| Syrian Arab Republic
الجمهورية العربية السورية (Arabic)
al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah | |
|---|---|
Anthem: "حماة الديار" (Arabic)
"Humat ad-Diyar" (English: "Guardians of the Homeland") | |
.svg) | |
_-_SYR_-_UNOCHA.svg) | |
| Capital and largest city | Damascus 33°30′N 36°18′E |
| Official languages | Arabic |
| Ethnic groups | |
| Religion | 87% Islam 10% Christianity 3% Druzism[1] |
| Government | Unitary dominant-party semi-presidentialrepublic[2] |
| Bashar al-Assad | |
| Imad Khamis | |
| Hammouda Sabbagh | |
| Legislature | People's Council |
| Establishment | |
• Proclamation of Arab Kingdom of Syria
| 8 March 1920 |
• State of Syriaestablished under French Mandate
| 1 December 1924 |
• Syrian Republicestablished by merger of States of Jabal Druze, Alawites and Syria
| 1930 |
• Independence de-jure (Joint UN / French Mandate ended)
| 24 October 1945 |
• Syrian Republic (1946–1963)independent
(French troops leave) | 17 April 1946 |
• Secession from the
United Arab Republic | 28 September 1961 |
| 8 March 1963 | |
| 27 February 2012 | |
| Area | |
• Total
| 185,180[3] km2(71,500 sq mi) (87th) |
• Water (%)
| 1.1 |
| Population | |
• July 2014 estimate
| 17,064,854[4] (54th) |
• Density
| 118.3/km2(306.4/sq mi) (101st) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2010 estimate |
• Total
| $107.831 billion[5] |
• Per capita
| $5,040[5] |
| GDP (nominal) | 2010 estimate |
• Total
| $59.957 billion[5] |
• Per capita
| $2,802[5] |
| Gini (2014) | 55.8[6] high |
| HDI (2016) |  0.536[7]low · 149th |
| Currency | Syrian pound (SYP) |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
• Summer (DST)
| EEST (UTC+3) |
| Drives on the | right |
| Calling code | +963 |
| ISO 3166 code | SY |
| Internet TLD | .sy سوريا. |
Syria (Arabic: سوريا Sūriyā), officially known as the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. Syria's capital and largest city is Damascus. A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Syrian Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Circassians,[8] Mandeans[9] and Turks. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Isma'ilis, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Yazidis, and Jews. Sunni make up the largest religious group in Syria.
Syria is an unitary republic consisting of 14 governorates and is the only country that politically espouses Ba'athism. It is a member of one international organization other than the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement; it has become suspended from the Arab League on November 2011[10] and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation,[11] and self-suspended from the Union for the Mediterranean.[12]
In English, the name "Syria" was formerly synonymous with the Levant (known in Arabic as al-Sham), while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the 3rd millennium BC. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.[13] In the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanatein Egypt. The modern Syrian state was established in mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman and a brief period French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. It gained de-jure independence as a parliamentary republic on 24 October 1945, when Republic of Syria became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the former French Mandate – although French troops did not leave the country until April 1946. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–71. In 1958, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic, which was terminated by the 1961 Syrian coup d'état. The republic was renamed int o Arab Republic of Syria in late 1961 after December 1 constitutional referendum, and was increasingly unstable until the Ba'athist coup d'état, since which the Ba'ath Party has maintained its power. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens. Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad,[14] who was in office from 1971 to 2000.
Since March 2011, Syria has been embroiled in an armed conflict, with a number of countries in the region and beyond involved militarily or otherwise. As a result, a number of self-proclaimed political entities have emerged on Syrian territory, including the Syrian opposition, Rojava, Tahrir al-Sham and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Syria is ranked last on the Global Peace Index, making it the most violent country in the world due to the war, although life continues normally for most of its citizens as of December 2017. The war caused 470,000 deaths (February 2016 SCPR estimate),[15] 7.6 million internally displaced people (July 2015 UNHCRestimate) and over 5 million refugees (July 2017 registered by UNHCR),[16] making population assessment difficult in recent years.a