Syria was known as Aram in ancient times, and was one of the great civilizations of the Fertile Crescent. Some of the oldest still-inhabited cities in the world are in Syria, like Aleppo and Damascus. Later, Damascus was the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate during the early days of the Islamic Golden Age, and Aleppo was one of the most important cities for the Silk Route in the Ottoman Empire. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, following World War I, France was given a League of Nations mandate over Syria. Shortly following its independence after World War II in 1945, Syria participated in the first war against the newly independent Israel in 1948. It participated in subsequent wars with the Israeli state in 1967, as a result of which it lost most of the Golan Heights, and 1973.
The President of Syria between 2000 and 2024 was Bashar al-Assad, who replaced his father, Hafez al-Assad, soon after his death. Having studied to become an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) in Damascus and London, Bashar was groomed for the presidency after the 1994 car accident of his elder brother Basil. Consequently, he joined the army and became a colonel in 1999. Bashar's modernizing credentials were somewhat boosted by his role in a domestic anti-corruption drive, and he began his rule with increased openness. Bashar's position as head of the Syrian state rested on his presidency of the Ba'ath Party and his role as commander-in-chief of the army.
Assad's regime and the Ba'ath Party owned or controlled most of Syria's media. Criticism of the president and his family was not permitted, and the press (both foreign and domestic) was heavily censored for material deemed threatening or embarrassing to the government. A brief period of relative press freedom arose after Bashar became president in 2000 and saw the licensing of the first private publications in almost 40 years. A later crackdown, however, imposed various restrictions regarding licensing and content. In a more relaxed manner (perhaps since these matters are largely beyond possible government control), many Syrians have gained access to foreign television broadcasts (usually via satellite) and the three state-run networks. In 2002 the government set out conditions for licensing private, commercial FM radio stations, ruling simultaneously that radio stations could not broadcast news or political content.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, which was part of the Arab Spring that attempted to topple authoritarian leaders across the Arab world and transform the Arab countries into liberal democracies. Since then, numerous armed rebel groups backed by the United States and its allies (especially Turkey) had been waging a war against Assad's government, which is backed by Iran and Russia, and many parts of the country remain outside government control. Russian intervention on Assad's side since 2015 had brought more than half the country back under government control, and a partial ceasefire covering Northwestern Syria was agreed in 2020.
Syria's population has fallen from 21.9 million people in 2009 to 18.3 million in 2017 (UN estimates). About 4½ million are concentrated in the Damascus governate. A moderately large country (185,180 km2 or 72,150 sq miles), Syria is situated centrally within the Middle East region and has land borders with Turkey in the north, with Israel and Lebanon in the south, and with Iraq and Jordan in respectively the east and south-east.
The population of Syria is predominantly Arab (90%), with significant minorities of other ethnic groups: Kurds, Armenians, Circassians, and Turks. The official language is Arabic, but other tongues that are occasionally understood include Kurdish, Armenian, Turkish, French, and English. The Syrian Republic is officially secular. Nonetheless, it is greatly influenced by the majority religion of Islam (80% of the population, split between 64% Sunni Muslim and 16% Shia Muslims, Alawite, and Druze). There is a significant Christian minority that amounts to about 10% of the population. Syria historically had a significant Jewish community, but most of the Syrian Jews were resettled in the United States in the 1990s in exchange for sanctions relief by the U.S., and the last Jews fled Syria for Israel with the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.
In November 2024, a coalition of Syrian opposition groups, supported by allied Turkish-backed groups, launched a major offensive against the government. The Syrian military, crippled by a collapsing economy, low morale, and withdrawing foreign support, was quickly defeated. After capturing several major cities, including Aleppo, Hama, and Homs, on December 8, Hay'at Tahrir al-Shams (HTS), a former (since disavowed) al-Qaeda affiliate and one of the main rebel groups, managed to capture Damascus and overthrow the government, bringing Assad's 24-year-long rule to an end and ending his family's 53-year-long rule over the country. Assad fled the country to Moscow with his family and resigned, and the final Ba'athist Prime Minister agreed to head a caretaker government while the various rebel groups begin the long reconstruction process. While a large number of the various militant/rebel groups have agreed to an armistice and have integrated with HTS to form the Syrian Transitional Government, the future of the country and its 14-year-long civil war remains highly uncertain as of early 2025. While both HTS and the Transitional Government have made public overtures to protecting minority rights (including women's rights and freedom of religion), it is yet to be seen if they "put their money where their mouths are" and actually enact legislation that protects those rights. It is also a question of whether Turkey, Israel, Russia, Iran, and other foreign powers involved in the conflict will support the government or continue to back certain opposition groups.
