Essay on Syria: Cultural Characteristics, Resources and Development of Syria

The name Syria was applied loosely to a large territory between the Taurus Mountains and the Sinai Peninsula by ancient writers such as Strabo, Pliny, and later on by the Arab geographers. Present-day Syria emerged as an independent nation in 1946 when the French relinquished con­trol over the territory (of nearly 71,500 sq. miles or 185,180 sq. km) when the League of Nations mandate in Southwest Asia ex­pired at the end of the World War I.

Since inception, political life in the country has remained unstable, resulting in a large measure from the intense friction between the country’s social, religious and political groups. In 1967 it lost a part of its territory die Golan Heights) to Israel, following a short war between Israel and the neighbor­ing states.

The present authoritarian rule, committed to regain the lost territory and 😮 achieve dominance in the Arab world, has spent enormous amounts of money to accumulate a large arms buildup, which has put a severe strain on the national budget, leaving little for development.

Physically, the country has a small coast (110 miles or 180 km) along the Mediterranean Sea between Turkey in the north and Lebanon in the south, and a nar­row coastal plain, bordering which to the east is a mountain range from north to south with average heights of 3,000 feet -30 meters) in the north declining to 2000 feet in the south.

To the east of the range is a longitudinal trench that contains the valley of the Orontes River. The high­est mountains bordering Lebanon rise to over 9,000 feet (Mt. Hermon). The rest of the country, to the east, is an undulating plain, consisting of mostly desert topography of rock and gravel. Most of the country’s drainage flows underground.

The most important water source is the Euphrates River that originates in Turkey and flows southwestward across Syria, changing eastwards into Iraq. A big dam on the Euphrates was built in the 1970s. The Orontes, the other important river, rises in Lebanon and flows northwards into Syria.

The coastal areas and western moun­tains have a Mediterranean climate, marked by a long, dry summer and winter rainfall, with a total of 30 to 40 inches (762 to 1,016 mm) annual precipitation. Rain­fall decreases rapidly eastward; the eastern deserts receive as little as 10 inches a year.

Damuscus and Aleppo have average daily maxima of 91° to 99°F (33° to 37°C) in summer and average daily minima of 34° to 40°F (1° to 4°C) in winter. On the coast conditions are milder, and summers are much hotter and the range of temperatures is much larger in the eastern part of the country. Snow occurs on the mountains in winter.

Cultural Characteristics:

Nearly 90 percent of the country’s 16 million, popula­tion is ethnically Arab. Although the Syrians trace their origin from several sources, the predominantly Arab strain is unmistakable, with a mixture of some Greek, Roman and Turkish elements. The Turks, like the Greeks and Romans before them, influenced primarily the economic and political structures of the area they subjugated, but failed to produce notice­able change in the dominant Arab character of the Syrian people.

Next to the Arabs are the Kurds who account for about 9 percent of the population. The Ar­menians who account for nearly one percent of the population are mostly Arabized whereas the later immigrants such as the Turkmen who arrived after World War I have retained their cultural and linguistic identity.

The Assyrians who have intermarried with the locals and mostly live in the cities have also become Arabized. Arabic is the mother tongue of most of the people. Other languages in or­der of usage are: Kurdish, spoken in the northeast and northwest; Armenian, spo­ken in Aleppo and in the larger cities; and Turkish, spoken in the villages east of the Euphrates and along the border with Tur­key.

Islam is the predominant religion, pro­fessed by nearly 86 percent of the population, three-fourths of which are the Sunnites. The Alamites, an extreme Shiite sect, are the next most important Muslim group. Most of the Alamites live in Damuscus, Aleppo, and a few other cities. Christians form nearly 9 percent of the population, and are divided into several de­nominations—Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Syrian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Catholics, Maronites, Protestants, Nestorians, and Chaldeans.

Most of the Jewish population moved to Israel in 1948 and only a few thousand of them now remain in the country. The complex ethnic and religious pluralism of the population accounts for much of the country’s current problems.

Like the neighboring Islamic nations (Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia) the popu­lation is growing at a high rate of increase, about 2.6 percent a year. Nearly half the population is below 15 years, despite the fact that family planning is becoming popular among the educated. In 1948 some 80,000 Palestinians fled to Syria, and most of the population of the Golan Heights moved to other parts of Syria in 1967 when Israel occupied that region. Increas­ing numbers of workers and professionals have been leaving the country for other Arab nations, the United States, and west­ern Europe due to the disturbed political conditions.

Resources and Development:

The discovery of oil in the mid 1950s in the country diminished the traditional impor­tance of agriculture in the Syrian economy; and oil became the country’s major resource and its chief export, ac­counting for forty percent of all revenues derived from all exports. The oil fields are a geologic extension of the Iraqi fields of Mosul and Kirkuk. Natural gas was also discovered but its exploitation has been limited.

Syria is also rich in iron ore, chrome, and manganese, but production is small. Phosphates and asphalt are mined in modest quantities. Forests occupy a small proportion of the country’s area (about 3 percent) as compared to over 30 percent of the land given to agriculture. Hydroelec­tric power in small amounts has been generated from the Euphrates at Tabqah Dam since 1978 but oil remains the chief supplier of domestic power.

Providing a quarter of the nation’s in­come and employment to one-fifth of its labor force, agriculture remains an impor­tant if not the major segment of the nation’s economy. Wheat is by far the most important crop, equal to the com­bined acreage of all other crops, followed by barley, millets, and cotton. Since the 1960s, with greater attention to other sec­tors of the economy (particularly the oil industry), the country’s production of food-grains has decreased, in part due to in­sufficient funding and political instability. The nation that was self-sufficient in its food requirements before the 1950s is now an importer of food-grains.

One-fifth of the country’s imports are those of food and beverages. Raw cotton and cotton textiles are the most important exports. Aridity is the major handicap to farming; nearly all cultivation depends on irrigation. The Barada River, the Orontes, and the Euphrates waters are used for irrigation. The western plains and hills near Aleppo, Hama, and Homs rank high in agricultural production accounting for nearly a third of Syria’s wheat and barley production. Other crops are sugar beets, vegetables, and fruits. Olives and grapes are grown on the slopes of the mountains facing the Mediterranean.

Except for the irrigated tracts, non-intensive agriculture, based on dry-farming methods, is the rule. The Jezira area of the Euphrates in the northern part of the country is one of more promis­ing sections of Syria for agricultural development, although it suffers from lack of adequate transport facilities and short­age of labor. Raising livestock including sheep, cattle, camels and poultry is also a significant economic activity.

Wool, cotton, and nylon textiles are the country’s most important manufac­tures. The factories are located mainly in Aleppo, Damascus, Homs, and Hamah. Natural silk is produced at Latakia. Chemical and engineering industries are located in Damascus. Other industries in­clude food-processing, pharmaceuticals, and fertilizers.

Syria has an unfavorable balance of trade, offset by revenues from tourism, foreign aid, and earnings of Syri­ans abroad. Major exports are petroleum, textiles, vegetables and fruits, leather goods, and chemicals. Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iran are the chief importers. Imports include food, machinery, chemical products and metals, and the major exporters to Syria are the western European countries, the United States, Turkey, China, Japan, and Russia.

Nearly half of Syria’s population lives in the cities, reflecting a dramatic shift from three decades ago when the popula­tion was predominantly rural. During this period there has been an effort to sedentarize the Bedouins and other nomadic groups. With agriculture pressing into the steppe lands, the nomadic herders have been deprived of their grazing lands, and have taken to farming or have been mov­ing to cities in search of work.

The Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Otto­mans, and the French have left their distinctive marks on the Syrian towns. While Latakia and Palmyra exhibit Roman and Greek cultural influences, Damascus and Aleppo are distinctively Islamic in look although other influences also are no­ticeable to a lesser degree. The continuation of old commercial and cultural links has enabled the cities to maintain their eco­nomic and cultural supremacy under the four centuries of Ottoman rule.

Palmyra was a fortified garrison and a major inter­continental transit center under the Romans and later on the Ottomans, and now functions as an oasis and a way sta­tion along the Iraq-Mediterranean oil pipeline and preserves many of the histori­cal monuments. Aleppo (population 1.6 million) is located between the Orontes and Euphrates rivers, and is a trade and light-industry center.

It still retains some traits of the Roman rectangular street pat­terns and some Arab influences. Next to Constantinople among the cities of the Ot­toman Empire, it supported a large textile industry by the 18th century. Now, it is an important commercial and manufacturing center with factories producing such items as silk cloth, woolen carpets, tractors, and chemicals. As a major railroad and high­way focus, it reflects the locational advantages which the city enjoyed histori­cally as a center of caravan trades.

The national capital and the largest city of Damuscus (population 1.6 million) is a rival of Aleppo as the major center of education, culture, and industry. Its impor­tant manufactured products include brocades, engraved wood, gold and silver jewelry, and carpets. It is well served by transport facilities.

The city is located in a large oasis that enjoys the natural advan­tages of fertile soil and available water of the Barada River, and the assured advan­tages of agricultural and regional exchange functions. As a historic town which expe­rienced many fluctuations in its fortunes, it is now the focus of the nation’s political, social, and economic planning, besides be­ing a leading commercial and manufactur­ing center.

The Mediterranean port of Latakia (population: 306,000) is important as a seaport and tourist center. Hems (population: 645,000) located in the middle of a fertile plain east of the Orontes River, is the hub of the country’s road and rail­road systems. Hamah (population: 254,000) to the northeast of Homs is an important commercial and agricultural trading center.