Syrian Arab Republic

Located in the Levant along the Mediterranean, Syria borders Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and, in part along the disputed Golan Heights frontier, Israel. Ruled by the Ba’ath party since 1966 and by the Assad family since 1970, Syria is a military dictatorship with limited democratic mechanisms and harsh suppression of opposition to the regime. Since 2011, the country has been in the grip of a brutal civil war with widespread human rights abuses by both the government and by elements among the rebel militias, hundreds of thousands of casualties and millions of refugees displaced.