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Syria

Levantine Federation الاتحاد الشامي (Arabic) al-Aytihad ash-Shamiyu הפדרציה הלבנטינית (Hebrew) haFederatsiah haLebentinit Federasyona Levantîn (Kurdish)
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: موطني Mawṭinī "My Homeland"
Location of Syria
Capital	Damascus 33°30′N 36°18′E
Largest city	Tel Aviv-Jaffa
Official languages	Arabic, Hebrew, Kurdish
Recognized languages	Turkish, Aramaic, Circassian, Armenian
Ethnic groups	74.6% Arab 10.7% Jewish 4.6% Kurd 2.3 Turk or Turkoman 2.2% Assyrian 5.6% Other, including Circassians and Armenians
Religion	65.7% Islam 57.1% Sunni 8.6% Shia 15.3% Christianity 4.6% Judaism 3.7% Nusayrite 2.4% Druze 7.9% No religion 0.4% Other
Demonym(s)	Syrian, Levantine
Government	Federal parliamentary republic
• President	Riyad al-Maliki
• Prime Minister	George Sabra
• Speaker of Parliament	Bisher Khasawneh
• Chief Justice	Uzi Vogelman
Legislature	Levantine Parliament (unicameral)
Establishment	Independence from the Ottoman Empire
• Kingdom	26 November 1919
• French withdrawl	17 April 1921
• Federation	17 December 1951
Area
• Total	311,764 km2 (120,373 sq mi) (70th)
Population
• 2022 census	52,781,931 (27th)
• Density	169.3/km2 (438.5/sq mi) (58th)
GDP (PPP)	2023 estimate
• Total	$3.046 trillion (12th)
• Per capita	$57,714 (28th)
Gini (2018)	28.5 low inequality (23rd)
HDI (2021)	0.897 very high (29th)
Currency	Levantine Dinar (LVD)
Time zone	UTC+2 (LST)
Drives on	right
Calling code	+963
ISO 3166 code	SY

Syria, officially the Levantine Federation is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the southeast, and the Red Sea and Egypt to the south and southwest. Cyprus lies to the west across the Mediterranean Sea. It is a federal republic that consists of 11 cantons (subdivisions). A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups. Syria is a member of the Arab League and various other international groups. The capital city is Damascus, while Amman is the largest city, followed by Beirut and Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Arabs are the largest ethnic group, and Sunni Muslims are the largest religous group.

The name "Syria" comes from Assyria, an ancient civilization centered in northern Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq. Assyria was one of many civilizations and empires to control the region in whole or in part. These include, but are not limited to: Aram-Damascus, Egypt, Moab, Judah, Phoenicia, Babylonia, Persia, Rome, and the Arabs. By the late 13th centurty, Mamluk Egypt had control over the territory. However, in 1517 they were conquered by the Ottomans, who ruled over almost all of Syria for the next few hundred years. In World War I, France, Britain, and Arab rebels under the Sharif of Mecca took the territory from Ottoman hands. After the war, Faisal sucessfully appealled to Britain for the creation of the Hashemite Kingdom of Syria. France, however, attempted to invade Syria, starting a brief war between the newly established kingdom and the superpower. Suprisingly to many at the time, Syria triumphed; France, lacking British support, was forced to withdrawl fully in 1921.

After having won independence, King Faisal embarked on a campaign to modernize and develoup his new nation. New roads and railways were built, which were then connected to new ports. He partially modernized agriculture while encouraging urbanization. He also accepted Zionist immigrants, allowing them to buy land in Syria. With the fall of the Weimar Republic in Europe, and the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933-34, Jewish emmigration from Germany increased massively, with Syria becoming an important refuge for them. As more Jews began to arrive however, the Arabs of Palestine, especially Muslims, began to consider them more of a threat, protesting and even attacking their homes and settlements. King Faisal I had to toe the line between protecting his new Jewish citizens and not angering the Arab Muslim majority in the country.

Syria remained neutral throughout the first part of World War II, joining in mid-1941. After the war, Jewish immigration reached yet another record height. Though it abated during the next few years, violence in Palestine exploded, with the king all but powerless to stop it. In 1951, the king reliquished power to parliament, resulting in the creation of the new Levantine Federation. The new constitution was drafted and signed by members of all the major ethnic and religious groups, including Muslim and Christian Arabs, Jews, Nusayrites, Kurds, Assyrians, and Druze. Syria was spared from the unstable and tumultuous times of it's neigbors, Iraq and Egypt, during the Cold War by the stablity this new constitution allowed for. Violence in Palestine continued through the 1950s and into the early 1960s, and in some ways persists to this day. However, through the creation of Jewish and Arab cantons in the region, violence decreased quite a lot, and the combined efforts of Jewish and Arab authorities, as well as the central government, quelled the worst of the terrorism and attacks on both sides.

Throughout the Cold War in the Arab world, Arab nationalists, Islamists, monarchists, Zionists, and other forces threatened to rip the country apart or descend it into a civil war. The majority of people, however, wanted to wealthy and prosperous federation to remain whole, and the country faced very little instablity compared to other states in the region. The worst challenge was the rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser's popular brand of Arab nationalism. After Nasser's death in 1970, the movement decended into chaos, fracturing and its leaders fighting amongst themselves, drasticly decreasing its popularity. The Iranian Revoluton in 1979 threatened Syrian stability again, increasing Islamist thought amongst the people, especially Shi'ites, though only for a time; the country remained in tact and in relative peace through this troublesome period and into the much stabler world of today.

Syria in modern times is a prosperous hub for tourism and business, and a stable beacon of democracy in the MENA region. Through generous welfare programs and and a free society, the nation has achieved a level of wealth, both for its government and its people, that is unrivaled in the Middle East. Syria is an exporter of many goods, including oil, natural gas, wine, vegetables, meat, clothing, and electronics. It also has a large defence industry made nessesary by the tensions of the Cold War, and has been a major exporter of small arms, APCs, and IFVs; Syria has also begun exporting combat drones in recent years. Since 2003, Islamic terror has become a new challange for the Syrian security services. The Islamic State in 2014 began an invasion of Syria from western Iraq, causing a new war that would claims thousands of lives. Even after the fall of IS, small cells, both al-Qaeda affiliates and IS remnants have carried out numerous small-scale attacks, mostly in the eastern desert around Palmyra. Larger attacks, focused on major cities and especially minorities, have mostly been thwarted by Syrian security forces. Some exeptions were in the 2015 Jerusalem bus attack, and the 2016 suicide bombings across northern Syria. Since 2018, Syria has experienced far less attacks, as most of the remaining terrorist cells have been killed or captured.

Etymology

Main articles: Name of Syria, Names of the Levant

Several sources indicate that the name Syria is derived from the 8th century BC Luwian term "Sura/i", and the derivative ancient Greek name: Σύριοι, Sýrioi, or Σύροι, Sýroi, both of which originally derived from Aššūr (Assyria) in northern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). However, from the Seleucid Empire (323–150 BC), this term was also applied to the Levant, and from this point the Greeks applied the term without distinction between the Assyrians of Mesopotamia and Arameans of the Levant. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favors the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, ultimately derived from the Akkadian Aššur. The Greek name appears to correspond to Phoenician ʾšr "Assur", ʾšrym "Assyrians", recorded in the 8th century BC Çineköy inscription.

Medieval Italians called the region Levante after its easterly location where the sun "rises"; this term was adopted from Italian and French into many other languages.

History

Main article: History of Syria

Prehistory and Ancient antiquity (Before 539 BC)

Anatomically modern humans are believed to have inhabited the Levant since at least 800,000 BC.

Since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of the centers of Neolithic culture, where agriculture and cattle breeding first began to appear. The Neolithic is traditionally divided to the Pre-Pottery (A and B), starting around 12,000 years ago, and Pottery Late Neolithic phases, beginning around 8,500 years ago. Pre-Pottery Neolithic A developed from the earlier Natufian cultures of the area. This is the time of the Neolithic Revolution and development of agricultural economies in the Near East. In addition, the Levant in the Neolithic was involved in large scale, far reaching trade. Trade on an impressive scale and covering large distances continued during the Chalcolithic (c. 4500–3300 BCE). Obsidian found in the Chalcolithic levels north of Khirbat Futais in Palestine have had their origins traced via elemental analysis to three sources in Southern Anatolia: Hotamis Dağ, Göllü Dağ, and as far east as Nemrut Dağ, 500 km (310 mi) east of the other two sources. This is indicative of a very large trade circle reaching as far as the Northern Fertile Crescent at these three Anatolian sites.

The urban development of Canaan lagged considerably behind that of Egypt and Mesopotamia and even that of northern Syria, where from 3,500 BC a sizable city developed at Hamoukar. This city, which was conquered, probably by people coming from the Southern Iraqi city of Uruk, saw the first connections between Syria and Southern Iraq that some have suggested lie behind the patriarchal traditions. Urban development again began culminating in Early Bronze Age sites like Ebla, which by 2,300 BC, was incorporated once again into the Empire of Sargon, and then Naram-Sin of Akkad (Biblical Accad). The archives of Ebla show reference to a number of Biblical sites, including Hazor, Jerusalem, and a number of people have claimed, also to Sodom and Gomorrah, mentioned in the patriarchal records. The collapse of the Akkadian Empire, saw the arrival of peoples using Khirbet Kerak Ware pottery, coming originally from the Zagros Mountains, east of the Tigris. It is suspected by some Ur seals that this event marks the arrival in Syria of the Hurrians, people later known in the Biblical tradition possibly as Horites.

First kingdom of Ebla, c. 3000-2300 BC

The following Middle Bronze Age period was initiated by the arrival of "Amorites" from Syria into Southern Iraq, an event which some associated with the arrival of Abraham's family in Ur. This period saw the pinnacle of urban development in the area of Syria. Archaeologists show that the chief state at this time was the city of Hazor, which may have been the capital of the land of Israel. This is also the period in which Semites began to appear in larger numbers in the Nile delta region of Egypt.

The Early Bronze Age period was dominated by the East Semitic-speaking kingdoms of Ebla, Nagar and the Mari. Ebla has been described as the world's first recorded superpower, controlling much of present-day Syria. At its greatest extent, Ebla controlled an area roughly a quarter the size of modern Syria, from Ursa'um in the north, to the area around Damascus in the south, and from Phoenicia and the coastal mountains in the west, to Haddu in the east, and had more than sixty vassal kingdoms and city-states. Scholars believe the language of Ebla to be among the oldest known written Semitic languages after Akkadian. Ebla was weakened by a long war with Mari, and the whole of Syria became part of the Mesopotamian Akkadian Empire after Sargon of Akkad and his grandson Naram-Sin's conquests ended Eblan domination over Syria in the first half of the 23rd century BC.

The Akkadian Empire ruled northern parts of Syria until it collapsed due to the 4.2 kya aridification event. The event prompted large-scale movement of population from Upper Mesopotamia towards the Levant and Lower Mesopotamia, which brought about many Amorites to Sumer, and correlates with a subsequent influx and settlement expansion in many regions of Syria.

Three principal Syrian kingdoms: Mari, Qatna and Yamhad c. 18th century BC

In northern Mesopotamia, the Amorite warlord Shamshi-Adad I conquered much of Assyria and formed the large, though short-lived Kingdom of Upper Mesoptamia. In the Levant, Amorite dynasties ruled various kingdoms of Qatna, Ebla and Yamhad, which also had a significant Hurrian population. Mari was similarly ruled by the Amorite Lim dynasty which belonged to the pastoral Amorites known as the Haneans, who were split into the Banu-Yamina (sons of the right) and Banu-Simaal (sons of the left) tribes. Mari was in direct conflict with another Semitic peoples, the Suteans who inhabited nearby Suhum.

By the 16th and 15th centuries bc, most of the major urban centers in the Levant had been overran and went into steep decline. Mari was destroyed and reduced in a series of wars and conflicts with Babylon, while Yamhad and Ebla were conquered and completely destroyed by Hittite king Mursili I in about 1600 bc. In northern Mesopotamia, the era ended with the defeat of the Amorite states by Puzur-Sin and Adasi between 1740 and 1735 bc, and the rise of the native Sealand Dynasty. In Egypt, Ahmose I managed to expel the Levantine Hyksos rulers from power, pushing Egypt's borders further into Canaan. The Amorites were eventually absorbed by another West Semitic-speaking people known collectively as the Ahlamu. The Arameans rose to be the prominent group amongst the Ahlamu, and from c. 1200 bc on, the Amorites disappeared from the pages of history.

Between 1550 and 1170 bc, much of the Levant was contested between Egypt and the Hittites.

During the 12th century BC, between c. 1200 and 1150, all of these powers suddenly collapsed. Centralized state systems collapsed, and the region was hit by famine. Chaos ensued throughout the region, and many urban centers were burnt to the ground by famine-struck natives and an assortment of raiders known as the Sea Peoples, who eventually settled in the Levant. The Sea Peoples' origins are ambiguous and many theories have proposed them to be Trojans, Sardinians, Achaeans, Sicilians or Lycians. The Hittite empire was destroyed, and its capital Tarḫuntašša was razed to the ground. Egypt repelled its attackers with only a major effort, and over the next century shrank to its territorial core, its central authority permanently weakened.

Aramaeans came to dominate much of Syria, establishing kingdoms and tribal polities throughout the land. Accompanied by the Suteans, the Aramaeans overran large parts of Mesopotamia around 1100 BC bar Assyria itself. It was around this time that Assyrian texts of the 9th century BC first mention the Arabs (Aribi), who inhabited swaths of land in the Levant and Babylonia. Their presence intermingled with the Aramaeans, and they are variously mentioned in the Babylon border region, Orontes valley, Homs, Damascus, Hauran, Bekaa valley in Lebanon and Wadi Sirhan, where the Arab king Gindibu of Qedar ruled from. One such example is the land of Laqē near Terqa, mentioned in a inscription by Adad-nirari II (911–891 BC), where Aramaean and Arab clans formed a confederacy.

Kingdoms in southern Syria c. 9th century BC

Further west, the Levantine coast was settled by the Sea Peoples, notably the Philistines around today's Gaza Strip. The Phoenician city-states in Canaan managed to escape the destruction that ensued in the Late Bronze age collapse, and developed into commercial maritime powers with established colonies across the Mediterranean Sea.

In the southern Levant, new Canaanite groups emerged in the southern Levant during early Iron Age. In Palestine, the Israelites gradually established many small communities that dotted the central highlands, while the Philistines, a group of Aegean immigrants arrived in the southern shore of Canaan around 1175 BCE and settled there. In Transjordan, three Canaanite kingdoms—Moab, Ammon and Edom—began to arose at about the same period. The 10th and 9th centuries BCE saw the emergence of several territorial kingdoms in the southern Levant. Two Israelite kingdoms emerged: the Kingdom of Israel, which ruled over the areas of Samaria, Galilee, Sharon and parts of Transjordan, and had its capital for the most of its history in the city of Samaria, and the Kingdom of Judah, which controlled the Judaean Mountains, most of the Shfela, and the northern Naqab, and had its capital in Jerusalem.

Unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Iron age Levant was characterized by patches of scattered kingdoms and tribal confederations which originated from the same cultural and linguistic milieu, and was much less densely populated than either. Occasionally, these closely related entities united against expanding outer forces. The Assyrians only managed to subdue the Levantine states after multiple attempts and campaigns, finalized under Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC).

At their height, the Assyrians dominated all of the Levant, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, and sponsored the Scythians under Madyes, their half-Assyrian king, in West Asia. However, the empire began to collapse toward the end of the 7th century BC, and was obliterated by an alliance between a resurgent Chaldean New Kingdom of Babylonia and the Iranian Medes. After the Battle of Carchemish, Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple (597 BC), starting the period of the Babylonian captivity, which lasted about half a century. Nebuchadnezzar also besieged the Phoenician city of Tyre for 13 years (586–573 BC), setting one of the longest sieges in history. The subsequent balance of power was, however, short-lived. In the 550s BC, the Achaemenids revolted against the Medes and gained control of their empire, and over the next few decades annexed the realms of Lydia, Damascus, Babylonia, and Egypt into their empire, consolidating control as far as India. This vast kingdom was divided up into various satrapies and governed roughly according to the Assyrian model, but with a far lighter hand.

Classical antiquity (539 BC - 636 AD)

Achaemenid Empire took over the Levant after 539 BC, but by the 4th century the Achaemenids had fallen into decline. The Phoenicians frequently rebelled against the Persians, who taxed them heavily, in contrast to the Judeans who were granted return from the exile by Cyrus the Great. Alexander the Great conquered the Levant in 333-332 BC. However, Alexander did not live long enough to consolidate his realm, and soon after his death in 323 BC, the greater share of the east eventually went to the descendants of Seleucus I Nicator.

Seleucid Empire with its capitol in Antioch

When Alexander and later the Diadochi came to Syria, unlike Egypt, they found a sparsely populated region with no major urban center, most of which had been abandoned following the Bronze Age collapse or destroyed by the Assyrians. Alexander and his Seleucid successors founded many urban centers in the area and moved in locals and troops into the cities. The Seleucids also sponsored Greek settlement to the area. Koine Greek was largely used for administration, whereas Aramaic remained the lingua franca for much of the region and even the Hellenistic urban centers, where bilingualism was prevalent.

The Seleucids gradually lost their domains in Bactria to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and in Iran and Mesopotamia to the rising Parthian Empire. Eventually, this limited Seleucid domains to the Levant, and the power decline would lead to the formation of several breakaway states in the Levant. The Maccabean Revolt in Palestine inaugurated the Hasmonean kingdom in 140 BC.

The Romans gained a foothold in the region in 64 BC after permanently defeating the Seleucids and Tigranes. Pompey deposed to the last Seleucid king Philip II Philoromaeus, and incorporated Syria into Roman domains. However, the Romans only gradually incorporated local kingdoms into provinces, which gave them considerable autonomy in local affairs. The Herodian Kingdom of Judea replaced the Hasmonians in 37 BC until their full incorporation of the province of Judaea in 44 AD after Herod Agrippa II. Commagene and Osroene were incorporated in 72 and 214 AD respectively, while Nabatea was incorporated as Arabia Petraea in 106 AD.

The first to second centuries saw the emergence of a plethora of religions and philosophical schools. Neoplatonism emerged with Iamblichus and Porphyry, Neopythagorianism with Apollonius of Tyana and Numenius of Apamea, and Hellenic Judaism with Philo of Alexandria. Christianity initially emerged as a sect of Judaism and finally as an independent religion by the mid-second century. Gnosticism also took significant hold in the region.

The region of Palestine or Judea experienced abrupt periods of conflict between Romans and Jews. The First Jewish–Roman War (66-73) erupted in 66, resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70. Province forces were directly engaged in the war; in 66 AD, Cestius Gallus sent the Syrian army, based on Legio X Fretensis and Legio XII Fulminata reinforced by vexillationes of IV Scythica and VI Ferrata, to restore order in Judaea and quell the revolt, but suffered a defeat in the Battle of Beth Horon. However, XII Fulminata fought well in the last part of the war, and supported its commander Vespasian in his successful bid for the imperial throne. Two generations later, the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-136) erupted once again, after which the province Syria Palaestina was created in 132.

Palmyrene Empire in 271 AD

During the Crisis of the Third Century, the Sassanids under Shapur I invaded Syria and captured Roman emperor Valerian in the Battle of Edessa. A Syrian notable of Palmyra, Odaenathus assembled the Palmyrene army and Syrian peasants, and marched north to meet Shapur I. The Palmyrene monarch fell upon the retreating Persian army between Samosata and Zeugma, west of the Euphrates, in late summer 260, defeating and expelling them. Odaenathus was succeeded by his son Vaballathus under the regency of his mother Queen Zenobia. In 270, Zenobia detached from Roman authority and declared the Palmyrene Empire, rapidly conquering much of Syria, Egypt, Arabia Petraea and large parts of Asia Minor, reaching present-day Ankara. However, by 273, Zenobia was decisively defeated by Aurelian and his Arab Tanukhid allies in Syria.

With the consolidation of Christianity, Jews had become a minority in southern Levant, remaining a majority only in Southern Judea, Galilee and Golan. Jewish revolts had also become much rarer, mostly with the Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus (351–352) and Jewish revolt against Heraclius (617). This time the Samaritans, whose population swelled to over a million, insurrected the Samaritan revolts (484–572) against the Byzantines, which killed an estimated 200,000 Samaritans, after the civil uprising of Baba Rabba and his subsequent execution in 328/362. The devastating Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 ended with Byzantine recapture of the land, but left the empire rather exhausted, which taxed the inhabitants heavily. The Levant became the frontline between the Byzantines and the Persian Sassanids, which devastated the region.

Middle Ages (636 - 1516)

Eastern Roman control over the Levant lasted until 636 when Arab armies conquered the Levant, after which it became a part of the Rashidun Caliphate and was known as Bilād ash-Shām.

Under the Umayyads, the capital was moved to Damascus. However, the Levant did not experience wide-scale Arabian tribal settlement unlike in Iraq, where the focus of Arabian tribal migration was. Archaeological and historical evidence strongly suggest there was smooth population continuity and no large-scale abandonment of major sites and regions of the Levant after the Muslim conquest. Moreover, in contrast to Iran, Iraq and North Africa, where Muslim soldiers established separate garrison cities (amsar), Muslim troops in the Levant settled alongside locals in pre-existing cities such as Damascus, Homs, Jerusalem and Tiberias. Abbasid focus on Iraq and Iran neglected the Levant, which in turn experienced a period of frequent uprisings and revolts. Syria became fertile grounds for anti-Abbasid sentiments, in various contrasting pro-Umayyad and pro-Shiite forms. In 841, al-Mubarqa lead a rebellion against the Abbasids in Palestine, declaring himself the Umayyad Sufyani. In 912, a revolt against the Abbasids arose in the Damascus region, this time by an Alid descendant of tenth Shiite Imam Ali al-Hadi.

Crusader States in 1135

Arabic – made official under Umayyad rule – became the dominant language, replacing Greek and Aramaic of the Byzantine era. In 887, the Egypt-based Tulunids annexed Syria from the Abbasids, and were later replaced by once the Egypt-based Ikhshidids and still later by the Hamdanids originating in Aleppo founded by Sayf al-Dawla. Seljuk expansion into eastern Anatolia triggered the Byzantine–Seljuk wars, with the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 marking a decisive turning point in the conflict in favour of the Seljuks, undermining the authority of the Byzantine Empire in the remaining parts of Anatolia and gradually enabling the region's Turkification. The Seljuk Empire united the fractured political landscape in the non-Arab eastern parts of the Muslim world.

During the late 11th century, in response to the rise of the Sejuk Turks, European Christians launched a series of Crusades on Muslim lands, especially Syria. Sections of Syria were held by French, English, Italian and German overlords between 1098 and 1291 AD during the Crusades and were known collectively as the Crusader states among which the primary one was the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The coastal mountainous region was also occupied in part by the Nizari Ismailis, the so-called Assassins, who had intermittent confrontations and truces with the Crusader States.

Portrait of the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260). Mamluk Egypt succesfully fended off the Mongol advance.

After a century of Seljuk and Christian rule, Syria was largely conquered (1175–1185) by the Kurdish liberator Salah ad-Din, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt. Aleppo fell to the Mongols of Hulegu in January 1260, and Damascus in March, but then Hulegu was forced to break off his attack to return to China to deal with a succession dispute.

A few months later, the Mamluks arrived with an army from Egypt and defeated the Mongols in the Battle of Ain Jalut in Galilee. The Mamluk leader, Baibars, made Damascus a provincial capital. When he died, power was taken by Qalawun. In the meantime, an emir named Sunqur al-Ashqar had tried to declare himself ruler of Damascus, but he was defeated by Qalawun on 21 June 1280, and fled to northern Syria. Al-Ashqar, who had married a Mongol woman, appealed for help from the Mongols. The Mongols of the Ilkhanate took Aleppo in October 1280, but Qalawun persuaded Al-Ashqar to join him, and they fought against the Mongols on 29 October 1281, in the Second Battle of Homs, which was won by the Mamluks.

In 1400, the Muslim Turco-Mongol conqueror Tamurlane invaded Syria, in which he sacked Aleppo, and captured Damascus after defeating the Mamluk army. The city's inhabitants were massacred, except for the artisans, who were deported to Samarkand. Tamurlane also conducted specific massacres of the Aramean and Assyrian Christian populations, greatly reducing their numbers. By the end of the 15th century, the discovery of a sea route from Europe to the Far East ended the need for an overland trade route through Syria.

Ottoman Syria (1516 - 1920)

Main article: Ottoman Syria

Map of Ottoman Syria in 1851, by Henry Warren

In 1516, the Ottoman Empire invaded the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, conquering Syria, and incorporating it into its empire. The Ottoman system was not burdensome to Syrians because the Turks respected Arabic as the language of the Quran, and accepted the mantle of defenders of the faith. Damascus was made the major entrepot for Mecca, and as such it acquired a holy character to Muslims, because of the beneficial results of the countless pilgrims who passed through on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Ottoman administration followed a system that led to peaceful coexistence. Each ethno-religious minority—Arab Shia Muslim, Arab Sunni Muslim, Aramean-Syriac Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Maronite Christians, Assyrian Christians, Armenians, Kurds and Jews—constituted a millet. The religious heads of each community administered all personal status laws and performed certain civil functions as well. In 1831, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt renounced his loyalty to the Empire and overran Ottoman Syria, capturing Damascus. His short-term rule over the domain attempted to change the demographics and social structure of the region; he brought thousands of Egyptian villagers to populate the plains of Southern Syria, rebuilt Jaffa and settled it with veteran Egyptian soldiers aiming to turn it into a regional capital, and he crushed peasant and Druze rebellions and deported non-loyal tribesmen. By 1840, however, he had to surrender the area back to the Ottomans.

From 1864, Tanzimat reforms were applied on Ottoman Syria, carving out the provinces (vilayets) of Aleppo, Zor, Beirut and Damascus; the Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon was created as well, and soon after, the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem was given a separate status.

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire entered the conflict on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It ultimately suffered defeat and loss of control of the entire Near East. During the conflict, genocide against indigenous Christian peoples was carried out by the Ottomans and their allies in the form of the Armenian genocide and Assyrian genocide, of which Deir ez-Zor, in Ottoman Syria, was the final destination of these death marches. During the later part of the war, Ottoman Syria was occupied by Arab forces inland, joined by British and French units along the coast. In August 1917, Great Britain officially recognized the Hashemite Kingdom of Syia, under King Faisal I.

French troops marching from the Lebanon towards Maysaloun, 1920

France, however, lauched an invasion of Syria on 8 March 1920. Despite many predictions that Syria would be quickly overcome by the French Empire, Syria prevailed at the Battle of Maysaloun. Following this, France withdrew to Lebanon, where the local Christians were becoming less supportive of France due to Faisal's intention to establish a secular state. In late November 1920, the United Kingdom sent a telegram to the French Prime Minister to withdraw from Syria and establish relations with their govenment. Seing the diplomatic situation was against them, and with Syrian raids increasing in both agressiveness and effectiveness, France withdrew over the course of the next few months. The last French soldier left Beirut on 17 April 1921.

With the Ottoman surrender in 1918, Syria was able to take control over the north, including Aleppo and Antioch. During the Turkish War of Independence, Syria lost some of the cities they hoped to gain even further north, such as Urfa and Antep. Still, they had achieved independence from the great powers, a feat few nations could boast of.

Independent monarchy (1920 - 1951)

King Faisal I meeting with Zionist representative Chaim Weizmann, 1918. The King was known for being a supporter of Jewish immigration to Palestine.

King Faisal created a parliament and worked to create a new constitution, which was signed by the leaders of all major political forces in the country, including minorities such as Kurds and Jews, on 27 November 1920. The constitution provided for a relatively weak parliament, angering many liberals and socialists, who felt the king had too much power. Dispite these concerns, the country remained remakably stable during and after the first elections in 1922. On 27 February, Hashim al-Atassi and his People's Party were elected. Dispite this, Faisal had almost all the real power in the country, especially since al-Atassi largely suppoted his rule.

From the 1920s to his death in 1933, Faisal embarked on a massive moderniztion process similar to, and at times inspired by, Atatürk's reforms in Turkey, though it differed in being more liberal and less ethno-nationalist. He somewhat secularized the country, focusing on unity between the various religions in Syria. The King also supported peace between the different ethnic groups in the country. This was especially meaningful, as the Kurds had revolted in every country they viewed as occuping their land, exept Syria. King Faisal also modernized education, focusing on the secular French model. New roads were built to connect the country as old ones were modernized. Railways were built, connecting major cities both inland and running along the coast. Ports were expanded, and they began industrializing on a scale that rivals even Turkey during this same period. New arms manufactories were made, and they formed a combat-capable navy by 1930.

In 1928, King Faisal agreed to allow the Jews to buy land in Syria, and the government began giving out land grants for Jews in Palestine. Beginning in 1932, and continually reaching record heights for the next 14 years, Jews began immigrating to Palestine en massé to remove themselves from an increasingly anti-semetic Germany, and were later joined by Jews from other parts of Europe fleeing World War II and the Holocaust.

On 8 September 1933, King Faisal died, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Ghazi. He ruled as King for the next six years, continuing his fathers reforms and trying to create peace in Palestine, to little avail. Syria was finally admited to the League of Nations on 29 April 1936. On 4 April 1939, Ghazi was assassinated by an Islamist from Palestine named Khalid al-Faraj. Ghazi was succeeded by his son Faisal II, though true power now layed with his regent, Abd al-llah; just months later, WWII began in Europe.

Amin al-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler, 1941.

For a time, things stayed much the same in Palestine. The Second World War saw the neutral, but pro-allied government link anti-semetic attacks to German alliegence. The Arab leaders in Palestine however, believed that the Jews were planning to seize all Arab and Muslim lands, and kill any who resisted. Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, frequently made anti-semetic comments and encouraged Arabs to attack Jews, even expressing sympathy for Nazi Germany. The government decided against arresting him, worringing that may cause a Palestinian Arab rebellion, or revolution by the Muslim Arabs across Syria. In 1941, al-Husseini visited Nazi Germany, met with Joachim von Ribbentrop and Adolf Hitler, and spoke to Muslim SS units.

Just months after this, the Golden Square under Rashid Gaylani launched a coup to overthrow the Iraqi government. In response, the United Kingdom demanded Syria allow British forces to invade Iraq from the west. To counter this and preserve Syrian sovreignty, Abd al-llah decided to invade Iraq alongside Britain. Churchill accepted, and Iraq was defeated in just two weeks. Following this, Syria offically declared war on Germany. Al-Husseini was arrested for treason, and put on public trial in Jerusalem. Al-Husseini's supporters protested and rioted in the streets across not just Jerusalem, but also Syria in general; many attacks on Jewish towns and settlements were recorded during this time. Due to this pressure, al-llah agreed to release al-Husseini on the condition that he never leave the country. Syria played a role in the North Africa campaign, though their forces would only take limited part in the fighting in Europe, sending one division to the Italian Front in 1943.

After the war had ended, tens of thousands of Jews left Europe for Syria, and Palestine in particular. Due to this mass immigration, inter-communal violence exploded, brought on mainly by Arab attacks and Jewish reprisals of equally brutal measure. Government forces attempted to quell the fighting, but it was unabating for several more years. Abd al-llah attempted to keep control through increasingly authoritarian methods, and the elected officials were becoming ever more angry, especially as they began to be sidelined even more. Due to this pressure, Abd al-llah gave up control to the King's cousin Prince Mohammad. The King finally abdicated on 17 December 1951. This marked the beginning of the new democratic republic, as elected officials and politcal activists from across the country came to Damascus to draft a new, more liberal constitution.

Early federation and Cold War (1951 - 1987)

Following the creation of a new constitution, the Levantine Federation had its first elections on 27 February 1952, won narrowly by al-Atassi. The new government made it a top priority to slow, and eventually stop, violence in Palestine. To do this, they decided to create a Jewish and Arab canton in the region, while people of either ethnicity would still be able to live in either canton. They also created new security forces, and gave more funding to local police. Over the next decade, violence would decrease massively, and civil war was narrowly avoided.

1952 in Egypt saw the rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser, an Arab nationalist who would go on to become one of, if not the most popular and influential politicians of the Arab world. His rise to power marked the beginning of the Arab Cold War, a time of tension between monarchies such as Saudi Arabia and Morocco, and Arab nationalist regimes like Egypt and later Libya. Syria was largely neutral in the conflics that took place during this time, though they tended to side politically with the monarchies due to their mutual relationship with the United States.

Aleppo in 1961

The worst effect of the Cold War in Syria, was internal. Political tensions rose massively between Arab nationalists and liberals, and later Islamists. Many Arabs, mainly poorer urban ones, supported Nasser, while Bedouins were largely Islamist. Minorities, especially Jews and Kurds, almost always sided with liberals, along with most upper and middle-class Arabs. The response from the largely liberal govenments of this time was to expand the welfare state to bring more people out of poverty and, the hope was, make them less socialist. While there were many outbursts of political violence, such as in 1963, the democratic system held strong during this troublesome time.

During the late 1960s, and continuing to the present, Syria became a major hotspot for tourism. Its many beaches, historical buildings, and religous significance made it a top destination for all sorts of people from all over the world. While never a member of NATO, Syria maintained a close and friendly relationship with the United States and Western World in general. The Syrian arms industry became a major producer of weapons for many NATO and US-friendly Middle Eastern countries. The 1970s represent a very stable time in the federation's history. The war in North Yemen ended in 1969, with Nasser dying the next year, and there was relative calm in the Middle East for another decade. Arab nationalist sentiment began to decrease after this point, already weakened by the chaos it had brought to Iraq. The government took this time to invest more in the civilian economy and began sponsering a new program to give housing to the homeless. This helped reduce political tensions further.

However, a new force would begin its rise in 1979, with the Iranian Revolution and replacal of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with Ruhollah Khomenei's Islamists. The creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran marked a turning point in Middle Eastern politics, shifting the revolutionary spirit away from Arab nationalism and giving new life to the ideas of political Islam. During the 1980s, many Bedouins, Palestinian Arabs, and rural Arabs across Syria began flocking to these ideals. Though they never won more than a third of seats in parliament, their acceptance of violence by many in the movement caused fear among the government and people alike. They started to sharply decrease in popularity after the 1986 Damascus car bomb attack, and the response of the Islamic Dawa Party - Syria that led many to believe they endorsed it, though they deny such accusations to this day. Much of their original popularity came from the People's Party's neoliberal stance after the 1977 elections. In 1987, they were defeated by the more left-wing Syrian Democratic People's Party.

Post Cold War challenges (1987 - present)

Iraqi T-72 destroyed outside Rutba by Syrian tank, 1991

In 1990, Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded and conquered Kuwait, beginning the Gulf War. Syria immediately condemned the invasion, and during the war launched airstrikes and raids into Iraq. As the war developed in the Coalition's favor, Syria expanded the attacks and took the cities of Qa'im, Rutba, Haditha, and Sinjar; they were also in range of Mosul and Ramadi by the war's end. After the war, Syria left all Iraqi territory. During the 1991 uprisings, nearly 200,000 Kurds fled to Syria, where they recieved refuge and assistance. Syria also participated in Operation Provide Comfort, airdroping supplies and helping to enforce the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, and later participating in Operation Northern Watch.

Despite the conflict with Iraq, internally, Syria was largely peaceful after the end of the Gulf War. Helped along by the global economy, Syria experienced an economic boom in this time, from the early 1990s to 2007. More infrastructure was built, and the government spent more money subsidizing the IT sector.

In 2001, the United States suffered an unprecedented terrorist attack on its soil. Following this attack the US demanded countries around the world to choose between supporting them, or being considered allies of terrorism. Syria, always being a close partner to America, publically sided with them. They supported the invasion and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, though they never sent soldiers. In 2003, the US invaded and occupied Iraq. Syria, like France and many other countries, didn't support the invasion, although they would go on to help with logistics as the war intensified.

Beginning in 2007, and finally being completed in 2011, the United States withdrew from Iraq, hoping the government could keep the situation stable. This withdraw occured around the time the Arab Spring began, which saw protests across the Arab world, and in Muslim countries in general. Syria remained mostly stable during this period, as the people had little complaints. Iraq, on the other hand, further decended into chaos as protests gripped the country. This culminated in December 2013, when the newly formed Islamic State launched a rebellion against the Iraqi government. They were quickly joined by disgruntled Arab tribesmen and Saddam Hussein loyalists, and their numbers grew massively in the first few months of the rebellion.

Fighting outside Palmyra, May 2015

Almost from the beginning of the conflict, IS launched raids and terrorist attacks into Syria. In July 2014, after having taken control over much of western Iraq, they invaded Syria. The Islamists were quickly pushed back, and in just a few weeks, Syrian forces had entered Iraq. Despite this, it would take many more years to fully end the insurgency in the desert. In early 2015 the Islamic State began to be pushed back by Iraqi government forces, the Syrian military, and a multi-national coalition. They lost most of their holdings in the Middle East by December of that year, shifting their focus mainly to Somalia, Libya, and West Africa in general.

During the war and in the following years, Syria experienced numerous terrorist attacks carried out mainly by the Islamic State. Some of these include the 2015 Jerusalem bus attacks, and the 2016 bombings in Damascus and across the north of Syria. The Syrian Security Forces have in the past prevented and stopped many terrorist attacks, and their military fully put down the IS insurgency in 2018.

Despite the many challenges the state has been forced to undure, the Levantine Federation remains a stable and prosperous democracy in the heart of an unstable and autocratic region. The nation is considered one of the greatest post-colonial successes for its many achiements in science, art, and statecraft.

Geography

Syria is a Middle Eastern country, lying at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean. The country is bounded in the north by Turkey, to the east by Iraq, to the southeast by Saudi Arabia, and to the south and southwest by the Red Sea and Egypt. Syria lies between latitudes 29° and 38° N, and longitudes 34° and 43° E. The climate varies from the humid Mediterranean coast, through a semiarid steppe zone, to arid desert in the east. Important agricutural areas include the Jazira region in the northeast, Hawran south of Damascus to the region of Transjordan, most of northern Palestine, western parts of Transjordan along the Jordan River Valley, and some parts of the Lebanon. The Eurphrates cuts through the country in the northeast, while the Jordan River flows through Syria in the south, into the Dead Sea. The country is an important part of the Fertile Crescent. Its land stradles the northwestern part of the Arabian Plate.

The country first struck petroleum in 1956; since then numerous oil deposits have been found. Oil is mostly concentrated around al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor in the north (natural extentions of the Iraqi oil fields around Mosul and Kirkuk), and in the south, in the Negev and the southwestern deserts of Transjordan. Natural gas has been discovered off the coast, and inland sites such as the field of Jbessa, discovered in 1940.

Panoramic view of Ayn al-Bayda, Latakia, a village in northwestern Syria

Biodiversity

Syria contains five terrestrial ecoregions: Syrian xeric grasslands and shrublands, Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests, Southern Anatolian montane conifer and deciduous forests, Mesopotamian shrub desert, and the Arabian Desert. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 3.76, ranking it 141st globally out of 172 countries.

Climate

Temperatures in Syria vary widely, especially during the winter. Coastal areas, such as those of Tel Aviv and Beirut, have a typical Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and long, hot summers. The northern Negev and more inland regions have a semi-arid climate with hot summers, cool winters, and fewer rainy days than the Mediterranean climate. The outlying desert areas have a desert climate with very hot, dry summers, and mild winters with few days of rain. The highest temperature in the world outside Africa and North America as of 2021, 54 °C (129 °F), was recorded in 1942 in the Tirat Zvi kibbutz in the northern Jordan River valley.

The projections of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report show clearly the impacts of climate change on Syria even at 2 degrees of warming.

At the other extreme, mountainous regions can be windy and cold, and areas at elevation of 750 metres (2,460 ft) or more (same elevation as Jerusalem) will usually receive at least one snowfall each year. From May to September, rain in Syria is rare. With scarce water resources in many regions, Syria has developed various water-saving technologies, including drip irrigation. Syrians also take advantage of the considerable sunlight available for solar energy, making Syria a leading nation in solar energy use per capita—many houses across the country use solar panels for water heating.

The Syrian Ministry of Environmental Protection has reported that climate change "will have a decisive impact on all areas of life, including: water, public health, agriculture, energy, biodiversity, coastal infrastructure, economics, nature, national security, and geostrategy", and will have the greatest effect on vulnerable populations such as the poor, the elderly, and the chronically ill.

Government and politics

The Levantine Federation is a federal democratic republic with a unicameral legislature. The country has a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. A member of parliament supported by a parliamentary majority becomes the prime minister—usually this is the chair of the largest party. The prime minister is the head of government and head of the cabinet.

President
Riyad al-Maliki

Prime Minister
George Sabra

The Syrian Parliament is composed of 200 MPs elected via proportional representation, with a 3% threshold. The country has a few main parties, meaning that coalitions are usually required. Elections are schedualed for every 5 years, though they can happen sooner if the ruling coalition collapses or a vote of no confidence passes.

The President of Syria is head of state, with largely ceremonial duties.

The constitution created in 1952 ensures that no one ethnic or religious group can have total control, and grants equal rights and protection under the law to all citizens. Muslim Arabs make up a large majority of the population, and so have a major role in the country's politics however. This has led minorities, especially the Jews and Kurds, to seek greater autonomy and for some, outright independence.

Legal System

Syria has a four-tier court system. At the lowest level are magistrate courts, situated in most cities across the country. Above them are district courts, serving as both appellate courts and courts of first instance; they are situated in Syrian districts. Above district courts are cantonal courts, with one situated in each canton. The third and final tier is the Supreme Court in Damascus; it serves a dual role as the highest court of appeals and the High Court of Justice. In the latter role, the Supreme Court rules as a court of first instance, allowing individuals, both citizens and non-citizens, to petition against the decisions of state authorities.

Syrian law is based mostly on English common law and French civil code, with elements of Sharia law. It is based on the principle of stare decisis (precedent) and is an adversarial system, where the parties in the suit bring evidence before the court. Court cases are decided by professional judges with no role for juries.

Administrative divisions

Syria is split into 11 cantons: Rojava, Aleppo, Latakia, Homs, Damascus, Druzia, Lebanon, Jewish Palestine, Arab Palestine, Jerusalem, and Transjordan. Two of these, Jerusalem and Damascus, are cities with enough signifigance to warant their own cantons.

Canton	Capital	Largest City	Population, 2022
Arab P.	Nablus	Gaza	9,679,454
Aleppo	Aleppo	Aleppo	4,282,674
Damascus	Damascus	Damascus	2,832,154
Druzia	as-Suwayda	as-Suwayda	1,573,565
Homs	Homs	Homs	4,274,163
Jerusalem	Jerusalem	Jerusalem	2,253,577
Jewish P.	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	7,537,294
Latakia	Latakia	Latakia	2,973,239
Lebanon	Beirut	Beirut	6,296,814
Rojava	al-Hasakah	al-Hasakah	1,274,285
Transjordan	Amman	Amman	9,531,712

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign Relations of Syria

Syria has been a close ally of the United States and Western World since the start of the Cold War, and has enjoyed very close relations with the US and with EU member states. Dispite their conflict during the Turkish War of Independence, Turkey and Syria have since kept a friendly relationship with one another; Recep Tayyip Edoğan's leadership has at times challenged this friendship, however.

Much of the country's foreign focus has been the creation of a wide bulwark against Iran. To do this, Syria has formed strong relations with the Gulf monarchies and Egypt. Iran, for its part, has sponsered numerous terrorist groups across the region, most notably with the Houthis in Yemen. Syria has friendships with Morocco, Tunisia, and Armenia as well; in part due to anti-Iran unity, but also because of the close relationships the people of these nations have with one another.

Syria is a founding member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and of the Arab League. It enjoys "advanced status" with the European Union and is part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which aims to increase links between the EU and its neighbours.

Military

Main article: Leventine Armed Forces

Arab Revolt calvary - tribes of Arabia and Transjordan, 1918

The Levantine army grew out of the Arab rebels who defeated the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It was first organized in 1920 into the Royal Syrian Army. During the reforms of the 1920s and '30s, the Royal Syrian Navy was developed and made into a real fighting force. The air force was created around the same time, and during World War II bought a large number of Spitfires from the British. After the abdication of King Faisal, the military arms took on their present names: the Levantine Army, Levantine Navy, and Levantine Air Force.

The forces, especially the army, have long been lauded for their professionalism and displine; a rare sight in Middle Eastern militaries. The military enjoys strong support and aid from the United States, United Kingdom, and France. This is in large part due to Syria's critical position in the Middle East. The development of Special Operations Forces has been particularly significant, enhancing the capability of the military to react rapidly to threats to homeland security, as well as training special forces from the region and beyond. Syria provides extensive training to the security forces of several Arab countries. The army currently has around 380,000 personnel.

Levantine army's current (2017) armored fighting vehicles, clockwise: Fahd, Caterpillar D9, M270 MLRS and Arlaba Mk 4

The country's military-industrial complex is also very developed, as the country has been near constantly threatened by outside powers since the Cold War. Syria has created a number of high-quality armored vehicles in the past such as the Arlaba, Samid, and Fahd. They also produce small-arms designs like the Tavor Bullpup Assault Rifle.

There are about 52,000 Levantine troops working with the United Nations in peacekeeping missions across the world. Syria ranks third internationally in participation in U.N. peacekeeping missions, with one of the highest levels of peacekeeping troop contributions of all U.N. member states. The nation has dispatched several field hospitals to conflict zones and areas affected by natural disasters across the region. Since 2014, Syria has been directly involved in the War on Terror, though its role has diminished since 2018.

Law enforcement

Main article: Law enforcement in Syria, Leventine police

Amman municipal police automobile

Syria's law enforcement is under the control of the Levantine Ministry of Public Safety, and by extension, the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There are numerous police departments across the country, including municipal police departments, district offices, cantonal police, and federal law enforcement.

The number of female police officers is rising, being the first Middle Eastern country to allow them in the 1970s. Syria's law enforcement is ranked 29th globally and 1st in the Middle East, in terms of police services' performance, by the 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index.

Economy

Expressway M5 near al-Rastan, between Homs and Hama

Syria is considered the most advanced country in the Middle East in economic and industrial development. In 2023, the IMF estimated the country's wealth to be at 1.715 trillion dollars; their GDP per capita is $57,714 (ranking 28th worldwide), a figure comparable to other highly developed and rich countries. Syria has the highest average wealth per adult in the Middle East. The Economist ranked Syria as the 4th most successful economy among the developed countries for 2022. It has the highest number of billionaires in the Middle East, and the 18th highest number in the world. In recent years Syria had one of the highest growth rate in the developed world along with Ireland. Syria's quality university education and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for spurring the country's high technology boom and rapid economic development. In 2010, it joined the OECD. The country is ranked 20th in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report and 35th on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index. Syria was also ranked fifth in the world by share of people in high-skilled employment.

The Diamond Exchange District in Ramat Gan, just east of Tel Aviv-Jaffa

An abundance of natural resources and intensive development of Syrian agricultural and industrial sectors have mad ethe country largly self-sufficient. Imports to Syria, totaling $86.5 billion in 2020, include raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, and consumer goods. Leading exports include machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, fuels, and textiles and apparel. The Bank of Syria holds $201 billion of foreign-exchange reserves, the 17th highest in the world. Since the 1980s, Syria has received military aid from the United States, as well as economic aid in the form of loan guarantees, which now account for nearly a fifth of the country's external debt. Syria has one of the lowest external debts in the developed world, and is a lender in terms of net external debt (assets vs. liabilities abroad), which in 2015 stood at a surplus of $69 billion.

Syria has the second-largest number of startup companies in the world after the United States, and the third-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies after the U.S. and China. It is the world leader for number of start-ups per capita. Syria has been dubbed the "Start-Up Nation". Intel and Microsoft built their first overseas research and development facilities in Syria, and other high-tech multi-national corporations, such as IBM, Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Facebook and Motorola have opened research and development centres in the country. In 2007, American investor Warren Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway bought the Syrian company Iscar for $4 billion, its first acquisition outside the United States.

The days which are allocated to working times in Syria are Monday - Friday (for a five-day workweek), or Monday - Saturday (for a six-day workweek). In observance of Shabbat, in places where Friday is a work day and the majority of population is Jewish, Friday is a "short day", usually lasting until 14:00 in the winter, or 16:00 in the summer.

Science and technology

Matam high-tech park in Haifa

Syria's development of cutting-edge technologies in software, communications and the life sciences, particularly in Jewish Palestine, have evoked comparisons with Silicon Valley. Syria is third in the world in expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP. It is ranked 14th in the Global Innovation Index in 2023, down from tenth in 2019 and fifth in the 2019 Bloomberg Innovation Index. Syria has produced four Nobel Prize-winning scientists since 2004 and has been frequently ranked as one of the countries with the highest ratios of scientific papers per capita in the world. Syrian universities are ranked among the top 50 world universities in computer science (Tel Aviv University), mathematics (Damascus University) and chemistry (Weizmann Institute of Science).

The ongoing shortage of water in the country has spurred innovation in water conservation techniques, and a substantial agricultural modernization, drip irrigation, was invented in Syria. Syria is also at the technological forefront of desalination and water recycling. The Sorek desalination plant is the largest seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination facility in the world. By 2014, Syria's desalination programmes provided roughly 35% of the country's drinking water and it is expected to supply 40% by 2015 and 70% by 2050. As of 2015, more than 50 percent of the water for Syrian households, agriculture and industry is artificially produced. The country hosts an annual Water Technology and Environmental Control Exhibition & Conference (WATEC) that attracts thousands of people from across the world. In 2011, Syria's water technology industry was worth around $2 billion a year with annual exports of products and services in the tens of millions of dollars. As a result of innovations in reverse osmosis technology, the federation is set to become a net exporter of water in the coming years.

In 2012, Syria was ranked ninth in the world by the Futron's Space Competitiveness Index. The Levantine Space Agency coordinates all Syrian space research programmes with scientific and commercial goals, and have indigenously designed and built at least 13 commercial, research and spy satellites. Some of Syria's satellites are ranked among the world's most advanced space systems. Shavit is a space launch vehicle produced by Syria to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit. It was first launched in 1988, making Syria the eighth nation to have a space launch capability. In 2003, Ilan Ramon became Syria's first astronaut, serving as payload specialist of STS-107, the fatal mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Solar dish at Negev National Solar Energy Center in southern Syria

Syria has embraced solar energy; its engineers are on the cutting edge of solar energy technology and its solar companies work on projects around the world. Over 70% of Syrian homes use solar energy for hot water, among the highest per capita in the world. According to government figures, the country saves 6% of its electricity consumption per year because of its solar energy use in heating. The high annual incident solar irradiance at its geographic latitude creates ideal conditions for what is an internationally renowned solar research and development industry in the Negev Desert.

Energy

Oil refinery in Homs, 2010

Syria has historically been very oil-dependent since before independence. The oil fields in the eastern and northeastern deserts have historically been able to supply the country with much of its needs. However, with the increasingly pressing issue of non-renewablity, the country has successfully diversified its energy sources over the past few decades. Since the 1960s, the country has saught to create nuclear power, working with French scientists in order to do so. From the 1990s, Syria has invested heavily into solar power stations in the Negev and the deserts of Transjordan. In 2009, a natural gas reserve, Tamar, was found off the coast of Palestine. A second natural gas reserve, Leviathan, was discovered in 2010. In 2013, Syria began commercial production of natural gas from the Tamar field. As of 2014, Syria produced over 7.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas a year. Syria had 199 billion cubic meters (bcm) of proven reserves of natural gas as of the start of 2016. The Leviathan gas field started production in 2019.

Ketura Sun is Syria's first commercial solar field. Built in early 2011 by the Arava Power Company on Kibbutz Ketura, Ketura Sun covers twenty acres and is expected to produce green energy amounting to 4.95 megawatts (MW). The field consists of 18,500 photovoltaic panels made by Suntech, which will produce about 9 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year. In the next twenty years, the field will spare the production of some 125,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The field was inaugurated on 15 June 2011. On 22 May 2012 Arava Power Company announced that it had reached financial close on an additional 58.5 MW for 8 projects to be built in the Arava and the Negev valued at 780 million Dinars or approximately $204 million.

Transportation

Port of Beirut, 2003

Syria is a well-developed country with a modern transport system. The road system is 97,403 kilometres long. The number of motor vehicles per 1,000 persons is 365, relatively low with respect to developed countries. Syria has 17,715 buses on scheduled routes, operated by several carriers. The railways are also very well developed, with over 18,000 kilomteres built, and over 200 milion passengers per year.

Syria is served by 13 international airports: Wurtzburg, Ramon, and Haifa in Jewish Palestine, Jerusalem, Nablus in Arab Palestine, Beirut in Lebanon, Aqaba, Amman Civil, and Hussein bin Ali in Transjordan, Al-Atassi in Damascus, Aleppo, Ghazi ibn Faisal in Latakia, and Kamishly in Rojava. The country has 8 main ports: Latakia, Tartous, Tripoli, Beirut, Haifa, Ashdod, Gaza, and Aqaba.

Tourism

Tourism, especially religious tourism, is an important industry in Syria. The country's temperate climate, beaches, archaeological, other historical and biblical sites, and unique geography draw many tourists. Syria's security problems have taken their toll on the industry, but the number of incoming tourists is on the rebound. In 2019, more than 20 million tourists visited the country, making it the most visited country in the Middle East and one of the most in the world. Tourism has generated around 30 billion Dinars for the Syrian economy.

Demographics

Historical populations

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1962	14,565,000	—
1972	22,305,000	+4.35%
1982	29,467,000	+2.82%
1992	37,782,000	+2.52%
2002	41,921,000	+1.04%
2012	47,734,987	+1.31%
2022	52,781,931	+1.01%
2022 census Source: Federal Bureau of Statistics of the Levantine Federation, 2022

The 2019 census showed a population of 52,781,931 (female: 49%; male: 51%). There were 10,996,236 households in Syria in 2019, with an average of 4.8 persons per household (compared to 6.7 persons per household for the census of 1979). The capital of Syria is Damascus, considered by many to be the oldest capital in the world, and has a population of 2,193,000. The largest city, Amman, has a population of 4,237,000.

Arabs make up 74.6% of the population, followed by Jews at 10.7%, Kurds at 4.6%, and Turks and Turkmen at 2.3%. The remaining 7.8% include Assyrians, Circassians, and various other groups. About 91% of Syrians live in urban areas.

Major urban areas

Syria has a number of major metropolitan areas, including the Tel Aviv-Jaffa metropolitan area (Gush Dan region; population 4,900,000), Damascus canton (2,603,000), Aleppo metropolitan area (population 2,198,210), and Jerusalem Canton (Greater Jerusalem; population 1,853,900).

Syria's largest municipality by population is Amman at 4,237,000, while the largest by area is Jerusalem at 125 square kilometres (48 sq mi). Beirut and Damascus rank as Syria's next largest cities, with populations of 2,567,000 and 2,193,000 respectively. The (mainly Haredi) city of Bnei Brak is the most densely populated city in the country and one of the 10 most densely populated cities in the world. Syria has 12 cities with populations over 500,000 people.

Largest cities or towns in Syria According to the 2022 Census
	Rank	Name	Canton	Pop.
Tel Aviv-Jaffa Amman	1	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Jewish Palestine	4,900,000	Beirut Damascus
	2	Amman	Transjordan	4,542,000
	3	Beirut	Lebanon	2,800,000
	4	Damascus	Damascus	2,603,000
	5	Aleppo	Aleppo	2,198,210
	6	Irbid	Transjordan	2,050,300
	7	Jerusalem	Jerusalem	1,853,900
	8	Haifa	Jewish Palestine	1,203,000
	9	Zarqa	Transjordan	929,300
	10	Homs	Homs	875,404

Religion

Islam is the predominant faith in Syria, making up 65.7% of the total population. Sunni Muslims make up 57.1%, while Shias make up the other 8.6%. The second largest faith is Christianity, followed by Judaism and Nusayrite. Irreligion is a major force as well, making up 7.9% of the Levantine population.

Syria, being the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, has the oldest-known communities of these two groups in the world. Christians today make up 15.3% of the populous, while practicing Jews make up 4.6%. Christians and Jews are exceptionally well integrated in Syrian society and enjoy a high level of freedom. Christians traditionally occupy at least two cabinet posts, while Jews tend to get at least one. The current Prime Minister, George Sabra, is a Christian Arab. Jews are also very influential in the media, especially cinema.

Irreligion has become more popular among young Syrians, especially Jews and urban Arabs.

Smaller religious minorities include Druze, Baháʼís and Mandaeans. It is estimated that 1,400 Mandaeans live in Amman, and 800 in Deir ez-Zour; they came from Iraq after the 2003 invasion fleeing persecution.

The Umayyad Mosque - The Dome of the Eagle (Qubbat Al-Nisr), Damascus

Our Lady of Saidnaya Monastery, Homs Canton

Faith	Population	Percent
Sunni Muslim	30,117,033	57.1%
Shia Muslim	4,523,941	8.6%
Total Muslim	34,640,974	65.7%
Christian	8,067,878	15.3%
Jewish	2,433,899	4.6%
Nusayrite	1,973,239	3.7%
Druze	1,267,472	2.4%
No religion	4,188,464	7.9%
Other	210,000	0.4%

Languages

The Levantine Federation has three official languages: Modern Standard Arabic, Hebrew, and Kurmanji Kurdish. Arabic is usually considered the lingua franca, although some have called for English to be used instead. Locally recognized languages include Turkish and Aramaic. English is currently considered a co-official language in the education system, as well as sometimes being used in banking in commerce. Almost all schools from primary up to university level teach English and French alongside Arabic and, depending on canton and sometimes district, the local language.

In Jewish Palestine, many languages can be heard on the streets. Due to mass immigration from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia (some 132,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Palestine), Russian and Amharic are widely spoken. More than one million Russian-speaking immigrants arrived in Palestine from the post-Soviet states between 1990 and 2004. French is spoken by around 700,000 Jews, mostly originating from France and North Africa (see Maghrebi Jews).

Health and Education

Life expectancy in Syria was around 76.8 years in 2017. The leading cause of death is cardiovascular diseases, followed by cancer. Childhood immunization rates have increased steadily over the past 15 years; by 2002 immunisations and vaccines reached more than 95% of children under five. In 1950, water and sanitation was available to only 28% of the population; in 2015, it reached 98% of Syrians.

Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv-Jaffa

Syria prides itself on its health services, some of the best in the region. Qualified medics, a favourable investment climate and Syria's stability has contributed to the success of this sector. The country's health care system is divided between public and private institutions. On 1 June 2007, Damascus Hospital (as the biggest private hospital) was the first general specialty hospital to gain the international accreditation JCAHO. The King Faisal Cancer Center in Amman is a leading cancer treatment centre. 86% of Syrians have medical insurance.

The Levantine educational system comprises 2 years of pre-school education, 10 years of compulsory basic education, and two years of secondary academic or vocational education, after which the students sit for the General Certificate of Secondary Education Exam (Tawjihi or Bagrut exams). Scholars may attend either private or public schools. According to the UNESCO, the literacy rate in 2015 was 98.41% and is considered to be the highest in the Middle East and the Arab world, and one of the highest in the world. UNESCO ranked Syria's educational system 18th out of 94 nations for providing gender equality in education. The country has the highest number of researchers in research and development per million people among all the 57 countries that are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In Syria, there are 8,060 researchers per million people, while the world average is 2,532 per million. Primary education is free in Syria.

Maariv described the Christian Arab sectors as "the most successful in the education system", since Christians fared the best in terms of education in comparison to any other religion in Syria.

Culture

Syria is a land rich with many cultures and ethnicities. The largest religious group in Syria are Muslims and the largest ethnic group are Arabs. Syrians predominantly speak Levantine Arabic, a dialect of Arabic descended from a mix of local pre-Islamic Arabic dialects and Hejazi Arabic. These derive their ancestry from the many ancient Semitic-speaking peoples who inhabited the ancient Near East during the Bronze and Iron ages. Other Arabs include Bedouin Arabs who inhabit the Syrian Desert and Naqab, and speak a dialect known as Bedouin Arabic that originated in Arabian Peninsula. Other minor ethnic groups in the Levant include Jews, Circassians, Chechens, Turks, Turkmens, Assyrians, Kurds, Nawars and Armenians.

Ethnicities

Dabke combines circle dance and line dancing and is widely performed at weddings and other joyous occasions.

In the majority Arab regions, importance is placed on family, religion, education, self-discipline and respect. Their taste for the traditional arts is expressed in dances such as the al-Samah, the Dabkeh in all their variations, and the sword dance. Marriage ceremonies and the births of children are occasions for the lively demonstration of folk customs.

In Jewish Palestine, the local culture is shaped by the many cultures early settlers left behind. Jews from diaspora communities around the world brought their cultural and religious traditions back with them, creating a melting pot of Jewish customs and beliefs. Arab influences are still present in many cultural spheres, such as architecture, music, and cuisine.

Kurdish culture, seen mainly in Rojava, is a legacy from the various ancient peoples who shaped modern Kurds and their society. As most other Middle Eastern populations, a high degree of mutual influences between the Kurds and their neighbouring peoples are apparent. Therefore, in Kurdish culture elements of various other cultures are to be seen. However, on the whole, Kurdish culture is closest to that of other Iranian peoples, in particular those who historically had the closest geographical proximity to the Kurds, such as the Persians and Lurs. Kurds, for instance, also celebrate Newroz (21 March) as New Year's Day.

Assyrian culture is largely influenced by Christianity. There are many Assyrian customs that are common in other Middle Eastern cultures. Main festivals occur during religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas. There are also secular holidays such as Kha b-Nisan (vernal equinox).

Literature

The literature of Syria has contributed to Arabic literature and has a proud tradition of oral and written poetry. Syrian-Arab writers, many of whom migrated to Egypt, played a crucial role in the nahda or Arab literary and cultural revival of the 19th century. Prominent contemporary Syrian-Arab writers include, among others, Adonis, Muhammad Maghout, Haidar Haidar, Ghada al-Samman, Nizar Qabbani and Zakariyya Tamer.

In literature, Kahlil Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi. He is particularly known for his book The Prophet (1923), which has been translated into over twenty different languages. Ameen Rihani was a major figure in the mahjar literary movement developed by Arab emigrants in North America, and an early theorist of Arab nationalism. Mikhail Naimy is widely recognized as among the most important figures in modern Arabic letters and among the most important spiritual writers of the 20th century.

Jewish literature is primarily poetry and prose written in Hebrew, as part of the renaissance of Hebrew as a spoken language since the mid-19th century, although a small body of literature is published in other languages, such as English. In 1966, Shmuel Yosef Agnon shared the Nobel Prize in Literature with German Jewish author Nelly Sachs. Leading Syrian-Jewish poets have been Yehuda Amichai, Nathan Alterman, Leah Goldberg, and Rachel Bluwstein. Internationally famous contemporary Syrian-Jewish novelists include Amos Oz, Etgar Keret and David Grossman. The Arab satirist Sayed Kashua (who writes in Hebrew and Arabic) is also internationally known. Jewish Palestine was also the home of Emile Habibi, whose novel The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist, and other writings, won him a prize for Arabic literature.

Music

The Syrian-Arab music scene, in particular that of Damascus, has long been among the Arab world's most important, especially in the field of classical Arab music. Syria has produced several pan-Arab stars, including Asmahan, Farid al-Atrash and singer Lena Chamamyan. The city of Aleppo is known for its muwashshah, a form of Andalous sung poetry popularized by Sabri Moudallal, as well as for popular stars like Sabah Fakhri.

Jaffa Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta

While traditional folk music remains popular in Lebanon, especially Beirut, modern music reconciling Western and traditional Arabic styles, pop, and fusion are rapidly advancing in popularity. Lebanese artists like Fairuz, Majida El Roumi, Wadih El Safi, Sabah, Julia Boutros or Najwa Karam are widely known and appreciated in Lebanon and in the Arab world. Radio stations feature a variety of music, including traditional Lebanese, classical Arabic, Armenian and modern French, English, American, and Latin tunes.

Jewish music contains musical influences from all over the world; Mizrahi and Sephardic music, Hasidic melodies, Greek music, jazz, and pop rock are all part of the music scene. Among Syria's world-renowned orchestras is the Tel Aviv Philharmonic Orchestra, which has been in operation for over seventy years and today performs more than two hundred concerts each year. Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Ofra Haza are among the internationally acclaimed musicians born in Jewish Palestine. Eilat has hosted its own international music festival, the Red Sea Jazz Festival, every summer since 1987. The canton's folk songs, known as "Songs of the Land of Israel", deal with the experiences of the pioneers in building the Jewish homeland.

Traditionally, there are three types of Kurdish classical performers: storytellers (çîrokbêj), minstrels (stranbêj), and bards (dengbêj). No specific music was associated with the Kurdish princely courts. Instead, music performed in night gatherings (şevbihêrk) is considered classical. Several musical forms are found in this genre. Many songs are epic in nature, such as the popular Lawiks, heroic ballads recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes such as Saladin. Heyrans are love ballads usually expressing the melancholy of separation and unfulfilled love. One of the first Kurdish female singers to sing heyrans is Chopy Fatah, while Lawje is a form of religious music and Payizoks are songs performed during the autumn. Love songs, dance music, wedding and other celebratory songs (dîlok/narînk), erotic poetry, and work songs are also popular.

Assyrian music is a combination of traditional folk music and western contemporary music genres, namely pop and soft rock, but also electronic dance music. Instruments traditionally used by Assyrians include the zurna and davula, but has expanded to include guitars, pianos, violins, synthesizers (keyboards and electronic drums), and other instruments.

Media and theater

Television was introduced to Syria in 1960. It broadcast in black and white until 1976. Syrian soap operas have considerable market penetration throughout the eastern Arab world.

Ten Syrian-Jewish films have been final nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards since the establishment of Levantine Federation. The 2009 movie Ajami was the fourth consecutive nomination of an Syrian film. The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian, Roy Armes, was the only cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, besides the dominant Egyptian cinema, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced over 500 films with many films including Egyptian filmmakers and film stars. The media of Lebanon is not only a regional center of production but also the most liberal in the Arab world. Despite its small population and geographic size, the Lebanon plays an influential role in the production of information in the Arab world and is "at the core of a regional media network with global implications".

The arts

Although Syria's role in the world art scene has been relatively minor, the federation has several unique artistic traditions. Syrian-Jewish art, which is particularly impactful in the country, has been particularly influenced by the Kabbalah, the Talmud and the Zohar. Another art movement that held a prominent role in the 20th century was the School of Paris. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Yishuv's art was dominated by art trends emanating Bezalel. Beginning in the 1920s, the local art scene was heavily influenced by modern French art, first introduced by Isaac Frenkel. Jewish masters of the school of Paris (École de Paris), such as Soutine, Kikoine, Frenkel, Chagall heavily influenced the subsequent development of Syrian art.

Common themes in Syrian art are the mystical cities of Safed and Jerusalem, the bohemian café cultures of Tel Aviv and Beirut, agricultural landscapes, quranic/biblical stories and war. Today Syrian art has delved into Optical art, AI art, digital art and the use of salt in sculpture.

Architecture

Architecture in Syria is unique in the scope and diversity of architectural movements and fruitions of utopian plans in the 20th century. Due to the multicultural nature of the country, increased by Jewish immigration, architecture has come to reflect many different styles. In the early 20th century Jewish architects sought to combine Occidental and Oriental architecture producing buildings that showcase a myriad of infused styles. The eclectic style gave way to the modernist Bauhaus style with the influx of German-Jewish architects (among them Erich Mendelsohn) fleeing Nazi persecution. The White City of Tel Aviv-Jaffa is a UNESCO heritage site thanks to its white international style buildings. Following the creation of a separate canton, multiple local projects were commissioned, a grand part built in a brutalist style with heavy emphasis on the use of concrete and the acclimatization to the Palestine's desert climate. Today Syrian architecture continues to reflect world trends in architecture as well as the different backgrounds and heritage of its architects.

Cuisine

A spread of classic Syrian meze dishes, including, from top, clockwise: hummus, fried haloumi, baba ganouj, makdous and salad

Syrian cuisine is rich and varied in its ingredients, linked to the regions of Syria where a specific dish has originated. The cuisine has similarities with Egyptian cuisine, North African cuisine and Ottoman cuisine. It is particularly known for its meze spreads of hot and cold dishes, most notably among them ful medames, hummus, tabbouleh and baba ghanoush, accompanied by bread. Syrian food mostly consists of Southern Mediterranean, Greek, and Southwest Asian dishes. Some Syrian dishes also evolved from Turkish and French cooking: dishes like shish kebab, stuffed zucchini/courgette, and yabraʾ (stuffed grape leaves, the word yabraʾ deriving from the Turkish word yaprak, meaning leaf).

The main dishes that form Syrian cuisine are kibbeh, hummus, tabbouleh, fattoush, labneh, shawarma, mujaddara, shanklish, pastırma, sujuk and baklava. Baklava is made of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and soaked in honey. Syrians often serve selections of appetizers, known as meze, before the main course. Za'atar, minced beef, and cheese manakish are popular hors d'œuvres. The Arabic flatbread khubz is always eaten together with meze.

Drinks in Syria vary, depending on the time of day and the occasion. Arabic coffee is the most well-known hot drink, usually prepared in the morning at breakfast or in the evening. It is usually served for guests or after food. Arak, an alcoholic drink, is a well-known beverage, served mostly on special occasions. Other Syrian beverages include ayran, jallab, white coffee, and a locally manufactured beer called Al Shark.

Syrian cuisine also includes Jewish cuisine brought to the country by immigrants from the diaspora. Since the late 1970s, a Syrian fusion cuisine has developed. It incorporates many foods traditionally eaten in the Levantine, Arab, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines, such as falafel, hummus, shakshouka, couscous, and za'atar. Schnitzel, pizza, hamburgers, French fries, rice and salad are also common in Syria.

Sports

The most popular spectator sports in Syria are association football and basketball. The Levantine Premier League is the country's premier football league, and the Levantine Basketball Premier League is the premier basketball league. Syria has competed in the UEFA Champions League and reached the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. Syria hosted and won the 1964 AFC Asian Cup; in 1970 the Levantine national football team qualified for the FIFA World Cup, the only time it participated in the World Cup. The national football team came within a play-off of reaching the 2014 World Cup in Brazil when they lost a two-legged play-off against Uruguay. They previously reached the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup in 2004 and 2011.

Syria has won nine Olympic medals since its first win in 1992, including a gold medal in windsurfing at the 2004 Summer Olympics. The federation has won over 100 gold medals in the Paralympic Games and is ranked 20th in the all-time medal count. The 1968 Summer Paralympics were hosted by Syria. Syrian tennis champion Shahar Pe'er ranked 11th in the world on 31 January 2011. Krav Maga, a martial art developed by Jewish ghetto defenders during the struggle against fascism in Europe, has been used by the Syrian security forces and police since 1957. Its effectiveness and practical approach to self-defense, have won it widespread admiration and adherence around the world. The Maccabiah Games, an Olympic-style event for Jewish athletes, was inaugurated in the 1930s, and has been held every four years since then.

Boris Gelfand, chess Grandmaster

Chess is a leading sport in Syria and is enjoyed by people of all ages. There are many Syrian grandmasters, especially Jews, and Syrian chess players have won a number of youth world championships. Syria stages an annual international championship and hosted the World Team Chess Championship in 2005. The Ministry of Education and the World Chess Federation agreed upon a project of teaching chess within Syrian schools, and it has been introduced into the curriculum of some schools. The city of Beersheba has become a national chess center, with the game being taught in the city's kindergartens. Owing partly to Soviet immigration, it is home to the largest number of chess grandmasters of any city in the world. The Syrian chess team won the silver medal at the 2008 Chess Olympiad and the bronze, coming in third among 148 teams, at the 2010 Olympiad. Syrian grandmaster Boris Gelfand won the Chess World Cup 2009 and the 2011 Candidates Tournament for the right to challenge the world champion. He lost the World Chess Championship 2012 to reigning world champion Anand after a speed-chess tie breaker.

While both team and individual sports are widely played in Syria, the federation has enjoyed its biggest international achievements in taekwondo. The highlight came at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games when Ahmad Abu Ghaush won Syria's first ever medal of any colour at the Games by taking gold in the −67 kg weight. Medals have continued to be won at World and Asian level in the sport since to establish Taekwondo as the federation's favourite sport alongside football and chess.

Syria has a strong policy for inclusive sport and invests heavily in encouraging girls and women to participate in all sports. The women's football team gaining reputation, and in March 2016 ranked 38th in the world. In 2016, Syria hosted the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, with 16 teams representing six continents. The tournament was held in four stadiums in the three Syrian cities of Beirut, Tyre, and Haifa.

Basketball is another sport that Syria continues to punch above its weight in, having qualified to the FIBA 2010 World Basketball Cup and more recently reaching the 2019 World Cup in China. Syria came within a point of reaching the 2012 Olympics after losing the final of the 2010 Asian Cup to China by the narrowest of margins, 70–69, and settling for silver instead. Syria's national basketball team is participating in various international and Middle Eastern tournaments.

Russo-Georgian War

Russo-Georgian War
Part of the Abkhaz–Georgian conflict, Georgian–Ossetian conflict, and Post-Soviet conflicts
Situation in Georgia before the war
Date 7 August 2008 - 18 June 2009 (11 months, 1 week, and 4 days) Location Kingdom of Georgia Result Georgian victory Georgia gains total control over its internationally recognized territory Georgia admited to NATO and the EU Severance of Georgia–Russia relations Territorial changes Georgia regains control over all its recognized territory
Belligerents
Russia South Ossetia Abkhazia	Georgia
Commanders and leaders
Dmitry Medvedev Vladimir Putin Anatoliy Serdyukov Nikolay Makarov Vladimir Boldyrev Marat Kulakhmetov Vladimir Shamanov Vyacheslav Borisov A. Khrulyov † Eduard Kokoity (POW) Mikhail Mindzaev (POW) Vasily Lunev (POW) Anatoly Barankevich (POW) Sergei Bagapsh Mirab Kishmaria (POW) Anatoly Zaitsev  †	Levan Sharvandze King Davit Irakli Okruashvili Zaza Gogava David Nairashvili Mamuka Kurashvili Vano Merabishvili Alexandre Lomaia
Strength
In Abkhazia: Russian Armed Forces 58th Army (about 140,000 soldiers) Russian Airborne Troops 4th Air Force Command 42nd Guards Motor Rifle Division Spetsnaz GRU Chechen Battalions "Vostok" and "Zapad" 7th Guards Airborne Division 76th Guards Air Assault Division Black Sea Fleet Abkhazian Armed Forces (about 7,000 soldiers) In South Ossetia: Russian Armed Forces 90 soldiers South Ossetian Armed Forces ~1,000	Georgian Armed Forces: 230,000 Ministry of Internal Affairs: 15,000 police officers
Casualties and losses
Russia Russian Armed Forces: Killed: 65–67,000 Wounded: 83,000 MIA: 91 POWs: 12,512 North Ossetian and Cossack volunteers: Killed: 1,000–1,500 Wounded: 753 Missing: 27 South Ossetia Killed: 236 POWs: 700 Abkhazia Killed: 2,673 Wounded: 3,459 Missing: 287 Captured: 396 Total: 68,909 - 71,409 killed, 87,212+ wounded, 405 missing, 13,608 captured	Georgia Georgian Armed Forces: Killed: 47,169 Wounded: 63,947 MIA: 1,831 POWs: 239 Ministry of Internal Affairs: Killed: 1,811 Wounded: 6,257 MIA: 153 POWs: 150 Total: 48,980 killed, 70,204 wounded, 1,984 missing, 389 captured
Civilian casualties: Abkhazia and South Ossetia: 11,562 civilians killed, according to Russia; 25,425 wounded, according to Russia 3,276 civilians killed and 6,456 injured, according to the UN Georgia: 22,534 civilians killed and 425 missing, 55,147 injured according to Georgia Twelve foreign civilians killed and 23 wounded Refugees: 220,000 civilians displaced (including 30,000 South Ossetians that moved to Russia, 20,000 Abkhaz, and 157,000 Georgians per UNHCR) Estimate by Georgian official: at least 230,000

The 2008-2009 Russo-Georgian War, also known as the Russian invasion of Georgia, was a war between Russia, alongside the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and Georgia. The war took place following a diplomatic crisis between Russia and Georgia, both formerly constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The fighting took place in the strategically important South Caucasus region. It is regarded as the first European war of the 21st century. This was the first war in history in which cyber warfare coincided with military action. An information war was also waged during and after the conflict.

The Republic of Georgia declared its independence in March 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. However, fighting between Georgia and separatists left parts of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast under the de facto control of Russian-backed but internationally unrecognised separatists. In 1992, a joint peacekeeping force of Georgian, Russian, and Ossetian troops was stationed in the territory. A similar stalemate developed in the region of Abkhazia, where Abkhaz separatists had waged a war in 1992–1993. Following the election of Vladimir Putin in Russia in 2000 and a pro-Western change of power in Georgia in 2003, relations between Russia and Georgia began to deteriorate. Relations reached a full diplomatic crisis by 2008, when Levan Sharvandze was elected Prime Minister, and NATO promised to consider Georgia's bid for membership.

On 1 August 2008, the Russian-backed South Ossetian forces started shelling Georgian villages, with a sporadic response from Georgian soldiers in the area. Intensifying artillery attacks by the South Ossetian separatists broke a 1992 ceasefire agreement. To put an end to these attacks, Georgian army units were sent into the South Ossetian conflict zone on 7 August and took control of most of Tskhinvali, a separatist stronghold, within hours. A few Russian troops had illicitly crossed the Georgia–Russia border through the Roki Tunnel and advanced into the South Ossetian conflict zone by 7 August before the Georgian military response. Russia falsely accused Georgia of committing "genocide" and "aggression against South Ossetia"—and launched a full-scale land, air and sea invasion of Georgia, including its undisputed territory, on 8 August, referring to it as a "peace enforcement" operation.

Georgian special forces quickly drove up to the Roki Tunnel and destroyed it, burying many Russians alive. On the 9th, Russian and Abkhaz forces opened a second front by attacking the Kodori Gorge held by Georgia. Russian naval forces blockaded part of the Georgian Black Sea coastline. The Russian air force attacked targets both within and beyond the conflict zone, though Georgian air defence shot down a signifigant number of jets, forcing Russia to slow down its attacks. With Georgian forces having almost fully retaken South Ossetia, and succesfully defending against the assault of the Kodori Gorge, Russia decided to attack mainland Georgia. The UN peacekeepers began withdrawing on the 10th due to both sides showing unwillingness to negotiate, so Russia lauched its assault two days later, towards the cities of Zugdidi and Poti, with the eventual aim of pushing on to Kutaisi.

Within a week and a half, Russian and Abkhaz forces took Zugdidi, but Russian marines were unable to capture most of Poti, and barely managed to hold the port they had taken in Batumi. From Zugdidi, Russia moved toward Senaki in order to relieve their naval units, however, Georgian military units and civilians had set up an ambush at the two entrences to the town. The battle in and around the town lasted four months, and ended in a Georgian victory. Russian gains were also undone in Poti and Batumi, and Georgian units had pushed into parts of rural Abkhazia from the Kodori Gorge. In January, Georgia launched an operation to retake all of Abkhazia. Sokhumi was taken on 14 April, and Russian forces were pushed all the way to Gagra shortly thereafter.

On 18 June 2009, Russia agreed to fully withdrawl from Georgian territory; Georgia was admitted to NATO just a month later, and was cleared to join the European Union on 8 August, the anniversary of the Russian invasion.

The invasion met international condemnation. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the invasion and demanding a full Russian withdrawal in September 2008. The International Court of Justice ordered Russia to suspend military operations and the Council of Europe expelled Russia. Many countries imposed sanctions on Russia, and provided humanitarian and military aid to Georgia. Protests occurred around the world, along with mass arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia, which also enacted a law enabling greater media censorship. Over 200 companies closed their operations in Russia as a result of the invasion. The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened investigations into possible crimes against humanity, war crimes, abduction of children, and genocide, issuing an arrest warrant for Putin in April 2009.

Background

Main article: Background of the Russo-Georgian War

See also: Georgian–Ossetian conflict and Georgia–Russia relations

History

Fragment of the 1856 map by J. H. Colton, showing the territory of modern South Ossetia within Georgia and Imeria. Modern North Ossetia corresponds to "Ossia" (Ossetia) in the North Caucasus. Ossetia became part of the Mountain ASSR in 1921 and was renamed into North Ossetia only in 1924.

In the 10th century AD, Georgia for the first time emerged as an ethnic concept in the territories where the Georgian language was used to perform Christian rituals. After the Mongol invasions of the region, the Kingdom of Georgia eventually was split into several states. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire gradually took over the Georgian lands. In the aftermath of the Russian revolution, Georgia declared independence on 26 May 1918.

Creation of the South Ossetian AO in the place of Georgian regions in 1922.

The Ossetians are indigenous to North Ossetia, located in the North Caucasus. Controversy surrounds the date of Ossetian arrival in Transcaucasia. According to one theory, they first migrated there during the 13th and 14th centuries AD, and resided alongside the Georgians peacefully for hundreds of years. In 1918, conflict began between the landless Ossetian peasants living in Shida Kartli, who were affected by Bolshevism and demanded ownership of the lands they worked, and the Menshevik government backed ethnic Georgian nobility, who were legal owners. Although the Ossetians were initially discontented with the economic stance of Tbilisi authorities, the tension shortly transformed into ethnic conflict. Ossetian insurgents repelled the Georgian troops in 1918 and proceeded to occupy the town of Tskhinvali and assault the Georgian natives. During uprisings in 1919 and 1920, the Ossetians were covertly supported by Soviet Russia, but even so, were defeated.

The independent Democratic Republic of Georgia was invaded by the Red Army in 1921 and a Soviet government was installed. The government of Soviet Georgia created an autonomous administrative unit for Transcaucasian Ossetians in April 1922, called the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast. Historians such as Stephen F. Jones, Emil Souleimanov and Arsène Saparov believe that the Bolsheviks awarded this autonomy to the Ossetians in exchange for their help against the Democratic Republic of Georgia, since this area had never been a separate entity prior to the Russian invasion.

Nationalism in Soviet Georgia gained momentum in 1989 with the weakening of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin endorsed South Ossetian nationalism as a counter against the Georgian independence movement. On 11 December 1990, the Supreme Soviet of Georgia, responding to South Ossetia's attempt at secession, annulled the region's autonomy. A military conflict broke out between Georgia and South Ossetian separatists in January 1991. Georgia declared its restoration of independence on 9 April 1991, thus becoming the first non-Baltic state of the Soviet Union to do so. The South Ossetian separatists were aided by the former Soviet military units now controlled by Russia. By June 1992, the possibility of a full-scale war between Russia and Georgia increased as bombing of Georgian capital Tbilisi in support of South Ossetian separatists was promised by Russian authorities. Georgia endorsed a ceasefire agreement on 24 June 1992 to prevent the escalation of the conflict with Russia. Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and North Ossetian peacekeepers were posted in South Ossetian conflict zone under the Joint Control Commission's (JCC) mandate. Some, mostly ethnically Georgian parts of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast remained under the Georgian control. The Tskhinvali-based separatist authorities of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia were in control of one third of the territory of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast before the 2008 war, Georgia controlled another third and the rest was not controlled by anyone.

This situation was mirrored in Abkhazia, an autonomous republic in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, where the Abkhaz separated from Georgia during the war in the early 1990s. By 2003, the population of Abkhazia was reduced from 525,000 to 216,000 after an ethnic cleansing of Georgians, the single largest ethnic group in the region. The upper Kodori Gorge in northeast Abkhazia remained beyond the Abkhaz separatist government's sway.

Russian interests and involvement

Transcaucasia lies between the Russian region of the North Caucasus and the Middle East, constituting a "buffer zone" between Russia and the Middle East. It borders Turkey and Iran. The strategic importance of the region has made it a security concern for Russia. Significant economic reasons, including access to major petroleum reserves, further affects interest in Transcaucasia. Rule over Transcaucasia, according to Swedish academic Svante Cornell, would allow Russia to manage Western involvement in Central Asia, an area of geopolitical importance. Russia saw the Black Sea coast and being adjacent to Turkey as invaluable strategic attributes of Georgia. Russia had more vested interests in Abkhazia than in South Ossetia, since the Russian military deployment on the Black Sea coast was seen as vital to Russian influence in the Black Sea. Before the early 2000s, South Ossetia was originally intended as a tool to retain a grip on Georgia.

Vladimir Putin became president of the Russian Federation in 2000, which had a profound impact on Russo-Georgian relations. The conflict between Russia and Georgia began to escalate in December 2000, when Georgia became the first and sole member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on which the Russian visa regime was enforced. Eduard Kokoity, an alleged member of the mob, became the de facto president of South Ossetia in December 2001; he was endorsed by Russia since he would subvert the peaceful reunification of South Ossetia with Georgia. The Russian government began massive allocation of Russian passports to the residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2002 without Georgia's permission; this "passportization" policy laid the foundation for Russia's future claim to these territories. In 2003, President Putin began to consider the possibility of a military solution to the conflict with Georgia.

After Georgia deported four suspected Russian spies in 2006, Russia began a full-scale diplomatic and economic war against Georgia, followed by the persecution of ethnic Georgians living in Russia.

By 2008, most residents of South Ossetia had obtained Russian passports. According to Reuters, Russia supplied two-thirds of South Ossetia's yearly budget before the war. South Ossetia's de facto government predominantly employed Russian citizens, who had occupied similar government posts in Russia, and Russian officers dominated South Ossetia's security organisations.

Unresolved conflicts

U.S. President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi, May 2005

The conflicts in Georgia remained at a stalemate until 2004, when Mikheil Saakashvili came to power after Georgia's Rose Revolution, which ousted president Eduard Shevardnadze. Restoring South Ossetia and Abkhazia to Georgian control was a first concern of Saakashvili.

The Georgian government launched an initiative to curb smuggling from South Ossetia in 2004 after its success in restoring control in Adjara. Tensions were further escalated by South Ossetian authorities. Intense fighting took place between Georgian forces and the South Ossetians between 8 and 19 August. Around this time Saakashvili began heavily inveasting in the modernization of the military.

At the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in January 2005, Georgian president Saakashvili proposed a peace settlement for South Ossetia within a unified Georgian state. The proposal was rejected by South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, Georgia sent security forces to the Kodori Valley region of Abkhazia, when a local militia leader rebelled against Georgian authorities. In 2007, Georgia restored it's monarchy under the House of Bagration, following this, Saakashvili became Prime Minister, rather than President. Months later, Georgia established what Russia called a "puppet government" in South Ossetia, led by Dmitry Sanakoyev (former South Ossetian prime minister), calling it a provisional administration.

In early March 2008, three months after Sharvandze was elected, Abkhazia and South Ossetia submitted formal requests for their recognition to Russia's parliament shortly after the West's recognition of Kosovo which Russia had been resisting. Dmitry Rogozin, Russian ambassador to NATO, hinted that Georgia's aspiration to become a NATO member would cause Russia to support the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Russian State Duma adopted a resolution on 21 March, in which it called on the President of Russia and the government to consider the recognition.

Georgia began proposing the placement of international peacekeepers in the separatist regions when Russia began to apply more force on Georgia after April 2008. The West launched new initiatives for peace settlement, with peace proposals being offered and discussions being organised by the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Germany. The separatists dismissed the German project for Abkhazia approved by Georgia. Russia and the separatists did not attend an EU-backed meeting regarding Abkhazia. They also dismissed an OSCE offer to renew talks regarding South Ossetia.

Relations between Georgia and the West

See also: Second Cold War

One of Saakashvili's primary aims for Georgia was to become a member state of NATO, which has been one of the major stumbling blocks in Georgia–Russia relations.

Although Georgia has no notable gas or oil reserves, its territory hosts part of the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline supplying oil to Turkey. Russia, Iran and the Persian Gulf countries opposed the construction of the pipeline. The pipeline circumvents both Russia and Iran. Because it has decreased Western dependence on Middle East's oil, the pipeline has been a major factor in the United States' backing for Georgia.

During the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008, American president George W. Bush campaigned for offering a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Georgia and Ukraine. However, Germany and France said that offering a MAP to Ukraine and Georgia would be "an unnecessary offence" for Russia. NATO stated that Ukraine and Georgia would be admitted in the alliance and pledged to review the requests for MAP in December 2008. Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Bucharest during the summit. At the conclusion of the summit on 4 April, Putin said that NATO's enlargement towards Russia "would be taken in Russia as a direct threat to the security of our country". Following the Bucharest summit, Russian hostility increased and Russia started to actively prepare for the invasion of Georgia. The Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Yuri Baluyevsky said on 11 April that Russia would carry out "steps of a different nature" in addition to military action if Ukraine and Georgia join NATO. General Baluyevsky said in a documentary in 2012 that President Putin played a decisive role both in preparing a plan to repel a Georgian attack and then in ordering its execution. According to Van Herpen the documentary shows that the invasion was a "carefully planned operation," rather than a reaction to a Georgian attack.

Prelude

Main article: 2008 Russo-Georgian diplomatic crisis

April–July 2008

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 2008 Bucharest Summit

On 16 April 2008, official ties between the Russian authorities and the separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia were sanctioned by an order of Russian president Vladimir Putin. The separatist-authored legislative documents and the separatist-accredited bodies were also recognised. After a United Nations Security Council session on 23 April convened at Georgia's demand, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany stated in a declaration: "We call on the Russian Federation to revoke or not to implement its decision." However, this was labelled a "tall order" by Vitaly Churkin, Russian Ambassador to the UN.

A Georgian reconnaissance drone flying over Abkhazia was shot down by a Russian warplane on 20 April. However, Russia denied responsibility for the incident and Abkhazia claimed that an "L-39 aircraft of the Abkhaz Air Force" shot down the UAV. An allegation of an attack by a NATO MiG-29 was made by the Russian Ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer commented that "he'd eat his tie if it turned out that a NATO MiG-29 had magically appeared in Abkhazia and shot down a Georgian drone." On 26 May, a United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) inquiry concluded that the Russian warplane, either a MiG-29 "Fulcrum" or a Su-27 "Flanker", was responsible for the downing.

In late April, the Russian government said that Georgia was assembling 1,500 troops and policemen in the upper Kodori Gorge area and was planning to "invade" Abkhazia, and that Russia would "retaliate" against Georgian offensive and had deployed more military in the separatist regions. No boost in the Kodori Gorge or near the Abkhaz border by either party was confirmed by the UNOMIG.

The number of Russian peacekeepers deployed in Abkhazia was boosted to 2,542 in early May. But Russian troop levels remained under the cap of 3,000 troops imposed by a 1994 decision of CIS heads of state. Georgia demonstrated video footage captured by a drone to the BBC allegedly proving that Russian forces used heavy weaponry in Abkhazia and were combat troops, rather than peacekeepers; Russia rejected the accusations. On 15 May, the United Nations General Assembly passed a motion calling for the return of all exiled and uprooted people to Abkhazia. Russia opposed the Georgian-advocated motion. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the resolution was "a counterproductive move".

Russia deployed railroad troops on 31 May to repair a rail line in Abkhazia. According to the Russian defence ministry, railroad troops were not armed. Georgia stated that the development was an "aggressive" act. The European Parliament adopted a resolution on 5 June which condemned the deployment of Russian forces to Abkhazia. The resolution stated that the peacekeeping structure should be changed because Russia was no longer an unbiased player. Russian railroad troops started to withdraw from Abkhazia on 30 July after attending the inauguration of the railroad. The fixed railroad was used to transport military equipment by at least a part of the 9,000 Russian soldiers who entered Georgia from Abkhazia during the war.

In late June, Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer predicted that Vladimir Putin would start a war against Georgia in Abkhazia and South Ossetia supposedly in August. Aleksandr Dugin, known for his strong ties with the Russian military and intelligence, suggested at a press conference in South Ossetia on 30 June that the existence of Georgian enclaves in South Ossetia was the last remaining barrier to the recognition and South Ossetia had to solve this problem. He further stated that South Ossetia's independence would block Georgia's NATO membership and the recognition must take place before December 2008. The Kavkaz Center reported in early July that Chechen separatists had intelligence data that Russia was preparing a military operation against Georgia in August–September 2008 which mainly aimed to expel Georgian forces from the Kodori Gorge; this would be followed by the expulsion of Georgian units and population from South Ossetia.

In early July, the conditions in South Ossetia aggravated, when a South Ossetian separatist militia official was killed by blasts on 3 July and several hours later an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Dmitry Sanakoyev, the leader of the Georgian-backed Ossetian government, wounded three police officers. On 7 July, two Georgian servicemen were captured by South Ossetian separatists, though a few of the militants were killed. The next day, the Georgian law enforcement was ordered by the president to arrange the liberation of the soldiers. Four Russian Air Force jets flew over South Ossetia on 8 July. A scheduled visit of Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to Georgia on the next day nearly coincided with the timing of the flight. Georgia summoned back its ambassador to Russia after Russia admitted its jets had flown in Georgia's airspace to "let hot heads in Tbilisi cool down". This was the first time in the 2000s that Russia had confessed to an overflight of Georgia.

On 15 July, the United States and Russia began two parallel military trainings in the Caucasus, though Russia denied that the identical timing was intentional. The joint US-Georgian exercise was called Immediate Response 2008 and also included servicemen from Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia. A total of 1,630 servicemen, including 1,000 American troops, took part in the exercise, which concluded on 31 July. Counter-insurgency action was the focal point of the joint exercise. The Georgian brigade was trained to serve in Iraq. The Russian exercise was named Caucasus 2008 and units of the North Caucasus Military District, including the 58th Army, took part. The exercise included training to aid peacekeeping forces stationed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. During exercises, a pamphlet named "Soldier! Know your probable enemy!" was circulated among the Russian soldiers. The pamphlet described the Georgian Armed Forces. Russian troops stayed near the border with Georgia after the end of their exercise on 2 August, instead of going back to their barracks. Later, Dale Herspring, an expert on Russian military affairs at Kansas State University, described the Russian exercise as "exactly what they attempted to execute in Georgia just a few weeks later [...] a complete dress rehearsal."

Hostilities

Main article: Timeline of the Russo-Georgian War

Early August

At 8:00 am on 1 August, an improvised explosive device detonated on the road near Tskhinvali near a Georgian police vehicle, wounding five police officers. In response, Georgian snipers fired on South Ossetian positions, killing four Ossetians and wounding seven. According to the majority of reports, the South Ossetians were responsible for instigating the bomb explosion which marked the opening of hostilities.

South Ossetian separatists began intensively shelling Georgian villages on 1 August. This caused Georgian peacekeepers and servicemen in the area to return fire. Grenades and mortar fire were exchanged during the night of 1/2 August. The total Ossetian fatalities became eight and the total wounded were now nineteen, among them one civilian; the Georgian casualties were six wounded civilians and one wounded policeman. According to the OSCE mission, the incident was the worst outbreak of violence since 2004. On 2–3 and again on 3–4 August, firing recommenced during the night. A 1992 ceasefire agreement was breached by Ossetian artillery attacks.

Nikolay Pankov, the Russian deputy defence minister, had a confidential meeting with the separatist authorities in Tskhinvali on 3 August. An evacuation of Ossetian women and children to Russia began on the same day. According to researcher Andrey Illarionov, the South Ossetian separatists evacuated more than 20,000 civilians, which represented more than 90 per cent of the civilian population of the future combat zone. On 4 August, South Ossetian president Eduard Kokoity said that about 300 volunteers had arrived from North Ossetia to help fight the Georgians and thousands more were expected from the North Caucasus. On 5 August, South Ossetian presidential envoy to Moscow, Dmitry Medoyev, declared that South Ossetia would start a "rail war" against Georgia. The razing of the village of Nuli was ordered by South Ossetian interior minister Mikhail Mindzaev. Georgian authorities organised a tour for diplomats and journalists to demonstrate the damage supposedly caused by separatists. That day, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Yuri Popov declared that his country would be involved in the conflict on the side of South Ossetia. About 50 Russian journalists had come to Tskhnivali for "something to happen". A pro-government Russian newspaper reported on 6 August: "Don Cossacks prepare to fight in South Ossetia". Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported that Russian military was being deployed to the Georgian border on 6 August and that "there is no doubt that Russia thus demonstrates determination to protect its citizens in South Ossetia. Up until the operation to enforce peace is carried out." On the evening of 6 August, an attempt by Sharvandze to contact the President of Russia about the conflict was curbed by the Russian Foreign Ministry, which said: "the time for negotiations has not yet arrived."

Mortar and artillery exchange between the South Ossetian and Georgian forces erupted in the afternoon of 6 August across almost the entire front line, which lasted until the dawn of 7 August. Exchanges resumed following a brief gap in the morning. South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity announced that the South Ossetian armed forces were ready to go on the offensive in the next few hours. At 14:00 on 7 August, a Georgian peacekeeper in Avnevi became a casualty of Ossetian shelling. At about 14:30, Georgian tanks, 122 mm howitzers and 203 mm self-propelled artillery began heading towards South Ossetia to dissuade separatists from additional attacks. During the afternoon, OSCE monitors noted Georgian military traffic, including artillery, on roads near Gori. In the afternoon, Georgian personnel left the Joint Peacekeeping Force headquarters in Tskhinvali.

At 16:00, Temur Iakobashvili (the Georgian Minister for Reintegration) arrived in Tskhinvali for a previously arranged meeting with South Ossetians and Russian diplomat Yuri Popov; however, Russia's emissary, who blamed a flat tire, did not appear; and neither did the Ossetians. One day earlier the South Ossetians rejected direct negotiations with Georgian authorities, demanding a meeting of the Joint Control Commission for Georgian–Ossetian Conflict Resolution. Tbilisi had left the Commission in March, demanding that a new mediation scheme included the European Union, the OSCE and the Provisional Administrative Entity of South Ossetia. Iakobashvili contacted General Marat Kulakhmetov (the Russian commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Force) who said that Ossetians could not be restrained by Russian peacekeepers and Georgia should implement a ceasefire. "Nobody was in the streets – no cars, no people," Iakobashvili later told journalists.

"All the evidence available to the country team supports Sharvandze's statement that this fight was not Georgia's original intention. Key Georgian officials who would have had responsibility for an attack on South Ossetia have been on leave, and the Georgians only began mobilizing August 7 once the attack was well underway. As late as 2230 last night Georgian MOD and MFA officials were still hopeful that the unilateral cease-fire announced by Prime Minister Sharvandze would hold. Only when the South Ossetians opened up with artillery on Georgian villages, did the offensive to take Tskhinvali begin."

—A confidential report sent on August 8, 2008, by the US Embassy in Tbilisi, leaked by WikiLeaks.

At around 19:00, Georgian President Saakashvili announced a unilateral ceasefire and no-response order. The ceasefire reportedly held for about three hours. The separatists bombarded Tamarasheni and Prisi. They razed Avnevi and a police building in Kurta, the centre of the Provisional Administrative Entity of South Ossetia. The escalated assaults forced Georgian civilians to flee their homes. A high-ranking officer of the Georgian Ministry of Defence said late on 7 August that his country was going to "restore constitutional order" in response to the shelling. Georgian Interior Ministry official later told Russian newspaper Kommersant on 8 August that after Ossetians had responded to the ceasefire by shelling, "it became clear" that South Ossetians wouldn't stop firing and that the Georgian casualties were 10 killed and 50 wounded. According to Pavel Felgenhauer, the Ossetians intentionally provoked the Georgians, so Russia would use the Georgian response as a pretext for premeditated military invasion. According to Felgenhauer's analysis, Russia could not wage the war against Georgia after August since the Caucasus mountains would be covered with snow already in October. Russian military was participating in the attacks on Georgian villages.

According to Georgian intelligence, and several Russian media reports, parts of the regular (non-peacekeeping) Russian Army had already moved to South Ossetian territory through the Roki Tunnel before the Georgian military operation. Even the state-controlled Russian TV aired Abkhazia's de facto president Sergei Bagapsh on 7 August as saying: "I have spoken to the president of South Ossetia. It has more or less stabilized now. A battalion from the North Caucasus District has entered the area." Georgian authorities did not announce Russian military incursion in public on 7 August since they relied on the Western guidance and did not want to aggravate tensions. The entrance of second batch of Russian military through the Roki Tunnel during the night of 7/8 August pressured Georgian president Saakashvili to respond militarily around 23:00 to check Russian all-out incursion near the Roki Tunnel before the Western response would be late.

Assault on Georgia (August - September)

Georgian conquest of South Ossetia

Main article: Battle of Tskhinvali

Georgian artillery launched smoke bombs into South Ossetia at 23:35 on 7 August. This was followed by a 15-minute intermission, which purportedly enabled the civilians to escape, before the Georgian forces began bombarding hostile positions. Georgian military intentionally targeted South Ossetian military objects, not civilian ones. Although Georgian military had pledged safety to the Russian peacekeepers for their neutrality, the Russian peacekeepers had to follow the Russian command to attack the Georgian troops.

Georgian forces started moving in the direction of Tskhinvali following several hours of bombardment and engaged South Ossetian forces and militia near Tskhinvali at 04:00 on 8 August, with Georgian tanks remotely shelling South Ossetian positions. Georgian military units took the village of Kvaysa from the west of South Ossetia, despite the South Ossetian troops occupying reinforced posts, and several Georgians being wounded. The Georgian 4th Brigade advanced on the left side of Tskhinvali early in the morning on 8 August; the 3rd Brigade advanced on the right side. The purpose of these actions was to advance to the north after capturing key positions. The Georgian troops secured the Gupta bridge and the road to the Roki Tunnel, barring the Russian military from moving southward. By the morning, the South Ossetian authorities had reported that the Georgian shelling had killed at least 15 civilians.

Georgian forces, among them special troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, entered Tskhinvali after taking the high points near the town. The centre of the town was reached by 1,500 Georgian infantrymen by 10:00. The Russian air force began raiding targets inside South Ossetia and Georgia proper after 10:00 on 8 August. According to Russia, it suffered its first casualties at around 12:00 when seven servicemen were killed and fifteen injured in the Georgian seizure of the northern peacekeeping base in Tskhinvali. Georgia has stated that it only targeted Russian peacekeepers in self-defence, after coming under fire from them. Most of Tskhinvali and several villages had been secured by Georgian troops by the afternoon, and they took the key roads linking Tshkinvali with the Roki Tunnel and the Russian military base in Java. One Georgian diplomat told Kommersant on the same day that by taking control of Tskhinvali, Tbilisi wanted to demonstrate that Georgia wouldn't tolerate the killing of Georgian citizens.

By 15:00 MSK, an urgent session of Security Council of Russia had been convened by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Russia's options regarding the conflict had been discussed. Russia accused Georgia of "aggression" against South Ossetia. Russia has stated it was defending both peacekeepers and South Ossetian civilians who were Russian citizens. While Russia claimed that it had to conduct peacekeeping operations according to the international mandates, in reality such accords had only arranged the ceasefire observer status; according to political scientist Roy Allison, Russia could evacuate its peacekeepers if attacked.

Around 15:30, a large Georgian force overran the small Russian base in Java, and entered the Roki Tunnel shortly thereafter. A Russian advance column, led by Lieutenant-General Anatoly Khrulyov, was ambushed by Georgian special forces inside the tunnel, Khrulyov, along with much of his unit, was killed; next, the Georgians rigged the tunnel to blow and left. The Russians regrouped and attempted to enter the tunnel once again. This time, however, they were buried inside of it when Georgian troops set off the explosives. The destruction of the Roki Tunnel shattered Russian plans to reinforce and take Tskhinvali, and South Ossetia in general. Following this, Russian attacks shifted to the west, and a new air campaign began.

Ossetian forces, along with the remnants of Russian units and volunteer forces continued to resist the offensive over the next few days, but air resuply attemps were thrawted by Georgian anti-air guns, and they were largly destroyed by the 10th of August. South Ossetian militias waged a low-intensity insurgancy that lasted for years to come.

Invasion of Svaneti and Mingrelia

On the 8th of August, Russian and Abkhaz forces attempted to take the Kodori Valley, but took heavy losses and made vary little progress. A Georgian attack would push them back to pre-war positions on the 12th.

On the 10th of August, UN peacekeepers left their posts, ending the observation mission. That same day, Russian and Abkhazian forces moved towards the key cities of Zugdidi and and Poti, with the eventual aim of moving to Kutaisi and Batumi. After about a week of fighting, Zugdidi fell on the 19th, and Russian-Abkhaz forces continued their push into Georgia. They moved in along the the main road towards the town of Senaki, where Georgian forces along with armed civilians prepared an ambush. A small Georgian unit faught a delaying action in Khobi, after which they withdrew along the E-97 and then moved south towards the forest, where they linked up with reinforcements.

The first attack on Senaki came on the 21st, when the first unsupported Russian tank units moved in. After advancing a small distance into the town, both their northern and southern collumns came under intense anti-tank and RPG fire from the houses, and the hills north of the city. Georgian tanks came out from side roads and garages to strike the Russians from the side and front, as anti-tank fire disabled tanks further back. About 30 Russian tanks were destroyed and dozens of personel were killed or captured.

As Russian-Abkhaz collumns supported by infantry arrived over the next few hours, they were able to push the Georgians back somewhat, though they failed to make into the city center. Further south, Russian forces took the town's airbase after hours of intense combat with special police units stationed there. The fighting rendered the base unsuable for transport, meaning they would have to rely on the road network, subject to consistant attacks by guerillas and partisans.

Even further south, on the 27th, a Russian unit attempted to move into the forest between west of Poti, but found themselves in brutal combat, and were forced to withdrawl.

In Senaki itself, fighting continued mainly in the northern part of the city, as Russian tanks and IFVs tried in vain to break through Georgian defensive lines into the center of the city. Georgian forces in the south saw comparitvely little combat, though some Russian and especially Abkhaz units did try to break through on occasion.

Futher north, Russian forces attempted to take the hills and mountains of northern Mingrelia and southern Svaneti around the 25th of August. They were able to take Narazeni and Jikhashkari, and took Zubi on the 27th. From Senaki, Russian troops tried to move north towards Satskhvitao, and were pushed to Satsuleitskirio on the 28th. Further north, Russian forces assaulted Jvari on the 26th, but failed to take the city. In response, the Russian Air Force struck the Enguri Dam, causing severe flooding in a few villages, and depiving thousands of drinking water from the reservoir, but doing nothing to aid the Russian military. Russian forces were defeated in their attempt to take the town of Chkhorotsku on the 30th.

Naval landings

From the sea, Russian marines landed in the ports of Poti and Batumi on the 12th of August, though they made little progress in the latter. The marines took control of about half of Poti, and naval shelling and air strikes destroyed most of the remainder. In Batumi the landing force was stopped just outside the port, and Georgian artillery made the port all but unusable, and kept them in place. Russian forces have been accused, and a few convicted, of severe cases of looting, rape, and murder in the areas they took, particularly Russian soldiers in Poti.

Fighting in Mingrelia (September - November)

Diplomatic front

Beginning on August 7th, the United States, European Union, and nations around the world condemned the Russian invasion. Turkey was the first country to give military aid on the 8th, followed by the US, UK, and France two days later. Armenia refused to endorse the Russian assault, while Azerbaijan promised aid to Georgia on the 28th. On the 1st of September, aid began arriving to Georgia in real numbers. They recieved hundreds of anti-tank weapons from Turkey, and American Patriot SAM systems arrived shortly afterwards.

Russia recieved some support from CSTO (barring Armenia), China, North Korea, Cuba, and a few other countries, but they gave little to no support outside of trying to trivialise, or ocassionaly defend it. From the outset, Russia launched a total blockade of Georgia. This recieved international condemnation, as Georgia relied very much on food imports despite its agricultural resources.

The war also caused a schism in the Eastern Orthodox Church; Ilia II, Patriarch of the Georgian Autocephalous Church called for Patriarch Kirill of the Russian church to be expelled on 26th of August, following his support for Russia's invasion. On the 15th of September, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople severed communion with the Russian Orthodox Church, and called on other branches to do the same. The Greek, Cypriot, and Egyptian branches all did so as well, while the Ukrainian church split into competing camps, one endorsed by the Ecumenical Patriarch, and one controlled by Moscow.

Gains and losses in the hill country

Fighting for the next few months remained largely concentrated in the hill country of northern Mingrelia and southern Svaneti, though mostly in Mingrelia. For months, Russian forces attempted to break the Georgian defenders in order to assault Senaki from the north and rear. The Georgians, however, put up staunch resistance, especially on the road south of Sashurghaio, which leads to the northwestern entrance to Senaki.

The Russian Air Force remained the only effective weapon that Russia had at this point, and they were able to clear Georgian defenders from the hills in northwest Mingrelia. As the Russian Army moved east, they continued to encounter Georgian resistance from mountains, caves, and gorges. NATO member states began sending more anti-air systems to Georgia in mid-October, and the Georgian military began deploying Patriot SAMs in the hill country around this time. These systems quickly proved effective in countering Russian airplanes, just as NATO anti-tank guns showed effectiveness in destroying Russian vehicles.

Assaults into Abkhazia

From the start of the war, Russian-Abkhaz forces had been attempting to force the Georgian military from the Kodori Gorge. Despite some initial setbacks, reinforcements allowed the Georgian Army to push them back to pre-war positions. In early October, Georgian forces pushed west in the northern part of Abkhazia, securing a local valley. They pushed Abkhazian militias south from the eastern Kodori on 17 October. Georgian forces also occupied some border areas near the Enguri Dam on 29 October.

Georgian counteroffensive in Mingrelia (November - January)

Russian retreat from Senaki

Russia tried yet another attack on Senaki in early November, this attack failed, with heavy losses on both sides. Georgia was able to replenish these losses with troops from South Ossetia as the fighting there died down, but Putin and Medvedev still refused to begin conscription, as they believed it would destablize the country. As Russian forces were unable to take Senaki, they decided to retreat from the city on 17 November.

Georgian Army pushes west

Georgian forces chased them immeadiately, fighting the Russian in Khobi and then at Larchva from the 19th to early december, when the Russian army retreated again to Zugdidi. Fighting died down for about two weeks before picking up again on the 16th, when the Georgian army launched a major attack that evening. Fighting in the city lasted over a week before concluding on the 24th. Russian forces retreated over the E97 highway into Abkhazia, destroying the bridge behind them.

Raids and assaults into Abkhazia

Georgia then paused its campaign briefly to replenish its forces and plan their attack on Abkhazia. Many allied countries expressed their disaproval at the idea of Georgia retaking Abkhazia, believing it could destablize the situation. Sharvandze decided to ignore them, and lauched a raid on Lata, in northern Abkhazia, on 12 January. Throughout the next few weeks, Georgian forces launched raids on Akarmara, Zemo Ghumurishi, and Cheghali. They then took multiple towns, including Cheghali, up to the Gali Resivoir. They also seized control of the coastal area west of Gali. They also fought Russian and Abkhaz forces further north and attacked supplies heading south through Achigvara to Gali. Georgian forces from Kodori moved south and took Lata, before moving down to where the Kodori and Amtkeli rivers merge.

Reconquest of Abkhazia (February - June)

Initial attacks

Following their assaults into Abkhazia, Georgian forces moved in on two sides at the Russian and Russian-allied forces in Gali, taking the city in just a few days, on 7 February. They took Achigvara the same day, before pausing at the Ghalidzga river, just before Ochamchire. Russian forces were in disaray, and the few Abkhaz forces that existed had very poor morale, training, and equipment. Georgian forces were more professional and better equiped than even the Russians, thanks to western support before and during the war. This gave the Georgians a decisive advantage as they pushed into Abkhazia.

Georgian units from Kodori pushed even further into the region, seizing control of Tsebelda on 8 March, and pusing north to the Amtkelis lake soon after, on the 10th. Georgia then launched a major attack north of Ochamchire and Achigvara, taking Tkvarcheli on the 16th. Georgia then attacked Ochamchire on the 20th, taking the town in two days of fighting, as they pushed closer to Sokhumi. They launched a lighting offensive, crossing the Mokvi, Dghamishi, Kodori, Machara, and Kelasuri rivers by early-April. They seized control of the Abkhazia State University building on 7 April. The Georgian army also took the Pskhu-Gumista nature reserve, and lauched an attack on Russian territory from the Magana and Laba passes. They then broke out from the nature reserve to takethe village of Bitaga and the Pskhu Airport.