Word: syrians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Politics in Syria is synonymous with the Baath Party. Baath - Arabic for renaissance - is a movement founded by two young Syrian schoolteachers, who sought to meld Marxist socialism with Arab nationalism. Much like early Communism, the movement is organized upward from haliah (cells) of three to seven people; above the cells is a network of companies, divisions, branches and regions. In Syria the regional command is composed of a 21-member elite, with Assad as Secretary-General...
Syria's socialist regime even allows a touch of capitalism these days. Entrepreneurs who fled the country after the 1963 Baath coup, taking billions of Syrian pounds with them, are being wooed back. Syria is also permitting the importation of luxury consumer goods like Mercedes-Benz limousines (Damascus price: $25,000-550,000) for a new millionaire class that has grown rich on booming land prices and middleman business. Foreigners are now allowed to enter Syria freely and tourism is encouraged; two luxury hotels are being built in Damascus. The streets of the dusty capital, one of the world...
Assad has devoted more energy to compacting power and asserting Syria's diplomatic eminence in the Middle East than to solving his country's domestic problems. Although the President is regarded as scrupulously honest, the vast, bumbling Syrian bureaucracy is ridden with corruption...
Russian Advisers. "Sometimes." says one Damascus intellectual, "we feel we are behind the curtain." Despite new openings to foreigners, travel outside the country is difficult for Syrian citizens. Men cannot leave until they have completed military service. Women must be at least 30 years old; before that, they are expected to hold down jobs in place of men in the military. About 50 categories of professionals and technicians, including doctors, lawyers and engineers, are denied exit visas lest they refuse to return home. Also forbidden to emigrate are Syria's 4,000 Jews, the remnant of a community that...
...Prager and Correspondent William Marmon asked the question on everyone's mind - would Syria renew the Golan Heights mandate? "No decision, no decision," answered a grinning Assad in English. Prager and Marmon found Assad visibly delighted by the suspense he had created over the situation. Otherwise, though, the Syrian President was thoughtful and straightforward as he sketched his views on the prospects for a Middle East peace settlement. Excerpts from the 2½-hour conversation...