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Hafez al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad (6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian politician and military officer who served as the president of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000. He was previously the prime minister from 1970 to 1971 as well as the regional secretary of the regional command of the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and secretary general of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000. Assad was a key participant in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état, which brought the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power in the country, a power that lasted until the fall of the regime in 2024, then led by his son Bashar.
After the 1963 coup, the new leadership appointed Assad as the commander of the Syrian Air Force. In February 1966 Assad participated in a second coup, which toppled the traditional leaders of the Ba'ath Party. Assad was appointed defence minister by the new government. Four years later Assad initiated a third coup, which ousted Marxist regime of Salah Jadid, and appointed himself as leader of Syria. Assad imposed various changes to the Ba'athist foreign policy after seizing power, such as abandoning Salah Jadid's policy of exporting "socialist revolution" and strengthening Syria's foreign relations with countries that his predecessor had deemed "reactionary". Assad made an alliance with the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War in return for support against Israel, while keeping ties with many Western European & Gulf Arabian countries. While he officially kept the pan-Arab concept of unifying the Arab world into one “Arab nation” as he termed it, such as being part of the Federation of Arab Republics, he sought to paint Syria as the defender of the Palestinians against Israel.
Assad quickly consolidated his power. Right after Nasser’s death, he sought to reconciliate Syria with the other Arab countries, which have been harmed under Jadid’s rule. He also tried to form new ties with countries from both camps in the Cold War. As a result, he got economic support from OPEC members during the Oil embargo, as a show of support to his war against Israel in 1973, the October War. While Syria remained a one-party system, Ba'athist decision-making authority that had previously been collegial was reduced in favour of empowering the president’s absolute control over the country. To maintain his personalistic rule, a cult of personality centred on Assad and his family was created by the president and the Ba'ath party. Assad ordered an Arabization campaign on Kurdish areas of Syria and started intervention in Lebanon in 1976, which resulted in the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. During his rule, his regime crushed an Islamist uprising led by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood rebels through a series of crackdowns culminating in the Hama massacre, which led to two thirds of the city of Hama being destroyed. His regime was accused of numerous human rights violations, including opening prison death camps.
Assad's initial preferred successor as president was his brother Rifaat, but Rifaat attempted to seize power in 1983–1984 when Hafez had a health scare and he was subsequently exiled. Assad's next choice of successor was his eldest son, Bassel. However, Bassel died in a highspeed car crash in 1994, and Assad turned to his third choice—his younger son Bashar, who at that time was a medical student in the UK, with no political experience. The move to appoint a member of his own family as his successor was met with criticism in some quarters of the Syrian ruling class, but Assad persisted with his plan and demoted officials who opposed this succession. Assad died in June 2000 and Bashar succeeded him as president, serving until he was overthrown in December 2024.
Hafez al-Assad was born on 6 October 1930, in Qardaha, a town in the north-west of Syria. He was born into a poor Alawite peasants family belonging to the Kalbiyya tribe of Alawites. Later, Assad recalled at the congresses of the Peasants' General Union: "I had a passion for threshing the harvest... But I took part in all the phases of farming..., lived your emotions and understand what your life signifies. I still have mental pictures of the injustices of the time. No matter how far the past sinks away, it is necessary to keep these images alive in our minds, not to nurse hatred against anyone but to see into them, for what we endured forms an essential part of the way we view things and of the foundation on which we build the present and the future."
His paternal grandfather, Sulayman al-Wahhish, gained the nickname al-Wahhish (wild beast) for his strength. Hafez al-Assad's parents were Na'isa Shalish and Ali al-Assad. His father married twice and had eleven children. Hafez was his ninth son and the fourth from his second marriage.
By the 1920s, Ali was respected locally and was initially opposed to the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, a French-ruled League of Nations mandate officially established in 1923. Nevertheless, Ali Sulayman later cooperated with the French administration and was appointed to an official post. Local residents called him "al-Assad" (the lion) for his accomplishments and, in 1927, he made the nickname his surname.
Alawites initially opposed a united Syrian state (since they thought their status as a religious minority would endanger them). After the French left Syria in 1946, many Syrians mistrusted the Alawites because of their alignment with France. Assad left his Alawite village, beginning his education at the age of nine in Sunni-dominated Latakia. He became the first in his family to attend high school, but in Latakia, Assad faced anti-Alawite bias from Sunnis. He was an excellent student, winning several prizes at around the age of 14. Assad lived in a poor, predominantly Alawite part of Latakia; he even had to interrupt his studies for a while, since his father did not have enough money to pay for it (but later he was able to return). to fit in, he approached political parties that welcomed Alawites. These parties (which also espoused secularism) were the Syrian Communist Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and the Arab Ba'ath Party; Assad joined the Ba'ath in 1946, whereas some of his friends belonged to the SSNP. The Ba'ath (Renaissance) Party espoused a pan-Arabist, socialist ideology.
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Hafez al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad (6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian politician and military officer who served as the president of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000. He was previously the prime minister from 1970 to 1971 as well as the regional secretary of the regional command of the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and secretary general of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000. Assad was a key participant in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état, which brought the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power in the country, a power that lasted until the fall of the regime in 2024, then led by his son Bashar.
After the 1963 coup, the new leadership appointed Assad as the commander of the Syrian Air Force. In February 1966 Assad participated in a second coup, which toppled the traditional leaders of the Ba'ath Party. Assad was appointed defence minister by the new government. Four years later Assad initiated a third coup, which ousted Marxist regime of Salah Jadid, and appointed himself as leader of Syria. Assad imposed various changes to the Ba'athist foreign policy after seizing power, such as abandoning Salah Jadid's policy of exporting "socialist revolution" and strengthening Syria's foreign relations with countries that his predecessor had deemed "reactionary". Assad made an alliance with the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War in return for support against Israel, while keeping ties with many Western European & Gulf Arabian countries. While he officially kept the pan-Arab concept of unifying the Arab world into one “Arab nation” as he termed it, such as being part of the Federation of Arab Republics, he sought to paint Syria as the defender of the Palestinians against Israel.
Assad quickly consolidated his power. Right after Nasser’s death, he sought to reconciliate Syria with the other Arab countries, which have been harmed under Jadid’s rule. He also tried to form new ties with countries from both camps in the Cold War. As a result, he got economic support from OPEC members during the Oil embargo, as a show of support to his war against Israel in 1973, the October War. While Syria remained a one-party system, Ba'athist decision-making authority that had previously been collegial was reduced in favour of empowering the president’s absolute control over the country. To maintain his personalistic rule, a cult of personality centred on Assad and his family was created by the president and the Ba'ath party. Assad ordered an Arabization campaign on Kurdish areas of Syria and started intervention in Lebanon in 1976, which resulted in the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. During his rule, his regime crushed an Islamist uprising led by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood rebels through a series of crackdowns culminating in the Hama massacre, which led to two thirds of the city of Hama being destroyed. His regime was accused of numerous human rights violations, including opening prison death camps.
Assad's initial preferred successor as president was his brother Rifaat, but Rifaat attempted to seize power in 1983–1984 when Hafez had a health scare and he was subsequently exiled. Assad's next choice of successor was his eldest son, Bassel. However, Bassel died in a highspeed car crash in 1994, and Assad turned to his third choice—his younger son Bashar, who at that time was a medical student in the UK, with no political experience. The move to appoint a member of his own family as his successor was met with criticism in some quarters of the Syrian ruling class, but Assad persisted with his plan and demoted officials who opposed this succession. Assad died in June 2000 and Bashar succeeded him as president, serving until he was overthrown in December 2024.
Hafez al-Assad was born on 6 October 1930, in Qardaha, a town in the north-west of Syria. He was born into a poor Alawite peasants family belonging to the Kalbiyya tribe of Alawites. Later, Assad recalled at the congresses of the Peasants' General Union: "I had a passion for threshing the harvest... But I took part in all the phases of farming..., lived your emotions and understand what your life signifies. I still have mental pictures of the injustices of the time. No matter how far the past sinks away, it is necessary to keep these images alive in our minds, not to nurse hatred against anyone but to see into them, for what we endured forms an essential part of the way we view things and of the foundation on which we build the present and the future."
His paternal grandfather, Sulayman al-Wahhish, gained the nickname al-Wahhish (wild beast) for his strength. Hafez al-Assad's parents were Na'isa Shalish and Ali al-Assad. His father married twice and had eleven children. Hafez was his ninth son and the fourth from his second marriage.
By the 1920s, Ali was respected locally and was initially opposed to the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, a French-ruled League of Nations mandate officially established in 1923. Nevertheless, Ali Sulayman later cooperated with the French administration and was appointed to an official post. Local residents called him "al-Assad" (the lion) for his accomplishments and, in 1927, he made the nickname his surname.
Alawites initially opposed a united Syrian state (since they thought their status as a religious minority would endanger them). After the French left Syria in 1946, many Syrians mistrusted the Alawites because of their alignment with France. Assad left his Alawite village, beginning his education at the age of nine in Sunni-dominated Latakia. He became the first in his family to attend high school, but in Latakia, Assad faced anti-Alawite bias from Sunnis. He was an excellent student, winning several prizes at around the age of 14. Assad lived in a poor, predominantly Alawite part of Latakia; he even had to interrupt his studies for a while, since his father did not have enough money to pay for it (but later he was able to return). to fit in, he approached political parties that welcomed Alawites. These parties (which also espoused secularism) were the Syrian Communist Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and the Arab Ba'ath Party; Assad joined the Ba'ath in 1946, whereas some of his friends belonged to the SSNP. The Ba'ath (Renaissance) Party espoused a pan-Arabist, socialist ideology.