Biography
Early years
Bashar al-Assad was born on September 11, 1965 in Damascus in the family of the commander of the Syrian Air Force and Air Defense, Brigadier General Hafez Assad (1930-2000) and his wife Anise Mahlouf (1929-2016) , belonging to the religious minority of the Alawites . His father came from the Arab Alawite tribe of the Kalbiya, and the mother is from another Alawite tribe - haddadin. When he was not yet five years old, his father, as a result of a coup, took over as President of Syria and a little later led the ruling Baath Party .
Bashar al-Assad received his primary and secondary education at the elite Arab-French lyceum "Hurriya" in Damascus . In 1982, he completed his studies at the Lyceum and received a bachelor 's degree , and in 1988 he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Medicine of Damascus University with a degree in ophthalmology, after which he worked at the Tishrin military hospital in the suburbs of Damascus.
In 1991 (according to other sources - in 1992 ), he left for an internship in the UK - at the Western Eye Hospital ophthalmology center at St. Mary's Hospital, located in the Paddington area of London . Abroad, Assad adopted a pseudonym so that no one would know that he is the son of the Syrian president. He participated in international scientific symposia and preferred to spend time with Syrian intellectuals. In addition to ophthalmology, Bashar was fond of computer science.
Initially, Hafez Assad saw his eldest son Basil as his successor as head of state , but he died in 1994 in a car accident. The tragedy occurred when Bashar al-Assad was in London, where he studied in residency in ophthalmology and eye surgery. After the death of his brother, he returned to Syria. Bashar al-Assad entered the military academy in the Syrian city of Homs and in 1995, with the rank of captain, already commanded a tank battalion, then headed the Republican Guard. In January 1999 he was awarded the rank of colonel.
At the head of state
Hafez Assad, who ruled Syria for 30 years, died on June 10, 2000 from heart failure. The day after the death of the Syrian leader, Acting President of Syria, First Vice President Khaddam awarded Bashar al-Assad the rank of lieutenant general and appointed him supreme commander of the army. The Syrian parliament changed the constitution, lowering the minimum age for a presidential candidate from 40 to 34 years specifically for the election of Bashar al-Assad.
On June 20, at the congress of the ruling Baath party, Bashar Assad was elected general secretary and nominated as the only presidential candidate, and a week later his candidacy was approved by parliament. On July 10, a referendum was held in the country on the election of the head of state, as a result of which Bashar al-Assad was elected president of Syria, gaining 97.29% of the vote. On May 27, 2007, another referendum was held in Syria to re-elect Assad as head of state. Only one question was included in the ballot: "Do you trust Bashar al-Assad to govern the country until 2014?". According to the results of the referendum, Bashar al-Assad was re-elected for a second term, gaining 97.62% of the vote.
Foreign policy
During the reign of Hafez Assad, Syria's foreign policy was built, first of all, in the context of the Arab-Israeli confrontation and at the same time pursued the goal of reducing the dependence of the development of its domestic policy on external factors. In addition, during the six-day war in 1967, Israel occupied the Golan Heights from Syria , and an attempt under Hafez Assad to regain control of the heights in 1973 ended in vain. Having come to power, Bashar al-Assad stressed that he would not back down from his father's position on the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied territories to the 1967 borders as an indispensable condition for peace.
The United States, Israel and Western countries accused Syria of providing logistical support to paramilitary groups - opponents of Israel ( Hezbollah , Hamas , Islamic Jihad ), recognized as terrorist organizations in several countries of the world. While Syria has denied such allegations, it has publicly supported these groups. Despite public support for Islamic resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, Bashar al-Assad did not deny the possibility of resuming a peaceful dialogue with Israel, and in December 2003 he announced his country's readiness to resume peace talks with Israel "from the point where they stopped," without nominating there are no preconditions.
Syria had a difficult relationship with the United States as well. On May 7, 2002, the American administration included Syria in the " axis of evil ". According to the information provided by K. Kapitonov, before the war in Iraq in 2003, Syria participated, bypassing the UN Security Council ban, in supplying weapons to Saddam Hussein's regime. During the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies , a number of US dignitaries such as Secretary of State Colin Powell , Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and President George W. Bush, accused Syria of storing Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, military support for Iraq, aiding terrorism and harboring representatives of the Iraqi leadership.
Subsequently, the United States accused Assad of supporting terror in post-war Iraq.
On March 6, 2014, during the annexation of Crimea to Russia, Assad sent a telegram to Vladimir Putin, in which he confirmed "Syria's support for President Putin's rational, peace-loving course to restore stability in the countries of the world and fight extremism and terrorism". In the UN General Assembly, Syria voted against the resolution recognizing the Crimean referendum as illegal , joining the list of 10 countries that supported Russia.
Cedar Revolution in Lebanon
The ties between Lebanon and Syria have deep historical roots. In the mid-1970s. during the reign of Hafez al-Assad, Syria was drawn into the civil war in Lebanon . In 1976, Syrian troops were brought into Lebanon, and in 1982 the Israeli army invaded the country , which led to an armed clash between the Syrian and Israeli forces.
After the end of the Civil War, Israeli troops were withdrawn from Lebanon, but the Syrian military contingent continued to remain in the neighboring country. In addition, over time, Syria began to control the political process in Lebanon. Bashar al-Assad played a key role in ensuring that General Emile Lahoud came to power in Lebanon in 1998.
On September 2, 2004, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution No. 1559, calling on “all foreign forces remaining in Lebanon to leave this country”. The situation took an unexpected turn when on February 13, 2005, as a result of a terrorist attack in Beirut , one of the most influential Lebanese politicians, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri , who had previously opposed the Syrian military presence in the country, was killed .
His death sparked numerous anti-Syrian demonstrations demanding the resignation of the government and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country. In parallel with this, strong international pressure was exerted on Syria itself. However, there were also pro-Syrian sentiments in Lebanese society. Thus, at the call of Hezbollah, a rally in support of Syria was held in the country, the participants of which held banners "Thank you, Syria!" and “No to foreign interference”. In the end, under pressure from the demonstrations on February 28 in the resignation of pro-Syrian government took Omar Karami.
In early March, President Bashar al-Assad, in his speech to the People's Council of Syria, said that "The withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon does not contradict, but on the contrary, meets the interests of the country," and noted: “This does not mean that Syria disclaims responsibility towards our brothers in Lebanon, with whom we are united by a common will and common goals in a difficult period of our common history. We will continue to support Lebanon ”. On April 26 2005 the year the last Syrian troops left Lebanon, marking the completion of the 29-year Syrian military presence in Lebanon.
Under the auspices of the UN, meanwhile, an independent commission of inquiry was created to investigate the death of Rafik Hariri, which published a report in October of the same year, which, in particular, indicates that high-ranking officials of Syria and Lebanon may have been involved in the murder of Hariri. Syria categorically rejected this. In one of his speeches, Bashar al-Assad announced that Syria was under international pressure because of its support for a number of Palestinian and Lebanese groups and because of his country's position against the war in Iraq, accusing the Lebanese leadership of Lebanon becoming a "springboard for conspiracies against Syria."
Against the background of these events on October 29, 2005 the Syrian president signed a decree on the formation of his own judicial commission to investigate the murder of Hariri, but two days later the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Syria, providing for the imposition of international sanctions against Damascus if it refuses to cooperate with the UN commission in the investigation of the death of the former -Prime Minister of Lebanon. At the end of December, former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam said that before Hariri's assassination he had received threats from the Syrian President and other officials of the country
On January 11, 2006, Khaddam announced that it was Bashar al-Assad who gave the order to kill Rafik Hariri. Syria's Prosecutor General's Office filed against the ex-vice-president of the criminal case on charges of treason and "complicity in a conspiracy of external forces to destabilize the situation" in Syria.
Civil War
“If we talk about the relationship between power and personality, then I have a negative attitude to power. Power sometimes leads to addiction, and addiction awakens in a person vanity and a loss of sense of reality. A person should not feel that he has power in the literal sense of the word. He must feel it through others - his fellow citizens ” .
In January-February 2011, a wave of demonstrations and protests swept through the countries of the Arab world , caused by various reasons, but mainly directed against the ruling authorities. March 15 in Damascus, held a demonstration demanding reform. The impetus for unrest in Syria was the arrest by the police in Dar'aa group of teenagers who painted buildings with anti-government slogans.
On March 18, an anti-government protest began in Dar'a, to disperse which the security forces used force, resulting in casualties among the protesters. March 30, Bashar Assad addressed the parliament and the people of the country, in which he stated that the unrest in the country were instigated from abroad and that the country will continue to conduct political and economic reforms. He noted: “The inhabitants of Dar'a are innocent of what happened. But, unfortunately, when everything spills out onto the streets, when the dialogue takes place there, outside the existing institutions, everything comes into chaos, the reaction takes over, instant mistakes occur, blood flows”.
From the very beginning of the conflict, Bashar al-Assad, trying to stabilize the situation, made many concessions both in the political, economic and public spheres. In early April, he issued an order granting Syrian passports to the country's Kurdish minority , affecting about 300,000 people. The Kurds who inhabit northeastern Syria , even before the Baath Party came to power , were recognized as foreigners in 1962 due to the fact that they moved there from neighboring Turkey.
In another act, Assad lifted the ban on women wearing niqabs in educational institutions that had been in force since 2010. On April 21, the President signed a decree on the abolition of the state of emergency in the country, which had been in force since1963. However, anti-government demonstrations did not stop, but spread to more and more cities and towns. On April 25, army units blocked Dar'a, after which soldiers, supported by armored vehicles, entered the city. From that time on, to combat "terrorist elements" and restore order, the Syrian leadership began to involve army forces, sending them to the Syrian cities engulfed in unrest.
Against the backdrop of an internal political crisis that broke out in the country, Syria faced international pressure from a number of foreign states, demanding an end to the bloodshed and the resignation of the head of state. May 18, 2011 the United States imposed sanctions on Bashar al-Assad and six other Syrian officials.
Five days later, similar sanctions against the Syrian President and 13 senior officials entered the European Union , imposing a ban on visits of EU and froze their assets. The uncle and critic of the Syrian leadership, ex-vice-president Rifat Assad , who attempted to seize power in the country in the 1980s, also said that Bashar al-Assad would not be able to stay in power.
Over the following months, the situation in the country continued to remain difficult. On July 29, Colonel Riyad al-Assad sided with the opposition , announcing the creation of the Free Syrian Army.
On October 2, the Syrian opposition formed a National Council in Istanbul aimed at overthrowing the Assad regime. November 12 Arab League suspended Syria's membership in the organization, and on November 27 launched against her economic sanctions, desperate to make Assad stop the violence. This triggered attacks on the diplomatic missions of Arab states in Syrian cities.
After a while, Bashar al-Assad, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, described the events in the country as a struggle between Islamism and secular pan-Arabism , threatening the West: “Syria is the epicenter of the region. Any escalation in Syria will ignite the entire region. You risk causing an earthquake. Do you want to get one more Afghanistan , or a dozen Afganistan? ".
January 11, 2012 in Damascus at Umayyad square really of many thousands in support of the Syrian president took place, to which Bashar al-Assad himself arrived. In his speech, he said:
Assad said: “We will triumph over the conspiracy that is living its last days. God protects Syria and her great people”. On February 26, a referendum was held in Syria on the draft of a new constitution , which was supported by 89.4% of the country's residents who took part in the voting. The opposition boycotted the vote. The new constitution provides for the abolition of the leadership of the Baath Party, which has ruled since the 1963 coup, and the introduction of a multi-party system. On May 7, for the first time in half a century, parliamentary elections on a multi-party basis were held in the country.
The Syrian opposition has repeatedly accused government forces of using chemical weapons during hostilities. Similar accusations were systematically brought forward in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The Syrian authorities reject these accusations, sometimes putting forward similar charges against the opposition.
Syrian Free Army in September, announced the award of $ 25 million dollars to anyone who will hand over President Bashar Assad's dead or alive. On November 11, in the capital of Qatar, Doha, Syrian opposition groups proclaimed the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces with the aim of uniting all factions opposing and overthrowing the Syrian leader.
At the same time, radical Islamist groups, represented mainly by foreign volunteers from among the Sunnis, began to gain weight in the ranks of the Syrian armed opposition (during the reign of Hafez Assad in 1976-1982, Islamists, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood , already triedoverthrow the then government - approx.). The report of the UN Commission (led by Paulo Pineiro) on the observance of human rights, presented in December of the same year, reported that "the conflict has become overtly sectarian .
" Karen Abouzeid, a member of the Commission on Investigation of Human Rights Violations in Syria, in turn said that “feeling threatened and under fire, ethnic and religious minorities are increasingly joining the parties to the conflict, deepening sectarian divisions”.
On January 6, 2013 , during his performance at the opera house Bachar al-Assad presented his plan to resolve the conflict: “The first step in overcoming the crisis should be the commitment of foreign states to end financial support for terrorists. The second stage is the convening of a government conference on national dialogue. The third is the creation of a new government and the announcement of a general amnesty ” .
The president's initiative was not supported by either the opposition or the Western countries and the UN Secretary General. By the spring, the Syrian army had achieved some success in battles against the armed opposition. June 5 army supported by the Lebanese Shiite paramilitary movement Hezbollah took the strategically important town of El Quseir on the border with Lebanon. Four days later, Syrian forces launched a large-scale military operation "Northern Storm" to regain control of the province of Aleppo.
Against the backdrop of the successes of government forces, the European Union lifted the arms embargo against Syria, which made it possible to provide military assistance to the rebels. The participation of the Lebanese group Hezbollah on the side of the Syrian authorities has caused great outrage among the forces sympathizing with or supporting the rebels.
On June 14, Saudi preacher Muhammad bin Abdelrahman al-Arifi called on the Egyptians to pray in Cairo take part in the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A group of Sunni clerics made the day a statement, calling for jihad against the Syrian regime. The next day, Egypt broke off diplomatic relations with Syria.
After in August 2013, in one of the suburbs of Damascus , attacks with the use of chemical weapons occurred , a number of states immediately blamed government troops for this and took the initiative to conduct a military operation against Syria. This circumstance has exacerbated the already difficult international situation around the country.
The prevention of a military strike on Syria was facilitated by the agreement proposed by the international community at the initiative of Russia on Syria's accession to the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the Destruction of WMD Stockpiles . On September 13, Bashar al-Assad signed a decree on his country's accession to the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
According to the Internet publication Almanar News, banned in the United States, referring to alleged CIA data , in the presidential elections in 2014, Bashar al-Assad could gain up to 75%.
In 2014, Assad did not officially announce his plans for the upcoming elections, but many commentators did not rule out that he would become the main candidate. In an interview with AFP in January , commenting on a possible nomination, he said:
Later, in the same January, during a meeting with Russian parliamentarians in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad announced his intention to be re-elected to a new presidential term in 2014. "They claim that they have liberated 70% of the territory of Syria, then why not take part in the elections and hope for the support of these 70%,"
The president said. On April 14, 2014, at a meeting with the faculty and graduate students of the Faculty of Political Science at Damascus University, Assad announced the onset of a "turning point" in the civil war, highlighting the recent successes of the army in the fight against the opposition and the incipient process of national reconciliation.
April 28, the nomination of Bashar al-Assad said in a live state television parliament speaker Mohammed al-Lyaham , which caused jubilation in Damascus on the areas Hijaz and Najma, as well as in Lattakia, Tartous and other cities. The procedure for approving candidates took several days, and as a result, the Syrian Constitutional Court registered three candidates for the presidency of the country. They turned out to be: Bashar al-Assad, a deputy from the People's Will Party of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation bloc Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajar and the head of the National Initiative for Reforms Hassan Abdel Illyahi al-Nuri.
Following the results of the elections held on June 3 , the next day, the speaker of the People's Council of Syria, Mohammad al-Laham, said in a televised address that “Bashar al-Assad becomes President of Syria, gaining an absolute majority of votes in the elections”, namely 88.7% (10 , 2 million people. It was noted that the officially declared number of those who voted for Assad, when converted into percentages, is very close to the rounded up to tenths of a percent, which may indicate falsification.
War crimes charges
According to the FBI , at least 10 European citizens detained during the Syrian civil war have been tortured by the Assad regime. Thus, according to the agency, Assad is potentially vulnerable to harassment by some European countries for war crimes committed during his rule. Stephen Rapp, the US ambassador for special affairs , believed that Assad's crimes were the worst since Nazi Germany; in March 2015, Rapp suggested that the case against Assad would be "much more promising" than the case against Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, orCharles Taylor in Liberia, both of whom were indicted by international tribunals.
In an interview with BBC BBC in February 2015, Assad described as "childish" accusations that the Syrian Arab Air Force used barrel bomb , said that his forces never used bombs and has denied the use of "kastryulnyh" bombs; Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor, who conducted the interview, later described the statements about Assad barrel bomb as "deliberately untrue". It is argued that the use of such aircraft bombs Syria is well documented. In March 2015, Physicians for "Human Rights" Published a report stating that the Assad regime is responsible for most of the 600 killed since the outbreak of civil war in Syria, medical workers - 88% of the reported attacks on hospitals and 97% of murders of medical workers have been attributed to the forces of Assad.
In 2015, by the Commission on International Justice and Accountability ( CIJA ), composed of investigators and legal experts who previously served on military tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and for the International Criminal Court, in collaboration with a team of 50 researchers from the Syrian opposition , it is stated that the evidence collected over the past three years allows, according to the Commission, to indict Assad and 24 senior members of his regime.
The NGO's report "The Syrian Human Rights Network" from 2015 states that 49 of the 56 major massacres that had features of "sectarian or ethnic cleansing", were carried out the Assad regime. In September of the same year, France opened an investigation into the alleged crimes of the Assad regime. Similar accusations were voiced in December 2013 from the lips of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillai, but official Damascus rejected them.
In January 2019, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be able to participate in the elections that are necessary to resolve the conflict in his country. Le Drian said that Paris will continue to advocate for a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
In 2020, the Turkish agency Anadolu compiled its list of war crimes in Syria, which, according to Turkey, were committed by government forces, and published the "list of thugs" of President Bashar Assad (among them, in addition to Assad himself, hundreds of military and security personnel, including including the president's younger brother, Maher Assad , commander of the Republican Guard).
Health status
On January 28, 2017, a number of media outlets reported that President Bashar al-Assad was admitted to the Al-Shami hospital in Damascus. Data from different publications vary. So the Al Arabiya TV channel reported on the poisoning of the Syrian president with poison planted in food.
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal reports that the Syrian leader suffered a cerebral stroke . According to their data, Assad is in critical condition, but remains conscious. The British edition of the Independent reported that the president of Syria was hospitalized with nerve palsy, as a result of which Assad's left eye stopped opening on its own.
It also reported that Russian medics had urgently flew to Syria. However, representatives in the office of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deny the media claims. On March 8, 2021, the presidential office announced the sending of Assad to home quarantine due to his symptoms and a positive test for COVID-19, but the presence of the disease in Bashar is questioned.
Personal life
Family
On January 1, 2001, Bashar al-Assad married Asma al-Ahras , who has dual citizenship - British and Syrian , who came from an influential Sunni family in the city of Homs. Her father is Favvaz Akhras - a famous Syrian cardiologist. Although Bashar fell in love with her during his stay in England, Asma al-Assad later said in an interview: “There is a long-standing relationship between our families. For our summer holidays, our parents took a vacation, and we came home to Syria, where we talked. In England, we also talked. We have with him a case where childhood friendship turns into love" .
In this marriage, in 2001, they had a son, Hafez, in 2003, a daughter, Zane, and in 2004, another son, Karim.
Other relatives
Bashar al-Assad was the third child in the family of Hafez Assad and his wife Anis. In addition to him, there were four more boys in the family: the elder brother Basil , the younger ones Maher , Majid and Jamil, as well as the older sister Bushra.
The husband of his sister, Major General Asef Shaukat , during the reign of Bashar al-Assad, was the head of military intelligence, chief of staff of the army and deputy minister of defense. He died in 2012 as a result of a terrorist attack during the civil war in Syria. Cousin on the maternal side Hafiz Mahluf served as the head of the investigative unit of Syria's General Intelligence Service and was also killed in the attack.
Awards
Syrian
- Umayyad Order of the 1st class, orders, medals.
Foreign
State
- Knight Grand Cross Order of the Legion of Honor ( France , 2001). Awarded by French President Jacques Chirac at the Elysee Palace during Assad's visit to Paris. In 2018, the Chancellery of the President of France and the Grand Master of the Order Emmanuel Macron announced the beginning of the procedure for depriving Assad of the award, after which the Syrian Foreign Ministry through the Romanian Embassy in Damascus returned the insignia of France, noting in the corresponding message that “it is not an honor for President Assad to wear the award of a regime that is in slavery to the United States and supports terrorists in Syria”.
- Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise I degree ( Ukraine , 2002). Awarded by the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma during a visit to Damascus. After the discussion of this fact by the Ukrainian public, in 2015, the government of Ukraine noted that cancellation of the award is impossible under Ukrainian law.
- Zayed Order with Chain ( United Arab Emirates , 2008). Awarded by the President of the UAE Khalifa ibn Zayed Al Nahyan during Assad's visit to Abu Dhabi.
- Order of King Abdelaziz with a chain ( Saudi Arabia , 2009). Presented by the King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah ibn Abdul-Aziz Al Saud , guardian of two shrines during a visit to Damascus.
- Order of the White Rose of Finland to the degree of Knight Grand Cross with a Star ( Finland , 2009). Awarded by the President of Finland Tarja Halonen during a visit to Damascus.
- Order of the Southern Cross with the Grand Chain ( Brazil , 2010). Awarded by Brazilian President Lula da Silva during Assad's visit to Brasilia. In 2018, a bill revoking the award decree was introduced to the Chamber of Deputies rukes of the Brazilian National Congress .
- Order of the Liberator Class I with the Big Ribbon ( Venezuela , 2010). Awarded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during Assad's visit to Caracas.
- Order of the Islamic Republic ( Iran , 2010). Awarded by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during Assad's visit to Tehran.
- National Order of the Cedar with the Big Ribbon ( Lebanon , 2010). Awarded by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman during Assad's visit to Beirut.
- Order of Merit for the Italian Republic with the Grand Cross with a large ribbon ( Italy , 2010). Awarded during the visit of Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to Damascus. In 2012, a group of members of the Italian Senate appealed to the Prime Minister of Italy with a request to annul the award decree , the Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Staffan de Mistura announced the start of the corresponding procedure, the Syrian authorities returned the insignia of the orderand then Assad was officially stripped of the award.
- Order "Uatsamonga" ( South Ossetia , 2018)
- Order "Honor and Glory" I degree ( Abkhazia , 2018)
Dynastic
- Order of Francis I degree Knight Grand Cross ( House of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies , 2004). Given to Carlo of Bourbon of Sicily , Duke of Calabria, during a visit to Damascus.
- The Constantine Order of St. George with the Gold Medal "For Merit" ( House of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies , 2004). Presented to Carlo of Bourbon of Sicily , Duke of Calabria during a visit to Damascus.
Confessional
- Order of St. Gregory the Illuminator ( Armenian Apostolic Church , 2009). Awarded by the Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II during Assad's visit to Yerevan.
