History of Syria
The human history of the space occupied by the state of Syria begins with the oldest traces of hominins who lived in the Syrian desert almost 1.8 million years ago . Continuous settlement probably only took place much later, at the latest more than 600,000 years ago, when the African Homo erectus began to spread across the Old World, and the oldest fossil in Syria is around 450,000 years old. This developed into Neanderthals in Europe and West Asia , and in Africa at least 300,000 years ago into Homo sapiens . As recent Israeli finds suggest, both met each other 150,000 years ago in the Levant , and the descendants of these groups of hunters still carry small amounts of Neanderthal genetic material. The most important Neanderthal remains in the country were found in the cave of Dederiyeh . The immigrants evidently brought new equipment and new hunting techniques with them. A type of adhesive technology also allowed the ubiquitous use of composite tools no later than 70,000 years ago. In addition, regional cultures developed. The oldest fossil of our immediate ancestors is over 40,000 years old.
In contrast to the rest of the Mediterranean, the transition from hunting, gathering and fishing to the productive way of life was not due to an immigration process in the northern Levant, but to a local process of the indigenous population groups that extended over a much longer period of time. An earliest farming culture can be traced back to the 11th millennium BC. The complex process leading there began several millennia earlier. During this time, both before and after the emergence of the first rural cultures, monumental works were created, including the first city fortifications in the 11th millennium and with it the oldest tower in the world.
While it was previously believed that peasant culture also included the manufacture of clay or ceramic vessels from the beginning, it turned out that between 15,000 and 13,000 BC. In East Asia and Africa around 9000 BC BC hunters and gatherers made such vessels. In Western Asia, however, this did not begin until after 7000 BC. BC, when rural cultures had long since produced city-like settlements. The Hassuna culture already developed approaches to administrative activity. The breeding of pigs and cattle, sheep and goats increasingly joined the vegetable diet, while the hunt for gazelles, onagers, wild boars, but also hares lost their importance. The settlements grew significantly, and the first city-states eventually emerged. However, at the end of the 3rd millennium there was a break in settlement, presumably by cattle nomads, who were able to adapt to certain natural areas much better than farmers. At the latest with Ebla around 2400 to 2250 BC. A city of 56 hectares, which lived to a large extent from the trade in sheep's wool, but also from other widely traded products. The main competitor was Mari on the Euphrates. The Mesopotamian empires of Akkad and Old Assyria , but also the Hittites and the New Empire of the Egyptians repeatedly intervened militarily in Syria, where the Mittani became their own empire. In the phases less dominated by the neighboring empires, a number of city-states flourished.
The conquests of the Sea Peoples changed the regional balance of power after 1200 BC. Brutal BC, reinforced by the migration of the Arameans, which began in the Arabian desert . They benefited from the domestication of the camel from around 1300 BC. BC, which could also be used as a riding and transport animal where horses could not live. At the same time there was a rebirth of the city-state world. It was not until the Assyrian Empire, which took place in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. BC expanded to Syria, the region became part of a great empire again. Despite fierce resistance, the New Babylonian Empire subjugated the region, which was followed by the Persian Empire, then, after the conquest by Alexander the Great , the Seleucids , and finally the Romans.
Aramaic became the lingua franca of the Middle East; under the Seleucids, Greek was of great importance, while Latin could not establish itself permanently. Conversely, there was an "orientalization" of the Roman Empire emanating from Syria, which extended to an attempt at a corresponding state religion. In this narrow sense, the Christianization of the empire, which encompassed the entire Mediterranean area, is part of a process that began earlier, but from which the new religion knew how to break away. It became the state religion at the end of the 4th century. But there were violent disputes over theological issues. In turn, the Levant, which had been Christianized very early, played an important role, because the prevailing doctrines there were in conflict with the resolutions preferred by the emperors and established by church councils.
At the same time, the Arab tribes who were still in alliance with Persia and Eastern Europe - especially during the struggle for survival between the two great empires between 592 and 628 - joined forces to defend the teachings of Muhammad , whose followers during the first half of the 7th Century also conquered Syria. Damascus soon became the seat of the caliphs and the capital of a rapidly expanding empire, but this dynasty overthrew a conservative revolution led by the Abbasids . As a result, from 744 the city lost its central role in the huge empire between the Atlantic and the Indus in favor of Baghdad . After just a few decades, the Arabic language prevailed, and large parts of the population were Islamized, in some cases through considerable immigration.
But this empire fell apart in the course of the 9th century, and Shiite groups also managed to gain a foothold in North Africa and from there in Egypt and the Levant. With the Hamdanids , who tried again and again to dominate Baghdad, a locally bound dynasty again ruled the north of Syria and Iraq after a long time. But soon the region got into the conflict between Shiite Fatimids and Sunni Seljuks , as well as the Orthodox Byzantium. With the Crusaders, another religious group reached Syria in 1098, which owed its initial military success in large part to the strong fragmentation of power that existed throughout the Levant. At one point four crusader states emerged, above all the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Shiite state of the Assassins .
It was mainly descendants of Turkish and Kurdish groups who came to Arab countries as military slaves. They later took power, and under Saladin they finally succeeded in weakening the Crusader states for good, even if the last fortress had to be cleared more than a century later. The Turkish Mamluks of Egypt not only fought back the Mongols in 1260, but they also conquered all of Syria. In order to protect against a renewed invasion by Christian powers, however, an anti-city policy began, which among the port cities almost only favored Beirut . With the advance of the Portuguese into the Indian Ocean, the Mamluks lost their extensive trade monopoly with India around 1507/09. In 1516 they were subject to the Ottomans, who conquered the entire empire in 1516/17. In 1520/21 there was an uprising of the Damascus governor Janbirdi al-Ghazālī, but he failed at Aleppo and was finally defeated at Damascus, which was badly affected.
While a few families in the four major provincial capitals of Syria, i.e. Damascus, Aleppo, Tripoli and Sidon, achieved enormous fortunes, the flat country fell more and more behind. However, interventions in the social structure, in regional customs and traditions were neither wanted nor enforceable. In addition, the local groups followed a different school of law than the chief judge sent by Constantinople. The Ottoman tax lease system created a further alienation between the headquarters and the periphery. In addition, after 1600 religious minorities increasingly sought protection abroad, such as the Druze with the Duchy of Tuscany .
The Ottoman rule was finally shaken by the regaining of power in Egypt by the Mamluks, a development that was initially slowed down by Napoleon's attempt to intervene militarily in 1799, but was then reinforced by the rule of Mamluks Muhammad Ali . Without the intervention of the Western European powers in the years 1839 to 1841, the Ottoman Empire would have been conquered by the Albanian ruler at this point in time.
Now Constantinople tried to keep up with the emerging industrial powers, and so Syria became primarily a supplier of raw materials and food. The social pressure, especially in rural areas, but now also in the growing cities of the still sparsely populated area, led to uprisings against the landowners, who, as in the civil war in the Lebanon Mountains, combined with ethnic-religious disputes, which resulted in a massacre in Damascus in 1860 led to the Christians there. Towards the end of the 19th century there were administrative reforms, the militarization of society, large-scale investments in real estate and the development of a banking system, but also an intensification of Turkish nationalism, which resulted in genocides against Armenians during the First World War , but also judged Assyrians and Arameans . At the same time, the colonial powers Great Britain and France made promises to the Arabs for an independent state, but at the same time promised one to the Jewish settlers. At the end of the war France was awarded a mandate over Syria by the League of Nations.
During this time, the assignment of individuals to ethnic-religious groups increased, which Paris also perceived as a basic pattern and accordingly interpreted all conflicts against this background. The Alawites received their own territory, as did the Druze, then the Maronites, which justified the separation of Lebanon as a separate state, and the Kurds also demanded their own territory.
During the Second World War, the Axis powers only succeeded in increasing their influence after the occupation of France in 1940. The Vichy regime, which was dependent on Germany, initially prevailed in Syria, but the British and French occupied Syria in the Syrian-Lebanese campaign from June 8, 1941. Damascus fell almost without a fight on June 21, especially since fascism in the country lacked almost any support . Despite the declaration of independence by General Georges Catroux , Paris tried to keep the mandate. The conflict escalated towards the end of the war, so that Damascus was bombed. It was not until the joint intervention of Great Britain and the USA that Paris was forced to give up Syria in 1946.
The founding of the state of Israel, against which Syria participated in four wars, and pan-Arabism under the leadership of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser , plus a secular government, were the dominant issues of the post-war period against the backdrop of the Cold War . The Ba'ath Party, which ruled Iraq until 2003, has ruled the country since 1963 and interfered in Lebanon, which it regards as part of Syria. From 1970, Hafiz al-Assad , who put down an Islamist uprising in 1982, and which leaned on the Soviet Union , dominated Russia, later Russia, and since 2000 his son Bashar al-Assad . Since 2011 there has been a civil war, fueled by numerous groups, in which Russia finally got heavily involved, as did the USA and most recently Turkey.
prehistory
Earliest and Early Paleolithic
In Syria, both the earliest Paleolithic, the first human settlement phase beginning 1.5 million years ago, as well as the Old Paleolithic (800,000 to 350,000 years before today) and the Middle Paleolithic (350,000 to 50,000 years), i.e. the period of settlement through, can be documented Neanderthals .
The earliest human traces can only be found on the Euphrates . They go back between 1.5 million and 800,000 years. The five sites discovered along the river between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor are Maadan 1 and 5 , Ain Abu Jemaa, Ain Tabous and Hamadine. The early Acheuléen , as the associated archaeological culture is called, was only reflected in stone artefacts.
At the Orontes ( Rastan ) only artifacts were found that are younger than about 800,000 years, probably even younger than 700,000 years. In the desert in the east of the country, artefacts were discovered at the Umm el Tlel site , which were processed about half a million years ago. This site is part of the El Kowm complex , the artifacts of which could date back up to a million years. Little is known about the Middle Acheuleen in the Syrian region. One of the more important sites is in the coastal area of Berzine in the west of the country, another is Gharmachi 1 on the Orontes.
In contrast to the numerous stone implements that are less perishable, human remains are extremely rare. In 1996 a skull fragment of Homo erectus , dated 450,000 years ago, was discovered in Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar , a site that is also part of the El Kowm complex .
Middle Paleolithic
In the Middle Paleolithic , Neanderthals and anatomically modern people lived in the Middle East at the same time . Remains that could be assigned to the Neanderthal were found in 1993 in the cave of Dederiyeh . It was the first finding of a complete Neanderthal skeleton in Syria and at the same time a child's funeral.
Since there were no Neanderthals in Africa, but there were in Europe, West and Central Asia, the question arose where this Neanderthal population came from. According to Ofer Bar-Yosef and Bernard Vandermeersch, they must have come from Europe. The reason for the migration could be the glacial climate between 115,000 and 65,000 BC. That drove European Neanderthals to the Middle East, where they met anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) . A similarly independent lithic industry like the Palestinian Amudia could represent the humalien in Syria.
When modern people migrated towards the Levant (“Out of Africa”) there were apparently two high points, namely 130,000 and 80,000 years ago. The two processes were separated from each other by a drastic climate change. Occasionally, a distinction is made between Out of Africa 2a and Out of Africa 2b , whereby the first emigrants may have been defeated in the food competition with the Neanderthals (or failed for other reasons), while the second emigration succeeded.
The oldest, albeit initially controversial, figurine is now the 230,000-year-old depiction of a woman found in Benekhat Ram in the Golan region. The schematized representation of women, slightly processed from a suitable stone, was even considered the oldest work of art in the world.
Neolithic
Settlements from the PPNA date back to the time when agriculture and animal husbandry developed slowly. The rectangular houses z. B. von Mureybit come from the following epoch of the PPNB , when the Neolithic way of life had already established itself, but ceramics were still unknown. Vessels made of plaster of paris , burnt lime ( vaiselles blanches ) and stone were used. Obsidian from Anatolia indicates early trade relations.
The Halaf culture , one in the Levant as spätneolithiisch regarded culture , in addition to Syria in the north of Mesopotamia , in the southeast of Turkey is also detectable and to the border with Iran and about consisted 5900-5000 v. BC, according to other authors from 5200 to 4500 BC. The eponymous site is Tell Halaf in Syria. Characteristic were settlements covering less than one hectare, with a few larger ones growing up to 10 hectares. The main characteristic of the culture is its ceramics. In addition to seasonal agriculture, subsistence farming also consisted of hunting and shepherd nomadism.
Bronze age
In the Tell, where Ebla was uncovered from 1964, the excavators under Paolo Matthaei discovered the palace G. There were thousands of clay tablets, which above all enable an administrative and economic history, and which show that Ebla was in the 24th century BC . Was the most important city in northern Syria, whose history also went back at least three centuries. They occupy a highly centralized economy with a multitude of artisans with their food rations, and administrative posts. The flocks of sheep were owned by the king and were used for wool production. In addition to the king and the bailiffs, “the elders” played an essential role in the social hierarchy. The tables also show that Ebla was in fierce competition with Mari on the central Euphrates, which even managed to rule Ebla for about 15 years. Contacts with Egypt in the west could be documented through alabaster and diorite finds, with Afghanistan through lapis lazuli, and there were also contacts with Akkad and Anatolia.
The Ebla language , Eblaitic , was spoken in what is now northern Syria and is closely related to Akkadian . Around 2350 BC. Ebla was conquered and destroyed by the Akkadians , either by Sargon or his grandson Naram-sin . Shortly afterwards, a new city was built on the northern edge of the Tell, which was possibly in a tribute relationship to Ur III, the successor to the Akkadians. With its downfall by the Elamites coming from the north, this city too became around 2000 BC. Chr. Destroyed.
Northern Syria was part of the Mitanni Empire, around 1350 BC. It was conquered by the Hittites .
Iron age
The Aramaic empire Aram with the capital Damascus existed from the 13th century BC. BC to 733 BC From about 900 BC. Syria gradually became part of the New Assyrian Empire , which was founded in 625 BC. Was replaced by the New Babylonian Empire . The Achaemenid Persian Empire finally conquered the New Babylonian Empire and present-day Syria in 539 BC. Chr.
Greco-Roman time
Alexander the Great conquered after the Battle of Issus in 332 and 331 BC. Today's Syria. After the death of Alexander, Syria became part of the Diadochian empire of the Seleucids . In the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC, a series of military conflicts broke out in Syria between Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucids:
- First Syrian War (274 BC to 271 BC)
- Second Syrian War (260 BC to 253 BC)
- Third Syrian War (246 BC to 241 BC)
- Fourth Syrian War (219 BC to 217 BC)
- Fifth Syrian War (202 BC to 195 BC)
- Sixth Syrian War (169 BC to 168 BC)
64 BC BC Syria became the Roman province of Syria . The kingdom of Palmyra declared independence from Rome under Queen Zenobia in 267, but was defeated by the Roman Emperor Aurelian in 272. When the Roman Empire was divided in 395, it fell to Eastern Rome .
Syria under the rule of the Umayyads and Abbasids (636-945)
Shortly after the establishment of Islam by Mohammed , Byzantine Syria was conquered by the Arabs in 636 after the battle of Yarmuk . From 639 the Umayyad Muʿāwiya I ruled as governor in Syria and created a secure military power from the local Arab tribes. After being established as caliph (661), he relocated the capital of the caliphate to Damascus , making Syria the new heartland of the empire. In 750 the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids . They moved the capital to the Iraqi garrison town of Kufa and founded Baghdad as the new center of the empire.
Syrian Principalities and the Fight against the Crusaders (945–1174)
Since 902 the Hamdanids gained influence in Aleppo and Mosul and after 945 became de facto independent from the Abbasids when they came under the control of the Shiite Buyids . In their residence in Aleppo, the Hamdanids promoted Arab culture until their fall in 1002. The Fatimids were then able to expand their control over northern Syria until they were driven out by the Seljuks between 1071 and 1079 . However, they were unable to establish a stable rule, so that Syria soon split up into several small principalities.
Due to the fragmentation of Syria and the decline of the Seljuk Empire and the Fatimid Empire, the conquest of the coastal areas by the crusaders of the First Crusade (1098-1099) was made much easier. The crusaders subsequently founded the Kingdom of Jerusalem in Palestine , the Principality of Antioch , and the counties of Tripoli and Edessa . The Muslim rulers in Syria, u. a. the Assassins , soon went over to a coexistence with the Crusaders, since they controlled the most important trading centers in the Levant along with the coastal cities .
Since 1127 the resistance began under the Atabeg Imad ad-Din Zengi of Aleppo (1127–1146). He founded the Zengiden dynasty and conquered the county of Edessa in 1144. This was the trigger for the 2nd Crusade (1147–1149), which failed before Damascus. Under Nur ad-Din Zengi (1146–1174) the struggle against the Crusaders was continued and all of Muslim Syria and northern Iraq were united around Mosul. In 1168 his general Sirkuh also managed to occupy Egypt .
Syria under the rule of Egypt (1174–1517)
Sirkuh's successor Saladin overthrew the Fatimids in 1171 and founded the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt. The conflict between Nur ad-Din and Saladin was only prevented by the death of Nur ad-Din (1174). As a result, Syria was also subjugated by Saladin and part of the Ayyubid Empire of Egypt. Since Saladin repeatedly installed relatives in Syria as regents, there were power struggles within the Ayyubid family. After the Egyptian Mamelukes had defeated the Mongols in the Battle of ʿAin Jālūt in 1260 , they succeeded in integrating Syria firmly into the empire and repelling the attacks of the Persian Ilkhan on Syria. Until 1291, the last crusaders were expelled from the Syrian-Palestinian coastal areas under Sultan Chalil . The peace with the Il-Khans in 1322 led to a strong economic boom in Syria through trade with Asia , which was only interrupted by the invasion of Timur Lenk around 1400. In 1517 Syria came under the rule of the Ottomans after the Mamelukes were subjugated .
Syria under the rule of the Ottomans (1517-1832)
Syria began to decline under the Ottomans in the 17th century. Economically, the country lost its importance for the transit trade from Asia after the European traders discovered the sea route to India . European trade was so efficient that Syria later obtained the spices from Asia via Europe . In addition, the Ottomans increasingly lost control of the province to quite autonomous governors, most of whom came from the important families of Damascus. As long as the tribute was paid to the Ottomans, they could rule unmolested. The al-Azm clan controlled almost all of Syria between 1725 and 1807. The weak central government also led to increased incursions by Arab Bedouins , which led to a decline in the agricultural area. Since the 16th century, Lebanon began to break away from Syria under the Druze emirs .
Muhammad Ali's reign in Syria (1832–1840)
In 1832, Muhammad Ali overran Syria and marched into Anatolia . The victory in the Battle of Konya led to the treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi , who made Muhammad Ali the governor ( Wali ) of Syria on May 27, 1832 . The Egyptian rule was exercised by Ibrahim Pasha , the son of Muhammad Ali. This established a central government for Syria in Damascus. He founded schools, reformed the legal and tax system and promoted education. He legally equated Jews and Christians with Muslims. He stimulated the economy through various measures.
On October 10, 1840, however, the Ottomans took control again. The reason for this was an intervention by the European powers, for whom Muhammad Ali had become too powerful.
Renewed rule of the Ottomans (1840–1918)
The Ottomans took over Ibrahim Pasha's central administration and extended the reform policy ( Tanzimat ) begun in 1839 to include Syria. Bloody unrest between Christians and Druze or Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon culminated in a Christian massacre in Damascus in 1860. Under pressure from France , Lebanon was now organizationally separated from Syria and placed directly under the sultan in Istanbul . In the decades that followed, the intense Ottoman reforms also reached the Syrian economy, which began to develop. The country was connected to the Ottoman railway network and the Hejaz Railway from Damascus to Medina was built (1900–1909). The Ottoman sultan was the last vestige of the political power and independence of Sunni Islam, which was also reflected in the sultan's claim to be caliph . The fact that this railway, which was supposed to bring pilgrims to the holy places, was built with Muslim money, should arouse a feeling of togetherness in the entire Islamic world.
Economically and socially, there were great upheavals in Syria in the 19th century. From 1860, for the first time, it was possible for private individuals to register property in accordance with the new Ottoman land law. As a result, the existing urban upper class was able to bring large parts of the land under their control, which led to the fact that many previously independent farmers became tenants or farm laborers. The opening up to European imported goods led to the collapse of the existing textile manufacturing system. As a result, a large part of the working population from Aleppo and Damascus migrated to the countryside. In the province of Hawran and the areas east of Aleppo there was a counter-movement of independent farmers who tried to evade the grip of the state and the notables. Several uprisings were put down by the Ottoman authorities. The production of the 15% of the people who worked in industry and handicrafts therefore shifted towards tobacco cultivation and silk production. The expansion of silk production was carried out by French companies with foreign capital. It was produced for customers in the south of France. In 1883 the tobacco monopoly was ceded to a French private company, which was considered a symbol of colonial exploitation among the population. Due to the surrenders demanded by the European powers , foreign trade increasingly became the domain of Christian Syrians, who were withdrawn from Ottoman jurisdiction by the agreements with the Europeans.
In the First World War (1914–1918) between the Entente and the Central Powers , to which the Ottoman Empire belonged, the Ottoman Sultan, in his capacity as caliph, called for a “ holy war ” against the infidel enemies. Great Britain was therefore looking for an Arab-Muslim personality to respond to this call. The British proposal to "put the caliphate back into Arab hands" corresponded to the idea of Sherif Hussein of Mecca , who himself wanted to become an Arab caliph and leader of a unified Arab state. In return for the military support for the Arabs that actually began, the British government promised to grant an independent Arab state after the victory over the Ottoman Empire. An Arab contingent of West Arab Bedouins, prisoners of war and deserters of the Ottoman army fought on the side of the Entente powers in the conquest of Palestine and Syria. After the Ottoman Empire surrendered on October 30, 1918, the rebellious Arabs awaited the redemption of the British promises.
During the Armenian genocide in 1915/16, the Syrian desert near Deir ez-Zor was the largest concentration and extermination site for the survivors of the deportation. According to various estimates, 150,000 to 400,000 people died there.
Syria under French rule (1920-1946)
In May 1916, during the First World War, Great Britain and France signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement , in which they stipulated how they would divide the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire among themselves. Back then, the rebellious Arabs still hoped for an independent state. The agreement broke all promises they had made to the Arabs; therefore they kept it a secret. The fiction of a British-Arab brotherhood in arms should be upheld. In January 1918, the British and French governments drew up a declaration on Arab liberation, which promised sovereignty to the “peoples oppressed by the Turks”. After the October Revolution of 1917, the new rulers in Soviet Russia made the Sykes-Picot Agreement public; this made it clear that Britain and France were not even considering keeping their promises.
After the end of the First World War, Syria was initially occupied by troops from the British Empire. At the Sanremo Conference in April 1920, Syria was declared a French mandate under the Sykes-Picot Agreement , which was confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922 . The League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon encompassed the territory of today's Syria and Lebanon as well as today's Turkish province of Hatay . As early as March 1920, Faisal I , a son of the Sherif of Mecca Hussain I ibn Ali , had been proclaimed ruler of an independent Arab kingdom of Syria , which included Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan . In July 1920 he was overthrown by France and French troops occupied the country.
Originally, France did not want a unified Syrian state, but intended to be divided into six states with their own government, with religious and denominational aspects playing a role.
These intentions broke mid 1925 an uprising of the Druze responded from what France with bombings. The growing internal and external pressure (from Great Britain) finally led to the fact that the areas around Damascus and Aleppo were initially merged to form the state of Syria . In 1930 the Syrian Republic was founded. Their constitution allowed political parties. In 1937 the areas around Latakia and the Druze state were added to the national territory.
Based on the agreement between Iraq and Great Britain of 1922, a treaty was signed with France in 1936, in which Syria's independence was promised. However, this treaty was not ratified by France.
In 1939 France ceded the area around Iskanderun to Turkey - apparently in order to win Turkey as an ally in World War II . After German troops had occupied northern France ( western campaign ) and the French administration sided with the Vichy regime under Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain , free French troops marched into Syria with British support ( Syrian-Lebanese campaign ). By order of Charles de Gaulle , the mandate was ended and Syria declared independent. It was later recognized by the Soviet Union , the United States and Great Britain.
In 1945 Syria became a founding member of the United Nations and the Arab League .
France was still militarily present, which led to anti-French demonstrations and culminated in the French bombing of Damascus . After the British Prime Minister threatened to send troops and the United Nations asked France to withdraw, France gave in: on April 15, 1946, the last troops left the country.
The chronicle in detail:
- May 16, 1916: Sykes-Picot Agreement to delimit British and French interests in Syria for the period after the World War.
- October 1, 1918: Allied troops and the Emir Faisal march into Damascus .
- October 27, 1918: Sandjak Alexandrette occupied by the French.
- December 10, 1919: Formation of a Syrian national government in Damascus.
- March 7, 1920: Proclamation of an independent kingdom under Faisal (later Faisal I of Irâq ).
- April 28, 1920: Allies decide on the French League of Nations mandate for Greater Syria (confirmed by the League of Nations on July 24, 1922 and enacted on September 29, 1923).
- July 25, 1920: French troops enter Damascus and King Faisal is expelled.
- August 31, 1920: Autonomous territory of the ' Alawi (Nusairier, a Shiite sect) consisting of the former Sandjak Latakiye ( al-Lâdhikîya ), the north of Sandjaks Trablus-ı Sham ( Tripoli ) and part of the Kaza Masyâf des Sandjaks Hamâh .
- October 20, 1921: Treaty of Ankara on the border with Turkey (along the Baghdad Railway ).
- July 12, 1922: État des Alaouites (' Alawiten State).
- July 24, 1922: Sandjak Alexandrette as an independent area under Syrian mandate administration.
- 1922–1924: Fédération des États de Syrie from the État d'Alep ( Aleppo ) including Alexandrette, the État de Damas ( Damascus ), the État des Alaouites ('Alawiten) and the État des Drouzes ( Djébel druze ). But this federation only existed on paper.
- January 1, 1925: État Indépendant des Alaouites . Syria unitary state consisting of the areas of Damascus and Aleppo.
- 1925–1926: Druze uprising.
- May 14, 1930: 'Alawite area becomes Gouvernement de Lattaquié ( Latakia ).
- 1936: Alawite and Druze areas in Syria.
- January 10, 1937: Provinces of the Republic of Syria.
- 1937–39 separatist movement in the Djabal ad-Durûz, 1937 the Kurds in the Djazîra, 1939 the 'Alawites.
- September 2, 1938: Sandjak Alexandrette separated from Syria as the Hatay Republic .
- July 1, 1939: Autonomy for 'Alawites, Druze and the Kurds of the Djazîra ( Sandjak Zôr ).
- July 29, 1939: Hatay Turkish.
- April 1940: British and French aircraft began to be stationed for Operation Pike , the planned but not executed bombing of Russian oil fields.
- June 22, 1940: After France surrendered, the mandate administration remained loyal to the Vichy regime .
- June 8, 1941: British and Free French troops march in .
- September 27, 1941: General Catroux declares Syria and Lebanon independent; the French rule remains de facto .
- June 20, 1942: Territorial autonomy ended.
- August 17, 1943: election of the first state president.
- April 12, 1945: Syria becomes a member of the UN .
- May 1945: reinforcement of the French troops. Bloody clashes between French and Syrians.
- May 29, 1945: French bomb Damascus. British intervention.
- April 14, 1946: withdrawal of the last French troops.
Independent Syrian Republic since 1946
On April 17, 1946, the Syrian Republic ( Arabic الجمهورية السورية al-ğumhūrīya as-sūrīya ) proclaimed. April 17th has been the Syrian national holiday since then.
The first great challenge of the young republic was the Palestine War , which with the Nakba culminated in an obvious defeat for the Arab states. The military defeat of Syria delegitimized the parliamentary regime in the eyes of the population and intensified the politicization of the military, which the political leadership perceived as incompetent. With the military coup of the Chief of Staff Husni az-Za'im in 1949, an era of Praetorianism began in Syria, in which the military assumed a role as a shadow parliament and an independent power center in the state. Due to the fragmentation of the officer corps, however, a stable military government did not come about and the following two decades were marked by an unstable struggle between civil and military institutions for power in the state.
The period of independence was accompanied by an economic boom. The various governments tried to support this with a protectionist policy towards the closely intertwined Lebanon. With the transfer of the Syrian-Lebanese central bank to Syrian legislation in 1949 and the formation of its own central bank in 1956, the government was able to establish sovereignty over its currency. Investments in industry, especially the agriculturally dependent food and textile industries, led to a growth in the workforce. In 1946, the Syrian trade unions enforced the ban on child labor, the eight-hour day and paid leave. In the countryside, however, the social conflicts between large landowners and landless tenants intensified.
The rise of the pan-Arabist Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt also raised hopes for the creation of a common Arab state in Syria. In the run-up to the Suez War , both countries formed a joint high command; After severe tensions between the Ba'ath Party and the Communist Party of Syria , a delegation was sent to Egypt for fear of a Communist takeover, where it was decided to unite the two states. On February 1, 1958, the merger of Egypt and Syria to form the United Arab Republic (UAR) was announced.
Since the Egyptian side dominated from the beginning and determined the most important political areas, discontent in Syria grew. There were also economic problems.
A coup by Syrian officers in September 1961 ultimately marked the end of the United Arab Republic. After another coup in March 1963 , the Ba'ath Party gained power for the first time in the still divided Syria. General Amin al-Hafiz became head of state . A unification of Syria with Egypt and Iraq to form the United Arab Republic in 1963 failed because of differences between the Iraqi and Syrian wings of the Baʿth party. On October 8, 1963, Syria agreed closer military cooperation with Iraq, but this was terminated again on April 28, 1964. On April 17, 1964 riots broke out in the north of the country in which military units took part. 21 insurgents were sentenced to death by the government on May 2, 1964 for “betraying the social revolution”, others to life-long forced labor. On April 26, 1964, Syria received a new constitution with Islam as the state religion. On January 1, 1965, Syria became a member of the Arab Common Market (ACM) and continued the nationalization policy. In 1965 Syria broke off diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany due to the recognition of Israel . In order to curb unrest, martial law was proclaimed at times. Several people who defied government orders were sentenced to death.
Regime under Nureddin al-Atassi (1966–1970)
Al-Hafiz was overthrown on February 23, 1966 by a military coup by Generals Salah Jadid and Hafiz al-Assad , from which Nureddin al-Atassi emerged as the new president. In July 1966, right-wing politicians and some former ministers were arrested for alleged involvement in a conspiracy. In September 1966, further mass arrests followed because of an attempted coup. On January 7, 1967, in connection with the September putsch for “armed conspiracy”, a military court sentenced 17 officers, including 7 to death, including six defendants who were sentenced to death in absentia. On March 2, 1967, the settlement of a dispute between an international consortium with British participation against the Iraqi Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) followed, with the result that Syria received higher fees for oil transport across its territory and loading in the port of Tripoli.
After the six-day war against Israel in June 1967 and the loss of the Golan, there followed a phase marked by general dejection.
On September 17, 1967, President Nureddin al-Atassi called on the United Arab Republic ( Egypt ) and Iraq to join forces with Syria to form a “unified state of socialist Arabs” ( Arab striving for unity ). The plan fails with the right-wing Ba'athist coup in Iraq.
On March 6, 1968, the foundation stone was laid for the construction of the Tabqa Dam with Soviet financial and technical assistance. In July 1968, the Syrian press reported the breaking up of a group of conspirators who had cooperated with Western intelligence services. In August 1968, two Syrian fighter planes violated Israeli airspace.
On October 29, 1968, President Al-Atassi formed a new government in which he himself took over the office of head of government and dismissed the previous incumbent Jusuf Suajen (Zuaiyin). Suajen was accused of working too closely with the Soviet Union and of neglecting support for the Palestine fighters. In December 1968, Al-Atassi converted the country largely to a war economy .
On May 29, 1969, a new government reshuffle followed under the leadership of Al-Atassi, in which for the first time members of the Socialist Unionists (Nasser supporters) were represented alongside the dominant Baath party . During a visit by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the GDR Otto Winzer from June 3 to 6, 1968 in Damascus, the establishment of diplomatic relations and closer cooperation between the Baath Party and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) was agreed.
In 1970, Atassi, Jadid and Assad reached a final rift about Syria's attitude towards Black September in Jordan . After a coup known as a “ corrective movement ”, Atassi was replaced as president on November 18, 1970 and premier on November 21, by the military around Hafiz al-Assad , who belonged to the right wing of the Ba'ath Party , and imprisoned without a trial. His supporters split off under Makhous' leadership as the "Arab Socialist Democratic Baath Party".
Regime under Hafiz al-Assad (1970-2000)
The Nureddin al-Atassi's regime was left-Baathist. It was not clearly based on the Soviet Union , but was also based on the People's Republic of China . In connection with Black September , i.e. the support for the Palestinian resistance in Jordan, he was overthrown on November 16, 1970 by the commander of the Syrian air force and former defense minister Hafiz al-Assad . He had refused to obey his government's request to use his aircraft against Jordanian armed forces that had collided with Syrian tanks in the north of the country. While the previous Ba'ath leadership had sought to dissolve the state of Israel, Assad turned to the line the Soviet Union was taking to resolve the Middle East conflict: a negotiated solution provided that Israel vacated the occupied territories and granted the Palestinian people the right to self-determination would.
Assad had the former president and some of his supporters arrested after spending some time in prison himself for political reasons. Assad's takeover is known as a corrective movement . The 1971–1976 five-year plan provided for economic and social investment.
1st term of office 1971–1978
In 1971, Assad was elected president with 99.2% of the vote (no opposing candidates); in the same year he became general secretary of the Ba'ath party. In August 1971, the Supreme Court for State Security sentenced numerous defendants to long prison terms and sentenced five convicts to death in absentia, including former head of state Amin al-Hafiz , who was in exile in Iraq, and Baath party co-founder Michel Aflaq . In August 1971 diplomatic relations with Jordan were broken off. In November 1971 Libya granted the country US $ 48 million subsidies for armaments purposes. At least 500 Soviet military advisers were still in the country. In 1971 the economy revived, particularly due to a larger grain and cotton harvest and an increase in oil production.
On April 13, 1972, a united front of all legal parties was formed. The National Progressive Front consisted mainly of the Ba'ath Party and four smaller parties.
In September 1972 Israeli air strikes on guerrilla camps off Damascus resulted in numerous casualties. A condemnation by the United Nations Security Council failed on September 10 due to a US veto. In the meantime, tensions with Jordan eased and the borders were reopened. On December 21, 1972, Mahmoud al Ajubi formed a new government.
On March 12, 1973, after a referendum with 97.6 percent of the vote, a new constitution was passed in which the position of the state president was further upgraded and Syria regarded itself as a people's democratic-socialist state and a member of the Federation of Arab Republics . Furthermore, the Sharia would henceforth be one of the main bases of legislation (it was previously referred to as a simple source for the legislature). This followed after Assad's failed attempt to create a constitution in Syria without any religious elements, i.e. H. to introduce strictly secular and rename the state into a people's republic, which met with great resistance in the population, as this v. a. would have meant a further rapprochement with the Eastern bloc and the possibility of a Christian president, when the Alawite Assad was already distrusted. The new draft constitution stipulates that the president must be a Muslim in order to calm the majority of the Sunnis , for whom the Alawites , including al-Assad, had become too powerful. In March 1973 there were massive clashes with the security forces in Hama . In the parliamentary elections on May 25 and 26, 1973, of the 164 out of 186 seats available, 111 seats were for the Ba'ath Party , 7 for the Communist Party, 6 for the Arab Socialist Union , 3 for the Arab Socialists and 37 seats on independents.
On July 5, 1973, the first stage of the Tabqa Dam , which was built with Soviet help, was completed. On the occasion of the opening ceremonies, there were allegedly plans to assassinate Assad, so that 42 officers were executed at the end of August.
According to Israeli sources, 13 Syrian Mig-21 fighter jets were shot down on September 13, 1973 in an aerial battle off the Syrian coast , with the loss of only one Israeli Mirage IIIC plane .
The Yom Kippur War began with a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973, the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, on the Sinai and the Golan Heights, which had been conquered by Israel six years earlier in the course of the Six Day War. The Syrian army briefly managed to retake a small part of the Israeli occupied Golan Heights . In the counter-offensive by the Israelis, tank units gained terrain up to 32 kilometers from Damascus. The Syrian capital was also massively bombed by Israeli planes. Large parts of the Syrian infrastructure, including the oil refinery in Homs, were destroyed by Israeli air strikes. On October 22, 1973 the United Nations Security Council called on all parties to cease firing in Resolution 338 under pressure from the USA. When the armistice came into force on October 22nd, the Syrians were defeated. At the end of May 1974, efforts by the USA and the Soviet Union began talks on troop unbundling in the Golan Heights. The Soviet Union is increasing its support for Syria, including through larger arms deliveries.
On June 15, 1974, US President Richard Nixon and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited Syria. At the meeting with Hafiz al-Assad, the establishment of diplomatic relations was agreed. On August 7, 1974, diplomatic relations were resumed with the Federal Republic of Germany.
In 1975 several agreements on economic, political and military cooperation were signed with the GDR , Romania and the Soviet Union. On March 4, 1975, a treaty was signed with Jordan to set up a joint economic commission, and in September a joint high command was signed. The economic-technical cooperation with France was deepened and France also supplied armaments. Iran granted Syria a $ 150 million loan. On April 4, 1975, Saudi Arabia granted the country a loan of US $ 220 million. On May 12, 1975, a contract for capital aid totaling DM 180 million was agreed with the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1976 the oil pipeline from Iraq to the port in Baniyas was closed.
In 1976 the uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood began in Syria .
At a conference in Cairo from December 18 to 21, 1976, Assad and the Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat decided to create a “Joint Political Command”, which Sudan also joined on February 28, 1977 . From 1976 onwards, at the request of Lebanese President Suleiman Frangieh, Syria intervened in the Lebanese civil war and stationed more than 20,000 soldiers.
A hallmark of Assad's policy was the simultaneous expansion of relations with the Soviet Union as well as cooperation with the western states and the increase in influence in Lebanon, also through military intervention. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait granted the country development loans, among other things, for expanding the ports and the USA granted loans for postponed projects, including the construction of a large fertilizer factory. On January 18, 1977, Syria signed a cooperation agreement with the European Community . In January and June 1977 terrorists suspected of being commissioned by Iraq were hanged in public for bomb attacks and espionage.
The Egyptian peace initiative under Anwar as-Sadat with Israel again led to a break in relations with Egypt. Syria then initiated closer cooperation with Libya under Muammar al-Gaddafi , who also vehemently rejected the initiative and even culminated in the Libyan-Egyptian border war in July . In December 1977 Assad took part in the summit meeting of the rejection front against the Sadat initiative in Tripoli. Libya granted Syria a $ 1 billion loan for arms procurement in the Soviet Union, and on January 21, 1978, the two states formed a joint investment company with a capital of $ 100 million. Kuwait and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi also provided funding.
2nd term of office 1978–1985
On February 8, 1978, Hafiz al-Assad was re-elected for another 7 years in a referendum with 97% of the vote. In July 1978 Syria signed a capital and technology aid agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany. Germany supported several large-scale construction and irrigation projects with 100 million DM. In August 1978 the USA stopped economic aid for Syria.
Domestic politics included the massive repression of the Islamist opposition, which led to terrorist attacks by the Muslim Brotherhood . After another attack in the Aleppo Military Academy in June 1979, which killed 50 Alawite cadets, the government stepped up its action against the Muslim Brotherhood, in which numerous people involved in the attack were hanged.
On October 26, 1978, there was reconciliation between the Iraqi wing and the Syrian wing of the Ba'ath Party . Hafiz al-Assad and Iraqi President Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr signed a " Charter for Joint National Action Syria-Iraq " in Baghdad on the basis of pan-Arabism . On January 15, 1979, it was decided to form a Syrian-Iraqi Union , in which the areas of economy and defense should be united. The passport and visa requirements were lifted between the two countries and the common border opened. In July 1979 it was agreed to plan the union of the two states only gradually. In May 1979 the Federal Republic of Germany announced that it would grant Syria project-related development loans of 65 million DM and non-repayable technical assistance of 11 million DM. In 1979, the oil pipeline from Iraq to the port in Baniyas, which had been closed since 1976, went back into operation .
Serious unrest broke out in Aleppo on March 7, 1980, for which fanatical supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were blamed. The various groups of the Muslim Brotherhood who opposed the secular socialist reforms united in November 1980 to form the United Islamic Front .
In March 1980, Syria also withdrew its troops from the Christian quarter in the southeast and east of the Lebanese capital Beirut , leaving control to Lebanese units. With the consent of Lebanese President Elias Sarkis, the Syrian troops remained in West Beirut. The cost of the long-term intervention in the neighboring country put an enormous economic burden on Syria and for a long time Saudi Arabia was one of the most important donors.
On September 9, 1980, and on the 11th anniversary of the Libyan revolution, Assad agreed a Libyan-Syrian union with Muammar al-Gaddafi , but it did not go beyond the planning stage and failed in December.
On October 8, 1980, Hafiz al-Assad signed a 20-year friendship and cooperation agreement in Moscow with the Soviet head of state and party leader Leonid Brezhnev , which came into force on December 2. He also allowed the Soviet naval fleet with its detachment in the Mediterranean (Eskadra) to use the Tartus naval base . The Syrian armed forces also received modern tactical surface-to-surface missiles of the 9K79 Totschka type (NATO code: SS-21 Scarab) from the Soviet Union .
In April 1981 serious clashes broke out again in Hama and Homs between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian security forces. Syria, meanwhile, accused Jordan of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. The Jordanian government, in turn, accused Syria of promoting destabilization in Jordan. The dispute led to troop concentrations on the border between the two states in the spring of 1981.
In May 1981, two Syrian helicopters were shot down by Israeli fighter planes in Lebanon. The Syrian armed forces then stationed several modern anti-aircraft missile sites of the Soviet type 2K12 Kub (NATO code: SA-6 Gainful) in the Bekaa plain east of Zahlé . Israel did not want to tolerate the stationing, as aerial reconnaissance over Lebanon was dependent on national security. There was also heavy fighting between Christian militias and the Syrian army over the Lebanese city of Zahlé. Meanwhile, Israel threatened direct intervention by its armed forces against the Syrian units in Lebanon. On May 5, 1981, US President Ronald Reagan commissioned the special envoy Philip Habib to Lebanon to defuse the conflict. After a meeting of the foreign ministers of Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and the General Secretary of the Arab League in Jeddah on June 23 and 24, 1981, the situation around Zahlé eased. The Syrian units lifted the blockade of the city and around 300 Lebanese soldiers took control of the city while the Christian militia withdrew. The ruling Ba'ath Party emerged victorious from the parliamentary elections on November 9 and 10, 1981. On November 29, 1981, a bomb attack in Damascus left at least 100 dead and more than 150 injured.
A momentous uprising , again instigated by the Muslim Brotherhood, occurred on February 3, 1982 in the central Syrian city of Hama . The armed army intervened with tanks and airplanes during the 10 days of fighting, destroying large parts of the old town and killing many people (see Democide ). The crackdown on the uprising was followed by an extensive wave of arrests that broke the backbone of the fundamentalist opposition. As a result, Assad's position of power increased. On March 11, 1982, various opposition groups formed the Charter of the National Alliance for the Liberation of Syria and called for the overthrow of Hafiz al-Assad. On April 8, 1982, Syria closed the border with Iraq because, according to government reports, saboteurs and weapons were being smuggled across the border.
During the First Gulf War 1980–1988, Syria is one of the few allies of Iran against Iraq. On April 10, 1982, it banned Iraqi oil from flowing through the pipelines on its territory. This reduced Iraq's export quota to 600,000 barrels a day. The Gulf Cooperation Council, which was hastily founded due to the Gulf War, stood by Iraq's side in the event of its oil revenue failing and supported Iraq with 50 billion US dollars in loans and donations.
In June 1982 the Israeli forces launched their first campaign in Lebanon, called Operation Peace for Galilee . During the Lebanese civil war, Israel occupied southern Lebanon and fought units of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that ultimately had to surrender. During the campaign, the Israeli forces destroyed several Syrian anti-aircraft missile sites, numerous aircraft and armored vehicles, which were mainly stationed along the highway between Beirut and Damascus. From the 1980s onwards, the politico-military situation in the Middle East was increasingly influenced by the Cold War , in which the superpowers supported their respective allies economically, financially and also militarily, as well as by the increased Islamization and political disunity of the Arab states. Syria's most important foreign trade partner for the export of oil and cotton was the Federal Republic of Germany, Saudi Arabia, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and Greece.
Although military spending was a heavy burden on the Syrian economy, additional weapons systems were procured. In January 1983 Syria announced the installation of long-range air defense systems of the Soviet type S-200 (NATO code: SA-5 Gammon). On June 24, 1983, Assad called on PLO chairman Yasser Arafat to leave the country. Arafat accused Syria of opposing him in internal disputes within Fatah .
In Lebanon, a Multinational Peacekeeping Force (MNF) with soldiers from France, Great Britain and the USA was stationed in Beirut at the end of 1982 to oversee the Israeli and Syrian withdrawal from Beirut and the withdrawal of the PLO. In 1983 there were two serious bomb attacks on the US embassy and the US peacekeeping base in Beirut, which led to the withdrawal of the MNF. In response to the attacks in October 1983, the French launched an air strike on the Syrian-controlled Bekaa plain against positions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard . US President Ronald Reagan planned an attack on the Sheikh Abdullah barracks in Baalbek , Lebanon, which was suspected of being used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to train Hezbollah fighters. However, US Secretary of Defense Weinberger stopped the mission because he feared damage to relations between the US and other Arab nations. On December 5, 1983, there were firefights between Syrian troops and US soldiers after the US attacked Syrian positions in Lebanon. The next day, the Syrian air defense was able to shoot down two Israeli reconnaissance drones. Syria reiterated that troop withdrawal would only be possible after the restoration of national unity in Lebanon and called on the US to reconsider its Middle East policy.
In May 1983 in Damascus the dissidents from the Fatah movement who opposed Yasser Arafat joined forces with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) led by Ahmad Jibril , and also united the former fighters of the Syrian-controlled PLO -Group as-Sa'iqa (until 1979 under the leadership of Zuhair Muhsin ) and the splinter group Palestinian People's Struggle Front (PPSF) together to form the Nationalist Palestinian Alliance , also known as the Palestinian Rejection Front .
On June 28, 1983, on the Golan Heights near Kuneitra , six Israeli soldiers were exchanged for 291 Syrian prisoners. In July 1984, Syria and Libya signed a military cooperation agreement. On November 25, 1984, French President François Mitterrand visited Damascus. Lebanon policy played a major role in this. Mitterrand highlighted the special role of Syria in Lebanon and added that Syria should not be blamed for having "ended the Lebanese civil war". In return, Assad saw a certain recognition of French interests in Lebanon.
On January 26, 1985, the Syrian state broadcaster announced that all members of the Muslim Brotherhood who had left the country in recent years had been given amnesty by the government.
On September 9, 1985, Elie Hobeika, the leader of the Forces Lebanaises (FL) supported by Iraq under Saddam Hussein , and the Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam met in Damascus to discuss the situation in Lebanon. Further negotiations culminated in a first peace agreement on December 28, 1985 (tripartite agreement with the signing of Nabih Berri and Walid Jumblat ) with the aim of ending the Lebanese civil war. However, the agreement met with considerable resistance from Samir Geagea and other leading FL representatives and led to the violent removal of Hobeika in January 1986 and thus to no further existence of the agreement with Syria.
The heads of government of Syria and Jordan met again on October 21, 1985 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and relations normalized. In a communiqué, the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz announced that both states had agreed to recognize the resolutions of the Arab summit conferences, the Saudi Fez Plan of 1982 for the realization of a just and lasting peace within the framework of an international conference of all major parties and the rejection of separate agreements with Israel.
3rd term of office 1985–1992
In a referendum on February 10, 1985, Hafiz al-Assad was the only candidate to be re-elected for a third term of 7 years with 99.97 percent of the votes cast. Rifaat al-Assad and Zuhair Maschariqa became vice-presidents .
On February 6, 1986, Syria called the United Nations Security Council about an air incident when the Israeli Air Force intercepted a Libyan passenger plane over the Mediterranean Sea. Israel suspected Palestinian underground fighters on board (members of the Abu Nidal organization were also suspected). Syria also threatened Israel with retaliation. While Libya was subject to the US trade and economic embargo. In February 1986, 7,500 Syrian soldiers were dispatched to West Beirut to curb the activities of the Shiite terrorist Hezb-Allah and to strengthen its position as a law enforcement agency in Lebanon.
In February 1986 there was rapprochement between Syria and Jordan, among other things after the break of the Jordanian King Hussein I with the PLO.
On March 17, 1986, the Syrian government accused Iraq of being involved in a March 13 car bomb attack in Damascus that killed 60 people. Two days before the US operation El Dorado Canyon on April 13 to bomb Libyan cities, Syria officially announced that it would support Libya in the event of US intervention. On October 24, 1986, Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Syria after seeing evidence of Syrian involvement in terrorist activities on British soil. Syria also responded by breaking ties, closing its airports and airspace to British planes and ports to British ships. In solidarity with Syria, Libya also closed the airspace for Great Britain. In November 1986 the US closed its embassy in Damascus. On November 10, 1986, the Foreign Ministers of the European Community (EC) agree on further sanctions against Syria in London. These include a weapons export ban, stricter surveillance of Syrian diplomats and the cessation of political contacts at the highest level with Syria. On November 25, 1986, the terrorists Ahmad Hasi and Faruk Salamah confessed to having carried out the bomb attack on the German-Arab Society in West Berlin on behalf of Syria in March 1986. On November 26th, the Federal Republic of Germany issued further sanctions against Syria and stopped development aid.
On September 3, 1987, the US ambassador returned to Damascus. The US State Department left Syria on a list of countries that promoted terrorism.
In 1986, more than half of the national budget was spent on the military, and the occupation of part of Lebanon by around 25,000 soldiers cost Syria around 250,000 US dollars a day, according to expert estimates. Syria's external debt exceeded $ 4 billion in mid-1986.
In July 1987, the Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Özal visited Syria. It was agreed that Turkey would allow 500 m³ of water from the Euphrates to flow over the border every second . With this, Turkey wanted to counter Syrian fears that the further planned energy and irrigation projects in Southeast Anatolia with several dams could lead to bottlenecks in Syria's water supply.
In November 1987 there was a government reshuffle. Mahmoud Zuabi replaced the head of government, Abdul Rauf al-Kasm, who had been in office since January 1980 due to the catastrophic economic situation. In 1988, Zuabi succeeded in slowly rehabilitating the economy with foreign exchange income of around 500 million US dollars, thanks to a bumper harvest and the expansion of oil production in 1989. The private sector was also allowed to expand to stimulate the economy, but most of it was still controlled by the power elite. Economic growth of 7 percent was achieved in 1988 and the estimated inflation rate was reduced from 45 to 50 percent in 1987 to 15 to 18 percent in 1988.
On April 24, 1988, Assad received the PLO leader Yasser Arafat for a reconciliation talk in Damascus. On May 27, 1988, the Syrian army increased its presence in southern Beirut by 900 soldiers to end the fighting by two Shiite militias.
The Taif Agreement of October 22, 1989 ended the Lebanese civil war , which had been going on since 1975, and in terms of foreign policy, “special relations” were agreed between the two countries Lebanon and Syria. This restricted the leeway for Lebanese decisions, ultimately the sovereignty of Lebanon. The agreement provided for the withdrawal of Syrian troops, first to the Bekaa plain and then by mutual agreement. Syria's argument against a withdrawal was that it could only happen as part of a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East. That means, only after the return of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in 1967 - and later annexed - to Syria and after a solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Until 2005, Syrian troops in Lebanon guaranteed the fragile peace between the ethnic groups.
During the Second Gulf War , Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher visited the government in Damascus in February 1991 and promised the Syrians financial aid for agricultural irrigation projects amounting to 100 million DM. During the Gulf War, Syria dispatched around 17,000 soldiers to the US-led coalition forces against Iraq, including an armored division stationed on Saudi soil.
In 1990 Syria produced 430,000 barrels of crude oil per day and economic growth was again around 7 percent. As a result of Syria's involvement in the Second Gulf War on the part of the coalition forces, Saudi Arabia paid Syria financial aid totaling US $ 2.14 billion. Nevertheless, Syria's external debt in 1991 amounted to around 16.5 billion US dollars, which can mainly be attributed to the high military spending.
On October 30, 1991, the Middle East peace talks, carried out under the auspices of the USA and the Soviet Union, and later Russia, began in Madrid. In December 1991 the second Middle East peace talks in Washington led to the first bilateral negotiations between Syria and Israel. In April 1992, Assad lifted the ban on the Jewish minority living in Syria and issued an exit visa. In August and September 1992, further bilateral negotiations took place in Washington between Israel and the neighboring Arab states of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and between Israel and the Palestinians.
4th term of office 1992–1998
On December 2, 1991, Hafiz al-Assad was re-elected with 99.98 percent of the vote and no opponents. The fourth term began on March 13, 1992.
On April 15, 1992, Turkey announced that numerous activists of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which operates militarily, had been arrested in Syria .
In 1994, Assad's eldest son, Basil, who was to succeed him, was killed in a car accident near Damascus airport.
On October 27, 1994, a US president, Bill Clinton, officially visited the country for the first time since 1974 to persuade Syria to be more willing to compromise in the Middle East peace process. Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev also tried to convince Syria to resume the Syrian-Israeli negotiations. On March 20, 1995, after signing a Middle East peace treaty, Russia promised to guarantee the security of the Golan Heights . On May 24, 1995, Syrian and Israeli negotiators reached a framework agreement on the security aspects of an Israeli withdrawal from the 1967 occupied Golan Heights. Around 12,600 Israelis lived in 31 settlements in 1995. On May 26, the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin announced that in a transition phase until 1998 a normalization of relations with Syria should be achieved up to the point of establishing direct diplomatic relations. At a meeting on May 28, 1995 with PLO leader Yasser Arafat and the Moroccan King Hassan II in Rabat , Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres stated that the Golan Heights are Syrian territory and that the Israeli government has plans to dissolve Jewish ones Settlements. The new Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to hold on to a security zone in southern Lebanon and in 1996 could not further agree with Syria over the Golan Heights. Netanyahu rejected the withdrawal from the Golan Heights and the withdrawal of the Jewish settlers as a condition for the conditions required by Syria for peace. In September 1996 there were clashes with Israel over Syrian military maneuvers in Lebanon and the transfer of Israeli armored units to the Golan Heights.
On August 3, 1996, the Jordanian King Hussein I visited President Assad in Damascus and it was the first meeting after the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty of October 1994, which was rejected by Syria. In the parliamentary elections on August 24 and 25, 1996, the National Progressive Front (NPF) a total of 167 seats, including 135 seats for the Ba'ath Party and 32 seats for the NPF's micro-socialist parties and 83 seats for independents.
In January and February 1997, Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, was able to take control of large parts of southern Lebanon and fired several Katyusha rockets at positions of the Israeli army and at Jewish settlements. The Israeli Air Force then launched air strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In 1997, 14 of the 22 member states of the Arab League (namely Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates) held a meeting in Amman founded the Pan- Arab Free Trade Area Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA). In April 1998 Syria decided together with Lebanon to reject the security guarantees demanded by Israel for a withdrawal from Lebanon and insisted on further negotiations on the withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which had been occupied since 1967. On July 1, 1998, Israel decided to recognize UN Resolution 425 of the United Nations Security Council from 1978 and initiated the withdrawal of troops from the security zone in southern Lebanon.
On February 8, 1998, Hafiz al-Assad officially dismissed his brother Rifaat al-Assad as Vice President, who lived abroad until 1996. The reason for the rift was the attempted coup in 1984 where he tried with his special forces and several tanks to gain control of the capital. After the failed takeover, he went into exile in France and Spain.
Contrary to the resolutions of the UN Security Council against Iraq, on July 14, 1998 Syria agreed with the neighboring country to reopen the Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline and to build another oil pipeline. Tapline (Trans-Arabian pipeline) was opened in November 2000.
Hafiz al-Assad visited France from 16 to 18 July 1998 and French President Jacques Chirac - who visited Damascus in 1996 - praised the friendly and good diplomatic relations.
5th term of office 1999–2000
On February 10, 1999, Hafiz al-Assad was the only candidate to officially win 99.9 percent of the vote in the referendum on the office of president. His term of office was scheduled until 2006.
On October 12, 1999, the Syrian army took control of the former Vice President Rifaat al-Assad's private airfield in Latakia . There were several fatalities. Apparently Hafiz al-Assad wanted to limit his brother's influence on a possible successor.
On December 15, 1999, peace talks between Israel and Syria began in Washington. It was about the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Golan Heights, the situation of the 17,000 Jewish settlers and the water supply to the Jordan .
On January 3, 2000, a meeting between the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the Syrian Foreign Minister Faruk al-Shara took place in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, USA, without further negotiation success. After more than 100,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv against a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, negotiations with Syria were broken off and a law was passed in the Knesset that made further peace negotiations with Syria over the Golan Heights impossible, as there will be an absolute majority in parliament in future got to.
On May 3, 2000, UNESCO awarded the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to the Syrian journalist Nizar Nayyouf , who has been imprisoned since 1992 .
Hafiz al-Assad died of pulmonary fibrosis on June 10, 2000 at the age of 69 .
Regime under Bashār al-Assad (from 2000)
1st term of office 2000–2007
After Hafiz al-Assad's death on June 10, 2000, his second youngest son Bashar al-Assad became Bashar al-Assad on July 10, after a constitutional amendment regarding the minimum age of a president of originally 40 years with a majority of 97.29% (official election result if there was a turnout of 94.6%) was elected as the new president.
Baschār, who studied in London and married there, was considered more liberal than his father. The first sign of a new political course was the release of 600 political prisoners in November 2000. The Damascus Spring began: Bashar al-Assad pursued a reform course, the implementation of which, however, met with resistance from conservative forces. In general, the population hoped that the country would open up further, as had been started by Hafiz al-Assad in the 1990s. Among other things, the use of the Internet was allowed under Bashar .
On November 16, 2000, Assad amnestied around 600 political prisoners, including 100 Lebanese and 380 members of the Muslim Brotherhood . On December 11, 2000, 48 political, mostly Christian, prisoners were released from Syria who had been in Syrian custody at the end of the Lebanese civil war. In Lebanon anti-Syrian demonstrations flared up, the former Christian General of the Lebanese Forces , Michel Aoun , organized at universities in Beirut. Numerous Christians and intellectuals have called for an equal Syrian-Lebanese dialogue to restore the full sovereignty of Lebanon. As a concession, Assad ordered the withdrawal of 6,000 soldiers from Beirut, but the Syrian armed forces still controlled large areas of the Bekaa plain.
In January 2001, several intellectuals appealed to Assad for the renewal of Syrian civil society and democratic freedoms. The state of emergency in the country was partially lifted in January, but civil rights movements continued to be pressured and criminalized. The imprisoned Syrian journalist Nizar Nayyouf, who received the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in May 2000, was released on May 6, 2001 , came on June 20, 2001 shortly before a press release on the role of the Syrian intelligence service at home and abroad , arrested by a kidnapping and was only later released. In September 2001, numerous well-known opposition figures were arrested again. After demonstrations and clashes with the security services, hundreds of Syrian Kurds, including children, were arrested in the spring of 2004. More detailed economic data were published for the first time under President Bashar al-Assad. According to this, in 2001 unemployment was 45 percent in the city and 55 percent in the rural regions. Around 25 percent of all employed persons, a total of around 2.5 million Syrians, were paid by the state. On March 29, 2001, private banks were approved for the first time by law. The banking sector was nationalized in 1963. In foreign trade, the Federal Republic of Germany was one of the most important partners alongside Italy, France, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Syria exported $ 4.94 billion worth of goods in 2000, 63% of which was crude oil. Syria's external debt in 2000 was US $ 21.6 billion.
President Bashar al-Assad traveled to Lebanon on March 3, 2002 and with his visit underscored the recognition of Lebanon's sovereignty. In talks with President Émile Lahoud , Syria offered assistance in dealing with the economic crisis, including assistance in building two dams for irrigation projects and subsidized electricity and natural gas supplies. On November 24, 2002, 113 political prisoners were released, including several Muslim Brotherhoods who had been in custody since 1982.
After the Iraq war ended by the US-led Coalition of the Willing , which resulted in the occupation of Iraq, US Secretary of Defense Colin Powell visited Damascus on May 3, 2003 to discuss support for the overthrown Iraqi Ba'ath Party. Other topics included support for radical Palestinian groups and the production of chemical weapons . Syria agreed to close the Palestinian Movement offices in Damascus. In return, the USA offered economic aid after the oil pipeline from Kirkuk to Syrian Baniyas was shut down in the Iraq war in April 2003 and Syria could no longer benefit from illegal exports during the sanctions against Iraq. On June 19, 2003, the US attacked an Iraqi convoy on the Syrian-Iraqi border that was about to enter Syria. The USA suspected the ousted President Saddam Hussein in one of the vehicles. Five Syrian soldiers were also killed in the US attack.
On 2 September 2004, the adopted United Nations Security Council in Resolution 1559 to the full restoration of the sovereignty of Lebanon by the withdrawal of all foreign troops and the disarmament of militias, including Hezbollah. Syria had 17,000 soldiers stationed in the country at the time, but was not named in the resolution and Lebanon and Syria saw the resolution as interference in the internal affairs of the two countries. Nevertheless, at the end of September, Syrian troops were moved around Beirut to the Bekaa plain.
An association agreement was signed with the European Union on October 20, 2004 . This provides for political dialogue, as well as reforms in Syria. This includes agreements on judicial and cultural cooperation and the fight against crime, terrorism and illegal immigration . Syria also agreed to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The agreements with the European Union made it easier to export agricultural and industrial products to EU countries.
In February 2005, was in Beirut a attack on the convoy of Rafic Hariri committed, the former and long-time Prime Minister of Lebanon. As there were indications of secret service activities, international pressure on Syria increased. The US in particular blamed its leadership for the attack. France, too, demanded that Syria return full sovereignty to Lebanon. After further international pressure, Syria announced on March 5, 2005 that it would withdraw all troops from Lebanon. A farewell ceremony was held on April 26, 2005 at the Lebanese air force base in Rayak , and officially the last Syrian soldier left Lebanon after 28 years.
In February 2005, Assad replaced the head of the military intelligence service, General Hassan Khalil, who had been in office since he came to power, with his brother-in-law General Assef Schawkat .
On December 28, 2005, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported the signing of an oil production contract between the Russian investment holding Credit Line and the Syrian Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources in the amount of 2.7 billion US dollars.
During the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Syria criticized the attacks and several weapons were smuggled from Iran via Syria to Lebanon for Hezbollah equipment. From July 14th, Lebanon was sealed off by Israel with a complete blockade . First, sea access by the navy and air access was blocked by repeated bombing of Beirut and other airports in order to prevent Hezbollah from receiving weapons supplies by air from Syria, Iran or other states. The Israeli Air Force took control of Lebanese airspace. After that, the main land transport routes - such as the road connection via the Mdeiredsch region to Syria - and supply facilities were interrupted or destroyed by bombing. On July 29, 2006, Israel announced that it would advocate a temporary peacekeeping force that would ensure that Hezbollah was pushed out of Israel's borders and that would monitor Lebanon's border with Syria. On August 1, Assad put the armed forces in increased operational readiness and justified this with the "international situation and the challenges in the region" . That is why vigilance is needed, Assad said. On August 15, 2006, Assad officially declared his support for Hezbollah and called on the Arab nations to support Hezbollah. He also said “Israel is our enemy and does not want peace”, but at the same time named his condition for peace: “Peace would mean that Israel returns the occupied territories.” A stationing of UNIFIL troops on the Lebanese-Syrian border, the The aim of preventing arms deliveries to Hezbollah was rejected by Assad on August 23 and also during a visit by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on September 1, 2006, and would put a strain on relations with Lebanon and also constitute a hostile act.
From August 29 to 31, 2006, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez visited Damascus and declared Syria a “close ally against the imperialist aggression of the USA.” Both countries signed several economic agreements.
On December 19, 2006, Assad visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss the situation in the Middle East. Both agreed a closer cooperation. The talks also dealt with arms purchases and modernizations for the Syrian air force and air defense. The Tartus naval base used by Russia with around 300 soldiers on site is also to be modernized. The most important element was the cancellation of Syria's debt of $ 13.4 billion from previous arms purchases from the former Soviet Union. In March 2005, the Russian oil company Tatneft signed a contract with the state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) for the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas.
Diplomatic relations with Iraq were resumed on November 21, 2006, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani visited Syria from January 14 to 17, 2007 .
On February 17 and 18, 2007, Assad visited Iran and at a meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad they affirmed their rejection of US Middle East policy. On March 10, 2007, Syria took part in the international Iraq conference in Baghdad and on May 3 and 4 in Sharm El Sheikh . During a trip to the Middle East, Nancy Pelosi , Democratic Speaker of the United States House of Representatives , also visited Damascus and met Assad for talks.
2nd term of office 2007–2014
In the parliamentary elections on April 22 and 23, 2007, the National Progressive Front won again with the dominant Ba'ath Party, which received 172 out of 250 seats. The turnout was 56.1 percent. On April 24, 2007, attorney Anwar al-Bunni was sentenced to five years in prison. In 2006, al-Bunni was a signatory to the Beirut-Damascus Declaration , in which 274 Lebanese and Syrian intellectuals called for the normalization of relations between the two states. He was then arrested in May 2006 when he was about to take up a post as director of the Center for Civil Society Development, which was co-financed by the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) of the European Union . In 2006, US President George W. Bush labeled al-Bunni a political prisoner and called on the Syrian government to be released immediately.
In the presidential elections on May 27, 2007, Bashar al-Assad was the only candidate to win again with 97.6% of the vote. The turnout here was 95.9 percent.
In 2007 there were around 1.2 million Iraqi refugees in Syria, who settled in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, among other places. This created social problems as the refugees put a strain on the health and education system and were blamed for rising rents.
On September 6, 2007, Israeli fighter planes destroyed the El Kibar military facility in the east of the country in Operation Orchard . It is speculated that the facility was a North Korean- style nuclear reactor . According to the IAEA , processed uranium is said to have been found there, suggesting a connection to a secret Syrian nuclear program. The US government accuses Syria of cooperating with North Korea, but this is denied by the Syrian side.
On May 10, 2010, Russian President Dmitri Anatolyevich Medvedev visited Syria . Russia remains one of Syria's most important allies.
In Syria, after the first protest calls in February 2011, numerous opposition members were arrested. In the following weeks, thousands of people demonstrated in the city of Dar'a for political freedoms and the overthrow of the government of President Bashar al-Assad . Even the formation of a new government and the lifting of the state of emergency in April could not prevent the protests from spreading to many cities across the country. Security forces have been using violence against demonstrators since mid-March 2011. In the summer of 2011, deserting soldiers formed the Free Syrian Army , which aims to protect civilians.
In February 2012, Assad held a constitutional referendum . All references to socialism and the leadership claim of Assad's Baath party have been removed from the new constitution. However, the opposition and international observers spoke of a farce and instead called for Assad's resignation.
The election to the People's Council on May 7, 2012 follows the adoption of a new constitution in a referendum on February 26 .
On July 23, 2012, the Syrian government threatened to use chemical weapons in the event of a “foreign attack” . Chemical weapons would "never" be used "against our own citizens", "only in the event of foreign aggression," said the Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdessi, in Damascus.
On April 21, 2014, the President of the People's Council, Muhammad Jihad al-Lahham , announced the date for the presidential election on June 3, 2014.
Civil war since 2011
With the beginning of the Arab Spring at the end of 2010, a civil war broke out from 2011 onwards, with around 11,000 people killed so far, according to information from human rights organizations. On August 23, 2011, the Syrian National Council was formed in Istanbul , an opposition alliance against the Assad government. In Syria, a massacre occurred in the Hula region at the end of May 2012 . There was a great stir internationally. The Free Syrian Army was formed as an armed opposition group , which is apparently also supported by Libya and Saudi Arabia.
The United Nations Security Council under the chairmanship of India condemned on August 3, 2011 in a statement, the human rights violations and violence against civilians in Syria and called "all parties to immediately end the violence and call on all sides maximum restraint and distance of reprisal, including attacks on state institutions ”. In the run-up to the declaration, the veto powers China and Russia as well as some other members of the Security Council had spoken out against stricter wording or a resolution. Statements (statement) of the Security have lower weight than resolutions. On February 4, 2012, a resolution introduced by Morocco to the UN Security Council failed because of the veto by Russia and China. According to Russian foreign policy expert Dmitrij Trenin, Russia “felt that the drafts were unbalanced. Russia's principles are: no regime change under pressure from outside, no military intervention, no unilateral condemnation of the leadership in Damascus. What prompted Russia to veto last time was the demand that Assad's troops should leave the cities without a corresponding demand being made to the opposition forces. ”The other 13 member states supported the resolution, which had already been weakened several times because of the threatened veto .
As of April 14, 2012, the United Nations worked on sending an observer mission to Syria (UNSMIS). The mission's task is to monitor the agreed ceasefire, which came about through Kofi Annan's initiative. The observer mission was initially limited to 90 days, but was extended by a further 30 days in Resolution 2059 of July 20.
In June 2012, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping force , Hervé Ladsous , officially described the conflict as a civil war for the first time.
The head of the military intelligence service Assef Schawkat was killed in an attack on July 18, 2012 in Damascus. The Syrian Defense Minister Daud Radschha also died in the attack. On July 20, 2012, the Syrian secret service chief Hisham al-Ichtiyar died as a result of the attack.
The Syrian-Turkish conflict in 2012 also led to NATO - Operation Active Fence to protect NATO member Turkey.
According to UN figures, more than 100,000 people died up to and including July 2013, while one million Syrians had fled the country by May 2013 and four million others were on the run within Syria. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , Navi Pillay , therefore recommended calling the International Criminal Court.
On August 21, 2013, a series of poison gas attacks took place in the course of the Syrian civil war in the Ghouta region east of Damascus . An investigation by the United Nations on site showed the use of the chemical warfare agent sarin in a highly concentrated form, which was fired by means of surface-to-surface missiles.
3rd term since 2014
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In the presidential election on June 3, 2014 , Bashar al-Assad won again. With a turnout of 73 percent, he received 88.7 percent of the vote. His challengers Hassan Al-Nouri and Maher Al-Hajjaf got 4.3 percent and 3.2 percent of the vote, respectively. The election could only be held in the areas controlled by government soldiers. There were no polling stations in the opposition-occupied areas. Representatives of the Gulf States and Western nations rejected the election as illegitimate.
The 2016 parliamentary election took place on April 13th . It was a new election because the legislative period after the 2012 election was still ongoing. The election was criticized as a sham election and boycotted by the opposition. The general opinion is that Parliament has no influence.
Further international involvement in the Syria conflict
In June 2014, the United States began military intervention against the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) . From September 22, 2014, other states with armed forces took part in the International Alliance against the Islamic State .
On September 20, 2015, the Russian military operation began in Syria against the terrorist militia Islamic State and other jihadist groups, which contributed to the stabilization of President Assad's government.
The Turkish military offensive in northern Syria 2016/17 against the Islamic State (IS) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began on August 24, 2016 .
On January 20, 2018, the Turkish military offensive on Afrin began , which was held by Kurdish units.
literature
Overview works
- Peter W. Haider, Manfred Hutter, Siegfried Kreuzer (eds.): Religious history of Syria. From the early days to the present. Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1996.
- Gunnar Lehmann: Bibliography of the archaeological sites and surveys in Syria and Lebanon. Leidorf, Rahden 2002. ( Academia.edu )
Paleolithic, Epipalaeolithic
- Peter MMG Akkermans, Glenn M. Schwartz: The Archeology of Syria. From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies (c.16,000-300 BC). Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Neolithic, metal age, antiquity
- Marlies Heinz : Old Syria and Lebanon. History, economy and culture from the Neolithic to Nebuchadnezzar. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2002.
- Peter MMG Akkermans: The Northern Levant during the neolithic period. In: Margreet L. Steiner, Ann E. Killebrew (Eds.): The Oxford Handbook of the Archeology of the Levant, c. 8000-332 BCE. Oxford University Press, 2013.
- Trevor Bryce : Ancient Syria. A Three Thousand Year History. Oxford University Press, 2014.
- Emanuel Pfoh: Syria-Palestine in The Late Bronze Age. An Anthropology of Politics and Power. Routledge, 2016.
- Herbert Niehr: The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria. Brill, 2014.
- John D. Grainger: The Rise of the Seleukid Empire (323-223 BC). Seleucus I to Seleucus III. Pen and Sword, 2014.
Middle Ages to Ottoman times
- Eliyahu Ashtor: The venetian cotton trade in Syria in the late middle ages. In: Studi Medievali. P. 3a 17, 1976, pp. 675-715.
- Encyclopaedia of Islam. (EI2) sv DIMASHK, ISKANDARÛN, AL-LÂDHIKÎYA, NUSAYRIYYA, AL-SHÂM.
Ottoman rule
French mandate
- Stephen Hemsley Longrigg: Syria and Lebanon under the French Mandate. London 1958
Independence, civil war
- Werner Ende, Udo Steinbach (ed.): Islam in the present. Development and expansion, culture and religion, state, politics and law. Publishing house CH Beck, Munich 2005.
Web links
- Les villages oubliés de la Syrie du Nord. par Georges Tate, Professeur à l'université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin en Yvelines (French)
- Treasures of Ancient Syria. The discovery of the Kingdom of Qatna - Great State Exhibition ´09 Baden-Württemberg in the State Museum Stuttgart October 17, 2009 to March 14, 2010 in the Old Castle
- Excavation in Syria: Tell Shekh Hamad.
Individual evidence
- ^ Andrew Douglas Shaw: The Earlier Palaeolithic of Syria. Reinvestigating the Evidence from the Orontes and Euphrates Valleys. Oxford 2012, p. 23.
- Jump up ↑ Peter Schmid, Philippe Rentzel, Josette Renault-Miskovsky, Sultan Muhesen, Philippe Morel, Jean-Marie Le Tensorer , Reto Jagher: Découvertes de restes humains dans les niveaux acheuléens de Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar (El Kowm, Syrie Centrale) , in: Paléorient 23.1 (1997) 87-93.
- ↑ J. Haidal include: Neanderthal infant from the burial cave Dederiyeh in Syria. In: Paléorient. 21, 1995, pp. 77-86; Lynne Schepartz: Review ( memento of July 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) on Takeru Akazawa, Sultan Muhesen (ed.): Neanderthal burials. Excavations of the Dederiyeh Cave, Afrin, Syria. Auckland 2003. In: Antiquity. Sep 2004.
- ↑ Elena AA Garcea: Successes and failures of human dispersals from North Africa. In: Quaternary International. 270, 2012, pp. 119-128. On the trigger, see: Philip Van Peer: Did middle stone age moderns of sub-Saharan African descent trigger an upper paleolithic revolution in the lower nile valley? In: Anthropology. 42.3 2004, pp. 215-225.
- ↑ Silvia Schroer, Othmar Keel: The iconography of Palestine / Israel and the ancient Orient. A history of religion in pictures. Academia Press Friborg / Paulusverlag Freiburg Switzerland, Freiburg i. Ue. 2005, p. 37.
- ↑ On the chronology: Roger Matthews: The Early Prehistory of Mesopotamia. Brepols, 2000, p. 108.
- ↑ McCorriston: The Halaf Environment and Human Activities in the Khabur drainage, Syria. In: Journal of Field Archeology. 19, 1992, pp. 315-333.
- ↑ Albert Hourani: The History of the Arab Peoples. From the beginnings of Islam to the Middle East conflict of our day. Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 3-596-15085-X , p. 384.
- ↑ Volker Perthes: State and Society in Syria 1970–1989. Hamburg 1990, pp. 40-43.
- ↑ Michael Provence: The Great Syrian Revolt. Austin 2005, p. 11.
- ^ A b Report of the Commission Entrusted by the Council with the Study of the Frontier between Syria and Iraq. In: World Digital Library . 1932, Retrieved July 8, 2013 .
- ↑ Usamah Felix Darrah: History of Syria in the 20th Century and under Bashar Al-Assad. Marburg, 2014, pp. 68–75
- ↑ Volker Perthes: State and Society in Syria, 1970–1989. Hamburg 1990, pp. 50-53.
- ↑ Wolfgang Benz, Hermann Graml (ed.): Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert III. World problems between the power blocs. Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89350-989-5 , p. 128.
- ↑ Martin Stäheli: The Syrian foreign policy under President Hafez Assad. (= Contributions to colonial and overseas history. 83)., Franz Steiner-Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-515-07867-3 , p. 258.
- ↑ Trapped : The American hostage Charles Glass was released - because Iran needs Syria more than ever in the Gulf War. In: Der Spiegel. No. 35, August 24, 1987.
- ↑ : ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Israel intensifies attacks - UN Security Council advises. ) In: Reuters . July 14, 2006.
- ↑ Tagesschau : Syria's military put in increased readiness. (tagesschau.de archive), August 1, 2006.
- ↑ SDA : Steinmeier cancels visit to Syria. ( Memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) August 15, 2006.
- ↑ tagesschau.de : Comment: "Steinmeier gave away a chance". (tagesschau.de archive), August 16, 2006.
- ↑ Gabriela Keller: The Republic of Fear . In: Spiegel Online - Politics. April 3, 2007.
- ↑ Resolution of the European Parliament of June 15, 2006 on Syria (P6_TA (2006) 0279). Recitals D and E
- ^ President's Statement on the Government of Syria. December 13, 2006.
- ↑ IAEA finds a suspected uranium traces in Syria. ( Memento from February 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Calls for weekend protests in Syria. Al Jazeera , February 4, 2011, accessed February 23, 2011 .
- ↑ إعتقال زعيم التيار الاسلامي الديمقراطي في سوريا. elaph.com , February 12, 2011, accessed February 23, 2011 (Arabic).
- ↑ a b Dead and injured in demonstrations in Syria. ( Memento from March 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), In: Tagesschau . March 19, 2011.
- ↑ Assad dismisses Syrian government. ( Memento from April 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), In: Tagesschau . March 29, 2011.
- ↑ Worldwide outrage over violence in Syria. ( Memento from April 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), In: Tagesschau . April 23, 2011.
- ↑ Free Syrian Army vows to protect civilians. In: Al Jazeera English . via YouTube , November 26, 2011 (English).
- ^ Christoph Sydow: Syria in bad shape. ( Memento from July 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: zenith . February 21, 2012. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
- ↑ Assad holds referendum despite violence. In: The Standard . February 27, 2012. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
- ↑ New cabinet, old faces. ( Memento from June 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Syria parliament election 90 days after new constitution. In: Reuters . February 15, 2012, accessed February 15, 2012 .
- ↑ UN observers start work. ( Memento from September 13, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. April 16, 2012.
- ^ Security Council, In Statement, condemns Syrian Authorities for "widespread violations of Human Rights, use of force against Civilians". UN Security Council, August 3, 2011, accessed August 3, 2011 .
- ↑ "Russia will pay the price for supporting Assad". February 9, 2012, accessed February 10, 2012 .
- ↑ Veto in the UN Security Council: Russia and China block Syria resolution , Spiegel Online , February 4, 2012.
- ^ Head of the UN Blue Helmets speaks of civil war Handelsblatt.com, June 12, 2012.
- ↑ Assad's brother-in-law also dies in the attack Spiegel Online , July 18, 2012.
- ↑ Abendblatt.de
- ^ Civil war in Syria: Many dead in rocket attacks in the province of Idlib In: Spiegel Online. July 15, 2013, accessed August 6, 2013.
- ↑ UN speaks of more than 5000 fatalities in Syria. ( Memento from January 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesschau , December 13, 2011.
- ↑ Rick Gladstone, Nick Cumming-Bruce: UN Report Confirms Rockets Loaded With Sarin in Aug. 21 Attack. In: New York Times . 16th September 2013.
- ↑ UN confirms the use of neurotoxins near Damascus. In: Spiegel Online . 16th September 2013.
- ^ Report on the Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons in the Ghouta Area of Damascus on August 21, 2013 . (PDF; 3.4 MB). Report of the United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic , accessed September 16, 2013.
- ^ Opposition parties boycott parliamentary elections in Syria. In: WAZ. Retrieved April 17, 2016 .
- ↑ New Syrian Parliament convenes. In: The Standard . June 6, 2016, accessed June 6, 2016 .
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