Syria

Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a West Asian nation with a profound historical legacy, once the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate before emerging as a French Mandate in the mid-20th century. It achieved de jure independence in 1945, becoming a founding member of the United Nations, but its post-independence period was plagued by political instability. This turmoil led to the 1963 establishment of a one-party state under the Ba'ath Party, eventually evolving into a hereditary dictatorship with Hafez al-Assad taking power in 1970 and succeeded by his son Bashar in 2000.

Following the 2011 Arab Spring, Syria spiraled into a devastating multi-sided civil war that displaced over 6 million refugees and saw the territorial defeat of ISIS in 2017. In a significant turn of events in late 2024, a coalition of opposition forces captured Damascus, leading to the collapse of the Assad regime, though leaving the nation's economy severely strained by 2025.