I could argue that even as it was dominated, Syria has almost always retained it's identity. It's usual state of existence has been as a vassal state through Rome and Alexander, the Selucids, Egypt, etc.. Even during the Ottoman empire the area was still known as Syria, and it was almost always governed from Damascus or from Antioch.
But all of that is beside the point- as the prophecy against Damascus suggests utter destruction for all time... Yet here it is... Syria is sovereign, and Damascus is inhabited.
It's existence suggests the prophecy is not fulfilled.
“Damascus” refers to a nation, the way we now refer to “Washington” to denote the United States. Hence, her CITIES will be abandoned. What sense does it make to say that a city’s cities will be adandoned, unless we recognize that city to be in a hierarchy over other cities?
“Her cities shall be forever abandoned,” then do not mean that they shall always be abandoned by all of mankind, but just that they shall always be adandoned by her. Maybe not even that they shall always be depopulated by her, but even simply deprived of her.
In fact, the “remnants of Aram (the Aramites)” have had “the same glory of the Israelites.” What “glory” does Isaiah refer to? The utter destruction of them as a people, for just as Israel was destroyed before Isaiah, by the Aramite Assyrians, the Aramites would be destoyed by the Babylonians. So partly, the use of the term “glory” is meant with irony, since Israel had long ago fallen. OTOH, today the Aramites are a most persistently Christian people, and their persistent can easily be compared to the modern Jews.
But these near-term events will be in opposition to Israel, so they cannot be end-of-days: “On that day, the glory of Jacob will fade, ... In that day, man will look to his maker, his eyes turned towards the Holy One of Israel.”
See? These are JEWS in Damascus Isaiah is preaching to! They abandoned their faith under foreign domination, and Isaiah is foretelling that their conquerers will be conquered again, by an even worse rulers. WHat he was referring to was the iminent invasion of Assyria by Babylon, which resulted in the Jews in Damascus ceasing to exist.
From then on, Assyria would never again exist, nor would Damascus be peopled by Aramites, nor by Jews. Aramites, also known as Assyrians or Syriacs, are not related to the Arabs who dominate Syria, nor is Syria the same as Assyria. (There is even debate whether or not they are etymologically related.)
Though the “remnant” Aramites survive to this day, in Iraq, Turkey, Syria, the Caucasus, Jordan, and Lebanon, Syria is Arab, not Aramite.