collapse of the Soviet Union, which was the main military-technical partner of Syria, significantly aggravated the position of the Syrian army. In the 90s, Syria even bought weapons from North Korea. Currently, Russia is again the main supplier of weapons to Syria. The country also receives financial assistance from the Arab states of the Persian Gulf as payment for its participation in the operation against Iraq. In addition to this, Syria is conducting independent research in the field of weapons.

The armed forces include the Ground Forces, the Air Force, the Navy and the Air Defense Forces.

Civilization originated here in the 4th century BC. BC. According to Carl Baedeker, the German founder of the publishing house of travel guides different cities and countries, the capital of Syria, Damascus, is the oldest capital in the world that exists today.

modern state Syrian Arab Republic borders Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. It is washed in the west by the Mediterranean Sea.

State symbols

Flag- the modern flag of Syria was reintroduced in 1980. Previously, this flag was used by the United Arab Republic.
The colors of the flag are traditional for the flags of the Arab countries. The two stars represent Egypt and Syria, the two peoples that are part of the United Arab Republic. Green is the color of the Fatimids (the dynasty of Muslim caliphs from 969 to 1171), white is the color of the Umayyads (the dynasty of caliphs founded by Muawiyah in 661), black is the color of the Abbasids (the second (after the Umayyads) dynasty of Arab caliphs (750-1258) and red is the blood of martyrs; also red is the color of the Hashemite dynasty and was added when Sharif Hussein joined the Arab Revolt in 1916.

Coat of arms- represents a golden “hawk of the Quraysh”, having a shield on its chest, twice dissected into scarlet, silver and black with two green five-pointed stars one above the other in the middle (the colors of the Syrian flag). In its paws, the hawk holds a green scroll on which the name of the state is written in Arabic: On the tail are two divergent green wheat ears.

State structure of modern Syria

Form of government- parliamentary republic.
head of state- the president. Elected for 7 years, the number of consecutive terms in office is not limited.
Head of the government- Prime Minister.
Official language- Arabic. The most widely spoken languages ​​also include Kurdish, Armenian, Adyghe (Circassian) and Turkmen. The most popular foreign languages ​​are Russian, French and English.
Capital- Damascus.
Largest cities Aleppo, Damascus, Homs.
Territory- 185 180 km².
Population– 22 457 336 people About 90% of the country's population are Syrian Arabs (including about 400,000 Palestinian refugees). The largest national minority is the Kurds (9% of the population of Syria). The country's third largest ethnic group is the Syrian Turkmen, followed by the Circassians; there is also a large Assyrian community in the country.
Currency- Syrian pound.
Economy- the most developed industries: oil, oil refining, electric power, gas production, phosphate mining, food, textile, chemical (production of fertilizers, plastics), electrical engineering.
Only a third of the territory of Syria is suitable for agriculture. Cotton, livestock products, vegetables and fruits are produced.
Political instability, hostilities and trade and economic sanctions imposed on Syria have led to the deterioration of the Syrian economy.
Export: oil, minerals, fruits and vegetables, textiles. Import: industrial products, food.

Damascus University

Education- in 1950, free and compulsory primary education was introduced. Currently, there are about 10,000 primary and more than 2,500 secondary schools in Syria; 267 vocational schools (including 107 women's), 4 universities.
Textbooks in secondary schools (under B. Assad's rule) are issued free of charge up to grade 9 inclusive.
Damascus University was founded in 1903. It is the leading institution of higher education in the country. The second most important is the university in Aleppo, founded in 1946 as an engineering faculty of Damascus University, but in 1960 it became an independent educational institution. In 1971, Tishrin University was established in Latakia. The youngest university founded in Homs is Al-Baath University. A large number of Syrians receive higher education abroad, mainly in Russia and France.

Syrian landscape

Climate- arid, subtropical Mediterranean, in the interior - continental.
Administrative division- Syria is divided into 14 governorates, the head of which is appointed by the Minister of the Interior after the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers. Each governorate elects a local parliament.
Golan Heights. The territory of the Golan Heights makes up the Syrian governorate of Al-Quneitra, with its center in the city of the same name. Israeli troops captured the Golan Heights in 1967, and until 1981 the region was under the control of the Israel Defense Forces. In 1974, the UN Emergency Forces were introduced here.
In 1981, the Israeli Knesset passed the "Golan Heights Law", which unilaterally declared Israeli sovereignty over the territory. The annexation was invalidated by the UN Security Council Resolution of 17 December 1981 and condemned by the UN General Assembly in 2008.

In 2005, the population of the Golan Heights was approximately 40 thousand people, including 20 thousand Druze (Arabic-speaking ethno-confessional group in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel), 19 thousand Jews and about 2 thousand Alawites (a number of Islamic religious denominations, offshoots or sects). The largest settlement in the region is the Druze village of Majdal-Shams (8800 people).
Syria and Israel are de jure at war, as a peace treaty between these countries has not been signed so far.
Religion- Approximately 86% of the population of Syria are Muslims, 10% are Christians. Of the Muslims, 82% are Sunnis, the rest are Alawites and Ismailis, as well as Shiites, constantly increasing due to the flow of refugees from Iraq.
Among Christians, half are Syrian Orthodox, 18% are Catholics.

There are significant communities of the Armenian Apostolic and Russian Orthodox Churches.
There are currently people in Syria, Iraq and other countries who want to create a split between Sunnis and Shiites.

Sunnis- the most numerous direction in Islam. Sunni theologians (ulema), unlike Shiite ones, do not enjoy the right to make their own decisions on the most important issues of religious and public life. The position of the theologian in Sunnism is reduced primarily to the interpretation of sacred texts. The Sunnis place special emphasis on following the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (his actions and sayings), on loyalty to tradition, and on the participation of the community in choosing its head, the caliph.
Shiites- the direction of Islam, uniting various communities that recognized Ali ibn Abu Talib and his descendants as the only legitimate heirs and spiritual successors of the Prophet Muhammad. hallmark Shiites are convinced that the leadership of the Muslim community should belong to the imams - appointed by God, elected persons from among the descendants of the prophet, to whom they include Ali ibn Abu Talib and his descendants from the daughter of Muhammad Fatima, and not elected persons - caliphs.
Russia is concerned about attacks on Christian minorities in Syria.
Chapel of Saint Ananias in Damascus
Armed forces- includes the Ground Forces, the Air Force, the Navy and the Air Defense Forces. The president is the supreme commander of the armed forces.
Sport- The most popular are football, basketball, swimming and table tennis.

Culture of Syria

Syria, as the oldest state in the world, is the cradle of many civilizations and cultures. Here the Ugaritic cuneiform was born and one of the first forms of writing - Phoenician (XIV century BC). The contribution to the development of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine cultures was made by Syrian figures, the scientist Antiochus of Ascalon, the writer Lucian from Samosata, the historians Herodian, Ammianus Marcellinus, John Malala, John of Ephesus, Yeshu Stylite, Yahya of Antioch, Michael the Syrian.

Lucian of Samosata in his satirical writings, he ridicules social, religious and philosophical prejudices, as well as other vices of contemporary society. His essay "The True Story", describing the journey to the Moon and Venus, had an impact on the formation of science fiction.

John Chrysostom. Byzantine mosaic

John Chrysostom(c. 347-407) - Archbishop of Constantinople, theologian, revered as one of the three Ecumenical saints and teachers, along with Saints Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian.
St. John Chrysostom. Byzantine mosaic
Christian theologians Paul of Samosata, John Chrysostom, Ephraim the Syrian, John of Damascus are also known.
In the XII century. The famous warrior and writer Osama ibn Munkiz, the author of the autobiographical chronicle The Book of Edification, lived and worked in Syria, a valuable source on the history of the Crusades.

Old houses in Damascus

The city of Damascus was one of the world's centers for the production of bladed weapons, the famous "Damascus steel".
In modern Syrian society, special attention is paid to the institution of the family and religion and education.
The modern life of Syria is intertwined with ancient traditions. In the old quarters of Damascus, Aleppo and other Syrian cities, living quarters are preserved, located around one or more courtyards, usually with a fountain in the center, with citrus orchards, vines, and flowers.
The most famous Syrian writers of the 20th century: Adonis, Gada al-Samman, Nizar Qabbani, Hanna Mina and Zakaria Tamer.

Adonis (Ali Ahmad Saeed Asbar) (b. 1930)

Syrian poet and essayist. Lived mainly in Lebanon and France. Author of more than 20 books in his native Arabic, he is considered the most significant representative of the New Poetry movement.

Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998)

Syrian poet, publisher, diplomat. One of the most important Arabic poets of the 20th century. He is one of the founders of modern Arabic poetry. Qabbani's poems are mostly written in simple language, often reflecting the realities of the Syriac vernacular contemporary to the poet. Qabbani published 35 collections of poetry.
Cinema in Syria not very developed, it is completely in the hands of the state. On average, Syria releases 1-2 films a year. Films are often censored. Famous directors include Amirali Omar, Osama Mohammed and Abdel Hamid, Abdul Razzak Ghanem (Abu Ghanem) and others. Many Syrian filmmakers work abroad. But in the 1970s, Syrian-made TV shows were popular in the Arab world.
Together with the Syrian film studio "Ganem-Film" feature films were shot in the USSR and Russia: "The Last Night of Scheherazade" (1987), "Richard the Lionheart" (1992), "Destroy the Thirtieth!" (1992), "Angels of Death" (1993), dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, "Tragedy of the Century" (1993), "The Great Commander Georgy Zhukov" (1995), etc.

Nature

Five natural regions are distinguished on the territory of Syria: the Seaside Lowland, the Western Mountain Range, the Rift Zone, the Eastern Mountain Range, and the Eastern Syria Plateau. The country is crossed by two large rivers: El Asi (Orontes) and Euphrates. Cultivated lands are mainly in the western regions - the coastal lowland, the Ansaria mountains and the valleys of the El-Asi river, the Euphrates and its tributaries.

Euphrates River

The natural vegetation of Syria has changed significantly. In the distant past, the Ansaria range in the west and the mountains in the north of the country were covered with forests.
In Western Syria, the least disturbed habitats on the mountain slopes are dominated by evergreen oaks, laurel, myrtle, oleander, magnolia, and ficuses. There are groves of cypress, Aleppo pine, Lebanese cedar, and juniper.

magnolia flowers

Along the Mediterranean coast there are plantations of tobacco, cotton, sugar cane. Figs, mulberries, citrus fruits are grown in river valleys, and olives and grapes are grown on gentle slopes.

Olive Tree

The fields are sown with corn, barley, and wheat. They also grow potatoes and vegetables. In the north and partly on the eastern slopes of the Ansaria and other ranges and in the low mountains internal parts In the country, typical legume-cereal steppes are common, which serve as a fodder base for pasture cattle breeding (mainly sheep breeding). Wheat and barley, cotton are grown in the fields, and rice is grown under conditions of artificial irrigation.
In the deserts, the landscape revives only after rain, young shoots of grasses and undersized shrubs and bushes appear: saxaul, biyurgun, boyalych, wormwood. But even such a poor vegetation cover is enough to feed camels, which are bred by nomads.

Animal world Syria is not very diverse. Of the carnivores, there are sometimes a wild cat, lynx, jackal, fox, striped hyena, caracal, there are many polecats in the steppes and semi-deserts, antelope, gazelle, wild onager donkey from ungulates.

Wild donkey onager

Jerboa rodents are numerous. Sometimes there are porcupines, hedgehogs, squirrels, hares are found. From reptiles: snakes, lizards, chameleons. The bird fauna is diverse, especially in the Euphrates valley and near water bodies (flamingos, storks, gulls, herons, geese, pelicans).

In the country there are larks, grouse, bustards, in cities and villages - sparrows and pigeons, in groves - cuckoos. Birds of prey include eagles, falcons, hawks, and owls.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Syria

Old city in Damascus

Damascus has seven surviving city gates in the Old City wall, the oldest of which date from the Roman period:
Bab el-Saghir ("Small Gate") - behind the gate there are historical burial places, in particular, 2 wives of the Prophet Muhammad are buried here
Bab el Faradis ("Gate of Paradise")
Bab el Salam ("Gate of Peace")
Bab Tuma ("Gate of Thomas") - the name goes back to the name of the Apostle Thomas, leads to the Christian quarter of the Old City

"Gate of Thomas"

Bab Sharqi ("Eastern Gate")
Bab Kisan - built in the era of the Romans, were dedicated to the god Saturn. Through them, according to legend, the Apostle Paul fled from Damascus
Bab el Jabiya

Old city in Bosra

Bosra- a historical city in southern Syria, an important archaeological site. For the first time the settlement is mentioned in documents from the times of Thutmose III and Amenhotep IV (XIV century BC). Bosra was the first Nabatean city in the second century BC. e. The Nabataean kingdom was conquered by Cornelius Palma, Trajan's general, in 106 AD. e.

Under the rule of the Roman Empire, Bosra was renamed New Traiana Bostrom and became the capital of the Roman province of Arabia Petra. Two early Christian churches were built in Bosra in 246 and 247.
Subsequently, after the division of the Roman Empire into western and eastern, the city came under the rule of the Byzantine Empire. The city was finally conquered by the army of the Arab Caliphate in 634.
Today, Bosra is an important archaeological site with ruins from Roman, Byzantine and Muslim times, as well as one of the best preserved Roman theaters in the world, which hosts a national music festival every year.

Archaeological sites of Palmyra

Palmyra(Greek "city of palm trees") - one of the richest cities of late antiquity, located in one of the oases of the Syrian desert, between Damascus and the Euphrates.
It was a staging post for caravans crossing the Syrian desert, which is why Palmyra was nicknamed "the bride of the desert".
At present, on the site of Palmyra, there is a Syrian village and the ruins of majestic buildings that are among the best examples of ancient Roman architecture.
Several cities in the United States are named after Palmyra. St. Petersburg was poetically called the northern Palmyra, and Odessa - the southern one.

Old city in Aleppo

Aleppo (Aleppo)- the largest city in Syria and the center of the most populated governorate of the same name in the country.
For many centuries, Aleppo was the largest city in Greater Syria and the third largest in the Ottoman Empire, after Constantinople and Cairo.
Aleppo is one of the most ancient continuously inhabited cities in the world; it was inhabited as early as the 6th century. BC e.

The castles of Krak des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah ad Din

Krak des Chevaliers, or Krak de l'Hospital- the fortress of the Hospitallers (a Christian organization whose goal was to take care of the poor). One of the best preserved Hospitaller fortresses in the world.

Citadel of Salah ad-Din- a castle in Syria, located in a highland area, on a ridge between two deep ravines, and surrounded by forests. The fortification has existed here since the middle of the 10th century.
In 975, the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes captured the castle, it remained under Byzantine control until about 1108. At the beginning of the 12th century. the Franks took control of it, and the castle became part of the newly formed crusader state - the Principality of Antioch.
The castle is currently owned by the Syrian government.

Ancient villages of Northern Syria

Only the ruins of 40 settlements remained, which are grouped into 8 groups.

Other sights of Syria

Umayyad Mosque

Also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus. Located in the Old City of Damascus, it is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. It is considered by some Muslims to be the fourth sacred site in Islam.

Fortress of Nimrod

Medieval fortress located in the northern part of the Golan Heights, at an altitude of about 800 m above sea level.

Qasioun Mountains

Mountains overlooking the city of Damascus. The highest point is 1151 m. On the slopes of Qasiun there is a cave about which there are many legends. It is believed that the first man, Adam, who was expelled from paradise, settled here. In medieval Arabic history books it is written that in this place Cain killed Abel.

National Museum in Damascus

The museum was founded in 1919. It presents exhibits of the history of Syria from prehistoric times to the present. The museum contains modern works artists of Syria, the Arab world and other countries.

Chapel of Saint Paul (Damascus)

Built in honor of the Apostle Paul, who preached in Damascus.

Syrian mountain hills

The country has very beautiful landscapes: rocky mountains, green valleys, deserts and mountain peaks, forever covered with snow.

History of Syria

Ancient history

The history of Syrian civilization dates back to the 4th century BC. BC e.
Eblaite (an extinct Semitic language) is the oldest known Semitic language. More than 17 thousand clay tablets in this language, dedicated to crafts, agriculture and art, have been found. Among the leading crafts of Ebla are the processing of wood, ivory, and pearls.

Ebla clay tablet

During the period between the invasion of the Canaanite tribes and the conquest of Syria in 64 BC. e. The Roman Empire, its territory was under the rule of the Hyksos, Hittites, Egyptians, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, ancient Macedonians, the Elinistic power of the Seleucids, the Armenian Empire of Tigran II the Great.
From the 16th century BC e. in the south of Syria there is the city of Damascus, originally subordinate to the Egyptian pharaohs.
According to the Bible, Paul accepted the Christian faith on the road to Damascus, and then lived in Antioch, where the disciples of Christ first began to be called Christians.

Islam in Syria

Islam gained a foothold in Syria in 661, when Damascus became the capital of the Arab Caliphate under the Umayyads. Damascus became the cultural and economic center of the entire Arab world, already in the VIII century. being one of the largest cities in the world. In 750, the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasid dynasty, after which the capital of the Caliphate moved to Baghdad.
Since 1517, Syria became part of the Ottoman Empire for 4 centuries.

Syrian Arab Kingdom

It was formed shortly after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, it collapsed. In 1920, the Syrian Arab Kingdom was founded with its center in Damascus. But the independence of Syria did not last long. A few months later, the French army occupied Syria, defeating the Syrian troops in the battle at the Maysalun Pass. In 1922, the League of Nations divided the former Syrian possessions of the Ottoman Empire between Britain and France. Great Britain received Jordan and Palestine, and France - the modern territory of Syria and Lebanon ("League of Nations mandate").

French Mandate

In 1940, France was occupied by German troops and Syria came under the control of the Vichy Regime (Governor General Dentz). Vichy mode- collaborationist regime in Southern France during the occupation of Northern France by Nazi Germany after the defeat at the beginning of World War II and the fall of Paris in 1940. Existed from July 10, 1940 to April 22, 1945. Officially adhered to a policy of neutrality. Nazi Germany, having provoked a rebellion by Prime Minister Geilani in British Iraq, sent units of its air force to Syria.

Charles de Gaulle - the eighteenth President of France

In 1941, with the support of British troops, Free French units led by Generals Charles de Gaulle and Catrou entered Syria during a bloody conflict with Dentz's troops. General de Gaulle in his memoirs pointed out that the events in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon were directly related to the German plans to invade Greece, Yugoslavia and the USSR, since they had the task of diverting the Allied armed forces to secondary theaters of military operations.
On September 27, 1941, France granted independence to Syria, leaving its troops on its territory until the end of World War II. On January 26, 1945, Syria declared war on Germany and Japan. In April 1946 French troops were evacuated from Syria.

Independent Syria

Shukri al-Kuatli, who fought for the country's independence under the Ottoman Empire, became the president of independent Syria.

Shukri al-Quatli

In 1947, a parliament began to operate in Syria. After Syria gained independence, attacks on Syrian Jews intensified, and their businesses were boycotted. The new government banned emigration to Palestine, and the teaching of Hebrew in Jewish schools was limited. On November 27, 1947, the UN adopted a decision on the partition of Palestine, in connection with this, Jewish pogroms took place in Syria. The pogroms continued in 1948, and in subsequent years, as a result, Jews were forced to flee almost completely from Syria to Israel, the United States and the countries of South America; currently, less than 100 Syrian Jews live in Damascus and Lattakia.
In 1948, the Syrian army took a limited part in the Arab-Israeli war launched by the Arab League, after which a state of emergency was declared in the country. Colonel Husni al-Zaym came to power, repealing the 1930 constitution, banning political parties, and subsequently proclaiming himself president. He did not enjoy the support of the people and was removed after 4 months by his former comrades. Executed on August 14 near Damascus.
The civilian regime was restored by Colonel Sami Hinawi, but was soon removed by the military leader Adib al-Shishakli. On September 5, 1950, a new constitution was proclaimed, according to which Syria became a parliamentary republic, but already in November 1951, the constitution was suspended, and the country's parliament was dissolved. In 1953, Shishakli promulgated a new constitution and after a referendum became president.

President Adib al-Shishakli

In February 1954, a military-civilian coalition led by Hashim Bey Khalid Al-Atassi came to power in the country, returning the 1950 constitution. and agriculture. In the elections in 1955, Shukri al-Kuatli was elected president of the country with the support of Saudi Arabia.
On March 15, 1956, a collective security treaty was concluded between Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia against possible Israeli aggression.

United Arab Republic

February 22, 1958 Syria and Egypt united into one state - the United Arab Republic with the center in Cairo. Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser became president, but Syrians held many important positions until Nasser dissolved all Syrian political parties. On September 28, 1961, a coup d'état took place in Damascus under the leadership of a group of officers, Syria again declared independence. Nasser did not resist. The UAR lasted only 3.5 years.

Confrontation between Syria and Israel

Between 1962 and 1966 in Syria, there were 5 coups, when the nationalization of the main sectors of the economy was carried out and canceled.
In 1967, the Six Day War took place. The Golan Heights were occupied by Israel. Israeli air strikes have caused enormous damage to the economy. The government was unable to ensure the restoration of industry, anti-government actions began. In November 1970 Saleh Jadid's group was removed from power. Syria became the main ally of the Soviet Union in the Middle East. The USSR provided Syria with assistance in modernizing the economy and the armed forces.
In 1973, Syria, along with other Arab states, launched the Yom Kippur War, military operations on the Syrian front were distinguished by fierceness, especially the battle for El Quneitra, called the “Syrian Stalingrad”. El Quneitra was held, but the Golan Heights remained with Israel. By decision of the UN Security Council, at the end of the war in 1973, a buffer zone was created separating Israel and Syria. At the moment, the Golan Heights are controlled by Israel, but Syria is demanding their return.
In 1976, at the request of the Lebanese government, Syrian troops entered the country to stop the civil war. The war ended in 1990 with the establishment of a government in Lebanon that maintains friendly relations with Syria. Syrian troops left Lebanon only in 2005. Syria supported Iran in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988.
After the death on June 10, 2000 of Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled the country for almost 30 years, his son Bashar al-Assad was elected president.

Bashar al-Assad

Civil War

Riots and revolutions in the Middle East have spread to Syria. Speech began with demands to change the existing regime. The country's leadership made serious changes: it canceled the law on the state of emergency, the laws on the media and political parties, and embarked on democratic reforms.
In 2013, there were street battles with the use of heavy weapons in several large cities of the country, including the capital. More than 500,000 Syrians have fled their country as a result of the fighting. Refugees find shelter in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
Currently, the civil war in Syria is being fueled by some Western countries.
Russia voted against the draft resolution "The situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic". It was co-sponsored by a number of countries, including the UK, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. 123 countries voted for the adoption of the draft, 46 countries voted against.
“The proposed draft resolution goes against the logic of a political and diplomatic settlement, placing the main responsibility for what is happening in the country on the government, while not it, but the foreign opposition needs to be pushed to start negotiations with the authorities,” the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized.