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The name "Syria" comes from Assyria, an ancient civilization centered in northern Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq. Assyria was one of many civilizations and empires to control the region in whole or in part. These include, but are not limited to: Aram-Damascus, Egypt, Moab, Judah, Phoenicia, Babylonia, Persia, Rome, and the Arabs. By the late 13th century, Mamluk Egypt had control over the territory. However, in 1517 they were conquered by the Ottomans, who ruled over almost all of Syria for the next few hundred years. In World War I, France, Britain, and Arab rebels under the Sharif of Mecca took the territory from Ottoman hands. After the war, Faisal successfully appealed to Britain for the creation of the Hashemite Kingdom of Syria. France, however, attempted to invade Syria, starting a brief war between the newly established kingdom and the superpower. Surprisingly to many at the time, Syria triumphed; France, lacking British support, was forced to withdrawal fully in 1921.
After having won independence, King Faisal embarked on a campaign to modernize and develop his new nation. New roads and railways were built, which were then connected to new ports. He partially modernized agriculture while encouraging urbanization. He also accepted Zionist immigrants, allowing them to buy land in Syria. With the fall of the Weimar Republic in Europe, and the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933-34, Jewish emigration from Germany increased massively, with Syria becoming an important refuge for them. As more Jews began to arrive however, the Arabs of Palestine, especially Muslims, began to consider them more of a threat, protesting and even attacking their homes and settlements. King Faisal I had to toe the line between protecting his new Jewish citizens and not angering the Arab Muslim majority in the country.
Syria remained neutral throughout the first part of World War II, joining in mid-1941. After the war, Jewish immigration reached yet another record height. Though it abated during the next few years, violence in Palestine exploded, with the king all but powerless to stop it. In 1951, the king relinquished power to parliament, resulting in the creation of the new Levantine Federation. The new constitution was drafted and signed by members of all the major ethnic and religious groups, including Muslim and Christian Arabs, Jews, Nusayrites, Kurds, Assyrians, and Druze. Syria was spared from the unstable and tumultuous times of its neighbors, Iraq and Egypt, during the Cold War by the stability this new constitution allowed for. Violence in Palestine continued through the 1950s and into the early 1960s, and in some ways persists to this day. However, through the creation of Jewish and Arab provinces in the region, violence decreased quite a lot, and the combined efforts of Jewish and Arab authorities, as well as the central government, quelled the worst of the terrorism and attacks on both sides.
Throughout the Cold War in the Arab world, Arab nationalists, Islamists, monarchists, Zionists, and other forces threatened to rip the country apart or descend it into a civil war. The majority of people, however, wanted the wealthy and prosperous federation to remain whole, and the country faced very little instability compared to other states in the region. The worst challenge was the rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser's popular brand of Arab nationalism. After Nasser's death in 1970, the movement descended into chaos, fracturing as its leaders fought amongst themselves, drastically decreasing its popularity. The Iranian Revolution in 1979 threatened Syrian stability again, increasing Islamist thought amongst the people, especially Shi'ites, though only for a time; the country remained in tact and in relative peace through this troublesome period and into the much stabler world of today.
Syria in modern times is a prosperous hub for tourism and business, and a stable beacon of democracy in the MENA region. Through generous welfare programs and and a free society, the nation has achieved a level of wealth, both for its government and its people, that is unrivaled in the Middle East. Syria is an exporter of many goods, including oil, natural gas, wine, vegetables, meat, clothing, and electronics. It also has a large defence industry made necessary by the tensions of the Cold War, and has been a major exporter of small arms, APCs, and IFVs; Syria has also begun exporting combat drones in recent years. Since 2003, Islamic terror has become a new challenge for the Syrian security services. The Islamic State in 2014 began an invasion of Syria from western Iraq, causing a new war that would claims thousands of lives. Even after the fall of IS, small cells, both al-Qaeda affiliates and IS remnants have carried out numerous small-scale attacks, mostly in the eastern desert around Palmyra. Larger attacks, focused on major cities and especially minorities, have mostly been thwarted by Syrian security forces. Some exceptions were in the 2015 Jerusalem bus attack, and the 2016 suicide bombings across northern Syria. Since 2018, Syria has experienced far less attacks, as most of the remaining terrorist cells have been killed or captured.
Several sources indicate that the name Syria is derived from the 8th century BC Luwian term "Sura/i", and the derivative ancient Greek name: Σύριοι, Sýrioi, or Σύροι, Sýroi, both of which originally derived from Aššūr (Assyria) in northern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). However, from the Seleucid Empire (323–150 BC), this term was also applied to the Levant, and from this point the Greeks applied the term without distinction between the Assyrians of Mesopotamia and Arameans of the Levant. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favors the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, ultimately derived from the AkkadianAššur. The Greek name appears to correspond to Phoenicianʾšr "Assur", ʾšrym "Assyrians", recorded in the 8th century BC Çineköy inscription.
Medieval Italians called the region Levante after its easterly location where the sun "rises"; this term was adopted from Italian and French into many other languages.
Anatomically modern humans are believed to have inhabited the Levant since at least 800,000 BC.
Since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of the centers of Neolithic culture, where agriculture and cattle breeding first began to appear. The Neolithic is traditionally divided to the Pre-Pottery (A and B), starting around 12,000 years ago, and Pottery Late Neolithic phases, beginning around 8,500 years ago. Pre-Pottery Neolithic A developed from the earlier Natufian cultures of the area. This is the time of the Neolithic Revolution and development of agricultural economies in the Near East. In addition, the Levant in the Neolithic was involved in large scale, far reaching trade. Trade on an impressive scale and covering large distances continued during the Chalcolithic (c. 4500–3300 BCE). Obsidian found in the Chalcolithic levels north of Khirbat Futais in Palestine have had their origins traced via elemental analysis to three sources in Southern Anatolia: Hotamis Dağ, Göllü Dağ, and as far east as Nemrut Dağ, 500 km (310 mi) east of the other two sources. This is indicative of a very large trade circle reaching as far as the Northern Fertile Crescent at these three Anatolian sites.
The urban development of Canaan lagged considerably behind that of Egypt and Mesopotamia and even that of northern Syria, where from 3,500 BC a sizable city developed at Hamoukar. This city, which was conquered, probably by people coming from the Southern Iraqi city of Uruk, saw the first connections between Syria and Southern Iraq that some have suggested lie behind the patriarchal traditions. Urban development again began culminating in Early Bronze Age sites like Ebla, which by 2,300 BC, was incorporated once again into the Empire of Sargon, and then Naram-Sin of Akkad (Biblical Accad). The archives of Ebla show reference to a number of Biblical sites, including Hazor, Jerusalem, and a number of people have claimed, also to Sodom and Gomorrah, mentioned in the patriarchal records. The collapse of the Akkadian Empire, saw the arrival of peoples using Khirbet Kerak Ware pottery, coming originally from the Zagros Mountains, east of the Tigris. It is suspected by some Ur seals that this event marks the arrival in Syria of the Hurrians, people later known in the Biblical tradition possibly as Horites.
First kingdom of Ebla, c. 3000-2300 BC
The following Middle Bronze Age period was initiated by the arrival of "Amorites" from Syria into Southern Iraq, an event which some associated with the arrival of Abraham's family in Ur. This period saw the pinnacle of urban development in the area of Syria. Archaeologists show that the chief state at this time was the city of Hazor, which may have been the capital of the land of Israel. This is also the period in which Semites began to appear in larger numbers in the Nile delta region of Egypt.
The Early Bronze Age period was dominated by the East Semitic-speaking kingdoms of Ebla, Nagar and the Mari. Ebla has been described as the world's first recorded superpower, controlling much of present-day Syria. At its greatest extent, Ebla controlled an area roughly a quarter the size of modern Syria, from Ursa'um in the north, to the area around Damascus in the south, and from Phoenicia and the coastal mountains in the west, to Haddu in the east, and had more than sixty vassal kingdoms and city-states. Scholars believe the language of Ebla to be among the oldest known written Semitic languages after Akkadian. Ebla was weakened by a long war with Mari, and the whole of Syria became part of the Mesopotamian Akkadian Empire after Sargon of Akkad and his grandson Naram-Sin's conquests ended Eblan domination over Syria in the first half of the 23rd century BC.
The Akkadian Empire ruled northern parts of Syria until it collapsed due to the 4.2 kya aridification event. The event prompted large-scale movement of population from Upper Mesopotamia towards the Levant and Lower Mesopotamia, which brought about many Amorites to Sumer, and correlates with a subsequent influx and settlement expansion in many regions of Syria.
Three principal Syrian kingdoms: Mari, Qatna and Yamhad c. 18th century BC
In northern Mesopotamia, the Amorite warlord Shamshi-Adad I conquered much of Assyria and formed the large, though short-lived Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia. In the Levant, Amorite dynasties ruled various kingdoms of Qatna, Ebla and Yamhad, which also had a significant Hurrian population. Mari was similarly ruled by the Amorite Lim dynasty which belonged to the pastoral Amorites known as the Haneans, who were split into the Banu-Yamina (sons of the right) and Banu-Simaal (sons of the left) tribes. Mari was in direct conflict with another Semitic peoples, the Suteans who inhabited nearby Suhum.
By the 16th and 15th centuries bc, most of the major urban centers in the Levant had been overran and went into steep decline. Mari was destroyed and reduced in a series of wars and conflicts with Babylon, while Yamhad and Ebla were conquered and completely destroyed by Hittite king Mursili I in about 1600 bc. In northern Mesopotamia, the era ended with the defeat of the Amorite states by Puzur-Sin and Adasi between 1740 and 1735 bc, and the rise of the native Sealand Dynasty. In Egypt, Ahmose I managed to expel the Levantine Hyksos rulers from power, pushing Egypt's borders further into Canaan. The Amorites were eventually absorbed by another West Semitic-speaking people known collectively as the Ahlamu. The Arameans rose to be the prominent group amongst the Ahlamu, and from c. 1200 bc on, the Amorites disappeared from the pages of history.
Between 1550 and 1170 bc, much of the Levant was contested between Egypt and the Hittites.
During the 12th century BC, between c. 1200 and 1150, all of these powers suddenly collapsed. Centralized state systems collapsed, and the region was hit by famine. Chaos ensued throughout the region, and many urban centers were burnt to the ground by famine-struck natives and an assortment of raiders known as the Sea Peoples, who eventually settled in the Levant. The Sea Peoples' origins are ambiguous and many theories have proposed them to be Trojans, Sardinians, Achaeans, Sicilians or Lycians. The Hittite empire was destroyed, and its capital Tarḫuntašša was razed to the ground. Egypt repelled its attackers with only a major effort, and over the next century shrank to its territorial core, its central authority permanently weakened.
Aramaeans came to dominate much of Syria, establishing kingdoms and tribal polities throughout the land. Accompanied by the Suteans, the Aramaeans overran large parts of Mesopotamia around 1100 BC bar Assyria itself. It was around this time that Assyrian texts of the 9th century BC first mention the Arabs (Aribi), who inhabited swaths of land in the Levant and Babylonia. Their presence intermingled with the Aramaeans, and they are variously mentioned in the Babylon border region, Orontes valley, Homs, Damascus, Hauran, Bekaa valley in Lebanon and Wadi Sirhan, where the Arab king Gindibu of Qedar ruled from. One such example is the land of Laqē near Terqa, mentioned in a inscription by Adad-nirari II (911–891 BC), where Aramaean and Arab clans formed a confederacy.
Kingdoms in southern Syria c. 9th century BC
Further west, the Levantine coast was settled by the Sea Peoples, notably the Philistines around today's Gaza Strip. The Phoenician city-states in Canaan managed to escape the destruction that ensued in the Late Bronze age collapse, and developed into commercial maritime powers with established colonies across the Mediterranean Sea.
In the southern Levant, new Canaanite groups emerged in the southern Levant during early Iron Age. In Palestine, the Israelites gradually established many small communities that dotted the central highlands, while the Philistines, a group of Aegean immigrants arrived in the southern shore of Canaan around 1175 BCE and settled there. In Transjordan, three Canaanite kingdoms—Moab, Ammon and Edom—began to arose at about the same period. The 10th and 9th centuries BCE saw the emergence of several territorial kingdoms in the southern Levant. Two Israelite kingdoms emerged: the Kingdom of Israel, which ruled over the areas of Samaria, Galilee, Sharon and parts of Transjordan, and had its capital for the most of its history in the city of Samaria, and the Kingdom of Judah, which controlled the Judaean Mountains, most of the Shfela, and the northern Naqab, and had its capital in Jerusalem.
Unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Iron age Levant was characterized by patches of scattered kingdoms and tribal confederations which originated from the same cultural and linguistic milieu, and was much less densely populated than either. Occasionally, these closely related entities united against expanding outer forces. The Assyrians only managed to subdue the Levantine states after multiple attempts and campaigns, finalized under Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC).
At their height, the Assyrians dominated all of the Levant, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, and sponsored the Scythians under Madyes, their half-Assyrian king, in West Asia. However, the empire began to collapse toward the end of the 7th century BC, and was obliterated by an alliance between a resurgent Chaldean New Kingdom of Babylonia and the Iranian Medes. After the Battle of Carchemish, Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple (597 BC), starting the period of the Babylonian captivity, which lasted about half a century. Nebuchadnezzar also besieged the Phoenician city of Tyre for 13 years (586–573 BC), setting one of the longest sieges in history. The subsequent balance of power was, however, short-lived. In the 550s BC, the Achaemenids revolted against the Medes and gained control of their empire, and over the next few decades annexed the realms of Lydia, Damascus, Babylonia, and Egypt into their empire, consolidating control as far as India. This vast kingdom was divided up into various satrapies and governed roughly according to the Assyrian model, but with a far lighter hand.
Achaemenid Empire took over the Levant after 539 BC, but by the 4th century the Achaemenids had fallen into decline. The Phoenicians frequently rebelled against the Persians, who taxed them heavily, in contrast to the Judeans who were granted return from the exile by Cyrus the Great. Alexander the Great conquered the Levant in 333-332 BC. However, Alexander did not live long enough to consolidate his realm, and soon after his death in 323 BC, the greater share of the east eventually went to the descendants of Seleucus I Nicator.
Seleucid Empire with its capitol in Antioch
When Alexander and later the Diadochi came to Syria, unlike Egypt, they found a sparsely populated region with no major urban center, most of which had been abandoned following the Bronze Age collapse or destroyed by the Assyrians. Alexander and his Seleucid successors founded many urban centers in the area and moved in locals and troops into the cities. The Seleucids also sponsored Greek settlement to the area. Koine Greek was largely used for administration, whereas Aramaic remained the lingua franca for much of the region and even the Hellenistic urban centers, where bilingualism was prevalent.
The Seleucids gradually lost their domains in Bactria to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and in Iran and Mesopotamia to the rising Parthian Empire. Eventually, this limited Seleucid domains to the Levant, and the power decline would lead to the formation of several breakaway states in the Levant. The Maccabean Revolt in Palestine inaugurated the Hasmonean kingdom in 140 BC.
During the Crisis of the Third Century, the Sassanids under Shapur I invaded Syria and captured Roman emperor Valerian in the Battle of Edessa. A Syrian notable of Palmyra, Odaenathus assembled the Palmyrene army and Syrian peasants, and marched north to meet Shapur I. The Palmyrene monarch fell upon the retreating Persian army between Samosata and Zeugma, west of the Euphrates, in late summer 260, defeating and expelling them. Odaenathus was succeeded by his son Vaballathus under the regency of his mother Queen Zenobia. In 270, Zenobia detached from Roman authority and declared the Palmyrene Empire, rapidly conquering much of Syria, Egypt, Arabia Petraea and large parts of Asia Minor, reaching present-day Ankara. However, by 273, Zenobia was decisively defeated by Aurelian and his Arab Tanukhid allies in Syria.
With the consolidation of Christianity, Jews had become a minority in southern Levant, remaining a majority only in Southern Judea, Galilee and Golan. Jewish revolts had also become much rarer, mostly with the Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus (351–352) and Jewish revolt against Heraclius (617). This time the Samaritans, whose population swelled to over a million, insurrected the Samaritan revolts (484–572) against the Byzantines, which killed an estimated 200,000 Samaritans, after the civil uprising of Baba Rabba and his subsequent execution in 328/362. The devastating Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 ended with Byzantine recapture of the land, but left the empire rather exhausted, which taxed the inhabitants heavily. The Levant became the frontline between the Byzantines and the Persian Sassanids, which devastated the region.
Under the Umayyads, the capital was moved to Damascus. However, the Levant did not experience wide-scale Arabian tribal settlement unlike in Iraq, where the focus of Arabian tribal migration was. Archaeological and historical evidence strongly suggest there was smooth population continuity and no large-scale abandonment of major sites and regions of the Levant after the Muslim conquest. Moreover, in contrast to Iran, Iraq and North Africa, where Muslim soldiers established separate garrison cities (amsar), Muslim troops in the Levant settled alongside locals in pre-existing cities such as Damascus, Homs, Jerusalem and Tiberias. Abbasid focus on Iraq and Iran neglected the Levant, which in turn experienced a period of frequent uprisings and revolts. Syria became fertile grounds for anti-Abbasid sentiments, in various contrasting pro-Umayyad and pro-Shiite forms. In 841, al-Mubarqa lead a rebellion against the Abbasids in Palestine, declaring himself the Umayyad Sufyani. In 912, a revolt against the Abbasids arose in the Damascus region, this time by an Alid descendant of tenth Shiite Imam Ali al-Hadi.
Crusader States in 1135
Arabic – made official under Umayyad rule – became the dominant language, replacing Greek and Aramaic of the Byzantine era. In 887, the Egypt-based Tulunids annexed Syria from the Abbasids, and were later replaced by once the Egypt-based Ikhshidids and still later by the Hamdanids originating in Aleppo founded by Sayf al-Dawla. Seljuk expansion into eastern Anatolia triggered the Byzantine–Seljuk wars, with the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 marking a decisive turning point in the conflict in favour of the Seljuks, undermining the authority of the Byzantine Empire in the remaining parts of Anatolia and gradually enabling the region's Turkification. The Seljuk Empire united the fractured political landscape in the non-Arab eastern parts of the Muslim world.
During the late 11th century, in response to the rise of the Seljuk Turks, European Christians launched a series of Crusades on Muslim lands, especially Syria. Sections of Syria were held by French, English, Italian and German overlords between 1098 and 1291 AD during the Crusades and were known collectively as the Crusader states among which the primary one was the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The coastal mountainous region was also occupied in part by the Nizari Ismailis, the so-called Assassins, who had intermittent confrontations and truces with the Crusader States. After a century of Seljuk and Christian rule, Syria was largely conquered (1175–1185) by the Kurdish liberator Salah ad-Din, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt. Aleppo fell to the Mongols of Hulegu in January 1260, and Damascus in March, but then Hulegu was forced to break off his attack to return to China to deal with a succession dispute.
A few months later, the Mamluks arrived with an army from Egypt and defeated the Mongols in the Battle of Ain Jalut in Galilee. The Mamluk leader, Baibars, made Damascus a provincial capital. When he died, power was taken by Qalawun. In the meantime, an emir named Sunqur al-Ashqar had tried to declare himself ruler of Damascus, but he was defeated by Qalawun on 21 June 1280, and fled to northern Syria. Al-Ashqar, who had married a Mongol woman, appealed for help from the Mongols. The Mongols of the Ilkhanate took Aleppo in October 1280, but Qalawun persuaded Al-Ashqar to join him, and they fought against the Mongols on 29 October 1281, in the Second Battle of Homs, which was won by the Mamluks.
In 1400, the Muslim Turco-Mongol conqueror Tamurlane invaded Syria, in which he sacked Aleppo, and captured Damascus after defeating the Mamluk army. The city's inhabitants were massacred, except for the artisans, who were deported to Samarkand. Tamurlane also conducted specific massacres of the Aramean and Assyrian Christian populations, greatly reducing their numbers. By the end of the 15th century, the discovery of a sea route from Europe to the Far East ended the need for an overland trade route through Syria.
In 1516, the Ottoman Empire invaded the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, conquering Syria, and incorporating it into its empire. The Ottoman system was not burdensome to Syrians because the Turks respected Arabic as the language of the Quran, and accepted the mantle of defenders of the faith. Damascus was made the major entrepot for Mecca, and as such it acquired a holy character to Muslims, because of the beneficial results of the countless pilgrims who passed through on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Ottoman administration followed a system that led to peaceful coexistence. Each ethno-religious minority—Arab Shia Muslim, Arab Sunni Muslim, Aramean-Syriac Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Maronite Christians, Assyrian Christians, Armenians, Kurds and Jews—constituted a millet. The religious heads of each community administered all personal status laws and performed certain civil functions as well. In 1831, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt renounced his loyalty to the Empire and overran Ottoman Syria, capturing Damascus. His short-term rule over the domain attempted to change the demographics and social structure of the region; he brought thousands of Egyptian villagers to populate the plains of Southern Syria, rebuilt Jaffa and settled it with veteran Egyptian soldiers aiming to turn it into a regional capital, and he crushed peasant and Druze rebellions and deported non-loyal tribesmen. By 1840, however, he had to surrender the area back to the Ottomans.
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire entered the conflict on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It ultimately suffered defeat and loss of control of the entire Near East. During the conflict, genocide against indigenous Christian peoples was carried out by the Ottomans and their allies in the form of the Armenian genocide and Assyrian genocide, of which Deir ez-Zor, in Ottoman Syria, was the final destination of these death marches. During the later part of the war, Ottoman Syria was occupied by Arab forces inland, joined by British and French units along the coast. In August 1917, Great Britain officially recognized the Hashemite Kingdom of Syria, under King Faisal I.
French troops marching from the Lebanon towards Maysaloun, 1920
France, however, launched an invasion of Syria on 8 March 1920. Despite many predictions that Syria would be quickly overcome by the French Empire, Syria prevailed at the Battle of Maysaloun. Following this, France withdrew to Lebanon, where the local Christians were becoming less supportive of France due to Faisal's intention to establish a secular state. In late November 1920, the United Kingdom sent a telegram to the French Prime Minister to withdraw from Syria and establish relations with their government. Seeing the diplomatic situation was against them, and with Syrian raids increasing in both aggressiveness and effectiveness, France withdrew over the course of the next few months. The last French soldier left Beirut on 17 April 1921.
With the Ottoman surrender in 1918, Syria was able to take control over the north, including Aleppo and Antioch. During the Turkish War of Independence, Syria lost some of the cities they hoped to gain even further north, such as Urfa and Antep. Still, they had achieved independence from the great powers, a feat few nations could boast of.
King Faisal I meeting with Zionist representative Chaim Weizmann, 1918. The King was known for being a supporter of Jewish immigration to Palestine.
King Faisal created a parliament and worked to create a new constitution, which was signed by the leaders of all major political forces in the country, including minorities such as Kurds and Jews, on 27 November 1920. The constitution provided for a relatively weak parliament, angering many liberals and socialists, who felt the king had too much power. Despite these concerns, the country remained remarkably stable during and after the first elections in 1922. On 27 February, Hashim al-Atassi and his People's Party were elected. Despite this, Faisal had almost all the real power in the country, especially since al-Atassi largely supported his rule.
From the 1920s to his death in 1933, Faisal embarked on a massive modernization process similar to, and at times inspired by, Atatürk's reforms in Turkey, though it differed in being more liberal and less ethno-nationalist. He somewhat secularized the country, focusing on unity between the various religions in Syria. The King also supported peace between the different ethnic groups in the country. This was especially meaningful, as the Kurds had revolted in every country they viewed as occupying their land, except Syria. King Faisal also modernized education, focusing on the secular French model. New roads were built to connect the country as old ones were modernized. Railways were built, connecting major cities both inland and running along the coast. Ports were expanded, and they began industrializing on a scale that rivals even Turkey during this same period. New arms manufactories were made, and they formed a combat-capable navy by 1930.
In 1928, King Faisal agreed to allow the Jews to buy land in Syria, and the government began giving out land grants for Jews in Palestine. Beginning in 1932, and continually reaching record heights for the next 14 years, Jews began immigrating to Palestine en massé to remove themselves from an increasingly anti-semitic Germany, and were later joined by Jews from other parts of Europe fleeing World War II and the Holocaust.
On 8 September 1933, King Faisal died, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Ghazi. He ruled as King for the next six years, continuing his fathers reforms and trying to create peace in Palestine, to little avail. Syria was finally admitted to the League of Nations on 29 April 1936. On 4 April 1939, Ghazi was assassinated by an Islamist from Palestine named Khalid al-Faraj. Ghazi was succeeded by his son Faisal II, though true power now laid with his regent, Abd al-llah; just months later, WWII began in Europe.
Amin al-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler, 1941.
For a time, things stayed much the same in Palestine. The Second World War saw the neutral, but pro-allied government link anti-semitic attacks to German allegiance. The Arab leaders in Palestine however, believed that the Jews were planning to seize all Arab and Muslim lands, and kill any who resisted. Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, frequently made anti-semitic comments and encouraged Arabs to attack Jews, even expressing sympathy for Nazi Germany. The government decided against arresting him, worrying that may cause a Palestinian Arab rebellion, or revolution by the Muslim Arabs across Syria. In 1941, al-Husseini visited Nazi Germany, met with Joachim von Ribbentrop and Adolf Hitler, and spoke to Muslim SS units.
Just months after this, the Golden Square under Rashid Gaylani launched a coup to overthrow the Iraqi government. In response, the United Kingdom demanded Syria allow British forces to invade Iraq from the west. To counter this and preserve Syrian sovereignty, Abd al-llah decided to invade Iraq alongside Britain. Churchill accepted, and Iraq was defeated in just two weeks. Following this, Syria officially declared war on Germany. Al-Husseini was arrested for treason, and put on public trial in Jerusalem. Al-Husseini's supporters protested and rioted in the streets across not just Jerusalem, but also Syria in general; many attacks on Jewish towns and settlements were recorded during this time. Due to this pressure, al-llah agreed to release al-Husseini on the condition that he never leave the country. Syria played a role in the North African campaign, though their forces would only take limited part in the fighting in Europe, sending one division to the Italian Front in 1943.
After the war had ended, tens of thousands of Jews left Europe for Syria, and Palestine in particular. Due to this mass immigration, inter-communal violence exploded, brought on mainly by Arab attacks and Jewish reprisals of equally brutal measure. Government forces attempted to quell the fighting, but it was unabating for several more years. Abd al-llah attempted to keep control through increasingly authoritarian methods, and the elected officials were becoming ever more angry, especially as they began to be sidelined even more. Due to this pressure, Abd al-llah gave up control to the King's cousin Prince Mohammad. The King finally abdicated on 17 December 1951. This marked the beginning of the new democratic republic, as elected officials and political activists from across the country came to Damascus to draft a new, more liberal constitution.
Following the creation of a new constitution, the Levantine Federation had its first elections on 27 February 1952, won narrowly by al-Atassi. The new government made it a top priority to slow, and eventually stop, violence in Palestine. To do this, they decided to create a Jewish and Arab province in the region, while people of either ethnicity would still be able to live in either province. They also created new security forces, and gave more funding to local police. Over the next decade, violence would decrease massively, and civil war was narrowly avoided.
1952 in Egypt saw the rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser, an Arab nationalist who would go on to become one of, if not the most popular and influential politicians of the Arab world. His rise to power marked the beginning of the Arab Cold War, a time of tension between monarchies such as Saudi Arabia and Morocco, and Arab nationalist regimes like Egypt and later Libya. Syria was largely neutral in the conflicts that took place during this time, though they tended to side politically with the monarchies due to their mutual relationship with the United States.
Aleppo in 1961
The worst effect of the Cold War in Syria, was internal. Political tensions rose massively between Arab nationalists and liberals, and later Islamists. Many Arabs, mainly poorer urban ones, supported Nasser, while Bedouins were largely Islamist. Minorities, especially Jews and Kurds, almost always sided with liberals, along with most upper and middle-class Arabs. The response from the largely liberal governments of this time was to expand the welfare state to bring more people out of poverty and, the hope was, make them less socialist. While there were many outbursts of political violence, such as in 1963, the democratic system held strong during this troublesome time.
During the late 1960s, and continuing to the present, Syria became a major hotspot for tourism. Its many beaches, historical buildings, and religious significance made it a top destination for all sorts of people from all over the world. While never a member of NATO, Syria maintained a close and friendly relationship with the United States and Western World in general. The Syrian arms industry became a major producer of weapons for many NATO and US-friendly Middle Eastern countries. The 1970s represent a very stable time in the federation's history. The war in North Yemen ended in 1969, with Nasser dying the next year, and there was relative calm in the Middle East for another decade. Arab nationalist sentiment began to decrease after this point, already weakened by the chaos it had brought to Iraq. The government took this time to invest more in the civilian economy and began sponsoring a new program to give housing to the homeless. This helped reduce political tensions further.
However, a new force would begin its rise in 1979, with the Iranian Revolution and replace of ShahMohammad Reza Pahlavi with Ruhollah Khomeini's Islamists. The creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran marked a turning point in Middle Eastern politics, shifting the revolutionary spirit away from Arab nationalism and giving new life to the ideas of political Islam. During the 1980s, many Bedouins, Palestinian Arabs, and rural Arabs across Syria began flocking to these ideals. Though they never won more than a third of seats in parliament, their acceptance of violence by many in the movement caused fear among the government and people alike. They started to sharply decrease in popularity after the 1986 Damascus car bomb attack, and the response of the Islamic Dawa Party - Syria that led many to believe they endorsed it, though they deny such accusations to this day. Much of their original popularity came from the People's Party's neoliberal stance after the 1977 elections. In 1987, they were defeated by the more left-wing Syrian Democratic People's Party.
Iraqi T-72 destroyed outside Rutba by Syrian tank, 1991
In 1990, Saddam Hussein's Iraqinvaded and conqueredKuwait, beginning the Gulf War. Syria immediately condemned the invasion, and during the war launched airstrikes and raids into Iraq. As the war developed in the Coalition's favor, Syria expanded the attacks and took the cities of Qa'im, Rutba, Haditha, and Sinjar; they were also in range of Mosul and Ramadi by the war's end. After the war, Syria left all Iraqi territory. During the 1991 uprisings, nearly 200,000 Kurds fled to Syria, where they received refuge and assistance. Syria also participated in Operation Provide Comfort, airdropping supplies and helping to enforce the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, and later participating in Operation Northern Watch.
Despite the conflict with Iraq, internally, Syria was largely peaceful after the end of the Gulf War. Helped along by the global economy, Syria experienced an economic boom in this time, from the early 1990s to 2007. More infrastructure was built, and the government spent more money subsidizing the IT sector.
In 2001, the United States suffered an unprecedented terrorist attack on its soil. Following this attack the US demanded countries around the world to choose between supporting them, or being considered allies of terrorism. Syria, always being a close partner to America, publically sided with them. They supported the invasion and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, though they never sent soldiers. In 2003, the US invaded and occupied Iraq. Syria, like France and many other countries, didn't support the invasion, although they would go on to help with logistics as the war intensified.
Beginning in 2007, and finally being completed in 2011, the United States withdrew from Iraq, hoping the government could keep the situation stable. This withdraw occured around the time the Arab Spring began, which saw protests across the Arab world, and in Muslim countries in general. Syria remained mostly stable during this period, as the people had little complaints. Iraq, on the other hand, further descended into chaos as protests gripped the country. This culminated in December 2013, when the newly formed Islamic State launched a rebellion against the Iraqi government. They were quickly joined by disgruntled Arab tribesmen and Saddam Hussein loyalists, and their numbers grew massively in the first few months of the rebellion.
Fighting outside Palmyra, May 2015
Almost from the beginning of the conflict, IS launched raids and terrorist attacks into Syria. In July 2014, after having taken control over much of western Iraq, they invaded Syria. The Islamists were quickly pushed back, and in just a few weeks, Syrian forces had entered Iraq. Despite this, it would take many more years to fully end the insurgency in the desert. In early 2015 the Islamic State began to be pushed back by Iraqi government forces, the Syrian military, and a multi-national coalition. They lost most of their holdings in the Middle East by December of that year, shifting their focus mainly to Somalia, Libya, and West Africa in general.
During the war and in the following years, Syria experienced numerous terrorist attacks carried out mainly by the Islamic State. Some of these include the 2015 Jerusalem bus attacks, and the 2016 bombings in Damascus and across the north of Syria. The Syrian Security Forces have in the past prevented and stopped many terrorist attacks, and their military fully put down the IS insurgency in 2018.
Despite the many challenges the state has been forced to endure, the Levantine Federation remains a stable and prosperous democracy in the heart of an unstable and autocratic region. The nation is considered one of the greatest postcolonial successes for its many achievements in science, art, and statecraft.
Syria is a Middle Eastern country, lying at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean. The country is bounded in the north by Turkey, to the east by Iraq, to the southeast by Saudi Arabia, and to the south and southwest by the Red Sea and Egypt. Syria lies between latitudes 29° and 38° N, and longitudes 34° and 43° E. The climate varies from the humid Mediterranean coast, through a semiarid steppe zone, to arid desert in the east. Important agricultural areas include the Jazira region in the northeast, Hawran south of Damascus to the region of Transjordan, most of northern Palestine, western parts of Transjordan along the Jordan River Valley, and some parts of the Lebanon. The Euphrates cuts through the country in the northeast, while the Jordan River flows through Syria in the south, into the Dead Sea. The country is an important part of the Fertile Crescent. Its land straddles the northwestern part of the Arabian Plate.
The country first struck petroleum in 1956; since then numerous oil deposits have been found. Oil is mostly concentrated around al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor in the north (natural extensions of the Iraqi oil fields around Mosul and Kirkuk), and in the south, in the Negev and the southwestern deserts of Transjordan. Natural gas has been discovered off the coast, and inland sites such as the field of Jbessa, discovered in 1940.
Panoramic view of Ayn al-Bayda, Latakia, a village in northwestern Syria
Temperatures in Syria vary widely, especially during the winter. Coastal areas, such as those of Tel Aviv and Beirut, have a typical Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and long, hot summers. The northern Negev and more inland regions have a semi-arid climate with hot summers, cool winters, and fewer rainy days than the Mediterranean climate. The outlying desert areas have a desert climate with very hot, dry summers, and mild winters with few days of rain. The highest temperature in the world outside Africa and North America as of 2021, 54 °C (129 °F), was recorded in 1942 in the Tirat Zvi kibbutz in the northern Jordan River valley.
The projections of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report show clearly the impacts of climate change on Syria even at 2 degrees of warming.
At the other extreme, mountainous regions can be windy and cold, and areas at elevation of 750 metres (2,460 ft) or more (same elevation as Jerusalem) will usually receive at least one snowfall each year. From May to September, rain in Syria is rare. With scarce water resources in many regions, Syria has developed various water-saving technologies, including drip irrigation. Syrians also take advantage of the considerable sunlight available for solar energy, making Syria a leading nation in solar energy use per capita—many houses across the country use solar panels for water heating.
The Syrian Ministry of Environmental Protection has reported that climate change "will have a decisive impact on all areas of life, including: water, public health, agriculture, energy, biodiversity, coastal infrastructure, economics, nature, national security, and geostrategy", and will have the greatest effect on vulnerable populations such as the poor, the elderly, and the chronically ill.
The Syrian Parliament is composed of 200 MPs elected via proportional representation, with a 1.5% threshold. The country has a few main parties, meaning that coalitions are usually required. Elections are scheduled for every 5 years, though they can happen sooner if the ruling coalition collapses or a vote of no confidence passes.
The constitution created in 1952 ensures that no one ethnic or religious group can have total control, and grants equal rights and protection under the law to all citizens. Muslim Arabs make up a large majority of the population, and so have a major role in the country's politics however. This has led minorities, especially the Jews and Kurds, to seek greater autonomy and for some, outright independence.
Syria has a four-tier court system. At the lowest level are magistrate courts, situated in most cities across the country. Above them are district courts, serving as both appellate courts and courts of first instance; they are situated in Syrian districts. Above district courts are provincial courts, with one situated in each province. The third and final tier is the Supreme Court in Damascus; it serves a dual role as the highest court of appeals and the High Court of Justice. In the latter role, the Supreme Court rules as a court of first instance, allowing individuals, both citizens and non-citizens, to petition against the decisions of state authorities.
Syrian law is based mostly on Englishcommon law and Frenchcivil code, with elements of Sharia law. It is based on the principle of stare decisis (precedent) and is an adversarial system, where the parties in the suit bring evidence before the court. Court cases are decided by professional judges with no role for juries.
Syria is split into 11 provinces: Rojava, Aleppo, Latakia, Homs, Damascus, Druzia, Lebanon, Jewish Palestine, Arab Palestine, Jerusalem, and Transjordan. Two of these, Jerusalem and Damascus, are cities with enough signifigance to warant their own provinces.
Syria has been a close ally of the United States and Western World since the start of the Cold War, and has enjoyed very close relations with the US and with EU member states. Despite their conflict during the Turkish War of Independence, Turkey and Syria have since kept a friendly relationship with one another; Recep Tayyip Edoğan's leadership has at times challenged this friendship, however.
Much of the country's foreign focus has been the creation of a wide bulwark against Iran. To do this, Syria has formed strong relations with the Gulf monarchies and Egypt. Iran, for its part, has sponsored numerous terrorist groups across the region, most notably with the Houthis in Yemen. Syria has friendships with Morocco, Tunisia, and Armenia as well; in part due to anti-Iran unity, but also because of the close relationships the people of these nations have with one another.
Arab Revolt calvary - tribes of Arabia and Transjordan, 1918
The Levantine army grew out of the Arab rebels who defeated the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It was first organized in 1920 into the Royal Syrian Army. During the reforms of the 1920s and '30s, the Royal Syrian Navy was developed and made into a real fighting force. The air force was created around the same time, and during World War II bought a large number of Spitfires from the British. After the abdication of King Faisal, the military arms took on their present names: the Levantine Army, Levantine Navy, and Levantine Air Force.
The forces, especially the army, have long been lauded for their professionalism and discipline; a rare sight in Middle Eastern militaries. The military enjoys strong support and aid from the United States, United Kingdom, and France. This is in large part due to Syria's critical position in the Middle East. The development of Special Operations Forces has been particularly significant, enhancing the capability of the military to react rapidly to threats to homeland security, as well as training special forces from the region and beyond. Syria provides extensive training to the security forces of several Arab countries. The army currently has around 380,000 personnel.
The country's military-industrial complex is also very developed, as the country has been near constantly threatened by outside powers since the Cold War. Syria has created a number of high-quality armored vehicles in the past such as the Arlaba, Samid, and Fahd. They also produce small-arms designs like the TavorBullpup Assault Rifle.
There are about 52,000 Levantine troops working with the United Nations in peacekeeping missions across the world. Syria ranks third internationally in participation in U.N. peacekeeping missions, with one of the highest levels of peacekeeping troop contributions of all U.N. member states. The nation has dispatched several field hospitals to conflict zones and areas affected by natural disasters across the region. Since 2014, Syria has been directly involved in the War on Terror, though its role has diminished since 2018.
The number of female police officers is rising, being the first Middle Eastern country to allow them in the 1970s. Syria's law enforcement is ranked 29th globally and 1st in the Middle East, in terms of police services' performance, by the 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index.
Expressway M5 near al-Rastan, between Homs and Hama
Syria is considered the most advanced country in the Middle East in economic and industrial development. In 2023, the IMF estimated the country's wealth to be at 1.715 trillion dollars; their GDP per capita is $57,714 (ranking 28th worldwide), a figure comparable to other highly developed and rich countries. Syria has the highest average wealth per adult in the Middle East. The Economist ranked Syria as the 4th most successful economy among the developed countries for 2022. It has the highest number of billionaires in the Middle East, and the 18th highest number in the world. In recent years Syria had one of the highest growth rate in the developed world along with Ireland. Syria's quality university education and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for spurring the country's high technology boom and rapid economic development. In 2010, it joined the OECD. The country is ranked 20th in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report and 35th on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index. Syria was also ranked fifth in the world by share of people in high-skilled employment.
The Diamond Exchange District in Ramat Gan, just east of Tel Aviv-Jaffa
An abundance of natural resources and intensive development of Syrian agricultural and industrial sectors have made the country largely self-sufficient. Imports to Syria, totaling $86.5 billion in 2020, include raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, and consumer goods. Leading exports include machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, fuels, and textiles and apparel. The Bank of Syria holds $201 billion of foreign-exchange reserves, the 17th highest in the world. Since the 1980s, Syria has received military aid from the United States, as well as economic aid in the form of loan guarantees, which now account for nearly a fifth of the country's external debt. Syria has one of the lowest external debts in the developed world, and is a lender in terms of net external debt (assets vs. liabilities abroad), which in 2015 stood at a surplus of $69 billion.
The days which are allocated to working times in Syria are Monday - Friday (for a five-day workweek), or Monday - Saturday (for a six-day workweek). In observance of Shabbat, in places where Friday is a work day and the majority of population is Jewish, Friday is a "short day", usually lasting until 14:00 in the winter, or 16:00 in the summer.
The ongoing shortage of water in the country has spurred innovation in water conservation techniques, and a substantial agricultural modernization, drip irrigation, was invented in Syria. Syria is also at the technological forefront of desalination and water recycling. The Sorek desalination plant is the largest seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination facility in the world. By 2014, Syria's desalination programmes provided roughly 35% of the country's drinking water and it is expected to supply 40% by 2015 and 70% by 2050. As of 2015, more than 50 percent of the water for Syrian households, agriculture and industry is artificially produced. The country hosts an annual Water Technology and Environmental Control Exhibition & Conference (WATEC) that attracts thousands of people from across the world. In 2011, Syria's water technology industry was worth around $2 billion a year with annual exports of products and services in the tens of millions of dollars. As a result of innovations in reverse osmosis technology, the federation is set to become a net exporter of water in the coming years.
In 2012, Syria was ranked ninth in the world by the Futron's Space Competitiveness Index. The Levantine Space Agency coordinates all Syrian space research programmes with scientific and commercial goals, and have indigenously designed and built at least 13 commercial, research and spy satellites. Some of Syria's satellites are ranked among the world's most advanced space systems. Shavit is a space launch vehicle produced by Syria to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit. It was first launched in 1988, making Syria the eighth nation to have a space launch capability. In 2003, Ilan Ramon became Syria's first astronaut, serving as payload specialist of STS-107, the fatal mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
Solar dish at Negev National Solar Energy Center in southern Syria
Syria has embraced solar energy; its engineers are on the cutting edge of solar energy technology and its solar companies work on projects around the world. Over 70% of Syrian homes use solar energy for hot water, among the highest per capita in the world. According to government figures, the country saves 6% of its electricity consumption per year because of its solar energy use in heating. The high annual incident solar irradiance at its geographic latitude creates ideal conditions for what is an internationally renowned solar research and development industry in the Negev Desert.
Syria has historically been very oil-dependent since before independence. The oil fields in the eastern and northeastern deserts have historically been able to supply the country with much of its needs. However, with the increasingly pressing issue of non-renewability, the country has successfully diversified its energy sources over the past few decades. Since the 1960s, the country has sought to create nuclear power, working with French scientists in order to do so. From the 1990s, Syria has invested heavily into solar power stations in the Negev and the deserts of Transjordan. In 2009, a natural gas reserve, Tamar, was found off the coast of Palestine. A second natural gas reserve, Leviathan, was discovered in 2010. In 2013, Syria began commercial production of natural gas from the Tamar field. As of 2014, Syria produced over 7.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas a year. Syria had 199 billion cubic meters (bcm) of proven reserves of natural gas as of the start of 2016. The Leviathan gas field started production in 2019.
Ketura Sun is Syria's first commercial solar field. Built in early 2011 by the Arava Power Company on Kibbutz Ketura, Ketura Sun covers twenty acres and is expected to produce green energy amounting to 4.95 megawatts (MW). The field consists of 18,500 photovoltaic panels made by Suntech, which will produce about 9 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year. In the next twenty years, the field will spare the production of some 125,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The field was inaugurated on 15 June 2011. On 22 May 2012 Arava Power Company announced that it had reached financial close on an additional 58.5 MW for 8 projects to be built in the Arava and the Negev valued at 780 million Dinars or approximately $204 million.
Syria is a well-developed country with a modern transport system. The road system is 97,403 kilometres long. The number of motor vehicles per 1,000 persons is 365, relatively low with respect to developed countries. Syria has 17,715 buses on scheduled routes, operated by several carriers. The railways are also very well developed, with over 18,000 kilometers built, and over 200 million passengers per year.
Tourism, especially religious tourism, is an important industry in Syria. The country's temperate climate, beaches, archaeological, other historical and biblical sites, and unique geography draw many tourists. Syria's security problems have taken their toll on the industry, but the number of incoming tourists is on the rebound. In 2019, more than 20 million tourists visited the country, making it the most visited country in the Middle East and one of the most in the world. Tourism has generated around 30 billion Dinars for the Syrian economy.
The 2019 census showed a population of 52,781,931 (female: 49%; male: 51%). There were 10,996,236 households in Syria in 2019, with an average of 4.8 persons per household (compared to 6.7 persons per household for the census of 1979). The capital of Syria is Damascus, considered by many to be the oldest capital in the world, and has a population of 2,193,000. The largest city, Amman, has a population of 4,237,000.
Arabs make up 74.6% of the population, followed by Jews at 10.7%, Kurds at 4.6%, and Turks and Turkmen at 2.3%. The remaining 7.8% include Assyrians, Circassians, and various other groups. About 91% of Syrians live in urban areas.
Syria's largest municipality by population is Amman at 4,237,000, while the largest by area is Jerusalem at 125 square kilometres (48 sq mi). Beirut and Damascus rank as Syria's next largest cities, with populations of 2,567,000 and 2,193,000 respectively. The (mainly Haredi) city of Bnei Brak is the most densely populated city in the country and one of the 10 most densely populated cities in the world. Syria has 12 cities with populations over 500,000 people.
Islam is the predominant faith in Syria, making up 65.7% of the total population. Sunni Muslims make up 57.1%, while Shias make up the other 8.6%. The second largest faith is Christianity, followed by Judaism and Nusayrite. Irreligion is a major force as well, making up 7.9% of the Levantine population.
Syria, being the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, has the oldest-known communities of these two groups in the world. Christians today make up 15.3% of the populous, while practicing Jews make up 4.6%. Christians and Jews are exceptionally well integrated in Syrian society and enjoy a high level of freedom. Christians traditionally occupy at least two cabinet posts, while Jews tend to get at least one. The current Prime Minister, George Sabra, is a Christian Arab. Jews are also very influential in the media, especially cinema.
Irreligion has become more popular among young Syrians, especially Jews and urban Arabs.
Smaller religious minorities include Druze, Baháʼís and Mandaeans. It is estimated that 1,400 Mandaeans live in Amman, and 800 in Deir ez-Zour; they came from Iraq after the 2003 invasion fleeing persecution.
The Levantine Federation has three official languages: Modern Standard Arabic, Hebrew, and Kurmanji Kurdish. Arabic is usually considered the lingua franca, although some have called for English to be used instead. Locally recognized languages include Turkish and Aramaic. English is currently considered a co-official language in the education system, as well as sometimes being used in banking in commerce. Almost all schools from primary up to university level teach English and French alongside Arabic and, depending on province and sometimes district, the local language.
In Jewish Palestine, many languages can be heard on the streets. Due to mass immigration from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia (some 132,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Palestine), Russian and Amharic are widely spoken. More than one million Russian-speaking immigrants arrived in Palestine from the post-Soviet states between 1990 and 2004. French is spoken by around 700,000 Jews, mostly originating from France and North Africa (see Maghrebi Jews).
Life expectancy in Syria was around 76.8 years in 2017. The leading cause of death is cardiovascular diseases, followed by cancer. Childhood immunization rates have increased steadily over the past 15 years; by 2002 immunisations and vaccines reached more than 95% of children under five. In 1950, water and sanitation was available to only 28% of the population; in 2015, it reached 98% of Syrians.
Syria prides itself on its health services, some of the best in the region. Qualified medics, a favourable investment climate and Syria's stability has contributed to the success of this sector. The country's health care system is divided between public and private institutions. On 1 June 2007, Damascus Hospital (as the biggest private hospital) was the first general specialty hospital to gain the international accreditation JCAHO. The King Faisal Cancer Center in Amman is a leading cancer treatment centre. 86% of Syrians have medical insurance.
The Levantine educational system comprises 2 years of pre-school education, 10 years of compulsory basic education, and two years of secondary academic or vocational education, after which the students sit for the General Certificate of Secondary Education Exam (Tawjihi or Bagrut exams). Scholars may attend either private or public schools. According to the UNESCO, the literacy rate in 2015 was 98.41% and is considered to be the highest in the Middle East and the Arab world, and one of the highest in the world. UNESCO ranked Syria's educational system 18th out of 94 nations for providing gender equality in education. The country has the highest number of researchers in research and development per million people among all the 57 countries that are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In Syria, there are 8,060 researchers per million people, while the world average is 2,532 per million. Primary education is free in Syria.
Maariv described the Christian Arab sectors as "the most successful in the education system", since Christians fared the best in terms of education in comparison to any other religion in Syria.
Dabke combines circle dance and line dancing and is widely performed at weddings and other joyous occasions.
In the majority Arab regions, importance is placed on family, religion, education, self-discipline and respect. Their taste for the traditional arts is expressed in dances such as the al-Samah, the Dabkeh in all their variations, and the sword dance. Marriage ceremonies and the births of children are occasions for the lively demonstration of folk customs.
In Jewish Palestine, the local culture is shaped by the many cultures early settlers left behind. Jews from diaspora communities around the world brought their cultural and religious traditions back with them, creating a melting pot of Jewish customs and beliefs. Arab influences are still present in many cultural spheres, such as architecture, music, and cuisine.
Kurdish culture, seen mainly in Rojava, is a legacy from the various ancient peoples who shaped modern Kurds and their society. As most other Middle Eastern populations, a high degree of mutual influences between the Kurds and their neighbouring peoples are apparent. Therefore, in Kurdish culture elements of various other cultures are to be seen. However, on the whole, Kurdish culture is closest to that of other Iranian peoples, in particular those who historically had the closest geographical proximity to the Kurds, such as the Persians and Lurs. Kurds, for instance, also celebrate Newroz (21 March) as New Year's Day.
Assyrian culture is largely influenced by Christianity. There are many Assyrian customs that are common in other Middle Eastern cultures. Main festivals occur during religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas. There are also secular holidays such as Kha b-Nisan (vernal equinox).
The literature of Syria has contributed to Arabic literature and has a proud tradition of oral and written poetry. Syrian-Arab writers, many of whom migrated to Egypt, played a crucial role in the nahda or Arab literary and cultural revival of the 19th century. Prominent contemporary Syrian-Arab writers include, among others, Adonis, Muhammad Maghout, Haidar Haidar, Ghada al-Samman, Nizar Qabbani and Zakariyya Tamer.
In literature, Kahlil Gibran is one of the best-selling poets of all time. He is particularly known for his book The Prophet (1923), which has been translated into over twenty different languages. Ameen Rihani was a major figure in the mahjar literary movement developed by Arab emigrants in North America, and an early theorist of Arab nationalism. Mikhail Naimy is widely recognized as among the most important figures in modern Arabic letters and among the most important spiritual writers of the 20th century.
The Syrian-Arab music scene, in particular that of Damascus, has long been among the Arab world's most important, especially in the field of classical Arab music. Syria has produced several pan-Arab stars, including Asmahan, Farid al-Atrash and singer Lena Chamamyan. The city of Aleppo is known for its muwashshah, a form of Andalous sung poetry popularized by Sabri Moudallal, as well as for popular stars like Sabah Fakhri.
While traditional folk music remains popular in Lebanon, especially Beirut, modern music reconciling Western and traditional Arabic styles, pop, and fusion are rapidly advancing in popularity. Lebanese artists like Fairuz, Majida El Roumi, Wadih El Safi, Sabah, Julia Boutros or Najwa Karam are widely known and appreciated in Lebanon and in the Arab world. Radio stations feature a variety of music, including traditional Lebanese, classical Arabic, Armenian and modern French, English, American, and Latin tunes.
Jewish music contains musical influences from all over the world; Mizrahi and Sephardic music, Hasidic melodies, Greek music, jazz, and pop rock are all part of the music scene. Among Syria's world-renowned orchestras is the Jaffa Philharmonic Orchestra, which has been in operation for over seventy years and today performs more than two hundred concerts each year. Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Ofra Haza are among the internationally acclaimed musicians born in Jewish Palestine. Eilat has hosted its own international music festival, the Red Sea Jazz Festival, every summer since 1987. The province's folk songs, known as "Songs of the Land of Israel", deal with the experiences of the pioneers in building the Jewish homeland.
Traditionally, there are three types of Kurdish classical performers: storytellers (çîrokbêj), minstrels (stranbêj), and bards (dengbêj). No specific music was associated with the Kurdish princely courts. Instead, music performed in night gatherings (şevbihêrk) is considered classical. Several musical forms are found in this genre. Many songs are epic in nature, such as the popular Lawiks, heroic ballads recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes such as Saladin. Heyrans are love ballads usually expressing the melancholy of separation and unfulfilled love. One of the first Kurdish female singers to sing heyrans is Chopy Fatah, while Lawje is a form of religious music and Payizoks are songs performed during the autumn. Love songs, dance music, wedding and other celebratory songs (dîlok/narînk), erotic poetry, and work songs are also popular.
Assyrian music is a combination of traditional folk music and western contemporary music genres, namely pop and soft rock, but also electronic dance music. Instruments traditionally used by Assyrians include the zurna and davula, but has expanded to include guitars, pianos, violins, synthesizers (keyboards and electronic drums), and other instruments.
Ten Syrian-Jewish films have been final nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards since the establishment of Levantine Federation. The 2009 movie Ajami was the fourth consecutive nomination of a Syrian film.
The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian, Roy Armes, was the only cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, besides the dominant Egyptian cinema, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in the Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the province has produced over 500 films with many films including Egyptian filmmakers and film stars. The media of Lebanon is not only a regional center of production but also the most liberal in the Arab world. Despite its small population and geographic size, the Lebanon plays an influential role in the production of information in the Arab world and is "at the core of a regional media network with global implications".
Although Syria's role in the world art scene has been relatively minor, the federation has several unique artistic traditions. Syrian-Jewish art, which is particularly impactful in the country, has been particularly influenced by the Kabbalah, the Talmud and the Zohar. Another art movement that held a prominent role in the 20th century was the School of Paris. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Yishuv's art was dominated by art trends emanating Bezalel. Beginning in the 1920s, the local art scene was heavily influenced by modern French art, first introduced by Isaac Frenkel. Jewish masters of the school of Paris (École de Paris), such as Soutine, Kikoine, Frenkel, Chagall heavily influenced the subsequent development of Syrian art.
Common themes in Syrian art are the mystical cities of Safed and Jerusalem, the bohemian café cultures of Tel Aviv and Beirut, agricultural landscapes, quranic/biblical stories and war. Today Syrian art has delved into Optical art, AI art, digital art and the use of salt in sculpture.
Architecture in Syria is unique in the scope and diversity of architectural movements and fruitions of utopian plans in the 20th century. Due to the multicultural nature of the country, increased by Jewish immigration, architecture has come to reflect many different styles. In the early 20th century Jewish architects sought to combine Occidental and Oriental architecture producing buildings that showcase a myriad of infused styles. The eclectic style gave way to the modernist Bauhaus style with the influx of German-Jewish architects (among them Erich Mendelsohn) fleeing Nazi persecution. The White City of Tel Aviv-Jaffa is a UNESCO heritage site thanks to its white international style buildings. Following the creation of a separate province, multiple local projects were commissioned, a grand part built in a brutalist style with heavy emphasis on the use of concrete and the acclimatization to Palestine's desert climate. Today Syrian architecture continues to reflect world trends in architecture as well as the different backgrounds and heritage of its architects.
Syrian cuisine is rich and varied in its ingredients, linked to the regions of Syria where a specific dish has originated. The cuisine has similarities with Egyptian cuisine, North African cuisine and Ottoman cuisine. It is particularly known for its meze spreads of hot and cold dishes, most notably among them ful medames, hummus, tabbouleh and baba ghanoush, accompanied by bread. Syrian food mostly consists of Southern Mediterranean, Greek, and Southwest Asian dishes. Some Syrian dishes also evolved from Turkish and French cooking: dishes like shish kebab, stuffed zucchini/courgette, and yabraʾ (stuffed grape leaves, the word yabraʾ deriving from the Turkish word yaprak, meaning leaf).
Drinks in Syria vary, depending on the time of day and the occasion. Arabic coffee is the most well-known hot drink, usually prepared in the morning at breakfast or in the evening. It is usually served for guests or after food. Arak, an alcoholic drink, is a well-known beverage, served mostly on special occasions. Other Syrian beverages include ayran, jallab, white coffee, and a locally manufactured beer called Al Shark.
Syria has won nine Olympic medals since its first win in 1992, including a gold medal in windsurfing at the 2004 Summer Olympics. The federation has won over 100 gold medals in the Paralympic Games and is ranked 20th in the all-time medal count. The 1968 Summer Paralympics were hosted by Syria. Syrian tennis champion Shahar Pe'er ranked 11th in the world on 31 January 2011. Krav Maga, a martial art developed by Jewish ghetto defenders during the struggle against fascism in Europe, has been used by the Syrian security forces and police since 1957. Its effectiveness and practical approach to self-defense, have won it widespread admiration and adherence around the world. The Maccabiah Games, an Olympic-style event for Jewish athletes, was inaugurated in the 1930s, and has been held every four years since then.
Chess is a leading sport in Syria and is enjoyed by people of all ages. There are many Syrian grandmasters, especially Jews, and Syrian chess players have won a number of youth world championships. Syria stages an annual international championship and hosted the World Team Chess Championship in 2005. The Ministry of Education and the World Chess Federation agreed upon a project of teaching chess within Syrian schools, and it has been introduced into the curriculum of some schools. The city of Beersheba has become a national chess center, with the game being taught in the city's kindergartens. Owing partly to Soviet immigration, it is home to the largest number of chess grandmasters of any city in the world. The Syrian chess team won the silver medal at the 2008 Chess Olympiad and the bronze, coming in third among 148 teams, at the 2010 Olympiad. Syrian grandmaster Boris Gelfand won the Chess World Cup 2009 and the 2011 Candidates Tournament for the right to challenge the world champion. He lost the World Chess Championship 2012 to reigning world champion Anand after a speed-chess tie breaker.
While both team and individual sports are widely played in Syria, the federation has enjoyed its biggest international achievements in taekwondo. The highlight came at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games when Ahmad Abu Ghaush won Syria's first ever medal of any colour at the Games by taking gold in the −67 kg weight. Medals have continued to be won at World and Asian level in the sport since to establish Taekwondo as the federation's favourite sport alongside football and chess.
Syria has a strong policy for inclusive sport and invests heavily in encouraging girls and women to participate in all sports. The women's football team gaining reputation, and in March 2016 ranked 38th in the world. In 2016, Syria hosted the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, with 16 teams representing six continents. The tournament was held in four stadiums in the three Syrian cities of Beirut, Tyre, and Haifa.
Basketball is another sport that Syria continues to punch above its weight in, having qualified to the FIBA 2010 World Basketball Cup and more recently reaching the 2019 World Cup in China. Syria came within a point of reaching the 2012 Olympics after losing the final of the 2010 Asian Cup to China by the narrowest of margins, 70–69, and settling for silver instead. Syria's national basketball team is participating in various international and Middle Eastern tournaments.
Rojava, officially the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), is a semi-autonomous administrative division in the Republic of Syria. It consists of the self-governing cantons, or sub-regions of Jazira, Kobanî, and Afrin. It is located in northern Syria which shares borders with Turkey to the north and Iraq to the east. The region gained its de facto autonomy in 2012 in the context of the Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian civil war, in which its primary military force, the YPG, or People's Defence Units, took large swathes of northern and eastern Syria.
In 2016, Turkish and Turkish-backed Syrian rebel forcesbegan occupying parts of northern Syria through a series of military operations against the YPG. The YPG successfully repelled Turkish and Turkish-backed forces from Afrin in 2018, and expelled the SNA completely in 2024, with the Turkish Army evacuating Syria as part of a ceasefire deal. At the same time, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, lead by Ahmed al-Sharaa, launched its own attacks, unsuccessfully. After months of tense negotiations, the two sides came to an agreement in which the newly named AANES would have control over most internal affairs and keep its own security forces, in exchange for accepting the authority of the Syrian government in Damascus and giving 25% of its income to the central government.
Parts of northern Syria are known as Western Kurdistan (Kurdish: Rojavayê Kurdistanê), or simply Rojava (/ˌroʊʒəˈvɑː/ROH-zhə-VAH; Kurdish: [roʒɑˈvɑ] "the West") among Kurds, one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan. The name "Rojava" was thus associated with a Kurdish identity of the administration. As the region expanded and increasingly included areas dominated by non-Kurdish groups, mostly Arabs, "Rojava" was used less and less by the administration in hopes of deethnicising its appearance and making it more acceptable to other ethnicities. Regardless, the polity continued to be called "Rojava" by locals and international observers, with journalist Metin Gurcan noting that "the concept of Rojava [had become] a brand gaining global recognition" by 2019.
The territory around Jazira province of northeastern Syria is called Gozarto (Classical Syriac: ܓܙܪܬܐ, romanized: Gozarto), part of the historical Assyrian homeland, by Syriac-Assyrians. The area has also been nicknamed Federal Northern Syria and the Democratic Confederalist Autonomous Areas of Northern Syria. The first name of the local government for the Kurdish-dominated areas in Afrin District, Ayn al-Arab District (Kobanî), and northern al-Hasakah Governorate was "Interim Transitional Administration", adopted in 2013. After the three autonomous cantons were proclaimed in 2014, PYD-governed territories were also nicknamed "the Autonomous Regions" or "Democratic Autonomous Administration". On 17 March 2016, northern Syria's administration self-declared the establishment of a federal system of government as the Democratic Federation of Rojava – Northern Syria (Kurdish: Federaliya Demokratîk a Rojava – Bakurê Sûriyê; Arabic: الفدرالية الديمقراطية لروج آفا – شمال سوريا, romanized: al-Fidirāliyya al-Dīmuqrāṭiyya li-Rūj ʾĀvā – Šamāl Suriyā; Classical Syriac: ܦܕܪܐܠܝܘܬ݂ܐ ܕܝܡܩܪܐܛܝܬܐ ܠܓܙܪܬܐ ܒܓܪܒܝܐ ܕܣܘܪܝܐ, romanized: Federaloyotho Demoqraṭoyto l'Gozarto b'Garbyo d'Suriya; sometimes abbreviated as NSR).
The updated December 2016 constitution of the polity uses the name Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS) (Kurdish: Federaliya Demokratîk a Bakûrê Sûriyê; Arabic: الفدرالية الديمقراطية لشمال سوريا, romanized: al-Fidirāliyya al-Dīmuqrāṭiyya li-Šamāl Suriyā; Classical Syriac: ܦܕܪܐܠܝܘܬ݂ܐ ܕܝܡܩܪܐܛܝܬܐ ܕܓܪܒܝ ܣܘܪܝܐ, romanized: Federaloyotho Demoqraṭoyto d'Garbay Suriya). Since March 2025, the North-Eastern Democratic Council has adopted a new name for the region, naming it the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) (Kurdish: Rêveberiya Xweser a Bakur û Rojhilatê Sûriyeyê; Arabic: الإدارة الذاتية لشمال وشرق سوريا; Classical Syriac: ܡܕܰܒܪܳܢܘܬ݂ܳܐ ܝܳܬ݂ܰܝܬܳܐ ܠܓܰܪܒܝܳܐ ܘܡܰܕܢܚܳܐ ܕܣܘܪܝܰܐ, romanized: Mdabronuṯo Yoṯayto l-Garbyo w-Madnḥyo d-Suriya; Turkish: Kuzey ve Doğu Suriye Özerk Yönetimi) also sometimes translated into English as the "Self-Administration of North and East Syria", encompassing the Jazira, Kobanî, and Afrin regions, or cantons.
Having been part of the Fertile Crescent, Northern Syria has several Neolithic sites such as Tell Halaf.
Northern Syria is part of the Fertile Crescent, and includes archaeological sites dating to the Neolithic, such as Tell Halaf. In antiquity, the area was part of the Mitanni kingdom, its center being the Khabur river valley in modern-day Jazira Region. It was then part of Assyria, with the last surviving Assyrian imperial records, from between 604 BC and 599 BC, were found in and around the Assyrian city of Dūr-Katlimmu. Later it was ruled by different dynasties and empires – the Achaemenids of Iran, the Hellenistic empires who succeeded Alexander the Great, the Artaxiads of Armenia, Rome, the Iranian Parthians and Sasanians, then by the Byzantines and successive Arab Islamic caliphates. In course of these regimes, different groups settled in northern Syria, often contributing to population shifts. Arabic tribes have been present in the area for millennia. Under the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire (312–63 BC), different tribal groups and mercenaries were settled in northern Syria as military colonists; these included Arabs and possibly Kurds. Jan Retso argued that Abai, an Arab settlement where the Seleucid king Antiochus VI Dionysus was raised, was located in northern Syria. By the 3rd century, the Arab tribe of the Fahmids lived in northern Syria.
By the 9th century, northern Syria was inhabited by a mixed population of Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Turkic groups, and others. Kurdish tribes in the area often operated as soldiers for hire, and were still placed in specific military settlements in the northern Syrian mountains. There existed a Kurdish elite of which Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and the Emir of Masyaf in the 12th century were part of. Under Saladin's rule, northern Syria experienced a mass immigration of Turkic groups who came into conflict with Kurdish tribes, resulting in clashes that wiped out several Kurdish communities.
During the Ottoman Empire (1516–1922), large Kurdish-speaking tribal groups both settled in and were deported to areas of northern Syria from Anatolia. By the 18th century, five Kurdish tribes existed in northeastern Syria. The demographics of this area underwent a huge shift in the early part of the 20th century. Some Circassian, Kurdish and Chechen tribes cooperated with the Ottoman (Turkish) authorities in the massacres of Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Upper Mesopotamia, between 1914 and 1920, with further attacks on unarmed fleeing civilians conducted by local Arab militias. Many Assyrians fled to Syria during the genocide and settled mainly in the Jazira area. Starting in 1926, the region saw another immigration of Kurds following the failure of the Sheikh Said rebellion against the Turkish authorities. While many of the Kurds in Syria have been there for centuries, waves of Kurds fled their homes in Turkey and settled in Syrian Al-Jazira Province, where they were granted citizenship by the French Mandate authorities. The number of Turkish Kurds settled in al-Jazira province during the 1920s was estimated at 20,000 people, out of 100,000 inhabitants, with the remainder of the population being Christians (Syriac, Armenian, Assyrian) and Arabs.
Following Syria's independence, policies of Arab nationalism and attempts at forced Arabization became widespread in the country's north, to a large part directed against the Kurdish population. The region received little investment or development from the central government and laws discriminated against Kurds owning property, driving cars, working in certain professions and forming political parties. Property was routinely confiscated by government loansharks. After the Ba'ath Party seized power in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état, non-Arab languages were forbidden at Syrian public schools. This compromised the education of students belonging to minorities like Kurds, Turkmen, and Assyrians. Some groups like Armenians, Circassians, and Assyrians were able to compensate by establishing private schools, but Kurdish private schools were also banned. Northern Syrian hospitals lacked equipment for advanced treatment and instead patients had to be transferred outside the region. Numerous place names were arabized in the 1960s and 1970s. In his report for the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council titled Persecution and Discrimination against Kurdish Citizens in Syria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights held that "Successive Syrian governments continued to adopt a policy of ethnic discrimination and national persecution against Kurds, completely depriving them of their national, democratic and human rights – an integral part of human existence. The government imposed ethnically-based programs, regulations and exclusionary measures on various aspects of Kurds' lives – political, economic, social and cultural." Kurdish cultural festivals like Newroz were effectively banned.
In many instances, the Syrian government arbitrarily deprived ethnic Kurdish citizens of their citizenship. The largest such instance was a consequence of a census in 1962, which was conducted for exactly this purpose. 120,000 ethnic Kurdish citizens saw their citizenship arbitrarily taken away and became stateless. This status was passed to the children of a "stateless" Kurdish father. In 2010, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimated the number of such "stateless" Kurdish people in Syria at 300,000. In 1973, the Syrian authorities confiscated 750 square kilometres (290 square miles) of fertile agricultural land in Al-Hasakah Governorate, which was owned and cultivated by tens of thousands of Kurdish citizens, and gave it to Arab families brought in from other provinces. In 2007, in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) around Al-Malikiyah were granted to Arab families, while tens of thousands of Kurdish inhabitants of the villages concerned were evicted. These and other expropriations was part of the so-called "Arab Belt initiative" which aimed to change the demographic fabric of the resource-rich region. Accordingly, relations between the Syrian government and the Syrian Kurdish population were tense.
Kurds celebrating Newroz in Girê Tertebê, near Qamishlo, in 1997
The response of northern Syrian parties and movements to the policies of Hafez al-Assad's Ba'athist government varied greatly. Some parties opted for resistance, whereas others such as the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party and the Assyrian Democratic Party attempted to work within the system, hoping to bring about changes through soft pressure. In general, parties that openly represented certain ethnic and religious minorities were not allowed to participate in elections, but their politicians were occasionally allowed to run as Independents. Some Kurdish politicians won seats during the Syrian elections in 1990. The government also recruited Kurdish officials, in particular as mayors, to ease ethnic relations. Regardless, northern Syrian ethnic groups remained deliberately underrepresented in the bureaucracy, and many Kurdish majority areas were run by Arab officials from other parts of the country. Security and intelligence agencies worked hard to suppress dissidents, and most Kurdish parties remained underground movements. The government monitored, though generally allowed this "sub-state activity" because the northern minorities including the Kurds rarely caused unrest with the exception of the 2004 Qamishli riots. The situation improved after the death of Hafez al-Assad and the election of his son, Bashar al-Assad, under whom the number of Kurdish officials grew.
Despite the Ba'athist internal policies which officially suppressed a Kurdish identity, the Syrian government allowed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to set up training camps from 1980. The PKK was a militant Kurdish group led by Abdullah Öcalan which was waging an insurgency against Turkey. Syria and Turkey were hostile toward each other at the time, resulting in the use of the PKK as proxy group. The party began to deeply influence the Syrian Kurdish population in the Afrin and Ayn al-Arab Districts, where it promoted Kurdish identity through music, clothing, popular culture, and social activities. In contrast, the PKK remained much less popular among Kurds in al-Hasakah Governorate, where other Kurdish parties maintained more influence. Many Syrian Kurds developed a long-lasting sympathy for the PKK, and a large number, possibly more than 10,000, joined its insurgency in Turkey. A rapprochement between Syria and Turkey brought an end to this phase in 1998, when Öcalan and the PKK were formally expelled from northern Syria. Regardless, the PKK maintained a clandestine presence in the region.
In 2002, the PKK and allied groups organized the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) to implement Öcalan's ideas in various Middle Eastern countries. A KCK branch was also set up in Syria, led by Sofi Nureddin and known as "KCK-Rojava". In an attempt to outwardly distance the Syrian branch from the PKK, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) was established as de facto Syrian "successor" of the PKK in 2003. The "People's Protection Units" (YPG), a paramilitary wing of the PYD, was also founded during this time, but remained dormant.
Establishment of de facto autonomy and war against ISIL
In 2011, a civil uprising erupted in Syria, prompting hasty government reforms. One of the issues addressed during this time was the status of Syria's stateless Kurds, as President Bashar al-Assad granted about 220,000 Kurds citizenship. In course of the next months, the crisis in Syria escalated into a civil war. The armed Syrian opposition seized control of several regions, while security forces were overstretched. In mid-2012 the government responded to this development by withdrawing its military from three mainly Kurdish areas and leaving control to local militias. This has been described as an attempt by the Assad regime to keep the Kurdish population out of the initial civil uprising and civil war.
Existing underground Kurdish political parties, namely the PYD and the Kurdish National Council (KNC), joined to form the Kurdish Supreme Committee (KSC). The People's Protection Units (YPG) militia was reestablished to defend Kurdish-inhabited areas in northern Syria. In July 2012, the YPG established control in the towns of Kobanî, Amuda and Afrin, and the Kurdish Supreme Committee established a joint leadership council to administer the towns. Soon YPG also gained control of the cities of Al-Malikiyah, Ras al-Ayn, al-Darbasiyah, and al-Muabbada and parts of Hasakah and Qamishli. Doing so, the YPG and its female wing, the Women's Protection Units (YPJ), mostly battled factions of the Free Syrian Army, and Islamist militias like the al-Nusra Front and Jabhat Ghuraba al-Sham. It also eclipsed rival Kurdish militias, and absorbed some government loyalist groups. According to researcher Charles R. Lister, the government's withdrawal and concurrent rise of the PYD "raised many eyebrows", as the relationship between the two entities was "highly contentious" at the time. The PYD was known to oppose certain government policies, but had also strongly criticised the Syrian opposition.
Military situation in December 2015, the YPG would be successful in pushing ISIS out of northern Syria
Following a deadly PYD repression of opposition demonstrations in Amuda, the Kurdish National Council withdrew from the Kurdish Supreme Committee. Unopposed, the PYD's political coalition, Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM), controlled the Kurdish Supreme Committee until the latter was dissolved by the cantonal Democratic Autonomous Administration. On 19 July 2013, the PYD announced that it had written a constitution for an "autonomous Syrian Kurdish region", and planned to hold referendum to approve the constitution in October 2013. Qamishli served as first de facto capital of the PYD-led governing body, which was official called the "Interim Transitional Administration". The announcement was widely denounced by both moderate as well as Islamist factions of the Syrian opposition. In January 2014, three areas declared their autonomy as cantons (later Afrin Region, Jazira Region and Kobanî Region) and an interim constitution (also known as social contract) was approved. The Syrian opposition and the Kurdish parties belonging to the KNC condemned this move, regarding the canton system as illegal, authoritarian, and supportive of the Syrian government. The PYD countered that the constitution was open to review and amendment, and that the KNC had been consulted on its drafting beforehand. From September 2014 to spring 2015, the YPG forces in Kobanî Canton, supported by some Free Syrian Army militias and leftist international and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) volunteers, fought and finally repelled an assault by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Siege of Kobanî, and in the YPG's Tell Abyad offensive of summer of 2015, the regions of Jazira and Kobanî were connected.
After the YPG victory over ISIL in Kobanî in March 2015, an alliance between YPG and the United States was formed, which greatly worried Turkey, because Turkey stated the YPG was a clone of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which Turkey (and the U.S. and the E.U.) designate as terrorists. In December 2015, the Syrian Democratic Council was created. On 17 March 2016, at a TEV-DEM-organized conference in Rmelan the establishment the Democratic Federation of Rojava – Northern Syria was declared in the areas they controlled in Northern Syria. The declaration was quickly denounced by both the Syrian government and the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.
In March 2016, Hediya Yousef and Mansur Selum were elected co-chairpersons for the executive committee to organize a constitution for the region, to replace the 2014 constitution. Yousef said the decision to set up a federal government was in large part driven by the expansion of territories captured from Islamic State: "Now, after the liberation of many areas, it requires us to go to a wider and more comprehensive system that can embrace all the developments in the area, that will also give rights to all the groups to represent themselves and to form their own administrations". In July 2016, a draft for the new constitution was presented, based on the principles of the 2014 constitution, mentioning all ethnic groups living in Northern Syria and addressing their cultural, political and linguistic rights. The main political opposition to the constitution have been Kurdish nationalists, in particular the KNC, who have different ideological aspirations than the TEV-DEM coalition. On 28 December 2016, after a meeting of the 151-member Syrian Democratic Council in Rmelan, a new constitution was resolved; despite objections by 12 Kurdish parties, the region was renamed the "Democratic Federation of Northern Syria", or DFNS, removing the name "Rojava".
Since 2012, when the first YPG pockets appeared, Turkey had been alarmed by the presence of PKK-related forces at its southern border and grew concerned when the YPG entered into an alliance with the US to oppose ISIS forces in the region. The Turkish government refused to allow aid to be sent to the YPG during the Siege of Kobanî. This led to the Kurdish riots, the breakdown of the 2013–2015 peace process in July 2015 and the renewal of armed conflict between the PKK and Turkish forces. According to the Turkish pro-government newspaper Daily Sabah, the YPG's parent organisation, the PYD, provided the PKK with militants, explosives, arms and ammunition.
In August 2016, Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield to prevent the YPG from linking Afrin Canton (now Afrin Region) with the rest of Rojava and to capture Manbij from them. Turkish and Turkish-backed Syrian rebel forces prevented the linking of Rojava's cantons and captured all settlements in Jarabulus previously under YPG control. The DFNS handed over part of the region to the Syrian government to act as a buffer zone against Turkey. Manbij remained under YPG control.
A YPG sniper in defense of Northern Syria from Turkey, Afrin
In early 2018, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch alongside Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army to capture the Kurdish-majority Afrin and oust the YPG/YPJ from the region. Afrin Canton, a subdivision of the region, was successfully defended and the operation was considered a major embarrassment for the Turkish military.
In 2019, Turkey allowed elements of the SNA to invade the DFNS at the two cities of Tell Abyad and Serekaniye. On 9 October, the Turkish Air Force launched airstrikes on border towns. Media outlets labelled the attack "no surprise" because Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had for months warned that the presence of the YPG on the Turkish-Syrian border despite the Northern Syria Buffer Zone was unacceptable. The attack was thwarted, however, and the SNA was forced back into Turkey by the end of October. An unintended consequence of the attack was that it raised the worldwide popularity and legitimacy of the northeastern Syrian administration, and several PYD and YPG representatives became internationally known to an unprecedented degree.
After the fall of Damascus on 8 December, Ahmed al-Sharaa ordered many HTS fighters to retake Aleppo, which by that point had been mostly occupied by the YPG. The fighting was brutal and slow, and HTS only retook some parts of the city, with the YPG still controlling the citadel when the ceasefire agreement came into effect on 19 December.
Over the next few months, the Syrian transitional government and the DFNS came to an agreement on the region's autonomy, which was officially recognized when the new constitution came into effect on 1 March 2025. Since then relations have been relatively cordial. However, the PYD leadership and many observers are concerned about the central government's islamist and potentially undemocratic nature, as al-Sharaa's government has been accused of interfering with press and new rules have restricted women's rights in the country.
The political system of the region is based on its adopted constitution, officially titled "Charter of the Social Contract". The constitution was ratified on 9 January 2014 and provides that all residents of the region shall enjoy fundamental rights such as gender equality and freedom of religion. It also provides for property rights. The region's system of community government has direct democratic aspirations.
For a former diplomat like me, I found it confusing: I kept looking for a hierarchy, the singular leader, or signs of a government line, when, in fact, there was none; there were just groups. There was none of that stifling obedience to the party, or the obsequious deference to the "big man"—a form of government all too evident just across the borders, in Turkey to the north, and the Kurdish regional government of Iraq to the south. The confident assertiveness of young people was striking.
The politics of the region has been described as having "libertarian transnational aspirations" influenced by the PKK's shift toward anarchism, but also includes various "tribal, ethno-sectarian, capitalist and patriarchal structures". The region has a "co-governance" policy in which each position at each level of government in the region includes a "female equivalent of equal authority" to a male. Similarly, there are aspirations for equal political representation of all ethno-religious components – Arabs, Kurds and Assyrians being the most sizeable ones. This has been compared this to the Lebaneseconfessionalist system, which is based on that country's major religions.
The PYD-led rule has triggered protests in various areas since they first captured territory. In 2019, residents of tens of villages in the eastern Deir ez-Zor Governorate demonstrated for two weeks, regarding the new regional leadership as Kurdish-dominated and non-inclusive, citing arrests of suspected ISIL members, looting of oil, lack of infrastructure as well as forced conscription into the YPG as reasons. The protests resulted in deaths and injuries. It has been stated that the new political structures created in the region have been based on top-down structures, which have placed obstacles for the return of refugees, created dissent as well as a lack of trust between the federation and the local population.
Qamishli initially served as the de facto capital of the administration, but the area's governing body later relocated to Ayn Issa.
Article 8 of the 2014 constitution stipulates that "All Cantons in the autonomous regions are founded on the principle of local self-government. Cantons may freely elect their representatives and representative bodies, and may pursue their rights insofar as it does not contravene the articles of the Charter."
The cantons were later reorganized into regions with subordinate cantons/provinces, areas, districts and communes. The first communal elections in the region were held on 22 September 2017. 12,421 candidates competed for around 3,700 communal positions during the elections, which were organized by the region's High Electoral Commission. Elections for the councils of the Jazira, Kobani, and Afrin Regions were held in December 2017.
On 1 March 2025, during a meeting of the Syrian Democratic Council in Ayn Issa, a new name for the region was adopted, the "Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria", encompassing the Kobani, Afrin, and Jazira regions. During the meeting, a 70-member "General Council for the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria" was formed.
In December 2015, during a meeting of the region's representatives in Al-Malikiyah, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) was established to serve as the political representative of the DFNS. The co-leaders selected to lead the SDC at its founding were prominent human rights activist Haytham Manna and TEV-DEM Executive Board member Îlham Ehmed. The SDC appoints an Executive Council which deal with the economy, agriculture, natural resources, and foreign affairs. General elections were planned for 2014 and 2018, but this was postponed due to fighting.
Under the rule of the Ba'ath Party, school education consisted of only Arabic language public schools, supplemented by Assyrian private confessional schools. In 2015, the region's administration introduced primary education in the native language (either Kurdish or Arabic) and mandatory bilingual education (Kurdish and Arabic) for public schools, with English as a mandatory third language. There are ongoing disagreements and negotiations over curriculums with the Syrian central government, which generally still pays the teachers in public schools.
In August 2016, the Ourhi Centre was founded by the Assyrian community in the city of Qamishli, to educate teachers in order to make Syriac-Aramaic an additional language in public schools in Jazira Region, which then started in the 2016/17 academic year. According to the region's Education Committee, in 2016/2017 "three curriculums have replaced the old one, to include teaching in three languages: Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac." In August 2017 Galenos Yousef Issa of the Ourhi Centre announced that the Syriac curriculum would be expanded to grade 6, which earlier had been limited to grade 3, with teachers being assigned to Syriac schools in Al-Hasakah, Al-Qahtaniyah and Al-Malikiyah. At the start of the academic year 2018–2019, the curricula in Kurdish and Arabic had been expanded to grades 1–12 and Syriac to grades 1–9. "Jineology" classes had also been introduced. In general, schools are encouraged to teach the administration's "utopian doctrine" which promotes diversity, democracy, and the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan. Local reactions to the changes to the school system and curriculum were mixed. While many praised the new system because it encouraged tolerance and allowed Kurds and other minorities to be taught in their own languages, others have criticised it as de facto compulsory indoctrination.
High school students in Tev-Cand in a classroom, dancing during a class on Syrian culture
The federal, regional and local administrations in the region put much emphasis on promoting libraries and educational centers, to facilitate learning and social and artistic activities. Examples are the Nahawand Center for Developing Children's Talents in Amuda (est. 2015) and the Rodî û Perwîn Library in Kobani (May 2016).
For Assyrian private confessional schools there had at first been no changes. However, in August 2018 it was reported that the region's authorities was trying to implement its own Syriac curriculum in private Christian schools that have been continuing to use an Arabic curriculum with limited Syriac classes approved by the Assad regime and originally developed by Syrian Education Ministry in cooperation with Christian clergy in the 1950s. The threatening of the closure of schools not complying with this resulted in protests erupting in Qamishli. A deal was later reached in September 2018 between the region's authorities and the local Syriac Orthodox archbishopric, where the two first grades in these schools would learn the region's Syriac curriculum and grades three to six would continue to learn the Damascus approved curriculum.
While there was no institution of tertiary education on the territory of the region at the onset of the Syrian Civil War, an increasing number of such institutions have been established by the regional administrations in the region since.
In September 2014, the Mesopotamian Social Sciences Academy in Qamishli started classes. More such academies designed under a non-traditional academic philosophy and concept are in the process of founding or planning.
In August 2015, the traditionally-designed University of Afrin in Afrin started teaching, with initial programs in literature, engineering and economics, including institutes for medicine, topographic engineering, music and theater, business administration and the Kurdish language.
In July 2016, Jazira Canton Board of Education started the University of Rojava in Qamishli, with faculties for Medicine, Engineering, Sciences, and Arts and Humanities. Programs taught include health, computer and agricultural engineering; physics, chemistry, history, psychology, geography, mathematics and primary school teaching and Kurdish literature. There is an additional Faculty for Petroleum and Pharmacology in Rmelan. Its language of instruction is Kurdish, and with an agreement with Paris 8 University in France for cooperation, the university opened registration for students in the academic year 2016–2017.
In August 2016 Jazira Canton police forces took control of the remaining parts of Hasakah city, which included the Hasakah campus of the Arabic-language Al-Furat University, and with mutual agreement the institution continues to be operated under the authority of the Damascus government's Ministry of Higher Education.
Public performance in the AANES (Rojava) in administration Tev Cand
Incorporating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as other internationally recognized human rights conventions, the 2014 Constitution of North and East Syria guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. As a result, a diverse media landscape has developed in the region, in each of the Kurdish, Arabic, Syriac-Aramaic and Turkish languages of the land, as well as in English, and media outlets frequently use more than one language. Among the most prominent media in the region are Hawar News Agency and ARA News agencies and websites as well as TV outlets Rojava Kurdistan TV, Ronahî TV, and the bimonthly magazine Nudem. A landscape of local newspapers and radio stations has developed. However, media agencies often face economic pressure, as was demonstrated by the closure of news website Welati in May 2016. In addition, the autonomous regions have imposed some limits on press freedom, for example forcing the press to get work permits. These can be cancelled, thereby curtailing the ability of certain press agencies to operate. However, the extent of these restrictions differed greatly from area to area. By 2016, Kobani Canton was the least restrictive, followed by Jazira Canton which closely monitored and occasionally regulated press activity. Afrin Canton was the most restrictive, and many local reporters operated anonymously.
Political extremism in the context of the Syrian Civil War can put media outlets under pressure; for example in April 2016 the premises of Arta FM ("the first, and only, independent radio station staffed and broadcast by Syrians inside Syria") in Amuda was threatened and burned down by unidentified assailants. In December 2018 the Rojava Information Center was established. During the Turkish assault on Afrin, the KDP-affiliated Iraqi Kurdish Rudaw Media Network was also banned from reporting in the region. On 2 September 2019, the Iraqi Kurdistan-based Kurdistan 24 network had its license to work in the region withdrawn and had its offices confiscated by Rojava authorities. International media and journalists operate with few restrictions in the region, one of the only regions in Syria where they can operate with some degree of freedom. Internet connections in the region are often slow due to inadequate infrastructure. Internet lines are operated by Syrian Telecom, which as of January 2017 is working on a major extension of the fibre optic cable network in southern Jazira Region.
Children in (AANES) school curriculum children learning to play instruments and arts
After the establishment of the de facto autonomous region, the Center of Art and Democratic Culture, located in Jazira Region, has become a venue for aspiring artists who showcase their work. Among major cultural events in the region is the annual Festival of Theater in March/April as well as the Rojava Short Story Festival in June, both in the city of Qamishli, and the Afrin Short Film Festival in April.
The Jazira Region is a major wheat and cotton producer and has a considerable oil industry. The Euphrates Region suffered most destruction of the three regions and has huge challenges in reconstruction, and has recently seen some greenhouse agriculture construction. Price controls are managed by local committees, which can set the price of basic goods such as food and medical goods.
It has been theorized that the Assad government had deliberately underdeveloped parts of Northern Syria in order to Arabize the region and make secession attempts less likely. During the Syrian Civil War, the infrastructure of the region on average experienced less destruction than other parts of Syria. In May 2016, Ahmed Yousef, head of the Economic Body and chairman of Afrin University, stated that at the time, the economic output of the region (including agriculture, industry and oil) accounted for about 55% of Syria's gross domestic product. In 2014, the Syrian government was still paying some state employees, but fewer than before. However, the administration of the region stated that "none of our projects are financed by the regime".
Sustainable micro-irrigation system in Syria created by the AANES in southern Afrin.
At first, there were no direct or indirect taxes on people or businesses in the region; instead, the administration raised money mainly through tariffs and selling oil and other natural resources. However, in July 2017, it was reported that the administration in the Jazira Region had started to collect income tax to provide for public services in the region. In May 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that traders in Syria experience the region as "the one place where they aren't forced to pay bribes."
The main sources of revenue for the autonomous region have been presented as: 1. Public properties such as grain silos and oil and gas in the Jazira Region, 2. Local taxation and customs fees taken at the border crossings, 3. Service delivery, 4. Remittances from Iraq and Turkey, and 5. Local donations. In 2015, the autonomous administration shared information about the region's finances where its 2014 revenue was about LS 3 billion (≈US$5.8 million) of which 50% was spent on "self-defense and protection", 18% for the Jazira Canton (now Jazira Region), 8.5% for the Kobani Canton (now Euphrates Region), 8.5% for the Afrin Canton (later Afrin Region), 15% for the "Internal Committee" and any remainder was a reserve for the next year. The AANES has by far the highest average salaries and standard of living throughout Syria, with salaries being twice as large as in regime-controlled Syria, following the collapse of the Syrian pound the AANES doubled salaries to maintain inflation, and allow for good wages. The AANES still faces challenges with distribution, food security, and healthcare.
Oil and food production is substantial, so they are important exports. Agricultural products include sheep, grain and cotton. Important imports are consumer goods and auto parts. Trade with Turkey and access to humanitarian and military aid is difficult due to a blockade by Turkey. Turkey does not allow business people or goods to cross its border. The blockade from adjacent territories held by Turkey and ISIL, and partially also the KRG, temporarily caused heavy distortions of relative prices in Jazira Region and Euphrates Region (while separate, Afrin Region borders government-controlled territory since February 2016); for example in Jazira Region and Euphrates Region, through 2016 petrol cost only half as much as bottled water.
The Semalka Border Crossing with Iraqi Kurdistan had been intermittently closed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but has been open permanently since June 2016, and along with the establishment of a corridor to Syrian government controlled territory in April 2017, economic exchange has increasingly normalized. Further, in May 2017 in northern Iraq, the Popular Mobilization Forces fighting ISIL cleared a corridor connecting the autonomous region and Iraqi government-controlled territory.
The autonomous administration is supporting efforts for workers to form cooperatives, such as this sewing cooperative in Derik.
The autonomous region is ruled by a coalition which have been described as pursuing a model of economy that blends co-operative and private enterprise. In 2012, the PYD launched what it called the "Social Economy Plan", later renamed the "People's Economy Plan" (PEP). Private property and entrepreneurship are protected under the principle of "ownership by use". Dr. Dara Kurdaxi, a regional official, has stated: "The method in Rojava is not so much against private property, but rather has the goal of putting private property in the service of all the peoples who live in Rojava." Communes and co-operatives have been established to provide essentials. Co-operatives account for a large proportion of agricultural production and are active in construction, factories, energy production, livestock, pistachio and roasted seeds, and public markets. Several hundred instances of collective farming occurred across towns and villages in the region, with communes consisting of approximately 20–35 people. According to the region's "Ministry of Economics", approximately three-quarters of all property has been placed under community ownership and a third of production has been transferred to direct management by workers' councils.
Syrian civil laws are valid in the region if they do not conflict with the Constitution of the autonomous region. One example for amendment is personal status law, which in Syria is based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts, while the secular autonomous region proclaims absolute equality of women under the law, allowing civil marriage and banning forced marriage, polygamy, and underage marriage.
A new criminal justice approach was implemented that emphasizes restoration over retribution. The death penalty was abolished. Prisons house mostly people charged with terrorist activity related to ISIL and other extremist groups. A September 2015 report of Amnesty International stated that 400 people were incarcerated by the region's authorities and criticized deficiencies in due process of the judicial system of the region.
At the local level, citizens create Peace and Consensus Committees, which make group decisions on minor criminal cases and disputes as well as in separate committees resolve issues of specific concern to women's rights like domestic violence and marriage. At the regional level, citizens (who need not be trained jurists) are elected by the regional People's Councils to serve on seven-member People's Courts. At the next level are four Appeals Courts, composed of trained jurists. The court of last resort is the Regional Court, which serves the region as a whole. Separate from this system, the Constitutional Court renders decisions on compatibility of acts of government and legal proceedings with the constitution of the region (called the Social Contract).
Policing in the region is performed by the Asayish armed formation. Asayish was established on 25 July 2013 to fill the gap of security when the Syrian security forces withdrew. Under the Constitution of North and East Syria, policing is a competence of the regions. The Asayish forces of the regions are composed of 26 official bureaus that aim to provide security and solutions to social problems. The six main units of Asayish are Checkpoints Administration, Anti-Terror Forces Command (HAT), Intelligence Directorate, Organized Crime Directorate, Traffic Directorate and Treasury Directorate. 218 Asayish centers were established and 385 checkpoints with 10 Asayish members in each checkpoint were set up. 105 Asayish offices provide security against ISIL on the frontlines across Northern Syria. Larger cities have general directorates responsible for all aspects of security including road controls. Each region has a HAT command, and each Asayish center organizes itself autonomously.
Throughout the region, the municipal Civilian Defense Forces (HPC) and the regional Self-Defense Forces (HXP) also serve local-level security. In Jazira Region, the Asayish are further complemented by the Assyrian Sutoro police force, which is organized in every area with Assyrian population, provides security and solutions to social problems in collaboration with other Asayish units. The Khabour Guards and Nattoreh, though not police units, also have a presence in the area, providing security in towns along the Khabur River. The Bethnahrain Women's Protection Forces also maintain a police branch. In the areas taken from ISIL during the Raqqa campaign, the Raqqa Internal Security Forces and Manbij Internal Security Forces operated as police forces. Deir ez-Zor also maintained an Internal Security Forces unit.
Satellite images of the village of Husseiniya in 2014 and 2015, reportedly leveled by the YPG.
In the course of the Syrian Civil War, including the years 2014 and 2015, reports by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International stated that militias associated with the autonomous region were committing war crimes, in particular members of the People's Protection Units (YPG). The reports from 2014 include reports of arbitrary arrests and torture, other reports include the use of child soldiers. After the report, the YPG publicly accepted the deficiencies and in October 2015 the YPG demobilized 21 minors from the military service in its ranks. Reports have been comprehensively debated and contested by both the YPG and other human rights organizations. In 2018, HRW again accused the YPG of recruiting minors. The YPG responded that if 16- and 17-year-olds are hired, the relatives are notified, but do not have to consent, and the minors are kept away from combat zones. Since September 2015, the YPG have received human rights training from Geneva Call and other international organizations. A September 2020 article from Syria Direct found that the SDF was continuing to recruit child soldiers, despite signing an action plan on July 1, 2019, with the United Nations to "end and prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers."
The region's civil government has been hailed in international media for human rights advancement in particular in the legal system, concerning women's rights, ethnic minority rights, freedom of Speech and Press and for hosting inbound refugees. The political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society. Conscription into the Self-Defence Forces (HXP) has been called a human rights violation by those who call the region's institutions illegitimate, whilst extra-legal abduction into military service has been reported, such as in 2014 when a 15-year-old girl was kidnapped and recruited into the YPJ.
Some persistent issues in the region concern ethnic minority rights. One issue of contention is the consequence of Baathist Syrian government's expropriation of land from Kurdish owners and settling of tribal Arabs there in 1973 and 2007. There have been calls to expel the settlers and return the land to its previous owners, which has led the political leadership of the region to press the Syrian government for a comprehensive solution.
During the Syrian Civil War, organizations such as the Turkish government, Amnesty International and the Middle East Observer stated that YPG was forcibly displacing inhabitants of captured areas with predominantly Arab population such as Tell Abyad. These displacements were considered attempts at ethnic cleansing. However, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights rebutted these reports and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry find no evidence of YPG or SDF forces committing ethnic cleansing in order to change the demographic composition of territories under their control.
The demographics of the region have historically been highly diverse, with several major shifts in regard to which groups form majorities or minorities in the last centuries. The Al-Hasakah Governorate historically been the domain of nomad and sedentary Arabs. Most of the Kurdish population in the area have immigrated from Turkey during the 20th century. One major shift in modern times was in the early part of the 20th century due to the Assyrian and Armenian genocides, when many Assyrians and Armenians fled to Syria from Turkey. In the 1920s after the failed Kurdish rebellions in Kemalist Turkey, there was a large influx of Kurds to Syria's northeast, called "Jazira province" at the time. It is estimated that 25,000 Kurds fled at this time to Syria, under French Mandate authorities, who encouraged their immigration, and granted them Syrian citizenship. Consequently, the French official reports show the existence of at most 45 Kurdish villages in Jazira prior to 1927. A new wave of refugees arrived in 1929. The mandatory authorities continued to encourage Kurdish immigration into Syria, and by 1939, the villages numbered between 700 and 800. Another account by Sir John Hope Simpson estimated the number of Kurds in Jazira province at 20,000 out of 100,000 people at the end of 1930. The number of Kurds continued to grow and the French geographers Fevret and Gibert estimated that in 1953 out of the total 146,000 inhabitants of Jazira, agriculturalist Kurds made up 60,000 (41%), nomad Arabs 50,000 (34%), and a quarter of the population were Christians.
A YPJ soldier next to a large reservoir in Northern Syria
Under the French Mandate of Syria, newly arriving Kurds were granted citizenship by French Mandate authorities and enjoyed considerable rights as the French Mandate authority encouraged minority autonomy as part of a divide and rule strategy and recruited heavily from the Kurds and other minority groups, such as Alawite and Druze, for its local armed forces. The last significant wave of Kurdish incoming migration from Turkey happened between 1945 and 1961 which strongly contributed to the growth of al-Hasakah Governorate's population from 240,000 to 305,000 between 1954 and 1961. In addition to the demographic changes brought about by the Kurdish immigration from Turkey, the Syrian government initiated Arabization policy. Therefore, 4000 Arab families from areas flooded by the Tabqa Dam in Raqqa and Aleppo were resettled in new village in al-Hasakah Governorate.
Another shift in modern times was the Baath policy of settling additional Arab population in northern Syria, while displacing local Kurds. Most recently, during the Syrian Civil War, many refugees have fled to the north of the country. Some ethnic Arab citizens from Iraq have fled to northern Syria as well. However, as of January 2018, only two million people are estimated to remain in the area under the region's administration with estimates of around half a million people emigrating since the beginning of the civil war, to a large degree because of the economic hardships the region has faced during the war.
Two ethnic groups have a significant presence throughout Northern Syria:
Arabs are an ethnic group or ethnolinguistic group living throughout Northern Syria, mainly defined by Arabic as their first language. They encompass Bedouin tribes who trace their ancestry to the Arabian Peninsula as well as arabized indigenous peoples and preexisting Arab groups. Arabs form the majority or plurality in some parts of Northern Syria, in particular in the southern parts of the Jazira Region, in Tell Abyad District and in Azaz District. While in Shahba region the term Arab is mainly used to denote arabized Kurds and arabized Syrians, in Euphrates Region and in Jazira Region it mainly denotes ethnic Arab Bedouin populations.
Kurds are an ethnic group living in northeastern and northwestern Syria, culturally and linguistically classified among the Iranian peoples. Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the ancient Iranian people of the Medes, using a calendar dating from 612 BC, when the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was conquered by the Medes. Kurds formed 55% of the 2010 population of what now is both Jazira Region and Euphrates Region.
Two ethnic groups have a significant presence in certain regions of Northern Syria:
The streets of Qamishli during ChristmasAssyrians are an ethnic group. Their presence in Syria is in the Jazira Region of the autonomous region, particularly in the urban areas (Qamishli, al-Hasakah, Ras al-Ayn, Al-Malikiyah, Al-Qahtaniyah), in the northeastern corner and in villages along the Khabur River in the Tell Tamer area. They traditionally speak varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic, a Semitic language. There are many Assyrians among recent refugees to Northern Syria, fleeing Islamist violence elsewhere in Syria back to their traditional lands. In the secular polyethnic political climate of the region, the Dawronoye modernization movement has a growing influence on Assyrian identity in the 21st century.
Turkmen are an ethnic group with a major presence in the area between Afrin Region and Euphrates Region, where they form regional majorities in the countryside from Azaz and Mare' to Jarabulus, and a minor presence in Afrin Region and Euphrates Region.
Regarding the status of different languages in the autonomous region, its "Social Contract" stipulates that "all languages in Northern Syria are equal in all areas of life, including social, educational, cultural, and administrative dealings. Every people shall organize its life and manage its affairs using its mother tongue." In practice, Arabic and Kurmanji are predominantly used across all areas and for most official documents, with Syriac being mainly used in the Jazira Region with some usage across all areas.
The four main languages spoken in Northern Syria are the following, and are from three different language families:
This list includes all cities and towns in the region with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The population figures are given according to the 2004 Syrian census.
Healthcare is organized through the region's "Health and Environment Authority" and through sub-region and canton-level Health Committees. Independent organizations providing healthcare in the region include the Kurdish Red Crescent, the Syrian American Medical Society, the Free Burma Rangers and Doctors Without Borders. The 2018 Turkish offensive left thousands of people in the region without access to basic necessities as the majority of international aid groups withdrew during the violence.
A demonstration in Qamishli in solidarity with residents of Aleppo on the day the Battle of Aleppo ended; 22 December 2016
Previously, the relations of the region to the Damascus government were determined by the context of the Syrian civil war. The Constitution of Syria and the Constitution of North and East Syria were legally incompatible with respect to legislative and executive authority. In the military realm, combat between the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian government forces was rare, in the most instances some of the territory still controlled by the Syrian government in Qamishli and al-Hasakah has been lost to the YPG. In some military campaigns, in particular in northern Aleppo governate and in al-Hasakah, YPG and Assadist forces tacitly cooperated against Islamist forces, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and others.
The region never stated a desire to pursue full independence but rather autonomy within a federal and democratic Syria.
In March 2015, the Syrian Information Minister announced that his government considered recognizing the Kurdish autonomy "within the law and constitution". While the region's administration is not invited to the Geneva III peace talks on Syria, or any of the earlier talks, Russia in particular calls for the region's inclusion and does to some degree carry the region's positions into the talks, as documented in Russia's May 2016 draft for a new constitution for Syria. In October 2016, there were reports of a Russian initiative for federalization with a focus on northern Syria, which at its core called to turn the existing institutions of the region into legitimate institutions of Syria; also reported was its rejection for the time being by the Syrian government. The Damascus ruling elite is split over the question whether the new model in the region can work in parallel and converge with the Syrian government, for the benefit of both, or if the agenda should be to centralize again all power at the end of the civil war, necessitating preparation for ultimate confrontation with the region's institutions.
An analysis released in June 2017 described the region's "relationship with the regime fraught but functional" and a "semi-cooperative dynamic". In late September 2017, Syria's Foreign Minister said that Damascus would consider granting Kurds more autonomy in the region once ISIL is defeated.
With the 2024 fall of the Assad regime, the autonomous administration took control of many Arab-majority areas in Syria, including Deir ez-Zor and most of Aleppo. These areas were returned on 1 March 2025 in return for the new Syrian government recognizing the region's autonomy.
Kurdish-inhabited areas in 1992 according to the CIA
The region's dominant political party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), is a member organization of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) organization; however, the other KCK member organizations in the neighboring states (Turkey, Iran and Iraq) with Kurdish minorities are either outlawed (Turkish Kurdistan, Iranian Kurdistan) or politically marginal with respect to other Kurdish parties (Iraq). Expressions of sympathy for Syrian Kurds have been numerous among Kurds in Turkey. During the Siege of Kobanî, some ethnic Kurdish citizens of Turkey crossed the border and volunteered in the defense of the town.
The region's relationship with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq is complicated. One context is that the governing party there, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), views itself and its affiliated Kurdish parties in other countries as a more conservative and nationalist alternative and competitor to the KCK political agenda and blueprint in general. The political system of Iraqi Kurdistan stands in stark contrast to the region's system. Like the KCK umbrella organization, the PYD has some anti-nationalist ideological leanings while having Kurdish nationalist factions as well. They have traditionally been opposed by the Iraqi-Kurdish KDP-sponsored Kurdish National Council in Syria with more clear Kurdish nationalist leanings.
Aside of the representation offices the AANES has established in France, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland the region's role in the international arena is comprehensive military cooperation of its militias with the United States and the international (US-led) coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. In a public statement in March 2016, the day after the declaration of the regions autonomy, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter praised the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia as having "proven to be excellent partners of ours on the ground in fighting ISIL. We are grateful for that, and we intend to continue to do that, recognizing the complexities of their regional role." Late October 2016, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of the international Anti-ISIL-coalition, said that the YPG would lead the impending assault on Raqqa, ISIL's stronghold and capital, and that YPG commanders would plan the operation with advice from American and coalition troops. At various times, the U.S. deployed U.S. troops embedded with the YPG to the border between the region and Turkey, in order to deter Turkish aggressions against the DFNS. In February 2018, the United States Department of Defense released a budget blueprint for 2019 with respect to the region, which included $300 million for the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and $250 million for border security. In April 2018, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron dispatched troops to Manbij and Rmelan in a bid to assist YPG militias and in order to defuse tensions with Turkey.
In the diplomatic field, the de facto autonomous region lacks any formal recognition. While there is comprehensive activity of reception of the region's representatives and appreciation with a broad range of countries, only Russia had on occasion openly supported the region's political ambition of federalization of Syria in the international arena, while the U.S. did not. After peace talks between Syrian civil war parties in Astana in January 2017, Russia offered a draft for a future constitution of Syria, which would, among other things, change the "Syrian Arab Republic" into the "Republic of Syria", introduce decentralized authorities as well as elements of federalism like "association areas", strengthen the parliament at the cost of the presidency, and realize secularism by abolishing Islamic jurisprudence as a source of legislation. The region opened official representation offices in Moscow during 2016, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, and The Hague. A broad range of public voices in the U.S. and Europe have called for more formal recognition of the region. International cooperation has been in the field of educational and cultural institutions, like the cooperation agreement of Paris 8 University with the newly founded University of Rojava in Qamishli, or planning for a French cultural centre in Amuda.
Neighboring Turkey has been consistently hostile, which has been attributed to a perceived threat from the region's emergence, in that it would encourage activism for autonomy among Kurds in Turkey in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. In this context, in particular the region's leading Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the YPG militia being members of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) network of organizations, which also includes both political and military Kurdish organizations in Turkey itself, including the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Turkey's policy towards the region is based on an economic blockade, persistent attempts of international isolation, opposition to the cooperation between the American-led anti-ISIL coalition and the People's Protection Units, and support of Islamist opposition fighters hostile to the autonomous region, with some reports even including ISIL among these. Turkey has on several occasions militarily attacked the region's territory and defense forces. This has resulted in some expressions of international solidarity with the region.
In December 2019, an international conference hosted by the International Alliance for the Defense of Rights and Freedoms (AIDL) was held at the European Parliament which condemned the Turkish-backed invasion of northeastern Syria, and called for the self-declared Autonomous Administration of North East Syria to be recognized and to be included in UN-led Constitutional Committee tasked to draft a new constitution for Syria. The official position of the European Union remained the same however, that the Autonomous Administration should be "respected" and included in talks while rejecting "any recognition in the national sense of the word" and that "the territorial integrity of Syria is fundamental".
Accusations of human rights violations, war crimes and ethnic cleansing have been made against the YPG since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, such as in the take-over of the border town of Tal Abyad from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other operations. Some of the accusations have come from Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian militias and opposition groups in the region, while others have come from numerous human rights organizations, as well as Western and regional journalists. Amnesty International have gone on fact-finding missions, stating that:
"By deliberately demolishing civilian homes, in some cases razing and burning entire villages, displacing their inhabitants with no justifiable military grounds, the Autonomous Administration is abusing its authority and brazenly flouting international humanitarian law, in attacks that amount to war crimes."
and:
"In its fight against IS, the Autonomous Administration appears to be trampling all over the rights of civilians who are caught in the middle. We saw extensive displacement and destruction that did not occur as a result of fighting. This report uncovers clear evidence of a deliberate, co-ordinated campaign of collective punishment of civilians in villages previously captured by IS, or where a small minority were suspected of supporting the group."
In March 2017 the "United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria" was unable to find evidence to substantiate claims about ethnic cleansing, stating:
"Though allegations of 'ethnic cleansing' continued to be received during the period under review, the Commission found no evidence to substantiate claims that YPG or SDF forces ever targeted Arab communities on the basis of ethnicity, nor that YPG cantonal authorities systematically sought to change the demographic composition of territories under their control through the commission of violations directed against any particular ethnic group,"
The region has also been criticized extensively by various partisan and non-partisan sides over political authoritarianism. A KDP-S politician accused the PYD of delivering him to the Assad regime.
It has also been criticized for banning journalists, media outlets and political parties that are critical of the YPG narrative in areas under its control.
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