SyriaSyria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. Cyprus lies to the west across the Mediterranean Sea. It is a unitary republic that consists of 14 governorates (subdivisions).
Golan HeightsThe Golan Heights (Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or مُرْتَفَعَاتُ الْجَوْلَانِ ; ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between disciplines: as a geological and biogeographical region, the term refers to a basaltic plateau bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad in the east.
Syrian civil warThe Syrian civil war (al-ḥarb al-ʾahlīyah al-sūrīyah) is an ongoing multi-sided civil war in Syria fought between the Syrian Arab Republic led by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad (supported by domestic and foreign allies) and various domestic and foreign forces that oppose both the Syrian government and each other, in varying combinations. Popular discontent with the Ba'athist government led to eruption of large-scale protests, student demonstrations and pro-democracy rallies across Syria in March 2011 as part of the wider Arab Spring protests.
Sea of GalileeThe Sea of Galilee (יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second-lowest lake in the world (after the Dead Sea, a salt lake), at levels between and below sea level. It is approximately in circumference, about long, and wide. Its area is at its fullest, and its maximum depth is approximately .
Palestine (region)Palestine (Παλαιστίνη, Palaistínē; Palaestina; فِلَسْطِينَ, , , ; פלשתינה, Palestīna) is a geographic region in West Asia. It is usually considered to include Israel and the State of Palestine (i.e. West Bank and Gaza Strip), though some definitions also include part of northwestern Jordan. The first written records referring to Palestine emerged in the 12th-century BCE Twentieth dynasty of Egypt, which used the term "Peleset" for the neighboring people or land. In the 8th century BCE, the Assyrians referred to the region as "Palashtu" or "Pilistu".
IsraelIsrael (ˈɪzri.əl,_-reɪ-; יִשְׂרָאֵל Yīsrāʾēl jisʁaˈʔel; إِسْرَائِيل ʾIsrāʾīl), officially the State of Israel (מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl mediˈnat jisʁaˈʔel; دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل Dawlat Isrāʾīl), is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, by Syria to the northeast, by Jordan to the east, by the Red Sea to the south, by Egypt to the southwest, by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and by the Palestinian territories - the West Bank along the east and the Gaza Strip along the southwest.
Yom Kippur WarThe Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. The majority of combat between the two sides took place in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights—both of which were occupied by Israel in 1967—with some fighting in African Egypt and northern Israel.
CircassiansCircassians, also called Cherkess or Adyghe (Adyghe and Adygekher), are an indigenous Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation native to the historical country-region of Circassia in the North Caucasus. As a consequence of the Circassian genocide perpetrated by the Russian Empire in the 19th century during the Russo-Circassian War, most Circassians were exiled from their homeland in Circassia to modern-day Turkey and the rest of the Middle East, where most of them are today.
Bashar al-AssadBashar al-Assad (born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the current and 19th president of Syria since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, which nominally espouses a neo-Ba'athist ideology. His father and predecessor was General Hafez al-Assad, whose presidency between 1971 and 2000 marked the transfiguration of Syria from a republican state into a dynastic dictatorship tightly controlled by an Alawite-dominated elite composed of the armed forces and the Mukhabarat (secret services), who are loyal to the al-Assad family.