The Syrian Arab Armed Forces were the military forces of the Syrian Arab Republic. They consisted of the Syrian Army, Syrian Air Force, Syrian Navy, Syrian Air Defence Force, and paramilitary forces, such as the National Defence Forces. According to the Constitution of Syria, the President of Syria was the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. Minister of Defense held the position of Deputy Commander-in-chief of the Army and Armed Forces.
The Arab world, formally the Arab homeland, also known as the Arab nation, the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in the Arab world are ethnically Arab, there are also significant populations of other ethnic groups such as Berbers, Kurds, Somalis and Nubians, among other groups. Arabic is used as the lingua franca throughout the Arab world.
The Dead Cities or Forgotten Cities are a group of 700 abandoned settlements in northwest Syria between Aleppo and Idlib. Around 40 villages grouped in eight archaeological parks situated in north-western Syria provide an insight into rural life in Late Antiquity and during the Byzantine period. Most of the villages, which date from the 1st to 7th centuries, were abandoned between the 8th and 10th centuries. The settlements feature the well-preserved architectural remains of buildings such as dwellings, pagan temples, churches, cisterns and bathhouses. Important dead cities include the Church of Saint Simeon Stylites, Dahis, Serjilla, Ruweiha and al Bara.
The Syrian occupation of Lebanon lasted from 1976, beginning with the Syrian intervention in the Lebanese Civil War, until April 30, 2005. This period saw significant Syrian military and political influence over Lebanon, impacting its governance, economy, and society. The occupation ended following intense international pressure and the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. The legacy of the occupation continues to influence Lebanese-Syrian relations and Lebanon's internal political dynamics.
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. It is under a transitional government and comprises 14 governorates. Damascus is the capital and largest city. With a population of 25 million across an area of 185,180 square kilometres (71,500 sq mi), it is the 57th-most populous and 87th-largest country.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Syria:
The mass media in Syria consists primarily of television, radio, Internet, film and print. The national language of Syria is Arabic but some publications and broadcasts are also available in English and French. While television is the most popular medium in Syria, the Internet has become a widely utilized vehicle to disseminate content. Transcending all available media, the government seeks to control what Syrians see by restricting coverage from outside sources. Publications and broadcasts are monitored by members of the government. All mass media outlets are under the supervision of the Ministry of Information. Third article of the 2013 Information Ministry guidelines stipulate that purpose of all media outlets is "to enlighten public opinion" in line with the ideological doctrines "of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party and the policy of the state".
The Damascus Opera House is the national opera house of Syria. Inaugurated on 7 May 2004, it is located in central Damascus, on the Umayyad Square.
The inaugural moment of Syrian cinema is said to be the release of Al-Mutaham al-Bari in 1928. Actors from neighboring countries, as well as France, have influenced the Syrian film industry.
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided conflict in Syria involving various state-sponsored and non-state actors. In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the insurgency had escalated into a full-blown civil war.
The Syrian opposition is an umbrella term for the groups that opposed the Assad regime in Syria. In July 2011, at the beginning of the Syrian civil war, defectors from the Syrian Arab Armed Forces formed the Free Syrian Army, a name that was later used by several armed factions during the conflict. In November 2012, political groups operating from abroad formed the Syrian National Coalition (SNC). In turn, the Coalition formed the Syrian Interim Government (SIG) which operated first as a government-in-exile and, from 2015, in certain zones of Syria. In 2017, the Islamist group Tahrir al-Sham, unaffiliated to the SNC, formed the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) in the areas it controlled. Rebel armed forces during the civil war have included the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, affiliated to the SIG, the Southern Operations Room and the Revolutionary Commando Army. Other groups that challenged Bashar al-Assad's rule during the civil war were the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, and the jihadist organization known as the Islamic State.
Estimates of the total number of deaths in the Syrian Civil War, by various war monitors, range between 580,000 as of May 2021, and approximately 617,910 as of March 2024. In late September 2021, the United Nations stated it had documented the deaths of at least 350,209 "identified individuals" in the conflict between March 2011 and March 2021, but cautioned the figure was "certainly an under-count" that specified only a "minimum verifiable number".
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, and Deir Ez-Zor. The region gained its de facto autonomy in 2012 in the context of the ongoing Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian civil war, in which its official military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has taken part.
The Authenticity and Development Front is an alliance of rebel groups that is active during the Syrian Civil War. The alliance is considered to be moderate by Charles Lister and the BBC.
The Arab Winter is a term referring to the resurgence of authoritarianism and Islamic extremism in some Arab countries in the 2010s in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The term "Arab Winter" refers to the events across Arab League countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including the Syrian civil war, the Iraqi insurgency and subsequent war in Iraq, the Egyptian Crisis, the Libyan crisis, and the Yemeni crisis including the Yemeni civil war.
The Group of the One and Only was a minor rebel group that fought in the Syrian Civil War. The group was composed of foreigners and Syrians. The group's leader, Amir Al Bara, and an unknown number of fighters, reportedly left Latakia and later joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2016.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in March 2011, the official position of Israel has been that of strict neutrality. However, due to the Iranian intervention in the conflict, which began in 2013, it has become involved both politically and militarily in attempts to prevent the growing influence and entrenchment of Iranian troops and proxies throughout Syria. Dubbed Operation Chess, Israeli military activity in Syria has primarily been limited to aerial and missile strikes targeting facilities used by Iran and its proxy forces, especially Hezbollah, which entered Syria from Lebanon shortly after the outbreak of the conflict. Before 2017, Israel did not officially acknowledge any of its operations within Syria, many of which have consisted of airstrikes to disrupt weapons shipments to Hezbollah personnel. By August 2022, the British investigative non-profit organization Airwars estimated that 17 to 45 civilians were killed and another 42 to 101 civilians were wounded by Israeli airstrikes in Syria since 2013; Syrian reports place these figures much lower than other foreign actors in the conflict. Between 2013 and September 2018, Israel also provided humanitarian aid to victims of the Syrian civil war, especially following the launching of Operation Good Neighbour in June 2016.
Lebanon's role in the Syrian Civil War has been limited, compared to the role of other regional and international actors. While the Lebanese Republic has not been officially involved in the conflict, it has been greatly affected by it and some Lebanese factors have taken an active role in the Syrian War and its spillover into Lebanon.
This is an index of lists of historical films.
