Syria

Syria emerged as a modern state in the mid-twentieth century after centuries of Ottoman rule gave way to a French Mandate, gaining formal independence in 1946 when French troops withdrew; the following decades brought multiple coups between 1949 and 1971, a brief union with Egypt from 1958 to 1961, and the Ba'athist military regime that took power in 1963. The Assad family's hereditary dictatorship ran from 1970 until the Syrian Revolution, which began in 2011, escalated into a thirteen year civil war that displaced more than six million people and killed over 600,000 by 2025, culminating in the fall of Damascus on 8 December 2024 and the collapse of the Assad regime. Syria is currently a republic under a provisional government, with a transitional administration established in March 2025 under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and Damascus remains its capital and largest city. The country has a population of approximately 26 million across 185,180 square kilometers and remains in an uncertain transitional period as its new institutions take shape.