TRANSFORMATION OF POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC IN THE CONDITIONS OF ARMED CONFLICT

Internal Syrian conflict, ongoing since 2011, has had the most significant impact on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. At the moment, it has scaled to a geopolitical level. Chaotic landscape of confrontation between internal Syrian forces has fallen under the influence of various external political powers, which now play an important role in the matters of global politics. The article discusses the current political system, of the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR) in context of armed conflict within the country. Syria has long-standing political traditions and all the formal democratic institutions. At the same time the Syrian political system has a number of unique features in the organization of the legislative power, the nature of the presidential powers and the regulation of party activities that seriously affect both the functioning of the political system in the country as a whole, and the course of the current crisis. The author highlights the institutional features of the SAR’s political system and analyzes their role in modern internal political process. Particular attention is paid to the modern electoral political process of the Syrian Arab Republic, namely parliamentary and presidential elections in context of civil war. The article assesses the place of these elections, their influence on the possibility of real and potential political reconcilement. In addition, the author establishes the link between the transformation of the political system of Syria and the process of peacemaking in the Syrian conflict. Also the complex nature of the conflict is described and a conclusion is made about the existing relation between the future directions of the development of the situation in SAR and the resolution of global conflicts.

Syrian Arab Republic, civil war in Syria, armed conflict, parliamentary elections, the constitutional referendum, the transformation of the political system, the international coalition

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