Bashar Hafez al-Assad is the president of Syria. A statesman and politician has held the highest post since 2000. He succeeded his father, Ghafiz al-Assad, who ruled in Syria since 1971. Despite hopes for democratic reforms and a revival of the Syrian economy, Bashar al-Assad largely continued his father's authoritarian methods. Starting in 2011, Assad faced a major rebellion in Syria, which turned into a civil war.
A brief biography of the President of Syria
Bashar al-Assad was born on September 11, 1965 in Damascus. He was the third child of Hafiz al-Assad, a Syrian military officer and member of the Ba'ath Party, who in 1971 rose to the presidency as a result of a coup. The Assad family belonged to the Syrian “Alawite minority, ” a Shiite sect that traditionally accounts for about 10 percent of the country's population.
Bashar was educated in Damascus and studied medicine at Damascus University, graduating in 1988 with a degree in ophthalmologist. He then served as a military doctor in a hospital, and in 1992 moved to London to continue his studies. In 1994, his older brother, who was appointed heir to his father, died in a car accident. Bashar, despite the lack of military and political experience, returned to Syria. To strengthen his position among the country's military and intelligence services, he studied at the military academy. As a result, he received the rank of colonel and led the Republican Guard.
Career
Shafiz al-Assad died on June 10, 2000. A few hours after his death, the national legislature approved a constitutional amendment, according to which the minimum age for the president was reduced from 40 to 34 years (that is how many years Bashar al-Assad was at that time). On June 18, Assad was appointed general secretary of the ruling Baat party, and two days later the party congress appointed him a presidential candidate, the national legislature approved the appointment. Assad was elected for a seven-year term.
Although many Syrians objected to the transfer of power from father to son, the rise of Bashar generated some optimism both in Syria and abroad. His youth and education seemed to make it possible to retreat from the image of an authoritarian state controlled by a network of powerful overlapping security and intelligence agencies, and a stagnant state economy. In his inaugural address, Assad reiterated his commitment to economic liberalization and promised political reform, but he rejected Western-style democracy as an appropriate model for Syrian politics.
Assad said he would not support policies that could threaten Baat’s dominance, but he slightly eased government restrictions on freedom of expression and released several hundred political prisoners from prisons. These gestures contributed to a short period of relative openness, called by some observers as "Damascus Spring, " during which socio-political discussion forums and calls for political reforms opened. However, after several months, the Assad regime changed course, using threats and arrests to suppress pro-reform activity.
