Syrian Arab Republic | |||||||||
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1963–2024 | |||||||||
Coat of arms
(1980–2024) | |||||||||
Motto: وَحْدَةٌ، حُرِّيَّةٌ، اِشْتِرَاكِيَّةٌ Waḥda, Ḥurriyya, Ishtirākiyya "Unity, Freedom, Socialism" | |||||||||
Anthem: حُمَاةَ الدَّيَّارِ Ḥumāt ad-Diyār "Guardians of the Homeland" | |||||||||
Syria proper shown in dark green; Syria's territorial claims over the most of Turkey's Hatay Province and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights shown in light green | |||||||||
Capital and largest city | Damascus 33°30′N 36°18′E / 33.500°N 36.300°E | ||||||||
Official languages | Arabic[1] | ||||||||
Ethnic groups | 90% Arabs 9% Kurds 1% others | ||||||||
Religion (2024)[2] |
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Demonym(s) | Syrian | ||||||||
Government | Unitary Ba'athist one-party[5] socialist presidential republic[6]
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President | |||||||||
• 1963 (first) | Lu'ay al-Atassi | ||||||||
• 1963–1966 | Amin al-Hafiz | ||||||||
• 1966–1970 | Nureddin al-Atassi | ||||||||
• 1970–1971 | Ahmad al-Khatib (acting) | ||||||||
• 1971–2000 | Hafez al-Assad | ||||||||
• 2000 | Abdul Halim Khaddam (acting) | ||||||||
• 2000–2024 (last) | Bashar al-Assad | ||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1963 (first) | Khalid al-Azm | ||||||||
• 2024 (last) | Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali | ||||||||
Vice President | |||||||||
• 1963–1964 (first) | Muhammad Umran | ||||||||
• 2006–2024 (last) | Najah al-Attar | ||||||||
• 2024 (last) | Faisal Mekdad | ||||||||
Legislature | People's Assembly | ||||||||
Historical era | |||||||||
8 March 1963 | |||||||||
21–23 February 1966 | |||||||||
5-10 June 1967 | |||||||||
13 November 1970 | |||||||||
6–25 October 1973 | |||||||||
1 June 1976 | |||||||||
1976–1982 | |||||||||
2000–2001 | |||||||||
30 April 2005 | |||||||||
• Civil war began | 15 March 2011 | ||||||||
8 December 2024 | |||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• Total | 185,180[10] km2 (71,500 sq mi) (87th) | ||||||||
• Water (%) | 1.1 | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• 2024 estimate | 25,000,753[11] | ||||||||
• Density | 118.3/km2 (306.4/sq mi) | ||||||||
GDP (PPP) | 2015 estimate | ||||||||
• Total | $50.28 billion[12] | ||||||||
• Per capita | $2,900[12] | ||||||||
GDP (nominal) | 2020 estimate | ||||||||
• Total | $11.08 billion[12] | ||||||||
• Per capita | $533 | ||||||||
Gini (2022) | 26.6[13] low inequality | ||||||||
HDI (2022) | 0.557[14] medium | ||||||||
Currency | Syrian pound (SYP) | ||||||||
Time zone | UTC+3 (Arabia Standard Time) | ||||||||
Calling code | +963 | ||||||||
ISO 3166 code | SY | ||||||||
Internet TLD | .sy سوريا. | ||||||||
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Today part of | Syria Israel (de facto) |
Ba'athist Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR),[a] was the Syrian state between 1963 and 2024 under the one-party rule of the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. From 1971 until 2024, it was ruled by the Assad family, and was therefore commonly referred to as the Assad regime.
The regime emerged in the wake of the 1963 Syrian coup d'état and was led by Alawite military officers. In 1970, president Nureddin al-Atassi and de facto leader Salah Jadid were overthrown by Hafez al-Assad in the Corrective Revolution. The next year, Assad became president after sham elections. An Islamist uprising against Assad’s rule resulted in the regime committing the 1981 and 1982 Hama massacres.
Hafez al-Assad died in 2000 and was succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad. Protests against Ba'athist rule in 2011 during the Arab Spring led to the Syrian civil war, which weakened the Assad regime's territorial control. However, for several years the Ba'athist government managed to stay in power and to regain ground thanks to the support of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. In December 2024, a series of surprise offensives by various rebel factions culminated in the regime's collapse.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)System of government: Officially a socialist,... democratic state; presidential system (ruled by the al-Assad family, with the security services occupying a powerful position)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link)It was some years before the all-Arab leadership was forced to reveal the bitter truth that the structure of the new Ba'th Party in Syria had been 'artificial' from the outset, and that since its rise to power in 1963 it had been based on 'elements that served the purpose of the governmental centres represented by the Military Committee. ... The Marxist left was quick to exploit the opportunities offered in the first few months of Ba'th rule... to engineer the elections to the regional conference (the first since the party's rise to power) to their own ends. The conference, held in September 1963,... set out the new party platform, which was to become the credo of the neo-Ba'th. ... In short, the Ba'th in its latest variant is a bureaucratic apparatus headed by the military, whose daily life and routine are shaped by rigid military oppression on the home front, and military aid from abroad.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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