evidence: THE ASSADS came to power in 1970 promising to recreate Greater Syria, a swathe of the Levant that included Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Syria, and lead an Arab baath, or renaissance. But as Bashar al-Assad prepares to win his fourth seven-year term as president in a sham election on May 26th, his family’s hold on the country has shrivelled to a fraction of its original domain. Syria has been balkanised into a patchwork of fiefs. Scores of checkpoints line the route between Qamishli in the far east and the capital, Damascus, many beyond the regime’s control. So who actually controls Syria?