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The Syrian Arab Republic has been inhabited for tens of
thousands of years and, as a result, has a rich cultural history. The
area that is now the Syrian Arab Republic was part of the Empire of
Mesopotamia around 2300 BC, during which time the cities of Ugarit
(where the oldest written alphabet in the world is believed to have
been developed) and Byblos grew to become powerful commercial centers.
By about 500 BC, southern Syria had fallen under the control of Egypt,
while the northern principalities had been welded into the Mitanni
Empire. Within a few centuries, however, the Hittites from the
north had overrun all of
Syria, an empire that in turn collapsed in the face of invasions by
the Mediterranean Sea peoples. The history of the following centuries,
until the eventual destruction of the Kingdom of Judah in 539 BC, is
one of a struggle by Babylonians, Canaanites, Assyrians, Phoenicians
and many other tribes and empires for control of Syrian trade.
Alexander the Great absorbed Syria into his empire in 333 BC; however,
control of the region was disputed for the following two centuries –
on this occasion, between the various people trying to gain control of
his inheritance.
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For several centuries, the
Province of Syria enjoyed the mixed blessings of the Pax Romana and
was a province of the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire after the division
of the Roman Empire. But even then, Syria was regarded as a frontier
region, bordered to the east by the Arabs and Persians. The Persian
invasions were repulsed but Syria eventually fell to the Muslims in
the mid-seventh century. From then on, Syria was to be firmly part
of the Muslim world, although retaining Christian and Jewish
populations. Muslim control of Syria was vital to the defeat of the
Christians and their expulsion from Jerusalem. However, during the
13th century, a far greater threat was the terrifying force of the
Mongols. In the space of 50 years, they swept through Asia, creating
an empire that stretched from Korea to Moscow. By 1260, they had
overrun Syria and deposed the Abbasid Khalif. The Muslim world –
and, indeed, the Christian one – seemed doomed. But in that year,
the Mamluk General Baybars defeated the massive army of Hulagu at
the Battle of Goliath’s Well – a victory that, in retrospect, must
be seen as one of the world’s most decisive military engagements. By
1520, the region had fallen under the sway of the Ottoman Turks and,
as a result, Syria prospered once – for the most part.
The 19th century was a period of increasing restlessness in the area
– Napoleon’s campaign in 1799/1800, the Egyptian invasion in the
1830s and the insurrection in 1860-61 are three instances of this.
The Turks were defeated in World War I and Syria was occupied by the
French for a short time, before Syria was granted full independence
in 1946. Three years later, the country came under the first of a
series of military dictatorships that have governed the country for
most of the subsequent period. As in the rest of the Middle East,
Arab nationalism became a major political force during the 1950s –
indeed, the influence of Nasser’s revolution in Egypt on the Syrians
was so strong that Syria joined Egypt in forming the United Arab
Republic in 1958. The alliance was short-lived, Syria seceding in
1961, to form the Syrian Arab Republic. The most powerful political
force in Syria since then has been the Ba’ath Party or Arab
Socialist Renaissance (see Iraq), which seized power in 1971,
under the leadership of General Hafez al-Assad, who ruled at the
head of a tightly controlled dictatorship, until his death in June
2000. Assad’s main power base was the Alawite group, a Muslim sect
to which 10 per cent of the Syrian population is affiliated. With
the tactical and strategic skill that was his trademark, Assad
comfortably dealt with the challenges to his supremacy – largely
through his control of the army and the country’s myriad
intelligence organizations. |
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The major exception
occurred in February 1982, when the Muslim Brotherhood – the principal
opposition group confronting the Assad regime – launched a rebellion
from the town of Hama. The rebellion was crushed, with several
thousand deaths, by military forces led by Assad’s brother Rifaat who
then controlled the country’s security forces. A few months
afterwards, Assad then faced his most serious foreign policy challenge
since the loss of the Golan Heights (an area bordering the Syrian Arab
Republic and Israel) in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon. The Syrian Arab Republic perceived Israel’s
strategy as establishing a Christian-dominated client state,
underpinned by Israeli military power. The Syrian Arab Republic could
not hope to match the Israelis militarily but Assad nonetheless
managed to maneuver the Syrian Arab Republic into a dominant position
in Lebanon. This he achieved by supporting the main Lebanese Muslim
militias, Amal and Hezbollah, and then introducing a substantial
military presence of its own, remaining careful to avoid direct
confrontation with the Israelis (see Israel and Lebanon).
In 1984, the Israelis moved into a self-styled ‘security zone’ south
of the Litani River and in 1999, after a decade and a half of
attritional guerrilla warfare with the Syrian-backed Hezbollah, the
Israelis pulled out altogether. The Syrian Arab Republic, meanwhile,
had established a political and military dominance over Lebanon, which
continues to this day, although events in early 2005 - such as the
assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Hariri, the UN
Security Council and the USA's increasing pressure on Syria, and
rallies on both sides - have prompted Syria to begin the process of
withdrawing its troops, although it is not know how quickly or how
thoroughly this process will be undertaken. Apart from anything else,
their presence in Lebanon served to confirm that the Syrian Arab
Republic was indispensable to a comprehensive settlement in the Middle
East. The Syrian Arab Republic has yet to secure its main objective –
the return of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights – and has made clear
that unless the issue is settled, the Syrian Arab Republic will not
follow Egypt and Jordan in reaching a formal peace with the Jewish
state. It is therefore uncertain whether Syria will be prepared to
exit Lebanon entirely, when it is so key to their objective in Israel.
There have been some discreet contacts between the Syrian Arab
Republic and Israel in the last few years, most recently in early
2004. Israeli premier Ariel Sharon has invited President Bashar Assad
to visit Israel, an offer which so far has not been accepted. The
relationship between the two countries took a turn for the worse in
2005 over an alleged deal Syria was making with Russia to acquire
missiles. |
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The Syrian Arab
Republic’s relations with the West reached a nadir during the
late-1980s, but the 1991 Gulf War came as an unexpected blessing, with
the USA eager to attract Arab states into the anti-Iraqi coalition.
Assad had been an implacable opponent of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq from
the beginning: the pan-Arab Ba’athist movement had suffered a fatal
ideological split in the 1960s which has never been healed. The
Syrians were happy to back the UN coalition and as part of the deal,
they also secured substantial financial support and the guarantee of a
free hand in Lebanon (which they still have, although, as
aforementioned, this is subject to increasing contention and it is
possible Syria may withdraw completely by later within the tear).
In June 2000, after years of failing health, President Assad died.
Having fallen out with his brother, Rifaat, some years earlier, and
with the accidental death of his eldest son, Basil, in 1994, Assad had
selected his second son, Bashar, as heir. While domestic policy has
seen something of a relaxation under Bashar, Western hopes that the
Syrian Arab Republic would pursue a more pro-Western line have proved
misguided – in the vocabulary of the US Bush administration, the
Syrian Arab Republic is a ‘state of concern’ (one level below the
‘axis of evil’). The Syrians have provided some assistance to the
Western ‘War Against Terror’ but were strongly opposed to the
Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Syria pulled its forces out
of Lebanon in 2005, after coming under intense international pressure
after being implicated by a UN report for the assassination of former
premier of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri. Both Syria and Pro Syria Lebanese
officials were thought to be involved although this has been strongly
denied by Damascus. |
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Government
The 1973 constitution allows for a single-chamber legislature, the
250-member People’s Assembly. Executive power is vested in the
president who is directly elected for a seven-year term. |
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Economy
The main components of the Syrian economy are agriculture and oil.
In the agricultural sector, cotton is the principal commodity and a
key export. Wheat, barley, fruit and vegetables are the other main
products, the bulk of which are grown for domestic consumption.
Oil is the main industry and provides two-thirds of Syrian export
earnings, although the future of the sector is limited by the
relatively small size of the Syrian Arab Republic’s reserves (which
are already over half-exhausted). There are also reserves of
phosphates (another export earner), iron ore and natural gas.
The rest of the industrial economy is divided roughly between three
areas: chemicals, rubber and plastics; textiles and leather goods;
and food and drink. The service economy is relatively
under-developed but expanding rapidly: tourism especially has seen
exceptional growth to the extent that the Syrian Arab Republic now
receives over 1 million visitors annually.
A particular problem for the Syrian economy in a very arid region is
the availability of water. The Syrians have concluded a long-term
agreement with Turkey over use of the northern part of
Tigris/Euphrates river system (which also serves Iraq), but this is
still a highly sensitive issue.
The government has set a high priority on economic reform. Much of
the economy is still state-owned and highly regulated. Some measures
have been introduced to promote private enterprise and attract
foreign investment; fiscal policy has focused on an overhaul and
simplification of the convoluted tax system. The cabinet has been
tasked to accelerate the economic reform process, although it is
likely to encounter many of the same obstacles as its predecessors
in the form of well-entrenched vested interests and monopolies.
The Syrian Arab Republic’s trade patterns have shifted since the
demise of the Soviet bloc, with which it traded extensively. It is
now more vulnerable to attitudes in Washington: under the Bush
administration, the Syrian Arab Republic is classed as a ‘rogue
state’ and since November 2003 has been subject to partial economic
sanctions. This has a knock-on effect on trade with other countries. |
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