SYRIA: ANCIENT GLORIES, MODERN CONFLICTS

Agence France Presse — English
May 24, 2007 Thursday 1:22 PM GMT

Syria, set to reelect its president on Sunday in a one-candidate
referendum, is a country steeped in history that today is embroiled
in some of the world’s most intractable dramas.

In addition to the decades-long conflict with Israel to the south and
controversy over its role in Lebanon to the west, Syria has since 2003
found itself on the front lines of the US-led war in Iraq, to its east.

A brief factfile:

HISTORY: Since ancient times what is today Syria has been ruled,
among others, by the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines
and a series of Islamic empires concluding with the Ottoman, which
collapsed in the early 20th century.

The country is home to many historic sites, and it was on the road
to Damascus, one of the world’s oldest cities, that the Christian
apostle Saint Paul "saw the light" and was converted.

Syria’s modern borders were defined after World War I, when the
country came under French administration and was shorn of several
territories including what is today Lebanon.

Independence after World War II brought a series of coups, culminating
with a military regime under Hafez al-Assad, whose son, Bashar,
succeeded him on his death in 2000 and is still in power today.

Under the elder Assad, Syria was for many years close to the Soviet
Union and professed strong Arab nationalism, although a split with the
dominant party in neighbouring in Iraq led it to form a long-lasting
alliance with Iran.

In the 1967 Arab-Israeli war Syria lost the strategic Golan Heights to
Israel. A decade later Assad’s military intervention in Lebanon was at
first welcomed by the West but later turned sour, ending only in 2005.

Since 2004 the United States has imposed economic sanctions on Syria,
accusing it of supporting terrorism.

In recent years Syria has taken in around one million Iraqi refugees,
fleeing the effects of the US-led invasion of 2003.

GEOGRAPHY: At 185,000 square kilometres (71,000 square miles), Syria
is slightly smaller than Britain.

CAPITAL: Damascus

POPULATION: 19 million, almost all Arabs, with small Armenian and
Kurdish minorities.

LANGUAGE: Arabic

RELIGION: Muslim (90 percent), a majority of which are Sunni, but
with a minority belonging to the Allawite sect, to which the Assad
family belongs. Christian (10 percent).

ARMED FORCES: Estimated at about 308,000

ECONOMY: Syria has modest amounts of oil, and farming accounts for
around one-third of Gross Domestic Product. The World Bank classifies
Syria as a middle income counry, with a per capita GDP of 1,200
dollars in 2006.

Much of the economy is state controlled, though a modest programme
of privatisation is underway.