Syria

Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the and the Levant. It borders the to the west, Turkey to the north and northwest, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. It is a republic under a provisional government and comprises 14 governorates. Damascus is Syria's capital and largest city. With a population of 26 million across an area of 185,180 square kilometres (71,500 sq mi), it is the 56th-most populous and 87th-largest country.

The name "Syria" historically referred to the region of Syria, or known as Greater Syria and Syria-Palestine. The modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization. Damascus was the capital of the Umayyad Empire and later became an important political and administrative center, alongside Aleppo, under the Ayyubid and Mamluk Sultanates and the Ottoman Empire. The modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule, as a French Mandate. The state represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. It gained de jure independence as a parliamentary republic in 1945 when the First Syrian Republic became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the French Mandate. French troops withdrew in April 1946, granting the nation de facto independence. The post-independence period was tumultuous, with multiple coups and coup attempts between 1949 and 1971. In 1958, Syria entered a brief pan-Arab union with Egypt, which was terminated following a 1961 coup d'état. The 1963 coup d'état carried out by the military committee of the Ba'ath Party established a one-party state, which ran Syria under martial law from 1963 to 2011. Internal power-struggles within Ba'athist factions caused further coups in 1966 and 1970, the latter of which saw Hafez al-Assad come to power. Under Assad, Syria became a . Assad died in 2000, and he was succeeded by his son, Bashar.

During the Arab Spring in 2011, members of the Syrian opposition organized protests against the Assad regime, which became known as the Syrian Revolution. After the government responded with lethal violence, the Free Syrian Army was formed, and the revolution escalated into a multifaceted 13-year civil war, drawing in several countries and triggering a refugee crisis that displaced more than 6 million people. Rebel advances were reversed following the emergence of the Islamic State, which occupied roughly two-thirds of Syria by May 2015. Alongside rebel and government counteroffensives, several countries led a campaign that resulted in the Islamic State's territorial defeat in 2017. Following its defeat in the four-year Battle of Aleppo, the Free Syrian Army fragmented and declined. By 2020, the civil war had become a frozen conflict, while Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) consolidated the remaining rebel groups in its stronghold in northwestern Syria. In late 2024, HTS and other opposition forces launched a series of offensives, culminating in the fall of Damascus and the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024. The Syrian caretaker government was established following the fall of the Assad regime and remained in place until it was replaced by the Syrian transitional government in March 2025, under Ahmed al-Sharaa, the new president of Syria. Post-war conflict continues following the fall of the Assad regime, involving clashes with Assad loyalists, Alawite and Druze insurgents, the former Syrian Democratic Forces, and Israeli forces.

Syria has been a unitary presidential republic since the fall of the Assad regime and is currently undergoing a political transition. It is governed by the Syrian transitional government under the Constitutional Declaration, with executive authority vested in the president. Syria is a developing country with a mixed economy. Its economy was primarily based on agriculture in its early years but deteriorated following the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011. A country of fertile plains, high mountains, plateaus, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups. Levantine Arabs are the largest ethnic group, while Sunni Muslims constitute the largest religious group. Syria is a founding member of the United Nations and the Arab League and is a member of numerous international organizations. It is also home to six UNESCO World Heritage Sites.