Syria’s Geography (Research Paper Sample)

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Syria’s Geography
Physical and Environmental Geography
Syria has a fairly short coastline, with a length of about 110 miles or 180km, stretching along the Mediterranean Sea and between Turkey and Lebanon. Additionally, at the shores of the coastline, there exist sandy bays with alternate rocky headlands and low cliffs. The coastal strip is interrupted by spurs emanating from the Northwestern Al-Ansariyyah Mountains extending to the East (Irvine et al.). The mountains border the coastal plains and extend from north to the south. Apart from that, the country is characterized by several scattered mountains, such as Mount Al-Duruz, Abu Rujmayn, and Bishri Ranges. To add on to that, it has an extensive undulating plain known as the Syrian Desert, which covers a greater part of the country. Other physical features include the Euphrates River, which is the largest and only navigable waterway in the country. It has its source in Turkey and flows southeastward crossing the Eastern part of Syria. At one point, it forms the Tigris-Euphrates River system with a Euphrates dam constructed along them. Furthermore, there are other lakes, such as the Al-Jabbul, one of the saline lakes in the country.
Historical Geography
Historically, Syria was a French colony after the 1920 border drawing between them and the British. In 1941, the first major Kurdish speaking radio program was unveiled with the assistance of the French. However, the growing Syrian nationalism mounted pressure on the French powers to grant them independence (KurdWatch 5). The country has been involved in several military coups, with the latest being led by General Hafiz Al Assad, whose reign mounted pressure on the Kurds. The Kurds had been highly recognized and given privileges by the French colony. However, Al Assad’s takeover handed them serious discrimination.
After independence, the Communist Party was one of the major political outfits that provided competition to the National Bloc- the coalition made by urban notables and other landowners that fought against French colonization and brought independence. Other historic parties are the Syrian Popular Party, founded in 1932, which was a representation of the Syrian Nationalism, the Muslim Brotherhood that was formed in 1945, and the Ba’th Party of 1946 with its Pan-Arab socialist ideologies (KurdWatch 8). All these parties pursued new goals to motivate other social classes. At this time, the Syrian army played a crucial role in the post-colonial era. For instance, it is at this time that one of the many coups succeeded. The Kurds dominated the military and the national administration during this time. For example, two of the three dictators of the time had Kurdish background (KurdWatch 9). In addition, they occupied various positions in government. All these Kurdish appointments sparked confrontation with the Arab nationalists in the country.
Syria has, since 2011, become a hotbed of civil war and a battlefield for proxy conflicts pitting nations such as the US, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Russia. The conflict has embroiled the country, thus making it a global threat to other countries. The state’s political, physical, cultural, and social geography has contributed much to its current state. Moreover, the economic geography has a direct impact on its citizens.
Political and Geopolitical Conflicts
Political geography is another critical dimension in evaluating Syria’s political system and government practices. Most of the Syrian population is made up of the Kurdish ethnic group averaging 8.5% to 10% of the country’s total population. This community has been largely discriminated. The government has denied these individuals the right to nationality (Human Rights Watch 3). According to the 1962 census, more than 20% of the Kurdish people had their Syrian citizenship revoked. As a result, they were left stateless and with no attached nationality. The stateless Kurds were denied other liberties, such as the right to vote, have legalized marriages, and accumulate or own property (Human Rights Watch 3). The population, in return, is issued with red identity cards by the country’s ministry of interior. What is more, these persons are denied the legal rights to have passports, thus blocking their freedom of movement. All these acts of denial are against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the doctrine that guarantees the right of every individual to nationality. The declaration holds that no person should be arbitrarily deprived of nationality, which condition bides all nations that subscribe to this international customary law (Human Rights Watch 5). However, the Syrian law and government do not uphold this treaty, and therefore, has continued to discriminate its citizens of Kurdish extraction. In reality, the intention of the government to deny these individuals their rights is a violation of the international standards on human rights for it is not possible to seek citizenship from any other state.
Additionally, there are other conflicts experienced by the Syrian government authorities. Culturally, the state has interfered and undermined the culture of some groups. The country suppresses the Kurdish population by imposing various restrictions. For instance, the authority has banned the ethnic community from using their language in the country. Additionally, they have declined registration of Kurdish children with their ethnic names. Instead, they have proposed to replace such names with Arabic ones. Moreover, ethnicity has been propagated through the government’s decision to deregister all businesses that do not bear Arabic names. Ethnicity is propagated further when the authorities do not allow the admission of Kurdish students into private schools and a ban on books and other materials written in the Kurdish language. In addition, these people are not allowed to exercise law in the Syrian judicial system or serve as military people (Human Rights Watch 6). These acts are attempts to disregard and discriminate their culture. Any attempt by the Kurds to initiate political movements through their activists is never allowed. Despite the Syrian government subscribing to various international treaties that promote justice and fairness, the state has continued to disregard them and has gone ahead to force the Kurds to abandon their cultural traits and assume the Syrian philosophy and beliefs. The authorities are required to restore nationality among Syrian Kurds for them to be allowed to exercise their culture (Human Rights Watch 6). Negative ethnicity has been evidenced in some of the state jobs. For instance, many Kurds have been dismissed in a public road-building company by an order from the state security (Human Rights Watch 31). Furthermore, the country has socially affected the lives of its citizens. For example, it has experienced an increased drop in jobs for its citizens. Between 2010 and 2015, Syria lost an average of 538,000 jobs per year. The effect of this is widespread poverty among youths, who have abandoned economic value-generating projects due to civil unrest. Poverty has stricken more families, thus attracting world donations from humanitarian agencies like the World Food Program (Human Rights Watch 21). For instance, the WFP solely donates about four million food baskets every month.
Economic Geography
Syria’s economy has been growing tremendously up to the eve of 2011 civil unrest. Since 2000, the country’s economy had been recovering from the unfavorable economic turmoil of the time. The start-up base was weak and lagged economic improvement. However, the country managed to recover and grow its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at a steady rate of 4.3% per annum (World Bank Group 17). The economy maintained the steady growth from 2000 to 2010. Additionally, this growth transformed the country into a lower middle-income state. For all this time, Syria’s inflation rate remained at 4.9% (World Bank Group 18). However, between 2011 and 2016, the country was marred by civil unrest. The consequence was the destruction of human capital and the disruption of the drivers of economic progress as well as other economic networks. All these disruptions converted the steady economic growth into huge losses. In estimate, the losses experienced between 2011 and 2016 are four times the size of its GDP of 2010. The economy contracted by 61% between 2011 and 2015 and an additional 2% to 63% in 2016 (World Bank Group 20). In general, the economy’s actual GDP in 2016 contracted by a whopping $226 billion in reference to the 2010 existing prices (World Bank Group 20). All these trends depict deterioration in the economic situation of the country.
Other critical economic sectors have not been spared by this economic fall. For instance, the hydrocarbons sector has greatly been affected by this economic slowdown. Initially, the country’s economic growth was boosted by its endowment with oil that contributed much to the overall GDP. However, by 2015, this situation worsened. Instead, there was a decline in oil revenues by 93% and the non-oil economy contracted by 52% (World Bank Group 20). All these declines resulted from the disruption of trade. ISIS control of oil-producing areas has greatly contributed to the slump in production. For example, initially, the overall oil extraction was 383,000 barrels per day in 2010. However, this has declined to about 10,000 barrels per day between 2015 and 2016 (World Bank Group 20). Furthermore, economic decline has been intensified by the fall of agricultural production. Damages on irrigation systems, displacement of labor, and the lack of inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers, have affected this sector.
These scenarios made the country shrink between 2...