In Search of Greater Syria

In Search of Greater Syria
Author: Christopher Solomon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2021-09-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1838606432

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) is one of the most enigmatic and active political forces in the Middle East. For observers in the West, the SSNP is regarded as a far-right organization, subservient to the Baathist government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which dictates its activities from Damascus. However, the SSNP's complicated history and its ideology of Pan-Syrianism has meant the party has been overlooked and forgotten by the daily output of news, analysis, studies and policy recommendations. Very little academic scholarship has been dedicated to understanding its origins, identity, and influence. Addressing the need for scholarship on the SSNP, this book is a political history from the party's foundation in 1932 to today. A comprehensive and objective study on the little known nationalist group, the author uses interviews from current members to gain insights into its everyday activities, goals, social interstices and nuances. Given the SSNP's history of violence, their own persecution, influence on other secular parties in the region, and their impact in Syria and Lebanon's politics, the book's analysis sheds light on the party's status in Lebanon and its potential role in a future post-war Syria. The SSNP is gaining popularity among regime supporters in Syria and will be one part of understanding the political developments on the ground. This book is essential reading for those wanting to understand the SSNP, its motives, and prospects.

Greater Syria

Greater Syria
Author: Daniel Pipes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 1992-03-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0195363043

While for many years scholars and journalists have focused on the more obvious manifestations of political life in the Middle East, one major theme has been consistently neglected. This is Pan-Syrian nationalism--the dream of creating a Greater Syria out of an area now governed by Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Turkey. Though not nearly as well known as Arab or Palestinian nationalism and hardly studied in depth, Pan-Syrianism has had a profound effect on Middle Eastern politics since the end of World War I. In Greater Syria, the noted Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes provides the first comprehensive account of this intriguing, important, and little understood ideology.

The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism

The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism
Author: Michael Provence
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2009-09-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 029277432X

A historical study of the 1925 revolt against French rule in Syria, and how it established a new popular nationalism that helped shape the Middle East. The Great Syrian Revolt of 1925 was the first mass movement against colonial rule in the Middle East. Mobilizing peasants, workers, and army veterans, it was also the region’s largest and longest-lasting anti-colonial insurgency during the inter-war period. Though the revolt failed to liberate Syria from French occupation, it provided a model of popular nationalism and resistance that remains potent in the Middle East today. Each subsequent Arab uprising against foreign rule has repeated the language and tactics of the Great Syrian Revolt. In this work, Michael Provence uses newly released secret colonial intelligence sources, neglected memoirs, and popular memory to tell the story of the revolt from the perspective of its participants. He shows how Ottoman-subsidized military education created a generation of leaders who rebelled against both the French Mandate rulers of Syria and the Syrian elite who helped the colonial regime. This new popular nationalism was unprecedented in the Arab world. Provence shows compellingly that the Great Syrian Revolt was a formative event in shaping the modern Middle East.

Tribes with Flags

Tribes with Flags
Author: Charles Glass
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Total Pages: 522
Release: 2012-06-30
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0802194184

The ABC News correspondent’s riveting chronicle of his journey through the Middle East—and being held hostage by pro-Iranian terrorists in Beirut. A New York Times Notable Book—with an introduction by the author. On June 18, 1987, Charles Glass was kidnapped by pro-Iranian terrorists in a Shiite Muslim suburb of Beirut and held for sixty-two days. His daring escape on August 18, 1987, made headlines worldwide. But Glass never forgot the reason he was in Lebanon or abandoned the idea of a book capturing the splendid vitality and diversity of life in the Middle East. Tribes with Flags is the book Glass always meant it to be: A chronicle of his journey from the southern Turkish coast, around the bay of Alexandretta, and through Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Glass visited farms, slums, and refugee camps as well as royal friends in feudal palaces, capturing the entire spectrum of Levantine life. The journey ends with a gripping account of Glass’s kidnapping in Beirut—an intimate portrayal of life as a hostage—and his successful flight to freedom. “A literary and spiritual ramble through the countries of the Levant . . . Glass’s account of two months’ captivity and his escape bring to an exciting conclusion this engrossing, informative, unusual travel book.” —Publishers Weekly

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party: Its Ideology and History

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party: Its Ideology and History
Author: Salim Mujais
Publisher: Black House Publishing
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2019-02-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781912759149

The emergence of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) during the Syrian civil war as a military and political force has elicited interest and debate among observers and analysts of the Middle East. Long considered as irrevocably marginalized by decades of prohibition and persecution, the SSNP has over the last decade re-asserted itself as the pre-eminent organization in Syria of an untarnished secular pedigree. Predating the ruling Baath party by more than a decade, and outlasting most political parties in the middle east, the SSNP offers a viable alternative to medieval sectarian narratives which crowd the Middle East political landscape. Since its founding in 1932, the SSNP has been subjected to waves of suppression, assassinations, and executions, by those seeking to eradicate it from the political scene, yet the SSNP continues to re-emerge because its ideology has resonated with the needs and aspirations of a perpetual constituency. Further, its organization is characterized by an ethos of devotion to the national cause and selfless heroism in its service. Knowledge of the Party in the Western Hemisphere, however, has remained for a long time limited and distorted, predominantly because of the lack of publications that expound the ideology of the Party and its history. The present work aims to remedy this.

Demystifying Syria

Demystifying Syria
Author: Fred H. Lawson
Publisher: Saqi
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2012-02-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0863568181

Demystifying Syria offers an extraordinary insight into the shifting relations between the Ba'th party and the armed forces, civil law, social structure, burgeoning private enterprise, internal political opposition, the European Union and its relation to Syria. This book goes beyond the headlines to offer a detailed portrait of the political, economic, social and diplomatic dynami that shape this pivotal and fiercely independent Middle Eastern state. Contributors include Bassem Haddad, Souhail Belhadj, Baudoin Dupret, Zouhair Ghazzal, Thomas Pierret, Salwa Ismail, Joshua Landis and Joe Pace. 'Demonstrates how US intervention in the region weakened the position of the Syrian opposition ... shows Syrian studies in the best possible light, edited to a high level and recommended to everyone interested in the complexities - rather than the mysteries - of contemporary Syria.' Times Higher Education Supplement 'This compelling book offers the reader much food for thought on a country that certainly defies any attempt to be encapsulated in unidirectional and straightforward definitions.' International Spectator

Syria in World War I

Syria in World War I
Author: M. Talha Çiçek
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2015-12-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317371267

The First World War quickly escalated from a European war into a global conflict that would cause fundamental changes in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Its end signalled the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, which had controlled most of the Arab Middle East. Over the wartime period, millions of people across the Empire died as a result of warfare, epidemics, famines and massacres. However, for the Ottoman leaders their entry into the war was not just a response to a life-or-death struggle, but rather presented them with an opportunity to transform the empire into a new type of state. Syria in World War I brings together leading scholars working with original Turkish, Arabic, Armenian and German sources, to present a comprehensive examination of this key period in Syria’s history. Together, the chapters demonstrate how the war represented a radical break from the past for the Syrian lands, which underwent crucial political, economic, social and cultural transformations. It contextualises various facets of the then Unionist ruler of Syria, Djemal Pasha, as well as exploring the impact of the Ottoman leaders’ divergent policies on the Syrian lands and people, which would undergo a series of political, economic and ecological catastrophes whose traces are still evident in the region’s collective memory. Introducing a significant body of new information and considerably expanding the parameters of current debates, Syria in World War I is of key interest to students and scholars of Middle East History, as well as History of the Late Ottoman Empire and World War I History.

Syria, the United States, and the War on Terror in the Middle East

Syria, the United States, and the War on Terror in the Middle East
Author: Robert G. Rabil
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2006-02-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0313071896

Ever since Syria won its independence from France in 1946, it has been a crucial player in Middle Eastern politics. Over the years, relations between the United States and Syria have fluctuated as Washington has tried to balance its commitment to Israel's security with its support for Arab regimes in order to protect vital and strategic interests in the Arab world. The Arab-Israeli conflict is, however. no longer the only focal point of the relationship. Now, terrorism has entered the fray. On the State Department's terrorism list since 1979, Syria became even more persona non grata as far as Washington was concerned when Damascus vocally opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The American war in Iraq, occupation, and promotion of democracy throughout the Middle East pose a strong challenge to the Syrian regime. The new Syrian leadership, in power only since 2000, faces immense challenges—protecting Syria's regional status and surviving internal and external threats. Against this background, Syria and the United States have set themselves on a collision course over terrorism, arms proliferation, Lebanon, the Middle East peace process, and Iraq. Syria is, nevertheless, extremely important to the United States, because it can be a force for either stability or instability in an extremely volatile region. Recent events have put the spotlight on Syria's policies and actions. After the assassination of a Lebanese politician, protests in Lebanon led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops. While the withdrawal averted an immediate threat of bloodshed, the Bush administration accused Syria of being a source of instability in the Middle East, with Secretary of State Rice charging that Syria was still active in Lebanon and was supporting foreign terrorists fueling the insurgency in Iraq. The U.S.-Syrian relationship is of critical importance to the United States' efforts to promote democracy throughout the Middle East. At the same time, the United States has been pressuring Syria to clamp down on terrorism within its own borders. Rabil provides a history of the modern U.S.-Syrian relationship, putting the latest events in the context of this contemporary history, and placing the relationship in the context of Middle Eastern politics.

The Home That Was Our Country

The Home That Was Our Country
Author: Alia Malek
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2017-02-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1568585330

Alia Malek weaves a lyrical narrative around the history of her family's apartment building in the heart of Damascus, the many lives that crossed in the stairwell, and how the fates of her neighbors reflect the fate of her country. At the Arab Spring's hopeful start, Alia Malek returned to Damascus to reclaim her grandmother's apartment, which had been lost to her family since Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. Its loss was central to her parent's decision to make their lives in America. In chronicling the people who lived in the Tahaan building, past and present, Alia portrays the Syrians--the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Armenians, and Kurds--who worked, loved, and suffered in close quarters, mirroring the political shifts in their country. Restoring her family's home as the country comes apart, she learns how to speak the coded language of oppression that exists in a dictatorship, while privately confronting her own fears about Syria's future. The Home That Was Our Country is a deeply researched, personal journey that shines a delicate but piercing light on Syrian history, society, and politics. Teeming with insights, the narrative weaves acute political analysis with a century of intimate family history, delivering an unforgettable portrait of the Syria that is being erased.