Hafez al-Assad was a Syrian politician and military officer who was the 18th president of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000. He was also the prime minister of Syria from 1970 to 1971 as well as the regional secretary of the regional command of the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and secretary general of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000. Hafez al-Assad was a key participant in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état, which brought the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power in the country, a power that lasted until the fall of the regime in 2024, then led by his son Bashar.
Bashar al-Assad is a Syrian politician, military officer, and former dictator who served as the 19th president of Syria from 2000 until his government was overthrown by Syrian rebels in December 2024. As president, Assad was commander-in-chief of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces and secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is the son of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria is a Syrian branch of the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood organization. Its objective is the transformation of Syria into an Islamic state governed by Sharia law through a gradual legal and political process.
The Damascus Spring was a period of intense political and social debate in Syria which started after the death of President Hafez al-Assad in June 2000 and continued to some degree until autumn 2001, when most of the activities associated with it were suppressed by the government of his son Bashar al-Assad. It started with the Statement of 99 and the establishing of the Committees of Civil Society, then the Statement of 1000 was issued carrying the signature of 1000 Syrian intellectuals in 2001.
Omar Amiralay was a Syrian documentary film director and civil society activist. He is noted for the political criticism in his films, and played a prominent role in the events of the Damascus Spring of 2000.
Rifaat Ali al-Assad, known as the "Butcher of Hama", is a Syrian former military officer and politician. He is the younger brother of the late President of Syria, Hafez al-Assad, and Jamil al-Assad, and the uncle of the former President Bashar al-Assad. He was the commanding officer of the ground operations of the 1982 Hama massacre ordered by his brother.
Aref Dalila is a Syrian economist and former Dean of the Faculty of Economics in Damascus University. He is currently working as a Senior Economic Researcher at Orient Research Center in the UAE. He was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in 2002 on charges of "trying to corrupt the constitution, inciting armed rebellion and spreading false information" for his political activity during the Damascus Spring period, and imprisoned until released by presidential pardon in 2008.
Hasan Ali Turkmani was a Syrian military officer and politician who served as Syria's Minister of Defense from 2004 to 2009.
The Military Intelligence Directorate was the military intelligence service of Ba'athist Syria until 2024. Although its roots go back to the French mandate period, its current organization was established in 1969. Its predecessor organisation was called the Deuxième Bureau. It was headquartered at the Defense Ministry building in Damascus. The military intelligence service, or the Mukhabarat in Arabic, was very influential in Syrian politics.
The Damascus Declaration was a statement of unity by Syrian opposition figures issued in October 2005. It criticized the Assad regime as "authoritarian, totalitarian and cliquish," and called for "peaceful, gradual," reform "founded on accord, and based on dialogue and recognition of the other."
Bouthaina Shaaban is a Syrian politician who served as political and media adviser to the presidency under Bashar al-Assad until his overthrow in 2024. Shaaban had also previously served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2002 and 2008, and was described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world at the time.
The Statement of 1000 was a statement by 1000 Syrian intellectuals in January 2001, during the Damascus Spring, following the earlier Statement of 99 made in September 2000. The Statement of 1000 was more detailed than the earlier statement, criticising the effective one-party rule of the Ba'ath Party and calling for multiparty democracy, with an independent judiciary and without discrimination against women.
The Syrian opposition is an umbrella term for the Syrian rebel organizations that opposed Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist regime during the Syrian civil war.
The Popular Front for Change and Liberation is a coalition of Syrian political parties. It briefly participated as the leader of the official political opposition within the People's Assembly of Syria, the state's unicameral parliament. Following Assad regime's decision to conduct the 2016 parliamentary elections during the Geneva talks, the front withdrew its participation.
Ali Haidar is a Syrian politician who is the leader of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party – Intifada Wing, and since June 2011 the Minister of State for National Reconciliation Affairs.
The Syrian Revolution, also known as the Syrian Revolution of Dignity and the Syrian Intifada, was a series of mass protests and civilian uprisings throughout Syria – with a subsequent violent reaction by the Ba'athist regime – lasting from February 2011 to December 2024 as part of the greater Arab Spring in the Arab world. The revolution, which demanded the end of the decades-long Assad family rule, began as minor demonstrations during January 2011 and transformed into large nation-wide protests in March. The uprising was marked by mass protests against the Ba'athist dictatorship of president Bashar al-Assad meeting police and military violence, massive arrests and a brutal crackdown, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and tens of thousands wounded. 13 years after the start of the revolution, the Assad regime fell in 2024 after a series of rebel offensives.
The history of Syria covers events which occurred on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic and events which occurred in the region of Syria. Throughout ancient times the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic was occupied and ruled by several empires, including the Sumerians, Mitanni, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arameans, Amorites, Persians, Greeks and Romans. Syria is considered to have emerged as an independent country for the first time on 24 October 1945, upon the signing of the United Nations Charter by the Syrian government, effectively ending France's mandate by the League of Nations to "render administrative advice and assistance to the population" of Syria, which came in effect in April 1946.
France–Syria relations refers to the bilateral relations between the French Republic and Syrian Arab Republic. France has an embassy in Damascus and a consulate general in Aleppo and Latakia. Syria has an embassy in Paris and honorary consulates in Marseille and Pointe-à-Pitre.
Abdul-Aziz al-Khair, born 1952 in the Latakia Governorate, is a Syrian intellectual and a prominent figure of the Communist opposition in Syria. He was reported missing in 2012.
Ali al-Jundi was a renowned Syrian poet. He is considered one of the pioneers of Arabic free verse poetry.
