Governorates of Syria
subdivision of Syria
Syria is a unitary state, but for administrative purposes, it is divided into fourteen governorates, also called provinces or counties in English (Arabic: مُحَافَظَة [muˈħaːfaðˤa]; pl. مُحَافَظَات muḥāfaẓāt [muħafaˈðˤaːt]). The governorates are divided into sixty-five districts (Arabic: مناطق, romanized: manāṭiq, singular minṭaqah), which are further divided into subdistricts (Arabic: نَاحِيَة [ˈnaːħijah], plural نَوَاحِي, nawāḥī [naˈwaːħiː]). The nawāḥī contain villages, which are the smallest administrative units.
Each governorate is headed by a governor, appointed by the president, subject to cabinet approval. The governor is responsible for administration, health, social services, education, tourism, public works, transportation, domestic trade, agriculture, industry, civil defense, and maintenance of law and order in the governorate. The minister of each local administration works closely with each governor to coordinate and supervise local development projects. The governor is assisted by a provincial council, all of whose members are popularly elected for four-year terms. In addition, each council elects from among its members an executive bureau which administers the day to day issues between provincial council sessions. Each executive officer is charged with specific functions.
The public source identifies “Governorates of Syria” as subdivision of Syria. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Governorates, Syria and subdivision.
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This entry incorporates text from “Governorates of Syria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.