BEIRUT (AP) Bashar Assad left Syria on Sunday, ending his almost 14-year campaign to maintain power as his nation broke apart in a bloody civil war that turned into a front line conflict for regional and global powers.
In contrast to his initial months as Syria’s improbable president in 2000, when many anticipated he would be a young reformer after three decades of his father’s iron power, the 59-year-old Assad’s departure was remarkable. The 34-year-old Western-educated ophthalmologist came across as a kind, tech-savvy computer enthusiast.
However, Assad used his father’s violent methods to quell dissent when protests against his leadership broke out in March 2011. With the help of allies Russia and Iran, he unleashed his troops to destroy cities controlled by the opposition as the revolt descended into a full-scale civil war.
Prosecutors and international rights organizations have accused Syria’s government-run prisons of widespread arbitrary executions and torture. Nearly half a million people have died and half of the 23 million people who lived in the country before the war have been displaced.
Since Assad’s administration reclaimed most of Syria’s land, the battle seemed to be at a standstill. However, rebel groups continued to dominate the northwest, and Kurdish forces continued to rule the northeast.
Even though Damascus was still subject to severe Western sanctions, the surrounding nations had started to accept Assad’s ongoing rule. Saudi Arabia announced in May the appointment of its first ambassador since cutting off relations with Damascus 12 years ago, while the Arab League reinstated Syria as a member last year.
But when opposition forces launched an unexpected onslaught in northwest Syria in late November, the geopolitical tide swiftly shifted.While Assad’s allies seemed hesitant to use force, government troops swiftly disintegrated as they were distracted by other conflicts, such as Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
An end to decades of family rule
By a strange turn of events, Assad became president in 2000. Basil, Bashar’s eldest brother, was being raised by his father as his heir, but he was killed in a vehicle accident in Damascus in 1994. After being brought home from his London practice of ophthalmology, Bashar underwent military training and was promoted to colonel in order to build his credentials for eventual control.
Parliament swiftly reduced the presidential age restriction from 40 to 34 after Hafez Assad’s death in 2000. A nationwide referendum in which Bashar was the sole contender confirmed his ascent.
For for 30 years, Hafez, a longtime military man, dominated the nation. He established a centralized economy akin to that of the Soviet Union and maintained such a tight grip on dissent that Syrians were afraid to even discuss politics with their friends.
His secular philosophy aimed to conceal sectarian divisions beneath the guise of valiant opposition to Israel and Arab nationalism. He established a network of violent Palestinian and Lebanese organizations, forged an alliance with Iran’s Shiite clerical leadership, and cemented Syrian dominance over Lebanon.
At first, Bashar didn’t look like the strongman father he was.
His manner was peaceful and polite, and he was tall and lanky with a slight lisp. Prior to becoming president, he held the sole recognized role of head of the Syrian Computer Society. Asma al-Akhras, his wife, was British-born, fashionable, and attractive. He married her a few months after assuming power.
The young couple appeared to avoid the accoutrements of authority, and they eventually produced three children. Instead of living in a lavish house like other Arab presidents, they occupied an apartment in Damascus’s affluent Abu Rummaneh neighborhood.
When Assad first took office, he released political prisoners and permitted more free speech. The emergence of intellectual salons during the Damascus Spring allowed Syrians to engage in a level of discussion about politics, art, and culture that was not feasible under his father.
However, the dreaded secret police put an end to the salons and imprisoned scores of activists after 1,000 intellectuals signed a public petition in 2001 demanding multiparty democracy and greater liberties, while others attempted to start a political party.
Tested by the Arab Spring, Assad relied on old alliances to stay in power
Assad resorted to economic reforms rather than a political opening. He opened the borders to imports, let foreign banks, gradually loosened economic constraints, and gave the private sector more authority. Shopping malls, new eateries, and consumer products flourished in Damascus and other cities that had been enmeshed in a rut for a long time. Travel surged.
Although in reality Assad never engaged Israel militarily, he adhered to the position his father had established abroad, which was founded on the alliance with Iran and a strategy of demanding the complete return of the Golan Heights, which Israel had occupied.
He was dealt a severe setback in 2005 when Syria lost its long-standing dominance over neighboring Lebanon due to the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A pro-American government took power after Syria was compelled to remove its forces from Lebanon after many Lebanese accused Damascus of being responsible for the killing.
At the same time, the Arab world divided into two groups: Syria and Shiite-led Iran, which have connections to Hezbollah and Palestinian militants, and Sunni-led nations like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which are allies of the United States.
At home, Assad mostly depended on the same base of support as his father: his Alawite sect, a branch of Shiite Islam that makes up around 10% of the population. Younger generations of the same families who had worked for his father were given many of the positions in his government. Members of the new middle class that his reforms had produced, including well-known Sunni merchant families, were also drawn in.
Assad looked to his own family as well. Maher, his younger brother, would oversee the crackdown on the rebellion and was the head of the elite Presidential Guard. Together with her husband, Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat, who was assassinated in a 2012 attack, their sister Bushra was a powerful voice in his inner circle. Before the two had a falling out that resulted in Makhlouf being pushed aside, Bashar’s cousin, Rami Makhlouf, rose to prominence as the nation’s largest businessman and headed a financial empire.
Additionally, Assad gave his wife, Asma, more and more important responsibilities before she stepped out of the spotlight in May to declare that she was receiving treatment for leukemia.
Assad denied that Syria would see the same kind of unrest that overthrew the governments of Tunisia and Egypt in 2011, claiming his government was better in touch with the country’s citizens. His security forces launched a violent crackdown as the Arab Spring wave reached Syria, despite Assad’s constant denials that he was facing a public uprising. Instead, he accused terrorists with foreign support of attempting to topple his government.
His speech resonated with many of Syria’s minority groups, including as Christians, Druze, and Shiites, as well as some Sunnis who despised Assad’s dictatorial government even more than they did the idea of being ruled by Sunni extremists.
Millions of Syrians fled to Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Lebanon before continuing on to Europe as the revolt descended into a civil war.
Ironically, Assad texted a joke he had seen ridiculing the Egyptian leader’s obstinate unwillingness to resign on February 26, 2011, two days after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown by protestors and just days before the Arab Spring wave of protests swept over his nation.
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