Syria Crackdown
The Pro-Democracy Movement and the Regime of Bashar al-Assad
The ancient country of Syria ― strategically located along the edge of the Mediterranean Sea with Lebanon to the west, Israel and Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north ― has seen centuries of conflict driven by the competing interests of varied religious and ethnic factions. Today, these include a large Sunni Muslim majority and significant minorities of Christians and Alawites, a branch of Shia Islam. The modern state of Syria gained its independence in 1946, after being ruled since World War I by the French, who had taken over control of the country…
