Overview

Modern Syria is an Arab republic of southwest Asia, bordered by Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and by Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. A small strip of Syria also lies along the Mediterranean Sea. At 71,500 square miles (185,226 square kilometers), the country is not much larger than the state of Washington.

Officially called the Syrian Arab Republic, the country had an estimated population in 1995 of 14.2 million, primarily Muslim, with some 1.5 million Christians and a few thousand Jews. Ethnically, the country is comprised of an Arab majority with a large number of Kurds as a second ethnic group. Other groups include Armenians, Turkmen, and Assyrians. Arabic is the primary language, but some ethnic groups maintain their languages, especially outside of the urban areas of Aleppo and Damascus, and Kurdish, Armenian, and Turkish are all spoken in various...