Syria

Modified 10 March 2004

In a very contentious part of the world, and until very recently, not very well connected to the Internet. The current leader, Bashar Assad, was president of a Syrian Internet organization during his father's rule. Bashar went to medical school in the west and probably will liberalize and modernize Syria's communications, among other things.

• Syrian Government
  • The Syrian government does has a large number of web pages, although they seem to mostly be in Arabic. Which, of course, only makes sense!
    • Here is what Google can find right now in any language.
    • Here is what Google can find right now in English.
  • Syrian Ministry of Health — http://www.moh.gov.sy/
  • Syrian Ministry of Tourism — http://www.syriatourism.org/
  • Al-Baath Daily Political Newspaper Organ of the Arab Socialist Party — http://www.albaath.com/
• SANA — Syrian Arab News Agency — Definitely pro-Assad-government, possibly belonging in the above category? http://www.sana.org/
• Syrian Human Rights Committee. Definitely against the policies of Hefez Assad, I'm not sure about their stance on his son Bashar. http://www.syriah.com/
• Al-Idha'ah al-Arabiyyah (The Arabic Radio) — Clandestine broadcaster with the motto "Syria Arab Free Nation", broadcasts material condemning Syrian government and its human rights record. http://www.arabicsyradio.org/ 0430-0500 UTC: 7510, 9955 kHz. 1600-1630 UTC, 7470, 12085, 12120 kHz.
• Hizb al-Islah Al-Sourie (Reform Party of Syria) — announced late Feb 2004 that "Syria's first ever independently run pro-Democracy radio station will become operational by March 31 [2004]" over the Internet. "Radio 'Free Syria'" is to be "located in Cyprus and air in Syria and Lebanon" (presumably that's the radio transmitter location and areas of expected coverage).
  • http://www.reformsyria.com/ (English)
  • http://www.reformsyria.net/ (Arabic)
• Syrian Social Nationalist Party. With the theory that all of Lebanon, Israel, and Cyprus, plus parts of Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, and maybe more, belongs to a ``Greater Syria.'' http://www.ssnp.com/
• Syrian presidents — Two pages sponsored by Syria Today, both domains registered to the SJ Management Group of New York:
  • Bashar Assad, president 2000-present: http://www.basharassad.org/
  • Hefez Assad, president 1971-2000: http://www.assad.org/
• Teshreen Foundation for Press and Publications — http://teshreen.com/
• Syrian Internet — http://www.syrianinternet.com/
• Syria Today — http://www.syriatoday.com/
• Syrian Computer Society — http://www.scs-syria.com/
• Internet Society of Syria — http://leb.net/iss/
• Also see the Golan-Syria page, listed under Palestine, Israel, Lebanon