Syria

Syria(Arabic:سوريا/سورية), officially theSyrian Arab Republic(Arabic:الجمهورية العربية السورية), is a country in theMiddle East,borderingLebanonto the west,Israelto the southwest,Jordanto the south,Iraqto the east, andTurkeyto the north. The modern state of Syria attained independence from theFrench mandateof Syria in 1946, but can trace its roots to the fourth millennium BC; its capital city,Damascus,was the seat of theUmayyad Empireand a provincial capital of theMamluk Empire.

Bashar is the balancing point among the various Syrian power forces. ~David Wallechinsky

Quotes

A

Syria is a melting pot. It existed like this, like it is today because it is a melting pot with multifarious cultures for centuries, beforeChristianityand after Christianity, beforeIslamand after Islam. If you have any change, dramatic change, in the demographic and social fabric of the Syrian society, you're going to have a big problem in the future regarding the future of Syria.
- PresidentBashar al-Assad,The Syria Times,"President Al-Assad to Rai News 24: I will take my country to the shore –not to abandon the ship and the Syrian people"(29 September 2013).

B

While the death toll in thetrenches of Western Europewere close to 2 million by the summer of 1915, theextermination of innocent civiliansinTurkey(theArmenians,but also Syrian andAssyrianChristiansandlarge portions of the Greek population,especially theGreeksof Pontos, orBlack Searegion) was reaching 1 million.
- Peter Balakian,The Burning Tigris,p. 285-286

G

Few who watched theSyrian revolutionrise and unfold thought back to1979,but the echoes would be obvious in hindsight—except everything was worse, as though all the players picked up where they had left off after thejihadinAfghanistan,or theIran-Iraq War,or the2003 Iraq War.The son of Sa’id Hawwa, the SyrianMuslim Brotherhoodideologue, was involved; Surur, author of the Magi book, was playing a key role rallying theIslamists;even the son of Arif Hussaini, the assassinatedPakistaniallama, would show up in Damascus to meet Shia fighters. With appetites sharpened, everyone returned to the battle with renewed vengeance. There would be rivers of blood, millions displaced, millions of refugees. Thewar in Syriawould break theMiddle East.It would break the world. But first, it would destroy the lives of men like Yassin. In the fluid chaos of therevolution,he couldn’t know all the details about the forces lurking in the background. He focused on the possibilities, on the Syrianness of the revolution and the goodness in Syrians’ hearts; on the belief in the righteousness of their cause and their call for basicfreedoms.
- Kim Ghattas,Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East(2020)

H

Syria, using the term in its old, geographical sense, occupies a unique place in the annals of the world. Especially because of the inclusion ofPalestineandPhoeniciawithin its ancient boundaries, it has made a more significant contribution to the moral and spiritual progress of mankind than any other comparable land. Small as it appears on a map or a globe, its historical importance is boundless, its influence universal.
- Philip K. Hitti,Syria: A Short History(1959), p. 1.

J

The Arab conquest of Syria in 632–42 was one of the most astonishing accomplishments of its age. In the first place it finally and permanently cut off an eastern wing of theByzantine Empire,which had beenRomanterritory for nearly seven hundred years; the border of Byzantium was now pushed back to the Amanus Mountains on the eastern edge ofAsia Minor,beyond which it would seldom reach for the rest of theMiddle Ages.Much more significantly, though, Syria was one of the first major triumphs of a new power that was about to sweep across the world, branching out to the borders ofChinaand theAtlanticseaboard ofEurope,establishing an Islamic state that covered more than twelve million square kilometers. BetweenMuhammad’s death and the collapse of theUmayyad caliphatein 750,Arabarmies appeared everywhere fromcentral Asia,through theMiddle East and north Africa,throughout theVisigothicIberian Peninsula,and even intosouthern France.They imposed Islamic governments and introduced new ways ofliving,trading,learning,thinking,building,andpraying.The capital of the vast caliphate they established would be Damascus itself, crowned with its Great Mosque—one of the masterpieces ofmedieval architectureanywhere in the world.
- Dan Jones,Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages(2021)

T

Today,Bashar Al-Assadis playing the role of the son of the Levanter, offering his services to any would-be buyer through interviews with whoever passes through the corner of Damascus where he is hiding. At first glance, the Levanter may appear attractive to those engaged in sordid games. In the end, however, the Levanter must betray his existing paymaster in order to begin serving a new one. Four years ago, Bashar switched to theTehran-Moscowaxis and is now trying to switch back to theTel-Aviv-Washingtonone that he and his father served for decades. However, if the story has one lesson to teach, it is that the Levanter is always the source of the problem, rather than part of the solution.ISISis there because almost half a century of repression by the Assads produced the conditions for its emergence. What is needed is a policy based on the truth of the situation in which both Assad and ISIS are parts of the same problem.
- Amir Taheri,"Opinion: Like Father, Like Son",Ashraq Al-Awsat(20 February 2015)

W

Since1961,Syria has been ruled by theBa'ath Party,the same party that ruled Iraq until the fall ofSaddam Hussein.Bashar al-Assad inherited the leadership of Syria from his fatherHafiz al-Assad,in 2000. Bashar is the balancing point among the various Syrian power forces, including themilitary,theintelligence service,the nation's ruling party, and the governmentbureaucracy.Meanwhile, the people of Syria are not free to express their political opinions, much less choose their leaders.
- David Wallechinsky,Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators(2006), p. 2