Ottoman Empire
You can see from the map that much of Syria Is arid, with greener areas following rivers and other sources of water such as the Mediterranean to the east. Political map Fact file: Area Syria has an area of 185,180 km Population 20. 82 million (2011) Resources Petroleum In commercial quantities was first discovered In the northeast In 1956. The most Important OLL fields are those of Shadily, Quarts, Rumanian, and Tandem, near Dray AZ-Czar.
The fields are a natural extension of the Iraqi fields of Mogul and Kirk. Petroleum became Syrians leading natural resource and chief export after 974.
Natural gas was discovered at the field of Jabbers in 1940. Syria remains dependent on the oil and agriculture sectors. The oil sector provides about 40% of export earnings. The agriculture sector contributes to about 20% of GAP and 20% of employment. Oil reserves are expected to decrease in the coming years and Syria has already become a net oil importer.
Syrians main exports include crude oil, refined products, raw cotton, clothing, fruits, and grains. The bulk of Syrian imports are raw materials essential for industry, vehicles, agricultural equipment, and heavy machinery. Earnings from oil exports as well as remittances from Syrian workers are the government’s most Important sources of foreign exchange. GAP Syrians share In global exports has fallen gradually since 2001. The GAP growth per capita was Just 2.
5% per year from 2001 to 2008. Employment Is high at 10%, and poverty rates have recently increased, from 11% in 2004 to 12. 3% in 2007. As a result of the on-going Syrian war, the overall value of Syrians exports have fallen by 2 thirds, from $ban USED in 2010 to only $ban USED in 2012. Agriculture The agriculture sector contributes to about 20% of GAP and 20% of employment. Until the mid-asses, agriculture in Syria had been the primary economic activity.
Water is a scarce resource in Syria as it is throughout the Middle East, but Syria is more fortunate than many other countries.
Sufficient rainfall supports cultivation in an arc from the southwest, near the border withdrawals and Lebanon, extending northward to the Turkish border and eastward along that border to Iraq. The other main area of cultivation, although dependent on Irrigation, Is along the Euphrates and Its major tributaries. The bulk of the country Is and, with little vegetation. In 1984, nearly 20 percent was classified as desert.
Another 45 percent of the land was classified as steppe and pasture, although its grazing capacity was very was forested, with only part of it commercially useful.
Cultivatable land amounted to 33 percent of the total area. In 1984, 91. 7 percent of the total cultivable area of 6. 17 million hectares was cultivated. Industry As of 2012, Syrians oil and tourism industries in particular have been devastated, with IIS$5 billion lost to the on-going conflict of the civil war.
Reconstruction needed due to the on-going civil war will cost as much as $10 billion USED. Sanctions have sapped the government’s finance. US and European Union bans on oil imports, which went into effect in 2012, are estimated to cost Syria about $400 million a month.
Impact of Syria conflict It has already been well-documented how masses of people get displaced during armed conflict, often facing perilous Journeys and precarious situations when they are settled in camps to ride out the worst of the hostilities. But war also impacts those already living abroad, who watch from afar – waiting and worrying about how friends and loved ones back home are faring amid the ongoing horrors. Hausa Helm, 33, had already been living and studying in London for four years hen fighting broke out in his native Syria in mid-2011.
His parents and siblings remained in Dray, a suburb to the south of the Syrian capital Damascus, until they safely escaped to Egypt earlier this year. “The hardest thing has been to watch while the country I grew up in is being destroyed,” Hausa Helm told Amnesty International. “The tragedy is not only inside, but also outside Syria,” he said, referring to the dire situation of the more than 1. 5 million refugees who have been forced to flee. Sykes Picot agreement The Sykes-picot agreement is a secret understanding concluded in May 1916, during sentiment of the Ottoman Empire.
The agreement led to the division of Turkish-held Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine into various French and British- administered areas.
The agreement took its name from its negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Georges Picot of France. Some historians have pointed out that the agreement conflicted with pledges already given by the British to the Hesitate leader Hussar bin All, Shari of Mecca, who was about to lead an Arab revolt in the Haze against the Ottoman rulers on the understanding that the Arabs would eventually receive a much more important share of the territory won.
