Syria: The rise of the Assads

BBC News ^ | November 4, 2015 | By Neil Quilliam

[MinorityRepublican]

The conflict in Syria has drawn in major global powers, some supporting and some opposing President Bashar al-Assad. The Assad family has ruled Syria for more than four decades, but how did they rise to power?

Hafez al-Assad was the architect of modern Syria. Following decades of coups and counter-coups in Syria, Hafez used the network he had built in the posts of Commander of the Syrian air force and Minister of Defence to seize power in 1970.

To maintain his position, Hafez created a system of divide and rule and personalised his power to such an extent that it was he alone who held the state together. His successor would inherit a weak government and state institutions.

It was Hafez's eldest son, Bassel, that was groomed for power. But Bassel's death in a car accident in 1994 thrust his brother Bashar to the fore. When Bashar al-Assad assumed the presidency in 2000 following Hafez's death, many expected him to be a chip off the old block, but this has not proved to be the case.

When Bashar took over, he was obliged at first to work with his father's coterie of revolutionary leaders - many of whom had headed the state's key institutions, such as the security services and military, for decades. But, in order to assert his independence, he slowly pushed them aside in favour of his own close set of advisers.

[Celtic Conservative]

Regardless of the Assads first name, the party in control was Baathist, just like pre-invasion Iraq. And just as brutal. Now I don’t want the Islamists to win in Syria, but the Baathists don’t appear in my top ten either. What a mess.

CC

[who_would_fardels_bear]

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