Mr. Bashar al-Assad (before) at his father’s funeral in 2000
Born on September 11, 1965, Mr. Bashar al-Assad is the third son in a family of five children of the late leader Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria since 1971 after a political upheaval.
As the second child in the family, he never thought he would become president. However, everything turned upside down when his brother Bassel al-Assad, whom his father focused on cultivating as his successor, died in a traffic accident in 1994, according to AFP on December 8.
Trained as an ophthalmologist
The Syrian president comes from the Assad family, part of Syria’s Alawite minority group, which makes up about 10% of the country’s population. This is a family that has played a leading role in Syrian politics since the 1960s.
Mr. Assad was raised and raised in the capital, graduating from Damascus University in ophthalmology in 1988. After graduating, he worked as a doctor at a military hospital in the Syrian capital before moving to London (UK). continued to study medicine in 1992.
Here, he met his future wife, Asma, a British-Syrian and a Sunni Muslim. Ms. Asma works for JP Morgan Financial Group. She was once recognized by the Magazine Vogue nicknamed “desert rose”.
In 1994, his brother Bassel died in a traffic accident. Mr. Assad was forced to cancel his studies and leave London to return home. When he returned, he took military courses at a military academy and was personally taught politics by his father.
Over time, he was promoted to the rank of colonel of the elite Republican Guard force, also known as the Presidential Guard, with about 25,000 people.
He was also charged with leading the anti-corruption campaign before becoming Chairman of the Syrian Computer Association, an organization founded by his late brother in 1989.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in March 2003
Become president
On June 10, 2000, Assad’s father, President Hafez al-Assad, passed away. Immediately afterward, the National Assembly quickly passed a constitutional amendment lowering the minimum age to become president from 40 to 34, the same age as Mr. Assad.
On June 18 of the same year, Mr. Assad was elected Secretary General of the ruling Baʿath party. Two days later, the ruling party congress nominated him as its presidential candidate and was approved by the parliament. On July 10, he was elected the next president of Syria, starting a 7-year term.
During the first days of his term, he often drove to work by car, or had dinner with his wife at Damascus restaurants.
He also eased some restrictions implemented during his previous term and was seen as Syria’s young reformer. He was re-elected for a second term in 2007.
However, during his time in office, Mr. Assad was opposed because of his tough attitude towards the movement of intellectuals and scholars, in an effort to call for reform of Syrian society.
Civil war broke out
In 2010, the Arab Spring movement began to rise in Arab countries, with unprecedented marches and protests. When the movement spread to Syria in March 2011, peaceful protests took place across the streets demanding that the government make changes. Attacks against government troops also occurred.
By mid-2012, the conflict in Syria erupted into civil war. During the following years, President Assad was said to have relied on alliances with Russia, Iran and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon to maintain power.
In recent times, Mr. Assad has still asserted that the origin of the civil war comes from foreign manipulation.
On May 26, 2021, Mr. Assad was re-elected for a fourth term when receiving 95.1% of the votes in support.
On December 8, opposition military forces in Syria declared control of the capital, saying Damascus was “free”. The opposition also announced that President Bashar al-Assad had left Damascus. Up to now, President Assad has not appeared or made a statement while opposition forces are present in the capital Damascus.
On the evening of December 8, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Mr. Assad had left Syria after announcing the peaceful transfer of power. The Syrian Prime Minister said he had lost contact with Mr. Assad.
