Talk:Syria

Skip to table of contents

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Syria article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: 90 days

Template:Vital article

Syria was a Geography and places good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
March 27, 2009	Good article nominee	Not listed

A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on April 17, 2011 and April 17, 2012.

This article is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Syria B‑class Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Syria, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Syria on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SyriaWikipedia:WikiProject SyriaTemplate:WikiProject SyriaSyria articles
B	This article has been rated as B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Arab world B‑class Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Arab world, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Arab world on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Arab worldWikipedia:WikiProject Arab worldTemplate:WikiProject Arab worldArab world articles
B	This article has been rated as B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Assyria B‑class (inactive)

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Assyria, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.AssyriaWikipedia:WikiProject AssyriaTemplate:WikiProject AssyriaAssyria articles
B	This article has been rated as B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Countries B‑class

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Countries, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of countries on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CountriesWikipedia:WikiProject CountriesTemplate:WikiProject Countriescountry articles

B

This article has been rated as B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

WikiProject Countries to-do list:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Check out the article alerts; see if anything catches your fancy.
Cleanup : clean-up listing for Countries
Stubs : de-stub articles in Category:Stubs by region.
Other : add {{WPCountries}} to talk pages of related articles, and assess.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Asia B‑class Top‑importance

	Asia portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Asia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Asia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject AsiaTemplate:WikiProject AsiaAsia articles
B	This article has been rated as B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Western Asia B‑class Top‑importance

	Asia portal This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Western Asia, which collaborates on articles related to Western Asia. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details.Western AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject Western AsiaTemplate:WikiProject Western AsiaWestern Asia articles
B	This article has been rated as B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Template:WP1.0

WARNING: ACTIVE COMMUNITY SANCTIONS

The article Syria, along with other pages relating to the Syrian Civil War and ISIL, is designated by the community as a contentious topic. The current restrictions are:

Limit of one revert in 24 hours: This article is under WP:1RR (one revert per editor per article per 24-hour period)

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be sanctioned.

Remedy instructions and exemptions

Enforcement procedures:

Violations of any restrictions (excluding 1RR/reverting violations) and other conduct issues should be reported to the administrators' incidents noticeboard. Violations of revert restrictions should be reported to the administrators' edit warring noticeboard.
Editors who violate any listed restrictions may be blocked by any uninvolved administrator, even on a first offense.
An editor must be aware before they can be sanctioned.

With respect to any reverting restrictions:

Edits made solely to enforce any clearly established consensus are exempt from all edit-warring restrictions. In order to be considered "clearly established" the consensus must be proven by prior talk-page discussion.
Edits made which remove or otherwise change any material placed by clearly established consensus, without first obtaining consensus to do so, may be treated in the same manner as clear vandalism.
Clear vandalism of any origin may be reverted without restriction.
Reverts of edits made by anonymous (IP) editors that are not vandalism are exempt from the 1RR but are subject to the usual rules on edit warring. If you are in doubt, contact an administrator for assistance.

If you are unsure if your edit is appropriate, discuss it here on this talk page first. Remember: When in doubt, don't revert!

Warning: active arbitration remedies

The contentious topics procedure applies to this article. This article is related to the Arab–Israeli conflict, which is a contentious topic. Furthermore, the following rules apply when editing this article:

You must be logged-in and extended-confirmed to edit or discuss this topic on any page (except for making edit requests, provided they are not disruptive)
You may not make more than 1 revert within 24 hours on any edits related to this topic

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

Further information

The exceptions to the extended confirmed restriction are:

Non-extended-confirmed editors may use the "Talk:" namespace only to make edit requests related to articles within the topic area, provided they are not disruptive.
Non-extended-confirmed editors may not create new articles, but administrators may exercise discretion when deciding how to enforce this remedy on article creations. Deletion of new articles created by non-extended-confirmed editors is permitted but not required.

With respect to the WP:1RR restriction:

Clear vandalism of whatever origin may be reverted without restriction. Also, reverts made solely to enforce the extended confirmed restriction are not considered edit warring.
Editors who violate this restriction may be blocked by any uninvolved administrator, even on a first offence.

After being warned, contentious topics procedure can be used against any editor who repeatedly or seriously fails to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process. Contentious topic sanctions can include blocks, topic-bans, or other restrictions.
Editors may report violations of these restrictions to the Arbitration enforcement noticeboard.

If you are unsure if your edit is appropriate, discuss it here on this talk page first. When in doubt, don't revert!

Template:Outline of knowledge coverage

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report 6 times. The weeks in which this happened:

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Paisleypappas1.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:36, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 29 August 2018 and 22 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nabil.belkhiria.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:36, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 August 2018 and 22 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Pauljsjr.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:36, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 5 January 2019 and 17 April 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Loramouammer.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:36, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Relative size of Aleppo and Damascus

I noticed that this article and the articles List of cities in Syria, Aleppo and Damascus have conflicting information about relative size of these cities. I realise that it must be difficult to obtain the true figures, but it would be good if someone with a knowledge of the most reliable sources on the topic could update the four articles to reflect the same information, and/or add a footnote about the uncertainty. (I have just removed the reference to size in the introductory section of this article.) Laterthanyouthink (talk) 00:29, 27 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'm from Aleppo and I think Aleppo is the biggest syrian city Hurricanestudier123 (talk) 22:46, 21 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

After the start of the civil war in 2011, Damascus has become the largest Syrian city. It is true that Aleppo was the largest, but not any more. George Al-Shami (talk) 00:14, 22 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

No Article about Moshe Maoz- a world recognized expert on Syria

Moshe Maoz as an Israeli SCholar is to my opinion perhaps the only one with minimum or almost no Zionist Bias about Syria. There is however an article on Mordechai Kedar who is deeply biased. Moshe Maos deserves an article, and now more than even for working on a summary of the uprising in Syria. The Hebrew Article is not so good and suffers of many problems as well. 84.111.208.168 (talk) 18:21, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

semi-presidential republic??

"The current constitution of Syria, adopted in 2012, effectively transformed the country into a semi-presidential republic due to the constitutional right for the election of individuals who do not form part of the National Progressive Front." This sentence needs a lot more explication to be understandable for outsiders...! — Preceding unsigned comment added by HilmarHansWerner (talk • contribs) 22:01, 1 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 27 July 2019

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

In the English language page "Syria", in section "Agrarian reform", 2nd paragraph, change "...established collective barging..." to "...established collective bargaining..." Normal-x (talk) 12:58, 27 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Done Masum Reza^📞 13:15, 27 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Country Map Update

Syria claims signifigant portions of territory it does not control, the Golan Heights and Turkey's Hatay province, as these areas are visible on the map, they should be shaded light green as territory claimed but not controlled just as similar areas are on the maps of China, India, Venezuela, Ukraine, Georgia, Japan, Moldova, Somalia, Pakistan,ect.XavierGreen (talk) 16:37, 7 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with this. Mushteeg (talk) 00:12, 11 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There is a difference between claiming and legally owning. The Hatay is recognized internationally as Turkish (despite how it was actually annexed by Turkey). The Golan, on the other hand, is illegally occupied by Israel and this is the international consensus. In short, Syria does not claim Golan, its Israel that does, and actively illegally occupy it. Therefore, if the map will be changed, then the colours of Golan cannot be the same as those of Hatay.--Attar-Aram syria (talk) 13:13, 12 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Fort Arbea near Hadrian's Wall

"The Aramaic language has been found as far afield as Hadrians Wall in Ancient Britain, with inscriptions written by Assyrian and Aramean soldiers of the Roman Empire.[53]"

1. The source provided does not call them Assyrian or Aramaean.

2. The fort has nothing to with Syria. Its builders were Iraqi. EDIT: Nevermind, they were both Syrian and Iraqi.Julia Domna Ba'al (talk) 12:58, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

3. The inhabitants were Arab, from the [Kingdom of Araba] in central Mesopotamia with Hatra as its capital, near another major Arab city Singara. EDIT: Arabs from Iraq plus Palmyrenes, who were either Arab or Aramaean.Julia Domna Ba'al (talk) 12:58, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

4. Septimius Severus's wars here, from where he relocated the "Tigris Boatmen" to England, were called the Arabian wars.

Source: Glen Bowersock's Roman Arabia (among others).

This sentence should either be removed, or edited to include accurate information. Julia Domna Ba'al (talk) 12:44, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

---

The site was inhabited by Arabs from central Mesopotamia but the inscription was from a Palmyrene emigrant (either Arab or Aramaean).

User:Makeandtoss can you edit this line? Make it:

The Aramaic language has been found as far afield as Hadrians Wall in Ancient Britain[1] with an inscription written by a Palmyrene emigrant at the site of Fort Arbeia.[2]

1- same source, the guardian article 2- Palmyra: Mirage in the Desert, Joan Aruz, 2018, page 78.

Julia Domna Ba'al (talk) 09:23, 24 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'll do that. This article was plagued by Assyrian nationalists who shoved Assyria everywhere.--Attar-Aram syria (talk) 09:35, 24 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Severan Arab matriarchs

This is wrong:

"Her great nephews, also Arameans from Syria, would also become Roman Emperors, the first being Elagabalus and the second, his cousin Alexander Severus."

"The matriarch of the family and Empress of Rome as wife of emperor Septimius Severus was Julia Domna, a Syrian from the city of Emesa"

Domna was not Aramaean, she was Arab, from the Emesan Dynasty which academics agree are an Arab family.

This has to be corrected. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Julia Domna Ba'al (talk • contribs) 13:09, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Arab Presence in Syria

I propose adding a section regarding Arab presence in Syria, from 9th-6th century wars against Assyria, then Achaemenid Arabia, then extensive Arab presence during the Seleucid and early Roman periods. Arab kingdoms like Emesa and Nabataea (which controlled Damascus for a while) are not mentioned.

"According to Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy, much of the Province of Syria was populated by Arabs" -MCA Macdonald. Julia Domna Ba'al (talk) 13:12, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This article is used as a reference by some that Arabs never had major influence over Syria pre-Islam, and it's written in a way that encourages that idea. Julia Domna Ba'al (talk) 13:19, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No mentions of Iturea, Tanukhids (around Aleppo), Salihids, Ghassanids ruling ALL of Syria under Justinian, tribes such as banu kalb, and many other. Jabiya, the cultural center of Arabs pre-Islam is located in modern day Syria. I can write a short section summarizing all this pending approval (don't want to waste me time). Julia Domna Ba'al (talk) 14:37, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There should be no subsections for ethnicities or peoples, like every other country article on Wikipedia the history subsections should reflect historical periods. You can write the content about the Arabs in the ancient and classical periods if it is sourced. I know little of the history of Syria but I feel that the Arab Nabataeans and the Arabs of Palmyra are underrepresented. Makeandtoss (talk) 15:18, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It says I can't edit if I have less than 500+ edits. Can I write it here and you add it to the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Julia Domna Ba'al (talk • contribs) 15:23, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Of course that's what I meant. Add it here with the sources and I will add it to the article. Makeandtoss (talk) 15:28, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

new data added

added new section regarding the current critical situation and new developing national crisis situation in Syria. --Sm8900 (talk) 19:30, 12 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Major economic crisis, 2020

In the "Major economic crisis, 2020" section it says "On 10 June, hundreds of protesters returned to the streets of Sweida for the fourth consecutive day, rallying against the collapse of the country’s economy, as the Syrian pound plummeted to 3,000 to the dollar within the past week.", but when I calculate it here, it says 1 USD = 514 SYP. Am I missing something? --Supreme Deliciousness (talk) 05:16, 14 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It's volatile and exchanges need time to update. It's normal. Here it says 2000: https://sp-today.com/en/

Here it says 3500:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/12/syrian-protesters-call-for-assads-downfall-as-economic-crisis-deepens

Julia Domna Ba'al (talk) 06:22, 14 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Αn additional problem with this section is that it is very poorly written. Material has been added in haphazard fashion, without any logical flow, and the same thing is repeated over and over again. Most of these additions fall within WP:RECENT and WP:NOTNEWS. The section needs to be drastically trimmed and tightened. Khirurg (talk) 18:35, 4 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ba'athist Syria

The current text contains a contradiction on the time period Syria had troops in Lebanon: It says: "In early 1976, Syria entered Lebanon, beginning their thirty-year military presence.[88]" It also says: "In 2005, Syria ended its military presence in Lebanon.[96][97]" I am not a mathematician, but fail to see how this adds up to 33 years... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2003:DF:5F4F:8734:20CC:4325:E81:F97F (talk) 16:12, 11 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You're right, it's 29 years, not 33; I fixed it. George Al-Shami (talk) 23:21, 11 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Why is there no map (polit. & geogr.)?

Wanted to look up the two places called Bani(y)as on the map of Syria, but there is no map where one is expected. Why? Arminden (talk) 12:45, 18 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

In the lead, please add “a country in the Levant region of Western Asia”.2603:8081:160A:BE2A:51BF:100C:BF87:623D (talk) 08:47, 8 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Not done. First sentence is packed as is. Levant is mentioned in the third paragraph, which I think belongs better. ◢ Ganbaruby!  (Say hi!) 03:18, 10 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 6 April 2021

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Add a line about the most recent missile strikes on Syrian land by US president Joe Biden. Edimeme (talk) 13:46, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Sincerely, Deauthorized. (talk) 23:55, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi protected edit request

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Under History - French Mandate (2.5), the second paragraph reads: In 1925, Sultan al-Atrash led a revolt that broke out in the Druze Mountain and spread to engulf the whole of Syria and parts of Lebanon. Al-Atrash won several battles against the French, notably the Battle of al-Kafr on 21 July 1925

The link of Battle of al-Kafr leads to the 1882 Battle of Kafr El Dawwar in Egypt. It should instead lead to the correct Battle of al-Kafr: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_al-Kafr

2001:8F8:1361:7F53:C1B3:A8DA:E792:6E4D (talk) 17:42, 28 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Corrected SuperiorGoat (talk) 03:18, 30 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 1 July 2022

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Please change the hyperlink in Palestine in "In May 1948, Syrian forces invaded Palestine" from Palestine the region to Mandatory Palestine. 188.247.77.83 (talk) 21:04, 1 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Qhnbgjt (talk) 11:45, 9 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 1 July 2022 (2)

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

The largest city in Syria is Aleppo. Not Damascus, which is what is mistakenly written in the introduction of the Wikipedia page of Syria. Not only do many sources prove this https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/cities/syria But wikipedia's own "list of cities in Syria" has Aleppo as the largest/most populated city in Syria. 94.205.97.129 (talk) 23:10, 1 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Qhnbgjt (talk) 11:45, 9 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]