Ethnicity/race: Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other
9.7%
Religions: Islam (Sunni) 74%; Alawite, Druze, and other
Islamic sects 16%; Christian (various sects) 10%; Jewish (tiny
communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)
Literacy rate: 77% (2003 est.)
Economic summary:GDP/PPP (2005 est.):
$63.31 billion; per capita $3,400. Real growth rate: 4.5%.
Inflation: 2.6%. Unemployment: 12.3% (2004 est.).
Arable land: 25%. Agriculture: wheat, barley, cotton,
lentils, chickpeas, olives, sugar beets; beef, mutton, eggs, poultry,
milk. Labor force: 5.12 million (2004 est.); agriculture 30%,
industry 27%, services 43% (2002 est.). Industries: petroleum,
textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco, phosphate rock mining.
Natural resources: petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese
ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower.
Exports: $6.344 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): crude oil,
petroleum products, fruits and vegetables, cotton fiber, clothing,
meat and live animals, wheat. Imports: $5.973 billion f.o.b.
(2005 est.): machinery and transport equipment, electric power
machinery, food and livestock, metal and metal products, chemicals and
chemical products, plastics, yarn, paper. Major trading partners:
Italy, France, Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, China, Russia,
U.S., South Korea (2004).
Communications:
Telephones: main lines in use: 1.313 million (1997); mobile
cellular: n.a. Radio broadcast stations: AM 14, FM 2, shortwave
1 (1998). Radios: 4.15 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 44 (plus 17 repeaters) (1995). Televisions: 1.05
million (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 1 (2000).
Internet users: 60,000 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 2,743 km
(2002). Highways: total: 43,381 km; paved: 10,021 km (including
877 km of expressways); unpaved: 33,360 km (1999). Waterways:
870 km; minimal economic importance. Ports and harbors:
Baniyas, Jablah, Latakia, Tartus. Airports: 92
(2002).
International disputes: Golan
Heights is Israeli-occupied; Lebanon claims Shaba'a farms in Golan
Heights; Syrian troops have been stationed in Lebanon since October
1976; Syria protests Turkish hydrological projects regulating upper
Euphrates waters; Turkey is quick to rebuff any perceived Syrian claim
to Hatay province.
Slightly larger than North Dakota, Syria lies at the eastern end of the
Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Lebanon and Israel on the west,
Turkey on the north, Iraq on the east, and Jordan on the south. Coastal
Syria is a narrow plain, in back of which is a range of coastal mountains,
and still farther inland a steppe area. In the east is the Syrian Desert
and in the south is the Jebel Druze Range. The highest point in Syria is
Mount Hermon (9,232 ft; 2,814 m) on the Lebanese border.
Government
Republic under a military regime since March 1963.
History
Ancient Syria was conquered by Egypt about 1500 B.C., and after that by Hebrews, Assyrians,
Chaldeans, Persians, and Alexander the Great of Macedonia. From 64 B.C. until the Arab conquest in A.D. 636, it was part of the Roman Empire except
during brief periods. The Arabs made it a trade center for their extensive
empire, but it suffered severely from the Mongol invasion in 1260 and fell
to the Ottoman Turks in 1516. Syria remained a Turkish province until
World War I.
A secret Anglo-French pact of 1916 put Syria in the French zone of
influence. The League of Nations gave France a mandate over Syria after
World War I, but the French were forced to put down several nationalist
uprisings. In 1930, France recognized Syria as an independent republic but
still subject to the mandate. After nationalist demonstrations in 1939,
the French high commissioner suspended the Syrian constitution. In 1941,
British and Free French forces invaded Syria to eliminate Vichy control.
During the rest of World War II, Syria was an Allied base. Again in 1945,
nationalist demonstrations broke into actual fighting, and British troops
had to restore order. Syrian forces met a series of reverses while
participating in the Arab invasion of Palestine in 1948. In 1958, Egypt
and Syria formed the United Arab Republic, with Gamal Abdel Nasser of
Egypt as president. However, Syria became independent again on Sept. 29,
1961, following a revolution.
In the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, Israel quickly vanquished the Syrian
army. Before acceding to the UN cease-fire, the Israeli forces took
control of the fortified Golan Heights. Syria joined Egypt in attacking
Israel in Oct. 1973 in the fourth Arab-Israeli War, but was pushed back
from initial successes on the Golan Heights and ended up losing more land.
However, in the settlement worked out by U.S. secretary of state Henry A.
Kissinger in 1974, the Syrians recovered all the territory lost in
1973.
In the mid-1970s Syria sent some 20,000 troops to support Muslim
Lebanese in their armed conflict with Christian militants supported by
Israel during the civil war in Lebanon. Syrian troops frequently clashed
with Israeli troops during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and remained
thereafter as occupiers of large portions of Lebanon.
In 1990, President Assad ruled out any possibility of legalizing
opposition political parties. In Dec. 1991 voters approved a fourth term
for Assad, giving him 99.98% of the vote.
In the 1990s, the slowdown in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was
echoed in the lack of progress in Israeli-Syrian relations. Confronted
with a steadily strengthening strategic partnership between Israel and
Turkey, Syria took steps to construct a countervailing alliance by
improving relations with Iraq, strengthening ties with Iran, and
collaborating more closely with Saudi Arabia. In Dec. 1999, Israeli-Syrian
talks resumed after a nearly four-year hiatus, but they soon broke down
over discussions about the Golan Heights.
On June 10, 2000, President Hafez al-Assad died. He had ruled with an
iron fist since taking power in a military coup in 1970. His son, Bashar
al-Assad, an ophthalmologist by training, succeeded him. He has emulated
his father's autocratic rule.
In the summer of 2001, Syria withdrew nearly all of its 25,000 troops
from Beirut. Syrian soldiers, however, remained in the Lebanese
countryside.
The U.S. imposed economic sanctions on the country in May, accusing it
of continuing to support terrorism.
In Sept. 2004, a UN Security Council resolution asked Syria to withdraw
its 15,000 remaining troops from Lebanon. Syria responded by moving about
3,000 troops from the vicinity of Beirut to eastern Lebanon, a gesture
viewed by many as merely cosmetic.
On Feb. 14, 2004, Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri was
assassinated. Many implicated Syria in the death of the popular and
independent leader, who staunchly opposed Syrian involvement in Lebanon.
Huge Lebanese protests called for Syria's withdrawal from the country, a
demand backed by the U.S., EU, and UN. In addition to the anti-Syrian
demonstrations, however, there were a number of massive pro-Syrian rallies
in Lebanon sponsored by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. By the end of
April, Syria had withdrawn all its troops, ending a 29-year occupation. In
October, the UN released a damning report on Hariri's slaying, concluding
that the assassination was carefully organized by Syrian and Lebanese
intelligence officials, including Syria's military intelligence chief,
Asef Shawkat, who is the brother-in-law of President Assad. Syria
vehemently denied the charges.
In July 2006, during the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict in Lebanon, Syria
was strongly suspected of aiding Hezbollah.
Israeli jets fired on targets deep inside Syria in September 2007. American and Israeli intelligence analysts later said that Israel had attacked a partially built nuclear reactor. Several officials wondered aloud if North Korea had played a role in the development of the nuclear plant. Syria denied that any such facilities exist and protested to the United Nations, calling the attack a "violation of sovereignty." After the attack, Syria destroyed the building that had been targeted. In January 2008, satellite photographs revealed that another, similar building was under construction on the same site.
