which are approx. 9% of the population. Most Kurds are concentrated in the foothills of the Taurus, north of Aleppo, and on the El Jazeera plateau, in the northeast. Kurds also formed communities around Jerablus and on the outskirts of Damascus. They speak their native Kurdish and Arabic and adhere, like the Syrian Arabs, to the Sunni direction in Islam. The bulk of the Kurds live in the countryside. Many Kurds lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle.
State structure
Syria is a presidential republic. It is distinguished by a centralized hierarchical system, in which all power is concentrated in the hands of the president of the country and the top leadership of the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (PASV, or Baath). This system was created after the seizure of power by military means by the Ba'athists.
Story
The modern Syrian state appeared after the First World War, when France received from the League of Nations a mandate to govern Syria and Lebanon, and Great Britain - Palestine and Transjordan. Until that time, the concept of "Syria" included these four countries and small areas in the south of modern Turkey and northwest Iraq. Thus, the history of Syria before the 1990s refers to a much larger territory (the so-called. Greater Syria). The history of the modern state of Syria begins with.
Early stages of history
Very little is known about the ancient, pre-Semitic population of Syria. The first resettlement of Semitic tribes (Amorites) took place at the beginning of the 30th century. BC.
Based on excavations in the Tell Mardiha area, it has been established that ca. 2500 BC Ebla was the capital of the state. The elected head and senate of Ebla ruled over northern Syria, Lebanon and parts of northern Mesopotamia. In the XXIII century. BC. Ebla was conquered by Akkad.
The collapse of the Seljuk state into appanages, their internecine struggle and clashes with the Fatimids facilitated the capture of northwestern Syria by the crusaders and the formation of the Principality of Antioch on its territory. Nur-ad-din, the Turkic ruler of Aleppo, united most of Sakhalin under his rule; he was succeeded in Salakh-ad-din, who annexed Sakhalin to his possessions. In after the victory at Hittin (), Salah ad-din ousted the crusaders from a significant part of the Principality of Antioch. From the 2nd half of the XIII century. Syria was under the rule of the Egyptian Mamluks, and was invaded by the Mongols. Devastating epidemics in the middle and 2nd half of the XIV century, foreign invasions, instability of the central government, tax oppression led to the XIV - centuries. to the decline of the economic and cultural life of Syria.
First Muslim period
The wealth, the level of development of crafts and the population of Syrian cities prompted the supporters of Islam to move the center of the Islamic state to Damascus (from Mecca and Medina). The Umayyad state was ruled by the Syrians, both Muslims and Christians, and the Syrian soldiers fought with the troops of the Byzantine emperors. Arabic replaced Greek as the official language. However, individual elements of the Hellenistic heritage have been preserved.
Clashes between Egyptian troops stationed in Syria and Ottoman forces in Anatolia forced the European powers to intervene and maintain authority. Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. British and Ottoman agents pushed the Druze to revolt against the Egyptian army. With the restoration of the Ottoman Sultan's power, Syria came under the Anglo-Ottoman Trade Convention.
In the last quarter of the XIX century. in exchange for granting loans to the Ottoman Empire, French companies received numerous concessions in Syria. The French invested in the construction of Syrian ports, railways and roads. As material production declined, anti-Christian and anti-European sentiments grew. European interference in the political life of Syria intensified. This contributed to the growing discontent of the local Arab elite. Ottoman rule. In the years in Aleppo, Damascus and Beirut, societies arose that advocated the independence of Syria from the Ottoman Empire. The number of these societies increased rapidly at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The national self-consciousness of the Arabs became especially aggravated with the coming to power of the Young Turks after the July bourgeois revolution in Turkey.
World War I
At the beginning of the 1st World War -18 martial law was declared in Syria. The Turkish military authorities requisitioned food and raw materials for export to Germany and Turkey. During the war, Syrian nationalists launched preparations for an anti-Turkish armed uprising. However, the Turks managed to reveal the plans of the uprising and, through mass repressions, suppress the movement of the Syrian people for the creation of an independent Arab state.
Period of French domination (1919-1943)
In July, French troops, having overcome the armed resistance of the Syrian patriots, occupied Damascus. The French occupiers, in an attempt to liquidate S. as a state, dismembered it into several small "states."
In -27 all of Syria was engulfed in a national liberation uprising. It was brutally suppressed. However, the French government was forced to change the forms of colonial government in Syria. The national liberation movement in Syria forced the French authorities to enter into negotiations with the leaders of the National Bloc party on the conclusion of an agreement based on the recognition of independence. The Franco-Syrian treaty was signed, which recognized the sovereignty of Syria, ruled out the possibility of French interference in the internal affairs of the country, and ensured the unity of Syria.
World War II and Declaration of Independence
In connection with the outbreak of the 2nd World War of 1939-45, martial law was declared in Syria in September. In winter -41 famine began. As a result of a stubborn struggle, the Syrian patriots achieved the restoration of the constitution (it was canceled in). The National Bloc (Kutla Watania) won the parliamentary elections in July.
Nominally, Syria became independent state in when the creation of a national army was announced. The country joined the UN, and also took part in the creation of the League of Arab States. However, full independence was gained only after the final withdrawal of the French and British troops, which ended on April 17. This date has become national holiday Syria - Evacuation Day.
Syria after independence
After gaining political independence, strong positions of foreign, mainly French, capital remained in Syria. The aggravation of imperialist contradictions around Syria, the intensified attempts of Great Britain and the United States to draw it into the orbit of their policy, the interference of these states in the internal affairs of the country, the struggle for power between various political groups led to political instability.
On March 8, as a result of another military coup, the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (PASV, or Baath) of Syria came to power.
The first Baathist government (March–February) followed the principles of non-alignment, pan-Arab unity, and the construction of an Arab version of "socialism". The situation changed in February. The founders of the Ba'ath were forced to flee Syria as the coup leaders sentenced them to death. The new regime undertook a series of military adventures on the border with Israel, leading to the June 5 Arab-Israeli War, in which Syria lost the Golan Heights.
On March 12, the Syrian people in a referendum approved a new constitution, according to which the Syrian Arab Republic was declared a socialist people's democratic state.
Syria hosted Active participation in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
10% - according to Wikipedia. And according to the Secretary of the Vatican for Relations with States, Archbishop Giovanni Laiolo (2006) - 1%. Perhaps the latter counts only Roman Catholics.
Plan
Introduction
1 Prehistory
2 In the shadow of ancient civilizations
3 Aram
4 Under the scepter of the Eastern kings
5 Ancient period
6 Medieval history
7 Ottoman period
8 Greater Syria Project
9 French Mandate
10 Modern Syria
Bibliography
Introduction
This article is devoted to the history of Syria.
1. Prehistoric period
About 10 thousand years BC. e. Syria became one of the centers of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, where cattle breeding and agriculture appeared for the first time in the world. The subsequent Pre-Pottery Neolithic B is characterized by the rectangular houses of the Mureybet culture. During the pre-ceramic Neolithic, local residents used vessels made of stone, gypsum and burnt lime. Finds of obsidian originating from Anatolia testify to ancient trade relations.
During the Late Neolithic and Early bronze age the cities of Hamukar and Emar played an important role.
Damascus is located in the center of the Guta oasis, which stretches from north to south for 25 km, and from west to east - for 16 km. The first mention of it is known around 2500 BC. e. although archaeological excavations show that urban population lived here already in the IV millennium BC. e. In addition to agriculture, local residents have been engaged in trade since ancient times. This was facilitated by the extremely favorable location of the city - on the edge of the Eastern Desert, near two navigable rivers, at the point where the roads diverged to the west, south, and east. In this regard, Damascus played an important role in the entire centuries-old history of Syria.
2. In the shadow of ancient civilizations
In the III millennium BC. on the territory of Syria there was a Semitic city-state of Ebla, which was part of the circle of the Sumerian-Akkadian civilization. He inherited the traditions of the Neolithic revolution, wrote in cuneiform. The Amorites were disturbing from the south, the Hurrians were advancing from the north. Subsequently, the Amorite state of Yamhad was formed on the territory of Syria, the end of which was put by the invasion of the Hittites. In the 17th century, in the zone of interaction between the Indo-Europeans (Hittites) who invaded from the Balkans and the civilizations of Mesopotamia, the local tribes of the Hurrians form the state of Mitanni. In the XV century. BC. Syria is being invaded Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose I.
One of the brightest eras of his early history were X-VIII centuries BC. e., when, after the conquests of the kings Rizon I and Tab-Rimmon, the city of Damascus became the center of the powerful Aramaic kingdom, which soon made it the hegemon of all of Syria. This dominating position remained with their descendants. At the beginning of the ninth century BC e. the son of Tab-Rimmon, Ben-Hadad I, fought with the kingdom of Israel, and seized part of northern Galilee from the Israelites. But a few decades later, the hegemony of Damascus began to be threatened by the rapidly growing Assyrians. They first collected tribute from the rulers of Syria in 859 BC. e. In order to successfully resist the enemy, the local rulers decided to join forces. The son of Ben-Hadad I, Ben-Hadad II, managed to create a powerful anti-Assyrian alliance, which together with him included the kings of Hamat, Israel, Arvad, Aman and some others. In 854 BC e. under the walls of the city of Karkara, on the banks of the Orontes River, a fierce battle took place. It was very bloody, but ended to no avail. Some time later, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III again invaded Syria, laid siege to Damascus, but could not take it.
Dangerous for the Assyrians, however, the coalition of Syrian and Palestinian rulers did not last long. Soon between the Israeli king Ahab and Ben-Hadad II (bibl. Venadad) the war began. At the battle of Rimoth Gilead in 850 BC. e. the Israelites were defeated and Ahab was killed (2 Kings 22:35). Then in 843 BC. e. Ben-Hadad II himself died - one of his close associates, a certain Gazail, taking advantage of the fact that the king was sick, strangled him with a blanket and seized power himself. In 834 BC e. The 120,000th Assyrian army approached Damascus for the second time. The king of Assyria Shalmaneser III discovered that the Syrians had taken up positions on Mount Senir, one of mountain peaks Lebanon, and dug in there. The Assyrians managed to defeat the Syrian army, and Azail himself was forced to flee to Damascus. The Assyrians surrounded the city and cut down the groves in its vicinity. Shalmaneser III was able to capture a lot of booty, but the city was not taken this time either.
Hazael, king of Syria(2 Kings 15:22), was able to keep the throne after the departure of the Assyrians, and some time later began a war with the Israelites. The Syrians were lucky and actually managed to turn the Israelite king Jehoahaz into a vassal. But in 802 BC. e. The Assyrians again attacked Syria. Adadmerari III, who led the campaign, finally managed to defeat the Syrians and capture their capital Damascus. The Assyrians then seized huge booty and completely sacked the city. Azail had to recognize himself as a vassal of Assyria. But he was again able to hold the throne and ruled until 796 BC. e. The son of Azael, Ben-Hadad III - fought several times with the Israeli king Jegoash, but everything seems to be unsuccessful - the Israelis took back all the previously lost cities from the Syrians. The son of Jehoash, Jeroboam II continued to push Damascus, and even capture vast Syrian territories, which may have included the entire Bekaa valley.
4. Under the scepter of the kings of the East
The next Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser III, decided to expand the borders of his state, and for this purpose he began to conquer westbound(that is, towards Syria). In 739 BC e. Assyrian troops managed to take Arpad. In 738 BC e. they also captured 19 more Syrian cities. Under these conditions, the Syrian rulers forgot about their strife and rallied around the new Damascus king Rhizon II. The ally of the Syrians was the king of Israel - Fakey, as well as the kings of Gaza and Edom. But the forces of the Syrians were clearly inferior to Assyria. In 734 BC e. Tiglath-Pileser III conquered Israel, and in 733 B.C. e. The Assyrians took Damascus. The city was badly damaged. The power of the Syrians was undermined. King Rhizon II was captured and executed by the Assyrians, his kingdom became an Assyrian province. After that, most of the Aramaic population was forcibly relocated to the hinterland of Assyria.
The Assyrians were replaced by the Chaldeans and then the Persians.
5. Ancient period
After the Battle of Issus, Alexander the Great, instead of pursuing Darius, moved into Syria. Parmenion captured the entire convoy of the Persian army in Damascus, and Alexander himself occupied Phoenicia. Thus S. in 332 became part of the Macedonian kingdom. After the death of Alexander Vel. S. first belonged to Antigonus, who in the battle of Issus (301) lost his kingdom and life. Syria fell to Seleucus Nicator, under whom she reached her highest development; the borders of the Syrian state reached the Oxus (now the Amu Darya) and the Indus. Seleucus and his son Antiochus founded whole line Hellenistic cities (Seleucia on the Tigris, Seleucia on the Orontes, Antioch, etc.). These newly founded cities became the main instrument for the mixture of nationalities, religion, language and culture, since their inhabitants consisted of Macedonians, Greeks and natives. The successors of Seleucus were not able to retain dominion over a vast territory; in their hands from the beginning of the II century. BC, only one S. remained. In 83, Tigran, the king of Armenia, conquered S., expelled the last Seleucids and annexed the remnants of the Syrian kingdom to his state.
In 64, after Pompey's victory over Mithridates and Tigranes, S. became a Roman province, and Judea was annexed to it. The Roman proconsuls sought to control Syria in every possible way. Antioch soon became the most important city of the province of Asia, and the third city of the whole Roman Empire; since Antioch was inland, the city of Seleucia Pieria served as a harbor for it. Both in Antioch and in the rest of S., the educated strata of society still spoke Greek and retained Greek manners and customs. S. constantly suffered from the invasions of the Parthians. With the weakening of the Roman Empire, the Palmyra kingdom appeared on the territory of Syria. Under the Eastern Roman emperors, S. fell more and more and, finally, became the prey of the Saracens.
6. Medieval history
In 635, S. was devastated and then conquered by the Arabs, who converted a significant part of the Aramaic population to Islam. In the years 660-750, when Damascus served as the residence of the Caliphs, Sakhalin's prosperity began to rise again, but with the decline of the Damascus Caliphate, the country became poorer. The crusades made S. the theater of continuous military clashes for 2 centuries. Here the Principality of Antioch was formed. In 1187, the Egyptian sultan Saladin conquered S. from the crusaders.
In 1260, the declining Ayyubid state was invaded by the Mongols under the leadership of Hulagu Khan, who captured Aleppo and Damascus, but was stopped by Mamluk forces led by Sultan Qutuz at the battle of Ain Jalut in northern Palestine.
7. Ottoman period
Syria was under Egyptian rule until it was conquered in 1517 by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. Under the Ottomans, Syria was divided into four provinces headed by governors who were directly subordinate to the Istanbul administration. In the 18th century, French influence increased in Syria. Napoleon's soldiers landed on the coast. In 1833 the Egyptian Khedive Megemet-Ali conquered S., but in 1840, as a result of the intervention of European powers, he was forced to return S. back to Turkey. In the late 1850s and early 1860s. bloody feuds broke out between the Druses and the Maronites, which demanded the sending of a French corps and ended with the founding of a semi-autonomous region of the Maronites in Lebanon. The development of an industrial society in Europe contributed to the decline of local crafts and the penetration of European capital.
8. Greater Syria Project
From Europe, through the movement of the Young Turks, the ideas of nationalism penetrate into Syria, which acquire a pan-Arab coloring. During the First World War, the Arabs, mainly from the Hejaz, together with the British, participated in the liberation of Syria from the Ottomans. When the Arab army led by Faisal ibn Hussein entered Damascus in October 1918, it was greeted as a liberator. The city was declared the seat of an independent government for all of Syria, which was perceived as the revival of the Damascus Caliphate. Faisal I traveled to a conference in Paris in 1919, trying in vain to achieve recognition of the rights of the Hashemite dynasty to rule over the Arab East. Returning to Syria, he declared himself king of Syria, twice convened pan-Arab congresses in Damascus, and drafted a constitution in 1920. He did not take into account that the UK, behind his back, agreed to give Syria to France in exchange for refusing to rich in oil Mosul region.
The end of the existence of the Hittite state was put as a result of the invasion of the “peoples of the sea” from the south and the Asia Minor tribes from the north and northwest around 1200 BC. On its territory - where the iron and silver mines of the city of Taurus were located and on the paths to them on both sides of the ridge - there remained the city-states of Tuvan (later Tiana), Melitz, the small mountain kingdoms of Tabala, and directly in Syria - Karchemish and many others smaller city-states.
The kings and clergy of these city-states left us numerous inscriptions immortalized on stone in a kind of hieroglyphic writing. These letters were created during the existence of the Hittite state. Deciphering these inscriptions by historians and scientists established that they were written in a language close to Luvian.
Relatively recently, in the southeastern part of the territory of Asia Minor, in Kara-Tepe, on the western bank of the Piram River (modern Ceyhan), archaeologists found a bilingual epigraphic monument, one of the inscriptions of which is Canaanite (Phoenician), and the other is Hittite (hieroglyphic) .
This interesting find creates possible conditions for the final indisputable decipherment of Hittite hieroglyphic writing. Thus, our knowledge of the history of the countries located in the southeastern part of Asia Minor, as well as Northern Syria, was enriched for almost five centuries, from the 18th to the 12th centuries. Quite numerous and well-preserved Hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions of the kings of the city-states of the above areas belong to these centuries.
By the end of the 2nd millennium, new cattle-breeding tribes penetrated into Syria, who spoke Aramaic dialects of the Semitic family of languages. During the first half of the 1st millennium BC. the indigenous population of Syria was completely Aramaicized. All the weakest and smallest states of Northern Syria after the collapse of the Hittite state were still independent for some time.
During excavations at the site of the capital of the kingdom of Sam "al (modern Zanjirli in the far north of Syria, east of the mountains of Aman), founded at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, archaeologists found many valuable epigraphic monuments, of which the most remarkable was the inscription The above-named king ruled in the 30s-20s of the 9th century BC It was written in the Canaanite language, obviously, the conquerors used the language of the conquered population for official purposes for some time.
This inscription said that before the accession to the throne of Kilamuwa, the mushkabim (according to the existing assumption, the mushkabim - people who belonged to the number of the local enslaved population) “bowed like dogs before the ba"aririm" (probably conquerors).
The conquerors took away cattle and other property from the conquered population, thereby making the conquered population completely dependent on themselves when performing agricultural work. The position of the conquered working population during the war became especially unbearable, when, in order to pay tribute, “a maiden was given for a sheep, a man for clothes.” Such was the plight of the conquered settled population, perhaps in all other Aramaic states.
From the inscription in Kara-Tepe it is known about the existence in the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC. on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor, the state of the Danuniites. The Danuniites were obviously one of the first tribes of warlike invaders who, from the Aegean Sea, attacked the southern outskirts of the Hittite state, which had already been somewhat weakened by that time. The Dununiites quickly conquered the local population here.
Their king named Azitavadd, who ascended the throne around the middle of the 9th century. BC, leaves us an inscription in which he declares the “commission” given to him by the god Ba-al, to conquer the nearby tribes in order to expand his state “from sunrise to sunset”.
He tried to accomplish this, in particular, at the expense of Sam "ala. King Kilamuva stated in the same inscription: "... the king of the Danunites defeated me."
But the ruler of the kingdom Sam "al called for help against the king of the Danunites, who approached his borders, the friendly Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (859 - 824 BC), who in the 30s of the IX century had a good army and committed their aggressive campaigns to the west. For help, Kilamuva paid tribute to the Assyrian king.
Some time later, apparently taking advantage of the unrest that arose in Assyria at the end of the reign of Shalmaneser III, Kilamuva freed himself from the Assyrian tribute, which by that time was already a burden to him. Kilamuwa in his inscription tells us that at this time prosperity came for the kingdom of Sam "al, and he was able to supply even the poorest of the Mushkabi cattle and other valuable agricultural property.
After the death of Kilamuwa, his successor soon joined the coalition of the kings of the extreme north of Syria and the south of Asia Minor against the kingdom of Hamat. This coalition was hostile to Assyria and, possibly, was guided by the powerful kingdom of Urartu, which arose on the Armenian Highlands.
The main city in which the supreme power of this kingdom was located was the city of Arpad, which temporarily pushed back Carchemish associated with Assyria.
Around the middle of the IX century. BC. a relatively large state of Hamat was formed, which was located in the south of Syria and had the powerful state of Assyria in its allies.
The aforementioned coalition of several states hostile to Hamat entered into a new alliance with the Aramaic state of Damascus, which took shape at the end of the 2nd millennium in southern Syria. The kingdom of Damascus was famous at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia as shopping center, which traded not only its own goods, but also resold the goods of neighboring cities of states. With the help of a new domesticated animal, the camel, it is now possible to overcome the desert land steppes of Syria.
Damascus, which became the center of the intersection of trade routes that connected the regions of Mesopotamia with the Mediterranean coast (naturally, through the Syrian steppe), and the hegemon of the petty kingdoms of southern Syria, was throughout the 9th century. the object of the longed-for predatory aspirations of Assyria.
Damascus resists and defends its independence for a long time, calling for help from other Syrian states, as well as the states of Palestine, which occasionally extended its hegemony. The kings of Damascus, together with the well-known above-mentioned coalition of the kingdoms of the North, fought against the strengthened kingdom of Hamat, which was an ally of Assyria.
One of the episodes of this war at the end of the 9th century. BC. was immortalized and survived to this day thanks to the king of Hamat Zakir, who tells about this war in an inscription-statement. Zakir, according to an inscription found near Aleppo, successfully repelled the onslaught of a coalition led by Benhadar, the king of Damascus. As a result, the coalition, having been defeated, apparently fell apart.
Devastated by constant wars, the Syrian states, weakened moreover by internal unrest, during the IX - VIII centuries. BC. were conquered by the more powerful Assyria and became part of the Assyrian state.
The last to enter the Assyrian state was the more economically fragile city of Karchemish (717 BC). Once a reliable stronghold of the Hittites, this city became a refuge for the Assyrian army in its last battle in 605 BC. against the then invincible armies of the Medes and Babylonians.
Translation for – plagioclase
Britain provided the Arabs with military assistance, promising full independence at the end of hostilities. On May 6, 1916, dozens of national Syrian leaders were hanged by the Turkish authorities in Damascus and Beirut.
In Lebanon and Syria, this day is still remembered as the "Day of the Martyrs". The Arab armies, led by the sheriff of Mecca, Hussein, soon achieved victory over the Turks, and in early 1918, the Arab-British forces occupied Damascus, ending four centuries of Turkish occupation.
Later in 1918, King Faisal I, the son of Sheriff Hussein, declared Syria an independent kingdom. However, France and Britain had their own plans. In the Sykes-Picot agreement, they divided the Middle East into French and British "spheres of influence". Syria ended up in French. In early 1920, French troops landed on the Syrian coast and, after several battles with poorly equipped Syrian units, took control of the country. In 1923, the League of Nations officially recognized the French mandate over Syria.
The Syrians decided to resist the new invaders. In 1925 they revolted against French rule. Several clashes occurred in the province of Jabal al-Arab and in Damascus. As a result of the French air raids that followed as a response to the support of the rebels, the capital suffered significant damage. In 1936, France nevertheless granted Syria partial independence by signing an agreement in Paris, while french army remained in Syrian territory and continued to exercise political influence.
During the Second World War, part of the occupying troops supported the Vichy government, which entered into an alliance with Germany, while the other sided with Britain. In 1941, the country was occupied by the British army with its French allies, promising Syria full independence after the war.
However, the French again broke their word. The Syrians rebelled again, and on May 29, 1945, French troops attacked the Syrian parliament building in Damascus, causing even more outrage and new demonstrations. The UN Security Council, having considered the issue, passed a resolution demanding the complete withdrawal of French troops from Syria. The French were forced to submit - the last French soldier left the territory of Syria on April 17, 1946. This day has become a national Syrian holiday.
The first years of independence were marked by political instability. In 1948, the Syrian army was sent to Palestine to oppose the newly formed Israel together with the armies of other Arab states. The Arabs were defeated, and Israel occupied 78 percent of the area of historical Palestine. In July 1949, Syria became the last Arab country to sign a peace agreement with Israel. However, this was only the beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
In 1949, the Syrian national government was overthrown in a military coup led by Hussni al-Zaim. Later that year, Al-Zaim himself was dropped by another military man, Sami Al-Hinnawi. A few months later, Hinnawi was overthrown by Colonel Adeeb Al-Sheshekli. Seshekli ruled the country until 1954, when the growth of public discontent forced him to give up power and leave the country.
Syria was again headed by a national government that had to face external challenges. In the mid-1950s, against the background of the strengthening of the Soviet-Syrian friendship, relations between Syria and the West deteriorated markedly. In 1957, Turkey, a staunch US ally and NATO member, concentrated its troops on the Syrian borders, threatening Syria with a military invasion.
The threat from the West was also one of the reasons for the unification of Syria and Egypt into the United Arab Republic under the leadership of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in February 1958. Nasser agreed to the unification, subject to the dissolution of all Syrian political parties. This was one of the many reasons that led to the collapse of the United Arab Republic on September 28, 1961 as a result of a bloodless military coup in Damascus.
On March 8, 1963, as a result of a coup, called the "March Revolution", the Arab Socialist Party - Baath - took power in Syria. Supporters of the "Ba'ath" dissolved parliament and introduced a one-party regime, which also did not achieve stability in view of the contradictions within the "Baath" itself. In February 1966, the right wing of the Ba'ath gained leadership of the party by proclaiming the radical Salah Jadid as national leader.
In the spring of 1967, serious clashes took place on the border of Syria and Israel. In April, Israeli officials openly threatened Syria with a military invasion. These threats, along with other important events, led to Israel's Six Day War with neighboring Arab countries. On June 5, 1967, Israel launched an attack on the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, as well as on the west bank of the Jordan River. Then, on June 10, Israeli formations attacked the Golan Heights, which belonged to Syria. As a result of two days of fighting
Syria has lost a strategic region, including the most important city - Quneitra. On June 11, at the request of the UN, the warring parties stopped fighting. Later in 1967, the UN Security Council adopted the famous Resolution 242 demanding the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied territories occupied during the Six Day War in exchange for peace negotiations and Arab recognition of Israel's right to exist.
On November 16, 1970, Hafez al-Assad, who served as Minister of Defense, led the Correction Movement, which brought stability and security to Syria after a long turbulent period. Assad, elected president in 1971 by an overwhelming majority, began to prepare his country to fight for the lost territories. He united the major political forces of the country in the Progressive National Front and revived People's Council(parliament).
The Syrians did not waste time. On October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt launched a surprise attack on Israeli troops in the Sinai and the Golan Heights. In a few days, the Syrian troops managed to almost completely liberate the occupied territories, however, thanks to the American "air bridge", the Israelis managed to recapture their positions. Syria soon found itself alone against the US and Israel. Given the cessation of hostilities on the Egyptian front, the Syrians have agreed to UN peace initiatives. The Security Council issued a new resolution - 338, demanding from Israel the withdrawal of troops from Arab territories, as well as the holding of peace negotiations in order to achieve calm in the Middle East.
For obvious reasons, the Syrians were not happy with this outcome. In early 1974 they began a war of attrition with Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. The stubbornness and moral superiority of the Arabs forced the US to settle relations between Syria and Israel. Through the mediation of the US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, an agreement was reached on the cessation of hostilities between the Syrian and Israeli troops on the Golan Heights.
In accordance with the agreements reached, Syria regained control over part of the territories of the Golan Heights, including Big City Quneitra. President Assad raised the Syrian flag over the liberated lands on June 26, 1974, but the Syrians were unpleasantly surprised to find that Quneitra and many others settlements The Golan Heights were deliberately destroyed by the Israelis. The city was never rebuilt. In order to prevent violation of the truce, UN forces were deployed between the positions of the Syrian and Israeli armies.
In 1975, a civil war broke out in Lebanon. In 1976, at the request of the Lebanese government, Syrian troops entered Lebanon. In 1982, Lebanese troops resisted an Israeli military invasion with full-scale combat operations on the ground and in the air. In 1990, Syria and its Lebanese allies ended a 15-year civil war, and Syrian troops remained in Lebanon to maintain peace and security.
In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat signed a separate peace agreement with Israel, dealing a severe blow to Arab unity. Syria was among other Arab countries that condemned Sadat's decision. According to Assad, in order to achieve peace, the Israelis needed only to return the territories occupied in 1967.
In 1980 Iraq started a war against Iran. Earlier in 1979, Islamic revolutionaries in Iran broke their alliance with the West and declared their support for Palestine. Syria condemned this war as untimely and misdirected. Few Arab countries shared the Syrian position. In August 1990, two years after the end of a fruitless and bloody war against Iran, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, a small Arab country in the Persian Gulf, which caused a wave of condemnation around the world.
Syria took part in the actions of the international coalition led by the United States in order to protect Saudi Arabia and the liberation of Kuwait. The Gulf War that followed these events ended in the defeat of Iraq and the imposition of harsh international sanctions on it. Another major Arab state was effectively knocked out of the conflict with Israel.
After the Gulf War, Syria, at the invitation of the United States, took part in an international conference on the Middle East. A conference held in Madrid in November 1991 marked the beginning of bilateral Arab-Israeli peace talks. The basis for the negotiations was a UN resolution demanding Israel's renunciation of the territories occupied in 1967, according to the so-called "territories for peace" formula. However, for many years these negotiations were frozen due to Israel's refusal to part with any Arab territories. The Arab position was further weakened when the Palestinians and Jordanians signed a separate peace with Israel in 1993 and 1994.
Syria and Lebanon, however, vowed to sign peace agreements only together, or not to sign them at all. Syria continued to support Lebanese resistance fighters, led by Hezbollah, against occupying Israeli forces in South Lebanon. In May 2000, Hezbollah managed to liberate southern Lebanon from 22 years of Israeli presence.
Syrian-Israeli peace talks stalled in 1996 when Israel refused to discuss the complete liberation of the Golan Heights. In late 1999, Israel expressed its desire to resume negotiations. They continued in the United States with the participation of Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sahar and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Negotiations stalled again in 2000 when Barak tried to exclude the eastern shore of Lake Tiberis from the treaty. Syria has made it clear that it will not give up a single inch of its land.
On June 10, 2000, President Assad died of a heart attack. On July 10, his son, Bashar al-Assad, was elected president of Syria.
The Islamic factor has a tangible impact on the internal situation and foreign policy many states of the Muslim regions. Recently, it has also acquired unprecedented significance in the international political arena. News agencies around the world report every hour about new events in a particular country of the world, in which Islamic religious and political groups took part.
The focus, the territorial base of these groups is Syria. The religion of 90% of the citizens of this country is Islam, which encourages people to associate terrorism and the Islamic faith. In the media space, one can increasingly observe the cliches “Syrian terrorists”, “Syrian suicide bombers” and so on.
Such associations fuel conflict and stimulate a sense of "Islamic danger." Suffice it to recall the bloody history that their religious cartoons provoked, and the next attacks on official, peaceful Islam, they say, the roots of the problem are in Islamic dogma. Traditional Islam, and specifically the moderate Islamic religion of Syria, has long been successfully integrated into modern world, peacefully coexists with other religions and emphasizes its rejection of extremism with all its might.
A brief excursion into the pre-Islamic period of Syrian history
Syria is located on the line of contact of several continents at once: its continental part is in contact with Asia Minor, the south of the country borders on the Arabian Peninsula, and the north - on Asia Minor. Since ancient times, Syria has been the crossroads of the largest trade routes and the point of generalization of several religious systems at once: Palestine, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia and Egypt.
The main feature of the organization of the pantheon of gods in the territory of ancient Syria was its decentralization. Various Syrian cities had their own cults, however, there was also an obligatory, "official" cult: all, without exception, the kingdoms worshiped the gods Baal and Baalat.
Folk cults are mainly associated with gods that favor agriculture: harvest, harvest, winemaking, and so on. One can also note the exceptional cruelty of the ancient Syrian cults: the deities were considered exclusively evil and harmful, which is why they had to be constantly coaxed with the help of victims, most often human.
Thus, the religion of Syria in ancient period can be characterized as a system that combines private communal agricultural cults with nationwide cults.
History of the spread of Islam in Syria
Islam began to spread in Syria at the beginning of the 7th century. Its emergence is associated with the development of monotheistic religions - Judaism and Christianity, as well as with the evolution of the religious consciousness of the population of Arabia. By the 7th century there were many people in Syria who believed in one God, but who nevertheless did not consider themselves Jews and Christians. Islam, on the other hand, perfectly fit into the situation, becoming the very factor that united the disparate tribes, "lay" the ideological basis for political, social and economic changes.
By the end of the life of Muhammad was formed in which all secular and all religious power was in the hands of Muhammad. After the death of the prophet, a situation arose when the ruler should be a person who will hold both the religious and secular components in his hands, in other words, the deputy of the prophet on earth, the “caliph”. Also occurs new form states - caliphate.
The first four caliphs, according to Arabic historiography, were called All of them were companions of Muhammad. Only one of the caliphs - Abu Bakr - dies a natural death, the rest were killed. Before his death, Abu Bakr appointed his successor Omar. It was under him that Syria, Iraq, Egypt and part of Libya came under the rule of the Caliphate. The Arabian Muslim state could already be safely called an empire.
The first task facing the caliphate was to level the old tribal cults and redirect the energy of the Arab tribes from obsolete primitive traditions to a good cause. Conquest wars became such a thing. Some time later, as a result of these wars, a small religious system grew into a world-class civilization.
The entire territory of Syria was losing ground almost without a fight. The population was pleasantly surprised by the fact that Omar's troops did not touch the elderly and children, did not mutilate the prisoners and did not rob the locals. Also, Caliph Omar gave the order not to touch the Christians and to allow the population to choose their own religion. Syria had never known such a soft approach, and therefore the local population willingly converted to Islam.
The reasons for this willing change of faith can be outlined by remembering which creed dominated Syria immediately before the coming of Omar. Christianity, by that time already quite widespread in Syria, was still incomprehensible to the people, who had only recently departed from tribal cults, while Islam was an understandable, consistent monotheism, moreover, respectful of the sacred values and personalities of Christianity (there are also Isa and Mariam - Christian Jesus and Mary).
Modern religious palette of Syria
In modern Syria, Muslims make up more than 90% of the population (75% are Sunnis, the rest are Alawites, Shiites and Druze).
The Christian religion of Syria has 10% of its population (of which more than half are Syrian Orthodox, the rest are Catholics, Orthodox and adherents of the Armenian Apostolic Church).
This ideologically justified alternative is precisely theoretical basis war against the West and against their own fellow citizens who profess Islam of a different persuasion, declared terrorists of the "Islamic State". This terrorist group is in fierce opposition to the Assad government, which adheres to more moderate religious norms and cooperates with Western countries.
Thus, despite the fact that the true Islamic religion of Syria is now stained with blood, this blood lies on the conscience of terrorists, sponsors and accomplices of terrorism. The reasons for these bloody conflicts lie in the field of politics, economics (on the territory of Muslim states there are oil and gas reserves, which are of strategic importance for the economy Western countries), but not in the field of Islamic faith. Islamic dogma is an ideological lever of extremists, a means of manipulation for their own geopolitical and geo-economic purposes.