The population of Syria in 1999 was estimated at around 17.3 million people, with a growth rate of 2.9%. The economy of Syria was largely driven by its services sector, which accounted for around 55% of the country’s GDP. This was supplemented by the manufacturing and agricultural industries. Foreign relations in 1999 were largely positive, with the country having strong ties to many Arab nations as well as the wider international community. Politically, Syria had been a single-party state since 1963 when it formally adopted its modern constitution. The ruling party at this time was the Ba’ath Party, which had been in power since 1966. In 1999, Hafez al-Assad was President and had been since 1971. See ethnicityology for Syria in the year of 2018.
Yearbook 1999
Syria. After intense US diplomacy, in December, the end of 32 years of war between Syria and Israel was spotted. Peace talks, which had been interrupted since 1996, resumed in Washington on December 15-16 at the highest level ever – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met with Syria’s Foreign Minister Faruq Shara. The core issue is the Golan Heights, which Israel is, of all judgments, prepared to return to Syria, provided they are demilitarized and equipped with an electronic surveillance system to be operated by the United States. In exchange, Israel was reportedly required to maintain a coastal strip at Lake Kinnerets for its water supply. Israel would also demand Syria suspend its support for guerrilla groups in southern Lebanon.
Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Syria. Al-Asad was elected in February for a fifth seven-year term as the country’s head of state. 99.99% of the voters voted yes to the ruling Baath Party’s nomination of al-Asad. He was even a candidate.
- Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of SYR which stands for Syria and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.
In July, al-Asad made his first visit to the Russian Federation since the fall of the Soviet Union. The talks were reported to have revolved around Syria’s plans to buy Russian fighters and tanks.
In mid-July 2012, the FSA launched a major military offensive in Damascus, and on July 18, the country’s Christian defense minister, the intelligence chief and two senior military personnel were killed by a bombing raid in Damascus, for which the FSA took charge. At the end of the month, the FSA withdrew its forces into Aleppo in the northern part of the country and began the battle for the important trading town. The military responded again, drawing large troop troops to Aleppo and attacking the FSA with bombers and combat helicopters. FSA commanders openly acknowledged to the British The Guardianthat it had the people against it. At least 70% of the population was against the war that the FSA now led into the city, which sent hundreds of thousands to flee. Many civilians were executed by opposition groups because they were lured to reveal themselves as supporters of the Assad regime. Survival became a matter of winding up between the warring parties. Along the way, the city’s famous Soukh burnt down, which was otherwise on UNESCO’s cultural heritage list. The fighting quickly became so fierce that only Salafists and al-Qaeda groups remained on the opposition’s side. The Assad regime, in turn, carried out regular aerial bombardments of opposition positions in the city.
In early August, peace broker Kofi Annan announced that he was resigning as a broker by the end of August. He did not conceal that it was due to the permanent members of the Security Council’s unwillingness to support the peace process. Throughout the period, the United States and the West continued their political and military support for the armed opposition and did not want a political solution but only a complete regime change. Conversely, Russia and China did not put enough pressure on the Syrian government. Annan’s resignation was lamented by Russia and China, while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed she had never trusted Annan. He was replaced by UN broker Lakhdar Brahimi.
As in Iraq first, since Libya and now also Syria, the CIA has worked behind the scenes to destabilize the current regime. Among other things. through bribery and the acquisition of top officials and officers. The CIA’s preliminary largest acquisition in Syria took place in August 2012, when it succeeded in buying the incumbent Prime Minister, Riyadh Farid Hijab, to jump off to Jordan. Hijab only managed to sit on the record for 2 months. He was replaced at the post by Sunni Wael Nader al-Halqi.
On October 3, the Turkish border town of Akçakale was hit by a grenade fired from Syria. Two adult women and 3 children were killed. Turkey placed the entire responsibility for the incident on the Syrian government and attacked Syrian government positions that night with T-155 howitzers killing 3 Syrian soldiers. The following day, the Turkish parliament passed 320 votes against 129, allowing Turkey to send its soldiers into “other countries” on military operations. A sign that the country was planning to enter the civil war in Syria. The decision triggered widespread anti-war demonstrations in Ankara, Istanbul and other major cities. The UN Security Council condemned Syria for the “attack” and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen declared that the war alliance was behind Turkey in the escalation aimed at Syria. The following weeks, the Turkish military sent mortar grenades and bombs daily across the border to Syrian targets, and on October 10, Turkish military aircraft forced a civilian Syrian aircraft down, en route from Moscow to Damascus. It happened with the allegation that it was carrying weapons. However, the Turkish government was unable to provide evidence for this claim. The consequence of the escalation was that Syria banned all over-flights of its territory by Turkish aircraft, and Turkey again responded with a similar ban aimed at Syrian aircraft.
The Turkish authorities kept secret their ballistic investigations of the grenade that hit Akçakale on October 3, but the Turkish newspaper Yurt cited reliable sources as being a 120 AE HE-TNT mortar grenade, produced by NATO and delivered by Turkey to the Turkish rebels. Syrian military was already preoccupied with fighting the country’s rebel groups so that it would be smart to provoke the militarily far stronger Turkey. Most likely, it was the rebel groups themselves – who already control parts of the border areas – who sent the mortar grenade into Turkey to draw this country deeper into the conflict on their part. Managed.
