Brief History of
Syria
Syria fell to the Ottoman Turks
in 1516 and remained a part of their Ottoman Empire for
four centuries. During this period, Syria witnessed great
deterioration in economic, social, and political fields. In
1916, the Arabs took the opportunity of World War I to
revolt against the Turkish rule. Arabs received British
military help and promises that after the War ends, Arab
countries will be granted full independence. On 6 May 1916
, the Ottoman authorities hanged tens of Syrian national
leaders in Damascus and Beirut . This day is still
celebrated in Syria and Lebanon as the Martyrs' Day. The
Arab armies under leadership of Sharif Hussein of Mecca
soon achieved victory over the Turks, and in early 1918,
Arab and British armies entered Damascus ending 400 years
of Ottoman occupation.
Later in 1918, Syria was declared an independent kingdom
under King Faisal I, son of Sharif Hussein. However, France
and Britain had their own plans in mind. In an agreement
known as the Sykes-Picot agreement, they decided to divide
the Middle East into French and British 'spheres of
influence'. Syria was to be put under French mandate. In
early 1920, French troops landed on the Syrian coast, after
several battles with poorly equipped Syrian rebels, they
managed to get the country under their control. In 1923,
the League of Nation officially recognized French mandate
over Syria .
Syrians decided to resist the new invaders. In 1925, they
revolted against the mandate. Several battles took place in
Jabal al-Arab region and in Damascus . The capital was
severely damaged during French air raids in retaliation for
the city's support for rebels. It was until 1936 when
France finally accepted to give Syria partial independence
according to the Franco-Syrian treaty signed in Paris , but
French troops remained on the Syrian soil and continued to
influence the Syrian policies. During World War II , Syria
witnessed military confrontations between French troops
loyal to the Vichy government, allied with the Germans, and
Free French troops allied with the British. In 1941, the
British army, along with its French allies, occupied the
country, and promised full independence after the end of
the war.
Again, the French did not live up to their promises.
Syrians protested again, and in 29 May 1945 , French troops
attacked the Syrian Parliament building in Damascus ,
sparking more anger and demonstrations. The matter was
discussed in the United Nations Security Council, which
came up with a resolution demanding France 's withdrawal
from Syria . The French had to comply; their last soldier
left Syria on 17 April 1946 , which was chosen to be Syria
's National Day.
The early years of independence were marked by political
instability. In 1948, the Syrian army was sent to Palestine
to fight along with other Arab armies against the newly
created State of Israel. The Arabs lost the war, and Israel
occupied 78 percent of the area of historical Palestine .
In July 1949, Syria was the last Arab country to sign an
armistice agreement with Israel . However, It was only the
beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
In 1949, Syria 's national government was overthrown by a
military coup d'etat led by Hussni al-Zaim. Later that year
Zaim was overthrown by his colleague Sami al-Hinnawi. Few
months later, Hinnawi was overthrown by Colonel Adib
al-Sheeshakli. The latter continued to rule the country
until 1954, when growing public opposition forced him to
resign and leave the country. The national government was
restored, but again to face instability, this time coming
from abroad. In the mid 1950s, Syria 's relation with the
West witnessed some tension with the improving
Syrian-Soviet relations. In 1957, Turkey , a close ally of
the US and a member of the NATO, massed its troops on the
Syrian borders threatening to invade the country.
The western threat was also one of the reasons that helped
achieve Syria 's union with Egypt under the United Arab
Republic (UAR) in February 1958, with Egyptian Gamal Abdul
Nasser as president. Nasser 's condition to accept union
with Syria was dissolving all Syrian political parties.
This was one of many reasons that led to the collapse in of
the UAR on September 28, 1961 , with a bloodless military
coup in Damascus .
In 8 March 1963 , the Baath Arab Socialist Party came to
power in a coup known in Syria as the March Revolution. The
Baathists dissolved the Parliament and introduced a
one-party regime that was destablized by conflicts within
the Baath itself. In February 1966, the right wing of Baath
assumed leadership of the party, establishing radical Salah
Jadid as the strongman of the country.
In the spring of 1967, severe clashes erupted on the
borders between Syria and Israel . In April, Israeli
officials publicly threatened to invade Syria . Those
threats were among other major events that led to the Six
Days War between Israel and its neighboring Arab countries.
On 5 June 1967, Israel started its war against the Arabs,
first by invading the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and the West
Bank of Jordan and then on June 10, the Syrian Golan
Heights. Within two days of fighting, Syria had lost the
strategic region including its main city of Quneitra . On
June 11, the warring parties accepted the UN's call for
cease-fire. Later in 1967, the UN security council issued
its famous 242 resolution calling for complete Israeli
withdrawal from the territories occupied in the Six Day
War, in exchange for peace talks and Arab recognition of
Israel 's right to exist.
November 16, 1970 ; Hafez al-Assad, then the defense
minister, led the Correction Movement that brought Syria
stability and security after years of political
disturbance. Assad, elected president in 1971 with an
overwhelming majority, started to get the nation ready to
fight for its occupied land. He mobilized the major
political powers in Syria under the National Progressive
Front, and got the People's Council (Parliament) back to
work. The Syrians did not wait too long. On October, 6th
1973 , Syria and Egypt launched a surprising attack against
the Israeli forces in the occupied Sinai and Golan Heights
. In few days, Syrian troops nearly managed to liberate all
the occupied territories, but Israeli forces managed to
recover with a massive US airlfit. Syria soon found itself
fighting US and Israel together; and with the fighting on
the Egyptian front ceased, the Syrians accepted a UN
brokered cease-fire. The security council issued another
resolution, 338, calling for Israeli withdrawal from Arab
territories and for peace talks to achieve a just peace in
the Middle East .
Obviously, the Syrians did not want the war to end this
way. In early 1974 they launched an attrition war against
the Israeli forces in the Golan. The continuous fighting
and the Arab moral victory pushed the US into mediating a
settlement between Syria and Israel . The US secretary of
state Henry Kissinger succeeded in reaching an agreement to
disengage Syrian and Israeli troops in the Golan. According
to the agreement, Syria regained control over a strip of
territory in the Golan including the major city of Quneitra
. President Assad raised the Syrian flag over the liberated
land on June 26, 1974 , but the Syrians were surprised to
find that Quneitra and many other towns and villages in the
Golan were deliberately destroyed by the Israelis. The city
was never rebuilt. UN troops were deployed in the liberated
area to prevent any violations of the cease-fire.
In 1975, the Lebanese civil war started. In 1976, Syrian
troops were deployed in Lebanon upon request from the
Lebanese Government. The troops in Lebanon stood against
the invading Israeli army in 1982, and full-scale land and
air battles took place between the two sides. In 1990,
Syria and its allies in Lebanon succeeded in putting an end
to the 15-year-old civil war, and Syrian troops remained in
Lebanon to maintain security and stability. In 1978,
Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat signed a separate peace
agrrement with Israel , which was a serious blow to Arab
solidarity. Syria was among other Arab nations that opposed
Sadat's move. If Israelis really wants peace, Assad
proposed, they should simply withdraw from all the
territories occupied in 1967.
In 1980, Iraq launched a war against Iran . Earlier in
1979, the Islamic revolution in Iran had ended its alliance
with the west and declared its support for the Palestinian
cause. Syria thought this was a wrong war, at a wrong time
and against the wrong enemy. Very few Arab countries
supported the Syrian position. Only two years after his war
against Iran ended with nothing but heave losses and
casualities, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded the
small Arabian Gulf state of Kuwait in August 1990, sparking
wide spread international condemnation. Syria participated
in the US-led international coalition that was formed to
defend Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait . The Gulf War that
followed resulted in the destruction of the Iraqi and
imposing harsh international sanctions on Iraq . Another
major Arab power was now practically out of the conflict
with Israel .
After the Gulf War, Syria accepted the US invitation for an
international peace conference on the Middle East . The
conference, held in Madrid in November 1991, marked the
launch of bilateral Arab-Israeli peace talks. The talks
were based on the UN resolutions calling for Israeli
withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967, and on the
so-called 'land for peace' formula. However, they were
stalled for years because of Israel 's continuous refusal
to give back any Arab territory. The Arab position was more
weakened when the Palestinians and the Jordanians signed
separate peace agreements with Israel in 1993 and 1994.
Syria and Lebanon , however, vowed to sign peace together
or sign not. Syria continued to support the Lebanese
resistance fighters led by Hizbollah against the Israeli
occupation forces in South Lebanon . In May 2000, Hizbollah
succeeded in driving Israel out of Southern Lebanon after
22 years of occupation.
Syrian-Israeli peace talks reached a dead end in 1996 with
Israel refusing to discuss the complete withdrawal from the
Golan Heights . In late 1999, Israel signaled its will to
accept such move, and the talks were resumed in the US ,
this time at a high level between Foreign Minister Farouq
al-Sahara'a and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The
talks were again stalled in early 2000 when Barak tried to
exclude the northeastern shore of the Lake Tiberis from the
proposed Israeli withdrawal plan. Syria made it clear that
no single inch of the Syrian soil will be given away.
On June 10th 2000 , President Assad died of a heart attack.
His son, Bashar al-Assad was elected President on July
10th.
source : Syrian Embassy Washington Jan 2005