Corruption inBa'athist Syria was pervasive and systemic, and was characterized by corruption patterns of one-party states, whereinBa'ath party officials andAssad family loyalists extensively abused their political powers for private and sectarian gains in the country ofSyria.
Several researchers and journalists have identified the pervasive corruption in theSyrian Arab Armed Forces and allied Ba'athist militias as one of the major reasons for the rapidcollapse of the Assad regime during theSyrian revolutionary offensives in 2024.[1][2][3]
According toTransparency International's 2024Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Syria scored a 12 on the CPI on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). When ranked by score, Syria ranked 177th among the 180 countries in the CPI, on a scale where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector.[4] For comparison with regional scores, the average score among Middle Eastern and North African countries[Note 1] was 39. The best score among Middle Eastern and North African countries was 68 and the worst score was Syria's, 12.[5] For comparison with worldwide scores, the average score was 43, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), and the worst score was 8 (ranked 180).[6]
The pervasive nature of corruption in Ba'athist Syria was attributed to the rampant nepotism and favoritism, which created the systemic abuse of power and the misuse of public funds by members of the Ba'ath Party. This practice was institutionalized by the Article 8 of the 1973 Syrian constitution, which declared the Ba'ath Party as the only ruling party.[7] The regime's sole access and control over public resources allowed public officials to divert funds for personal gain.[7] Nepotism became so embedded in the government that a term,Siyasat al-Hajji (Old Man's Policy), was coined to describe the culture.[7]
Ba'ath's own organizational report released in 1985 had already talked about corruption. It highlighted the influx of individuals into the party whose primary aim was "to attain leading positions, in order to realise moral and material gains" and "seize opportunities to make illegitimate profits".[8] As a result of the failure to address the issue, corruption became deeply entrenched, infiltrating every level of society.[8]
Syria was labeled as a narco-state by the United States for nearly a decade until 1997, during theSyrian occupation of Lebanon when they controlled the cannabis cultivation in theBeqaa Valley in Lebanon,[9] and were the Middle East region's main source of hashish.[10] During theSyrian Civil War, mass production of drugs within Syria began, and officers fed their menfenethylline, which they called "Captain Courage."[10] Several shipments containing tonnes ofamphetamines were seized in different countries smuggled from Syria,[11] those shipments had sometimes millions of pills of fenethylline,[12] which production in the country started since at least 2006.[13] In November 2020, two drug shipments ofhashish coming from Syria were seized by Egyptian authorities, the first shipment which arrived toAlexandria, included 2 tonnes of hashish,[14] while the second shipment had 6 tonnes and was found at theDamietta port.[15] The port ofLatakia became under scrutiny of European and American police, as being favored by smugglers.[16] In May 2021, Turkish security forces usedUAVs to stop 1.5 tonnes ofmarijuana being smuggled out of Syria.[17] According to the Centre for Operational Analysis and Research (COAR), Syrian seized drugs in 2020 had the value of no less than $3.4bn.[10]
TheNew York Times reported in December 2021 that the 4th Armoured Division, commanded byMaher al-Assad, oversees much of the production and distribution ofCaptagon, among other drugs, reinforcing Syria's status as a narco-state on the Mediterranean sea. The unit controls manufacturing facilities, packing plants, and smuggling networks all across Syria (which have started to also movecrystal meth). The division's security bureau, headed by Maj. Gen.Ghassan Bilal, provides protection for factories and along smuggling routes to the port cityLatakia and to border crossings with Jordan and Lebanon.[18]
Corruption in Asia | |
|---|---|
| Sovereign states |
|
| States with limited recognition | |
| Dependencies and other territories | |
Syria topics | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
%2c_Flag_of_Syria_(1980%25E2%2580%25932024).svg)
