Syria

Syrian Arab Republic اَلْجُمْهُورِيَّةُ ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْسُوْرِيَّة (Arabic) al-Jumhūriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah
Flag (de facto) Coat of arms (de facto)
Anthem: حُمَاةَ الدَّيَّارِ Ḥumāt ad-Diyār "Guardians of the Homeland"
Controlled territory shown in dark green; Syria's claims over most of Turkey's Hatay Province and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights shown in light greenShow globe Show map of Syria
Status	UN member state under a transitional government
Capital and largest city	Damascus 33°30′N 36°18′E / 33.500°N 36.300°E / 33.500; 36.300
Major languages	Arabic
Minor languages	Kurdish (Kurmanji)[a] Syrian Turkish[b] Neo-Aramaic (Turoyo)[c] Other
Ethnic groups (2021)[2][3][4][5][6]	80–90% Arabs 9–10% Kurds 1–10% others
Religion (2024)[7][8]	94.17% Islam 79.19% Sunni 14.10% Shia (including Alawism) 2.5% Christianity 1.99% other
Demonym(s)	Syrian
Government	Transitional government
• Leader (de facto)	Ahmed al-Sharaa
• Prime Minister	Mohammed al-Bashir[9]
Legislature	People's Assembly (suspended)
Establishment
• Arab Kingdom of Syria	8 March 1920
• State of Syria under French mandate	1 December 1924
• First Syrian Republic	14 May 1930
• End of the French mandate	17 April 1946
• Part of the United Arab Republic	22 February 1958 – 28 September 1961
• Beginning of Ba'athist rule	8 March 1963
• Ba'athist regime overthrown and transitional government established	8 December 2024
Area
• Total	185,180[10] km2 (71,500 sq mi) (87th)
• Water (%)	1.1
Population
• 2023 estimate	23,227,014[11] (57th)
• Density	118.3/km2 (306.4/sq mi) (70th)
GDP (PPP)	2021 estimate
• Total	$50.28 billion[12]
• Per capita	$3,300[12]
GDP (nominal)	2022 estimate
• Total	$9.8 billion[12]
• Per capita	$800
Gini (2022)	26.6[13] low inequality
HDI (2022)	0.557[14] medium (157th)
Currency	Syrian pound (SYP)
Time zone	UTC+3 (Arabia Standard Time)
Drives on	Right
Calling code	+963
ISO 3166 code	SY
Internet TLD	.sy سوريا.

Syria,^[d] officially the Syrian Arab Republic,^[e][15] is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. It is under a transitional government and comprises 14 governorates. Damascus is the capital and largest city. With a population of 25 million across an area of 185,180 square kilometres (71,500 sq mi), it is the 57th-most populous and 87th-largest country.

The name "Syria" historically referred to a wider region, broadly synonymous with the Levant and known in Arabic as ash-Sham. The modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the 3rd millennium BC. Damascus and Aleppo are cities of great cultural significance. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital for the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule, as a French Mandate. The state represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. It gained de jure independence as a parliamentary republic in 1945 when the First Syrian Republic became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the French Mandate. French troops withdrew in April 1946, granting the nation de facto independence.

The post-independence period was tumultuous, with multiple coup attempts in the country between 1949 and 1971. In 1958, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt, which was terminated in a 1961 coup d'état. The 1963 coup d'état carried out by the military committee of the Ba'ath Party established a one-party state, which ran Syria under martial law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending constitutional protections for citizens. Internal power-struggles within Ba'athist factions caused further coups in 1966 and 1970, the latter of which saw Hafez al-Assad come to power. Under Assad, Syria became a hereditary dictatorship, with power consolidated around his family. Assad died in 2000, and he was succeeded by his son, Bashar.

Since the Arab Spring in 2011, Syria has been embroiled in a multi-sided civil war with the involvement of several countries, leading to a refugee crisis in which more than 6 million refugees were displaced from the country.^{[f][excessive citations]}In response to rapid territorial gains made by the Islamic State during the civil war in 2014 and 2015, several countries intervened on behalf of various factions opposing it, leading to its territorial defeat in 2017 in both central and eastern Syria. Thereafter, three political entities – the Syrian Interim Government, Syrian Salvation Government, and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria – emerged in Syrian territory to challenge Assad's rule. In late 2024 a series of offensives from a coalition of opposition forces led to the capture of Damascus and the fall of Assad's regime.^[17]

A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups. Arabs are the largest ethnic group, and Sunni Muslims are the largest religious group. Up until the capture of Damascus by rebel forces, it was the only country governed by neo-Ba'athists. The neo-Ba'athist government was a totalitarian dictatorship with a comprehensive cult of personality around the Assad family, and attracted widespread condemnation for its severe domestic repression and war crimes. Prior to the fall of Assad, Syria was ranked fourth-worst in the 2024 Fragile States Index, and it was one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. Freedom of the press was extremely limited, and the country was ranked second-worst in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index. It was the most corrupt country in the MENA region and was ranked the second-worst globally on the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index. Syria had also become the epicentre of an Assad-sponsored Captagon industry, exporting billions of dollars worth of the illicit drug annually, making it one of the largest narco-states in the world.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).