The Syrian RevolutionThey are syrious.

Siddhant Agarwal

Syria is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.

POPULATION• The population of Syria is 74% Sunni Muslim, with a

13% Shia Muslim population, 10% Christian and 3% Druze. Combined, some 90% of the Syrian population is Muslim, which largely includes Arabs and significant minorities of Kurds and Circassians, while some 10% are Christians, which mainly includes ethnic Assyrians, but also Arab Christians and Armenians. The ethnic minorities include Kurdish (10%), Assyrian/Syriac, Armenian, Turkmen and Circassian populations, while the majority is Arab (90%).

Ethnic Groups:Arab - 90.3%Kurds, Armenian & Other- 9.7%

Religions:Sunni Muslim - 74%Other Muslim (Alawite & Druze)-16%Christian- 10%

Stats:

• Roughly 70% of career soldiers in the Syrian army are Alawites.

• The military’s most elite division, the Republican Guard, led by the president’s younger brother Maher al Assad, is an all-Alawite force.

•The Syrian constitution guarantees the Ba'ath Party majority control of the 250-seat People's Assembly by reserving assembly seats for the Ba'ath Party and the National Progressive Front. The government approves all candidates for election, thus preventing true opposition candidates from running.

LEADERS

• President Bashar al-Assad- has been president of Syria for 11 years; accused of violating human rights

• The Syrian uprising has no defined leader but is comprised of mostly Syrian men

Syrian UprisingSyria is currently engaged in an ongoing civil war since March 2011 which has resulted in massive armed conflict between the civilians and the Syrian Armed Forces or the Syrian army. Since 1970, Syria was ruled by president Hafez al-Assad of the Ba’ath party. Under the rule of Hafez al-Assad, Syria had grown into a strong country unlike before the 1970s. He revolutionized Syria’s economy and infrastructure to a huge extent. Assad remained in power for three decades, longer than anyone in the history of the Syrian state. Hafez al-Assad died on 10 June 2000, after 30 years in power. Immediately following al-Assad's death, the Parliament amended the constitution, reducing the mandatory minimum age of the President from 40 to 34, thus allowing his son, Bashar al-Assad, to become legally eligible for nomination by the ruling Ba'ath party. On 10 July 2000, Bashar al-Assad was elected President by referendum in which he ran unopposed, garnering 97.29% of the vote, according to Syrian Government statistics.

After taking office, Bashar al-Assad sought to present himself as a reformer. After his taking seat as the president of Syria, there came what is known as the Damascus Spring, where people started to meet in different places and discussed the political issues. Most importantly for democratic elections, cancellation of state emergencies, abolition of marital law and special courts, release of political prisoners who were tortured by the police for trying to bring political reforms and most importantly the right to form political parties and civil organization, a rule that was passed by former president Hafez al-Assad. However, the movement was suppressed by autumn 2001.