Born and raised in Damascus, Bashar graduated from the medical school of Damascus University in 1988 and began to work as a doctor in the Syrian Army. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital in London, specialising in ophthalmology. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel died in a car accident, Bashar was recalled to Syria to take over Bassel's role as heir apparent. He entered the military academy, taking charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. On 17 July 2000, Bashar al-Assad became president, succeeding his father Hafiz, who had died on 10 June 2000. A series of crackdowns in 2001–02 ended the Damascus Spring, a period of cultural and political activism marked by calls for transparency and democracy. Although Bashar inherited the power structures and personality cult nurtured by Hafiz al-Assad, he lacked the loyalty received by his father, which led to rising discontent against his rule. As result, many members of the Old Guard resigned or were purged; and the inner-circle were replaced by staunch loyalists from Alawite clans. Bashar al-Assad's early economic liberalisation programs worsened inequalities and centralized the socio-political power of the loyalist Damascene elite of the Assad family; alienating the Syrian rural population, urban working classes, businessmen, industrialists and people from once-traditional Ba'ath strongholds. The Cedar Revolution in Lebanon in February 2005, triggered by the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, forced Bashar al-Assad to end Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
Ali Sulayman al-Assad, had managed to change his status from peasant to minor notable and, to reflect this, in 1927 he had changed the family name from Wahsh (meaning "Savage") to Al-Assad.[18]
Assad's father, Hafiz, was born to an impoverished rural family of
Ismailis were removed from the army and Ba'ath party.[21] Hafiz al-Assad's 30-year military rule witnessed the transformation of Syria into a dynastic dictatorship. The new political system was led by the Ba'ath party elites dominated by the Alawites, who were fervently loyal to the Assad family and controlled the military, security forces and secret police.[22][23]
The younger Assad had five siblings, three of whom are deceased. A sister named Bushra died in infancy.[24] Assad's youngest brother, Majd, was not a public figure and little is known about him other than he was intellectually disabled,[25] and died in 2009 after a "long illness".[26]
Unlike his brothers Bassel and Maher, and second sister, also named Bushra, Bashar was quiet, reserved and lacked interest in politics or the military.[27][25][28] The Assad children reportedly rarely saw their father,[29] and Bashar later stated that he only entered his father's office once while he was president.[30] He was described as "soft-spoken",[31] and according to a university friend, he was timid, avoided eye contact and spoke in a low voice.[32]
Soon after the death of Bassel, Hafiz al-Assad decided to make Bashar the new heir apparent.[42] Over the next six and a half years, until his death in 2000, Hafiz prepared Bashar for taking over power. General Bahjat Suleiman, an officer in the Defense Companies, was entrusted with overseeing preparations for a smooth transition,[43][29] which were made on three levels. First, support was built up for Bashar in the military and security apparatus. Second, Bashar's image was established with the public. And lastly, Bashar was familiarised with the mechanisms of running the country.[44]
To establish his credentials in the military, Bashar entered the
Syrian Republican Guard in January 1999.[34][45][46] To establish a power base for Bashar in the military, old divisional commanders were pushed into retirement, and new, young, Alawite officers with loyalties to him took their place.[47]
Parallel to his military career, Bashar was engaged in public affairs. He was granted wide powers and became head of the bureau to receive complaints and appeals of citizens, and led a campaign against corruption. As a result of this campaign, many of Bashar's potential rivals for president were put on trial for corruption.[34] Bashar also became the President of the Syrian Computer Society and helped to introduce the internet in Syria, which aided his image as a moderniser and reformer. Ba'athist loyalists in the party, military and the Alawite sect were supportive of Bashar al-Assad, enabling him to become his father's successor.[51]
Presidency
Further information:
Foreign Policy of Bashar al-Assad
Before civil war: 2000–2011
Syrian revolution
.Assad in 2004
After the death of Hafiz al-Assad on 10 June 2000, the
Immediately after he took office, a reform movement known as Damascus Spring led by writers, intellectuals, dissidents, cultural activists, etc. made cautious advances, which led to the shut down of Mezzeh prison and the declaration of a wide-ranging amnesty releasing hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood affiliated political prisoners.[68] However, security crackdowns commenced again within the year, turning it into the Damascus Winter.[69][70] Hundreds of intellectuals were arrested, targeted, exiled or sent to prison and the state of emergency was continued. The early concessions were rolled back to tighten authoritarian control, censorship was increased and the Damascus Spring movement was banned under the pretext of "national unity and stability". The regime's policy of a "social market economy" became a symbol of corruption, as Assad loyalists became its sole beneficiaries.[51][71][72][73] Several discussion forums were shut down and many intellectuals were abducted by the Mukhabarat to get tortured and killed. Many analysts believe that initial promises of opening up were part a government strategy to find out Syrians who were not supportive of the new leadership.[70]
Assad himself.. I will break Lebanon over your head and over Walid Jumblatt's head. So you had better return to Beirut
and arrange the matter on that basis."
— Assad's threats to Rafic Hariri in August 2004, over the issue of tenure extension of Syrian ally Emile Lahoud[82]
The crime-scene in Beirut where Hariri and 21 others were killed in a terrorist attack in February 2005. The area was cordoned off to conduct an international investigation.
On 14 February 2005, Rafic Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon, was assassinated in a massive truck-bomb explosion in Beirut, killing 22 people. The Christian Science Monitor reported that "Syria was widely blamed for Hariri's murder. In the months leading to the assassination, relations between Hariri and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad plummeted amid an atmosphere of threats and intimidation."[83] Bashar promoted his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, a key figure suspected of orchestrating the terrorist attack, as the chief of Syrian Military Intelligence Directorate immediately after Hariri's death.[84]
Protesters take to the streets during Lebanon's "Independence Intifada", also known as the Cedar Revolution
The killings caused massive uproar, triggering an intifada in Lebanon and hundreds of thousands of protestors poured on the streets to demand total withdrawal of Syrian military forces. After mounting international pressure that called Syria to implement the UNSC Resolution 1559, Bashar al-Assad declared on 5 March that he shall order the departure of Syrian soldiers. On 14 March 2005, more than a million Lebanese protestors - Muslims, Christians, Druze - demonstrated in Beirut, marking the monthly anniversary of Hariri's murder. UN Resolution 1595, adopted on 7 April, send an international commission to investigate the assassination of Hariri. By 5 May 2005, United Nations had officially confirmed the total departure of all Syrian soldiers, ending the 29-year old military occupation. The uprisings that occurred in these months came to be known as Lebanon's "independence intifada" or the "Cedar Revolution".[85]
UN investigation commission's report published on 20 October 2005 revealed that high-ranking members of
Assad family had directly supervised the killing.[86][87][88] The BBC reported in December 2005 that "Damascus has strongly denied involvement in the car bomb which killed Hariri in February".[89]
On 27 May 2007, Assad was
Assads and voting is enforced as a compulsory duty on every citizen. Announcement of the results are followed by pro-government rallies conducted across the country extolling the regime, wherein citizens declare their "devotion" to the President and celebrate "the virtues" of Assad dynasty.[95][96][97]
Syria began developing a covert
Operation Outside the Box in September 2007.[98][99][100]
Protests in Syria began on 26 January 2011 following the Arab Spring
protests that called for political reforms and the reinstatement of civil rights, as well as an end to the
Ba'athist state as the victim of an international plot. He also derided the Arab Spring movement, and described those participating in the protests as "germs" and fifth-columnists.[104][105][106]
"Throughout the speech, al-Assad remained faithful to the basic ideological line of
Baathist
dualism, [the speech] makes the sparing, if not grudging, mention of supposedly minor dissent in this ‘inside’. This dissent loses its political meaning, or moral justification, acquiring ‘othering’ essence when the president places it in the dismissive context of the ‘fitna’... Following this hard-line speech, the protesters’ demands moved from reforming to overthrowing the regime."
— Professor Akeel Abbas on Assad's first public speech after the outbreak of
The U.S. imposed limited sanctions against the Assad government in April 2011, followed by Barack Obama's executive order as of 18 May 2011 targeting Bashar Assad specifically and six other senior officials.[108][109][110] On 23 May 2011, the EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Brussels to add Assad and nine other officials to a list affected by travel bans and asset freezes.[111] On 24 May 2011, Canada imposed sanctions on Syrian leaders, including Assad.[112]
On 20 June, in response to the demands of protesters and international pressure, Assad promised a national dialogue involving movement toward reform, new parliamentary elections, and greater freedoms. He also urged refugees to return home from Turkey, while assuring them amnesty and blaming all unrest on a small number of saboteurs.[113]
, 20 June 2011Hundreds of thousands of anti-Assad protesters parade the Syrian flag and shout the Arab Spring slogan Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam (the people want to bring down the regime!) in the Assi square, during the Siege of Hama, 22 July 2011.
In July 2011, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Assad had "lost legitimacy" as president.[109] On 18 August 2011, Barack Obama issued a written statement that urged Assad to "step aside".[114][115][116] In August, the cartoonist Ali Farzat, a critic of Assad's government, was attacked. Relatives of the humourist told media outlets that the attackers threatened to break Farzat's bones as a warning for him to stop drawing cartoons of government officials, particularly Assad. Farzat was hospitalised with fractures in both hands and blunt force trauma to the head.[117][118]
Since October 2011, Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, repeatedly vetoed Western-sponsored draft resolutions in the UN Security Council that would have left open the possibility of UN sanctions, or even military intervention, against the Assad government.[119][120][121]
By the end of January 2012, it was reported by Reuters that over 5,000 civilians and protesters (including armed militants) had been killed by the Syrian army, security agents and militia (Shabiha), while 1,100 people had been killed by "terrorist armed forces".[122]
On 10 January 2012, Assad gave a speech in which he maintained the uprising was engineered by foreign countries and proclaimed that "victory [was] near". He also said that the Arab League, by suspending Syria, revealed that it was no longer Arab. However, Assad also said the country would not "close doors" to an Arab-brokered solution if "national sovereignty" was respected. He also said a referendum on a new constitution could be held in March.[123]
Destroyed vehicle on a devastated Aleppo street, 6 October 2012
On 27 February 2012, Syria claimed that a proposal that a new constitution be drafted received 90% support during the relevant referendum. The referendum introduced a fourteen-year cumulative term limit for the president of Syria. The referendum was pronounced meaningless by foreign nations including the U.S. and Turkey; the EU announced fresh sanctions against key regime figures.[124] In July 2012, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced Western powers for what he said amounted to blackmail thus provoking a civil war in Syria.[125] On 15 July 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross declared Syria to be in a state of civil war,[126] as the nationwide death toll for all sides was reported to have neared 20,000.[127]
On 6 January 2013, Assad, in his first major speech since June, said that the conflict in his country was due to "enemies" outside of Syria who would "go to Hell" and that they would "be taught a lesson". However, he said that he was still open to a political solution saying that failed attempts at a solution "does not mean we are not interested in a political solution."
United Nations (UN).[65][66][67] According to Joshua Landis: "He's (Assad) going to say: 'I am the state, I am Syria, and if the West wants access to Syrians, they have to come through me.'"[66]
After the fall of four military bases in September 2014,
Tabqa Airbase.[132] This was shortly followed by Alawite protests in Homs demanding the resignation of the governor,[133] and the dismissal of Assad's cousin Hafez Makhlouf from his security position leading to his subsequent exile to Belarus.[134] Growing resentment towards Assad among Alawites was fuelled by the disproportionate number of soldiers killed in fighting hailing from Alawite areas,[135] a sense that the Assad regime has abandoned them,[136] as well as the failing economic situation.[137] Figures close to Assad began voicing concerns regarding the likelihood of its survival, with one saying in late 2014; "I don't see the current situation as sustainable ... I think Damascus will collapse at some point."[130]
A poster of Bashar al-Assad at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus
In 2015, several members of the Assad family died in Latakia under unclear circumstances.[138] On 14 March, an influential cousin of Assad and founder of the shabiha, Mohammed Toufic al-Assad, was assassinated with five bullets to the head in a dispute over influence in Qardaha—the ancestral home of the Assad family.[139] In April 2015, Assad ordered the arrest of his cousin Munther al-Assad in Alzirah, Latakia.[140] It remains unclear whether the arrest was due to actual crimes.[141]
After a string of government defeats in northern and southern Syria, analysts noted growing government instability coupled with continued waning support for the Assad government among its core Alawite base of support,[142] and that there were increasing reports of Assad relatives, Alawites, and businessmen fleeing Damascus for Latakia and foreign countries.[143][144] Intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk was placed under house arrest sometime in April and stood accused of plotting with Assad's exiled uncle Rifaat al-Assad to replace Bashar as president.[145] Further high-profile deaths included the commanders of the Fourth Armoured Division, the Belli military airbase, the army's special forces and of the First Armoured Division, with an errant air strike during the Palmyra offensive killing two officers who were reportedly related to Assad.[146]
Assad greeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, 21 October 2015Bashar al-Assad meets with Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, 25 February 2019Assad with Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu, 9 September 2017
On 4 September 2015, when prospects of Assad's survival looked bleak, Russian President
direct military intervention by Russia on 30 September 2015 at the formal request of the Syrian government, Putin stated the military operation had been thoroughly prepared in advance and defined Russia's goal in Syria as "stabilising the legitimate power in Syria and creating the conditions for political compromise".[150] Putin's intervention saved Assad regime at a time when it was on the verge of a looming collapse. It also enabled Moscow to achieve its key geo-strategic objectives such as total control of Syrian airspace, naval bases that granted permanent martial reach across the Eastern Mediterranean and easier access to intervene in Libya.[149]
In November 2015, Assad reiterated that a diplomatic process to bring the country's civil war to an end could not begin while it was occupied by "terrorists", although it was considered by
Česká televize on 1 December, he said that the leaders who demanded his resignation were of no interest to him, as nobody takes them seriously because they are "shallow" and controlled by the U.S.[153][154] At the end of December 2015, senior U.S. officials privately admitted that Russia had achieved its central goal of stabilising Syria and, with the expenses relatively low, could sustain the operation at this level for years to come.[155]
In December 2015, Putin stated that Russia was supporting Assad's forces and was ready to back anti-Assad rebels in a joint fight against IS.[156]
Bashar al-Assad meets with Iran's representative on Syrian affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, 6 May 2016
On 22 January 2016, the
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, had shortly before his sudden death on 3 January 2016 been sent to Damascus with a message from Vladimir Putin asking that President Assad step aside.[157] The Financial Times' report was denied by Putin's spokesman.[158]
It was reported in December 2016 that Assad's forces had retaken half of rebel-held Aleppo, ending a 6-year stalemate in the city.[159][160] On 15 December, as it was reported government forces were on the brink of retaking all of Aleppo—a "turning point" in the civil war, Assad celebrated the "liberation" of the city, and stated, "History is being written by every Syrian citizen."[161]
After the election of
2017 Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.[163] Following the missile strikes on a Syrian airbase on the orders of President Trump, Assad's spokesperson described the U.S.' behaviour as "unjust and arrogant aggression" and stated that the missile strikes "do not change the deep policies" of the Syrian government.[164] President Assad also told the Agence France-Presse that Syria's military had given up all its chemical weapons in 2013, and would not have used them if they still retained any, and stated that the chemical attack was a "100 percent fabrication" used to justify a U.S. airstrike.[165] In June 2017, Russian President Putin said "Assad didn't use the [chemical weapons]" and that the chemical attack was "done by people who wanted to blame him for that."[166] UN and international chemical weapons inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found the attack was the work of the Assad regime.[167]
On 7 November 2017, the Syrian government announced that it had signed the
In the 2021 presidential elections held on 26 May, Assad secured his fourth 7-year tenure; by winning 95.2% of the eligible votes. The elections were boycotted by the opposition and SDF; while the refugees and internally displaced citizens were disqualified to vote; enabling only 38% of Syrians to participate in the process. Independent international observers as well as representatives of Western countries described the elections as a farce. United Nations condemned the elections for directly violating Resolution 2254; and announced that it has "no mandate".[173][174][175][176][177]
On 10 August 2021, the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and was one of the five countries that opposed the UN General Assembly resolution denouncing the invasion, which called upon Russia to pull back its troops. Three days prior to the invasion, Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad was dispatched to Moscow to affirm Syria's recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk separatist republics. A day after the invasion, Bashar al-Assad praised the invasion as "a correction of history and a restoration of balance in the global order after the fall of the Soviet Union" in a phone call with Vladimir Putin.[179][180][181] Syria became the first country after Russia to officially recognize the "independence and sovereignty" of the two breakaway regions in June 2022.[182][183][184]
Assad with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Damascus, 3 May 2023
On the 12th anniversary of beginning of the protests of
military presence in Syria by establishing new bases and deploying more boots on the ground, making its military role permanent.[k]
Assad family, who established control over Syria's public sectors based on kinship and nepotism. The pervasive nature of corruption had been a source of controversy within the Ba'ath party circles and the wider public; as early as the 1980s.[197]
Bashar al-Assad's economic liberalization programme during the 2000s became a symbol of corruption and nepotism, as the beneficiaries of the scheme were Alawite loyalists who seized much of the privatized sectors and business assets. This alienated the government from the vast majority of the Syrian public, particularly rural Syrians and urban working classes, who widely loathed the ensuing economic disparities, which became overtly visible.[22][71] Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf was the regime's most favored oligarch during this period, marked by the institutionalization of corruption, handicapping of small businesses and casting down private entrepreneurship.[198] The persistence of corruption, sectarian bias towards Alawites, nepotism and widespread bribery that existed in party, bureaucracy and military led to popular anger that resulted in the eruption of the 2011 Syrian Revolution. The protests were the most fierce in working-class neighbourhoods, which had long bore the brunt of the regime's exploitation policies that privileged its own loyalists.[199][200]
Three years into a conflict that is estimated to have killed at least 140,000 people from both sides, much of the Syrian economy lies in ruins. As the violence has expanded and sanctions have been imposed, assets and infrastructure have been destroyed, economic output has fallen, and investors have fled the country. Unemployment now exceeds 50 percent and half of the population lives below the poverty line ... against this backdrop, a war economy is emerging that is creating significant new economic networks and business activities that feed off the violence, chaos, and lawlessness gripping the country. This war economy – to which Western sanctions have inadvertently contributed – is creating incentives for some Syrians to prolong the conflict and making it harder to end it.[207]
A UN commissioned report by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research states that two-thirds of the Syrian population now lives in "extreme poverty".[208] Unemployment stands at 50 percent.[209] In October 2014, a $50 million mall opened in Tartus which provoked criticism from government supporters and was seen as part of an Assad government policy of attempting to project a sense of normalcy throughout the civil war.[210] A government policy to give preference to families of slain soldiers for government jobs was cancelled after it caused an uproar[135] while rising accusations of corruption caused protests.[137] In December 2014, the EU banned sales of jet fuel to the Assad government, forcing the government to buy more expensive uninsured jet fuel shipments in the future.[211]
Taking advantage of the increased role of the state as a result of the civil war, Bashar and his wife Asma have begun annexing Syria's economic assets from their loyalists, seeking to displace the old business elites and monopolize their direct control of the economy.
captagon drug industry and seizing much of the spoils of war. The ruling couple currently owns vast swathes of Syria's shipping, real estate, telecommunications and banking sectors.[212][213] Significant changes have been happening to Syrian economy since the government's confiscation campaigns launched in 2019, which involved major economic assets being transferred to the Presidential couple to project their power and influence. Particularly noteworthy dynamic has been the rise of Asma al-Assad, who heads Syria's clandestine economic council and is thought to have become "a central funnel of economic power in Syria". Through her Syria Trust NGO, the backbone of her financial network, Asma vets the foreign aid coming to Syria; since the government authorizes UN organizations only if it works under state agencies.[214]
Corruption has been rising sporadically in recent years, with Syria being considered the most corrupt country in the
dictatorships of the 20th century. As Bashar inherited his father's mantle, he sought to implement "authoritarian upgrading" by purging the Old Guard and staffing party and military with loyalist Alawite officers, further entrenching the sectarianism within the system.[219][80] While officially the Ba'athist government adheres to a strict secularist doctrine, in practice it has implemented sectarian engineering policies in the society to suppress dissent and monopolize its absolute power.[220]
"During Hafez-al-Assad's reign, he resorted to emphasising the sectarian identities that the previous Ba'ath Party rejected; believing the only way to ensure stability was through building a trusted security force... Hafez pursued a strategy to “make the Alawite community a loyal monolith while keeping Syria's Sunni majority divided”. Yet Syria became a police state, enforcing stability through threat of brute force repression... Bashar had already followed in his father's footsteps, carefully manoeuvring his most loyal allies into the military-security apparatus, government ministries and the Ba’ath party."
The regime has attempted to portray itself to the outside world as "the protector of minorities" and instills the fear of the majority rule in the society to mobilize loyalists from minorities.
Sunnis.” Assad regime has unleashed sectarian violence through private Alawite militias like the Shabiha, particularly in Sunni areas. Alawite religious iconography and communal sentiments are common themes used by Alawite warrior-shaykhs who lead the Alawite militias; as justification to commit massacres, abductions and torture in opposition strongholds.[223] Various development policies adopted by the regime had followed a sectarian pattern. An urbanization scheme implemented by the government in the city of Homs led to expulsions of thousands of Sunni residents during the 2000s, while Alawite majority areas were left intact.[224]
Even as
Iranian intervention in the Syrian civil war, which witnessed numerous Khomeinist militant groups sponsored by Iran fight in the side of the Assad government.[225][221]
Ba'athist government has been ruling Syria as a totalitarian state, policing every aspect of Syrian society for decades. Commanders of government's security forces – consisting of
emergency rule; marked by arbitrary arrests, censorship and discrimination against Syrian Kurds.[226][227]Billboard with a portrait of Bashar al-Assad and the text 'Syria is protected by God' on the old city wall of Damascus
in 2006
Throughout the 2000s, the dreaded
arbitrary detentions and torture of civilians. Numerous show trials were conducted against dissidents, filling Syrian prisons with journalists and human rights activists. Members of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate had long enjoyed broad privileges to carry out extrajudicial actions and they have immunity from criminal offences. In 2008, Assad extended this immunity to other departments of security forces.[227] Human Rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have detailed how the Assad government's secret police tortured, imprisoned, and killed political opponents, and those who speak out against the government.[228][229] In addition, some 600 Lebanese political prisoners are thought to be held in government prisons since the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, with some held for as long as over 30 years.[230] Since 2006, the Assad government has expanded the use of travel bans against political dissidents.[231] In an interview with ABC News in 2007, Assad stated: "We don't have such [things as] political prisoners," though The New York Times reported the arrest of 30 Syrian political dissidents who were organising a joint opposition front in December 2007, with 3 members of this group considered to be opposition leaders being remanded in custody.[232]
The government also denied permission for human rights organizations and independent NGOs to work in the country.[227] In 2010, Syria banned face veils at universities.[233][234] Following the protests of Syrian Revolution in 2011, Assad partially relaxed the veil ban.[235]
Demonstration in Montreal in solidarity with the people of Syria. The sign reads: "Stop torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners in Syria!"
Foreign Affairs journal released an editorial on the Syrian situation in the wake of the 2011 protests:[236]
During its decades of rule... the
journalists, civil defense volunteers and those accused of treason and terror charges, as part of a campaign of deadly crackdown ordered by Assad.[237] In June 2023, UN General Assembly voted in favour of establishing an independent body to investigate the whereabouts of hundreds of thousands of missing civilians who have been forcibly disappeared, killed or languishing in Assad regime's dungeons and torture chambers. The vote was condemned by Russia, North Korea and Iran.[238][239][240]
Assad regime virtually banning all Kurdish cultural gatherings and political activism under the charges of “inciting strife” or “weakening national sentiment.” During 2005–2010, Human Rights Watch verified security crackdowns on at least 14 Kurdish political and cultural gatherings.[227][226] In March 2008, Syrian military opened fire at a Kurdish gathering in Qamishli that marked Nowruz, killing three and injuring five civilians.[246]
On 22 September 2001, Assad decreed a Press Law that tightened government control over all literature printed or published in Syria; ranging from newspapers to books, pamphlets and periodicals. Publishers, writers, editors, distributors, journalists and other individuals accused of violating the Press Law are imprisoned or fined. Censorship has also been expanded into the cyberspace, and various websites are banned. Numerous bloggers and content creators have been arrested under various "national security" charges.[227]
A 2007 law requires
internet cafés to record all the comments users post on chat forums.[247] Another decree in 2008 obligated internet cafes to keep records of their customers and notify them routinely to the police.[248] Websites such as Arabic Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook were blocked intermittently between 2008 and February 2011.[249][250][251]Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked Syria as the third dangerous country to be an online blogger in 2009. Individuals are arrested based on a wide variety of accusations; ranging from undermining "national unity" to posting or sharing "false" content.[227][248]
Syria was ranked as the third most censored country in CPJ's 2012 report. Apart from restrictions for international journalists that prohibit their entry, domestic press is controlled by state agencies that promote
Assad government has shut down internet coverage, mobile networks as well as telephone lines in areas under its control to prevent any news that has its attempts to monopolize information related to Syria.[252]
Crackdowns, ethnic cleansing, and forced disappearances
Further information:
Syrian refugee crisis
The
crackdown ordered by Bashar al-Assad against Syrian protestors was the most ruthless of all military clampdowns in the entire Arab Spring. As violence deteriorated and death toll mounted to the thousands; the European Union, Arab League and United States began imposing wide range of sanctions against Assad regime. By December 2011, United Nations had declared the situation in Syria to be a "civil war".[253] By this point, all the protestors and armed resistance groups had viewed the unconditional resignation of Bashar al-Assad as part of their core demands. In July 2012, Arab League held an emergency session demanding the "swift resignation" of Assad and promised "safe exit" if he accepted the offer.[254][255] Assad rebuffed the offers, instead seeking foreign military support from Iran and Russia to defend his embattled regime through scorched-earth tactics, massacres, sieges, forced starvations, ethnic cleansing, etc.[256]
The crackdowns and extermination campaigns of Assad regime resulted in the
Syrian refugee crisis; causing the forced displacement of 14 million Syrians, with around 7.2 million refugees.[257] This has made the Syrian refugee crisis the largest refugee crisis in the world; and UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi has described it as "the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time and a continuing cause for suffering."[257][258]
Ethnic cleansing
Wounded civilians getting rushed to a hospital in Aleppo
Eva Koulouriotis has described Bashar al-Assad as the "master of ethnic cleansing in the 21st century".[259] During the course of the civil war, Assad ordered depopulation campaigns throughout the country to re-shape its demography in favour of his regime, and the military tactics have been compared to the persecutions of the Bosnian war. Between 2011 and 2015, Ba'athist militias are reported to have committed 49 ethno-sectarian massacres for the purpose of implementing its social engineering agenda in the country. Alawite loyalist militias known as the Shabiha have been launched into Sunni villages and towns; perpetrating numerous anti-Sunni massacres. These include the Houla, Bayda and Baniyas massacres, Al-Qubeir massacre, Al-Hasawiya massacre, etc. which have resulted in hundreds of deaths; with hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing under threats of regime persecution and sexual violence. Pogroms and deportations were pronounced in central Syrian regions and Alawite majority coastal areas, where the Syrian military and Hezbollah view as a priority to establish strategic control by expelling Sunni residents and bringing in Iran-backed Shia militants.[260][261][259][262] In 2016, UN officials criticized Bashar al-Assad for pursuing demographic engineering and ethnic cleansing in Darayya district in Damascus, under the guise of de-escalation deals.[263]
Syrian government forces have pursued mass-killings of civilian populations as part of its war-strategy throughout the conflict; and is responsible for inflicting more than 90% of the
"The nature and extent of Assad's violence is strategic in design and effect. He is pursuing a
Sunni middle class and underclass is highly unlikely and certainly not worth the resources and political capital. Better to level half the country than to give it over to the opposition
Numerous politicians, dissidents, authors and journalists have nicknamed Assad as the "butcher" of Syria for his war-crimes,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated in December 2013 that UN investigations directly implicated Bashar al-Assad guilty of crimes against humanity and pursuing an extermination strategy developed "at the highest level of government, including the head of state."[272]
U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, stated in 2014 that the crimes committed by Assad are the worst seen since those of Nazi Germany.[273] In March 2015, Rapp further stated that the case against Assad is "much better" than those against Slobodan Milošević of Serbia or Charles Taylor of Liberia, both of whom were indicted by international tribunals.[274] Charles Lister, Director of the Countering Terror and Extremism Program at Middle East Institute, describes Bashar al-Assad as "21st century's biggest war criminal".[177]
neo-Ba'athist regime since the era of Hafiz al-Assad; wherein protests were violently suppressed and demonstrators were shot and fired at directly by the armed forces. However, unlike Hafiz; Bashar had even less loyalty and was politically fragile, exacerbated by alienation of the majority of the population. As a result, Bashar chose to crack down on dissent far more comprehensively and harshly than his father; and a mere allegation of collaboration was reason enough to get assassinated.[278]
"The Father had a mind and the Son has a loss of reason. How could the army use its force and the security appartus with all its might to destroy Syria because of a protest against the mistakes of one of your security officials. The father would act differently. Father Hafiz hit Hama after he encircled it, warned and then hit Hama after a long siege... But his son is different. On the subject of Daraa, Bashar gave instructions to open fire on the demonstrators."[281]
Human rights organizations and criminal investigators have documented Assad's war crimes and sent it to the International Criminal Court for indictment.[282] Since Syria is not a party to the Rome Statute, International Criminal Court requires authorization from the UN Security Council to send Bashar al-Assad to tribunal. As this gets consistently vetoed by Assad's primary backer Russia, ICC prosecutions have not transpired. On the other hand, courts in various European countries have begun prosecuting and convicting senior Ba'ath party members, Syrian military commanders and Mukhabarat officials charged with war crimes.[283] In September 2015, France began an inquiry into Assad for crimes against humanity, with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius stating "Faced with these crimes that offend the human conscience, this bureaucracy of horror, faced with this denial of the values of humanity, it is our responsibility to act against the impunity of the killers".[284]
In February 2016, head of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Pinheiro, told reporters: "The mass scale of deaths of detainees suggests that the government of Syria is responsible for acts that amount to extermination as a crime against humanity." The UN Commission reported finding "unimaginable abuses", including women and children as young as seven perishing while being held by Syrian authorities. The report also stated: "There are reasonable grounds to believe that high-ranking officers—including the heads of branches and directorates—commanding these detention facilities, those in charge of the military police, as well as their civilian superiors, knew of the vast number of deaths occurring in detention facilities ... yet did not take action to prevent abuse, investigate allegations or prosecute those responsible".[285]
In March 2016, the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs led by New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith called on the Obama administration to create a war crimes tribunal to investigate and prosecute violations "whether committed by the officials of the Government of Syria or other parties to the civil war".[286]
In June 2018, Germany's chief prosecutor issued an international arrest warrant for one of Assad's most senior military officials, Jamil Hassan.[287] Hassan is the head of Syria's powerful Air Force Intelligence Directorate. Detention centers run by Air Force Intelligence are among the most notorious in Syria, and thousands are believed to have died because of torture or neglect. Charges filed against Hassan claim he had command responsibility over the facilities and therefore knew of the abuse. The move against Hassan marked an important milestone of prosecutors trying to bring senior members of Assad's inner circle to trial for war crimes.
GPPi research institute documented 336 confirmed attacks involving chemical weapons in Syria between 23 December 2012 and 18 January 2019. The study attributed 98% of the total verified chemical attacks to the Assad's regime. Almost 90% of the attacks had occurred after the Ghouta chemical attack in August 2013.[291][292]
Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention and OPCW member state in October 2013, and there are currently three OPCW missions with UN mandates to investigate chemical weapons issues in Syria. These are the Declaration Assessment Team (DAT) to verify Syrian declarations of CW Programme; OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) tasked to identify the chemical attacks and type of weapons used; and the Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) which investigates the perpetrators of the chemical attacks. The conclusions are submitted to the United Nations bodies.[293]
In April 2021, Syria was suspended from OPCW through the public vote of member states, for not co-operating with the body's Investigation Identification Team (IIT) and violating the
The deadliest chemical attack have been the Ghouta chemical attacks, when Assad government forces launched the nerve agentsarin into civilian areas during its brutal Siege of Eastern Ghouta in early hours of 21 August 2013. Thousands of infected and dying victims flooded the nearby hospitals, showing symptoms such as foaming, body convulsions and other neurotoxic symptoms. An estimated 1,100-1,500 civilians; including women and children, are estimated to have been killed in the attacks.[301][302][303] The attack was internationally condemned and represented the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran-Iraq war.[304][305] On 21 August 2022, United States government marked the ninth anniversary of Ghouta Chemical attacks stating: "United States remembers and honors the victims and survivors of the Ghouta attack and the many other chemical attacks we assess the Assad regime has launched. We condemn in the strongest possible terms any use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anyone, under any circumstances... The United States calls on the Assad regime to fully declare and destroy its chemical weapons program... and for the regime to allow the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ Declaration Assessment Team."[306]
regions of Southern Syria.[325][326][327] Druze cleric Hikmat al-Hajiri, religious leader of Syrian Druze community, has declared war against "Iranian invasion of the country".[328] Syrian Sufi scholar Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, a fervent opponent of both the Ba'athist regime and Islamic State group, has described Assad's rule as a "reign of terror" that wreaked havoc and enormous misery on the Syrian populace.[329]
Hafiz al-Assad
during the 1970s constitute the backbone of Bashar al-Assad's (centre) dictatorship
Central to the regime's support base is the
military and security apparatus,[337][338] in April 2016, BBC News reported that Alawite leaders released a document seeking to distance themselves from Assad.[339]
sham election organized to legitimise Assad's rule.[348][349][350] In his inauguration ceremony, Bashar denounced the opposition as "terrorists" and "traitors"; while attacking the West for backing what he described as the "fake Arab spring".[351]
secret police in the society.[352] Ba'athist dissident Abdul Halim Khaddam who had served as Syrian Vice President during the tenures of both Hafiz and Bashar, disparaged Bashar al-Assad as a pawn in Iran's imperial scheme. Contrasting the power dynamics that existed under both the autocrats, Khaddam stated:
"[Bashar] is not like his father.. He never allowed the Iranians to intervene in Syrian affairs.. During Hafez Assad's time, an Iranian delegation arrived in Syria and attempted to convert some of the Muslim Alawite Syrians to Shia Islam... Assad ordered his minister of foreign Affairs to summon the Iranian ambassador to deliver an ultimatum: The delegation has 24 hours to exit Syria.... They had no power [during Hafez's rule], unlike Bashar who gave them [Iranians] power and control."[353][354]
International opposition
Anti-Assad demonstrations held in Paris, 14 December 2016
Foreign journalists and political observers who travelled to
sanctions against Syria.[370][371] In March 2023, National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine put into effect a range of sanctions targeting 141 firms and 300 individuals linked to Assad regime, Russian weapons manufacturers and Iranian dronemakers. This was days after Assad's visit to Moscow, wherein he justified Russian invasion of Ukraine as a fight against "old and new Nazis". Bashar al-Assad, Prime Minister Hussein Arnous and Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad were amongst the individuals who were sanctioned.[n] Sanctions also involved freezing of all Syrian state properties in Ukraine, curtailment of monetary transactions, termination of economic commitments and recision of all official Ukrainian awards.[375] Syria formally broke its diplomatic ties to Ukraine on July 20, citing the principle of reciprocity.[377]
Anti-Assad demonstrations in Berlin, 18 March 2023
In April 2023, a French court declared three high-ranking Ba'athist security officials guilty of
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna publicly demanded the prosecution of Bashar al-Assad for engaging in chemical warfare and killing hundreds of thousands of people; branding him as "the enemy of his own people".[381][382] On 15 November 2023, France issued an arrest warrant against Assad for use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria.[14]
Bashar al-Assad is widely criticised by left-wing activists and intellectuals world-wide for appropriating leftist ideologies and its
socialist, progressive slogans as a cover for his own family rule and to empower a loyalist clique of elites at the expense of ordinary Syrians. His close alliance with clergy-ruled KhomeinistIran and its sectarian militant networks; while simultaneously pursuing a policy of locking up left-wing critics of Assad family has been subject to heavy criticism.[383]
Assad gang". It has attacked Assad family's Ba'athist credentials, accusing the Syrian Ba'ath party of acting as the borderguards of Israel ever since its overthrowal of the Ba'athist National Command during the 1966 coup d'état. Describing Bashar al-Assad as a disgraceful person for inviting hostile powers like Iran to Syria, Egyptian Ba'athists have urged the Syrian revolutionaries to unite in their efforts to overthrow the Assad regime and resist foreign imperialism.[384]
Describing Assad's regime as a
Assad government as a "killing machine" engaged in slaughtering Syrian people. PSP leader Ayman Kamaleddine demanded the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador from Lebanon, describing him as "the representative of the murderer regime in Lebanon".[14][15]
International support
Far-right support
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko alongside Bashar al-Assad during a state-visit to Syria in December 2003
Bashar al-Assad's regime has received support from prominent
Nick Griffin, the former leader of the British National Party (BNP), was formerly an official ambassador and guest of the Syrian government;[387] due to public controversy, the Assad government publicly disassociated itself from him after his trip to Syria in 2014.[388] After the 2014 Syrian presidential elections, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko sent a cable of congratulations to Bashar, expressing his "confidence" in the "leadership" of Bashar al-Assad, and depicted the Ba'athist government's military campaign as part of "the fight against terrorism and foreign interference".[389]
Left-wing
Left-wing support for Assad has been split since the start of the Syrian civil war;
In order to promote their image and media-portrayal overseas, Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad hired U.S. and UK based PR firms and consultants.[403] In particular, these secured photoshoots for Asma al-Assad with fashion and celebrity magazines, including Vogue's March 2011 "A Rose in the Desert".[404][405] These firms included Bell Pottinger and Brown Lloyd James, with the latter being paid $5,000 a month for their services.[403][406]
At the outset of the Syrian civil war, Syrian government networks were hacked by the group
Anonymous, revealing that an ex-Al Jazeera journalist had been hired to advise Assad on how to manipulate the public opinion of the U.S. Among the advice was the suggestion to compare the popular uprising against the regime to the Occupy Wall Street protests.[407] In a separate e-mail leak several months later by the Supreme Council of the Syrian Revolution, which were published by The Guardian, it was revealed that Assad's consultants had coordinated with an Iranian government media advisor.[408] In March 2015, an expanded version of the aforementioned leaks was handed to the Lebanese NOW News website and published the following month.[409]
After the Syrian civil war began, the Assads started a
The Atlantic Wire as "a propaganda campaign that ultimately has made the [Assad] family look worse".[411] The Assad government has also allegedly arrested activists for creating Facebook groups that the government disapproved of,[131] and has appealed directly to Twitter to remove accounts it disliked.[412] The social media campaign, as well as the previously leaked e-mails, led to comparisons with Hannah Arendt's A Report on the Banality of Evil by The Guardian, The New York Times and the Financial Times.[413][414][415]
Bashar al-Assad with his wife Asma in Moscow, 27 January 2005
In October 2014, 27,000 photographs depicting torture committed by the Assad government were put on display at the
In November 2014, the Quilliam Foundation reported that a propaganda campaign, which they claimed had the "full backing of Assad", spread false reports about the deaths of Western-born jihadists in order to deflect attention from the government's alleged war crimes. Using a picture of a Chechen fighter from the Second Chechen War, pro-Assad media reports disseminated to Western media outlets, leading them to publish a false story regarding the death of a non-existent British jihadist.[419]
In 2015, Russia intervened in the Syrian civil war in support of Assad, and on 21 October 2015, Assad flew to Moscow and met with Russian president Vladimir Putin, who said regarding the civil war: "this decision can be made only by the Syrian people. Syria is a friendly country. And we are ready to support it not only militarily but politically as well."[420]
Assad speaks fluent English and basic conversational French, having studied at the Franco-Arab al-Hurriyah school in Damascus.[421]
In December 2000, Assad married
Hafiz al-Assad. Bashar al-Assad's son Hafez graduated from Moscow State University in the summer of 2023 with a master's thesis in number theory.[424] Their daughter Zein was born in 2003, followed by their second son Karim in 2004.[24] In January 2013, Assad stated in an interview that his wife was pregnant;[425][426] however, there were no later reports of them having a fourth child.[citation needed
]
Bashar al-Assad is an Alawite Muslim.[427] Bashar performed the hajj pilgrimage twice in 1999 and in 2000.[428]
Highest rank in the Order of the Legion of Honor in the Republic of France. Returned by Assad on 20 April 2018[430] after the opening of a revocation process by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, on 16 April 2018.
^Sources describing Syria as a totalitarian state:
Khamis, B. Gold, Vaughn, Sahar, Paul, Katherine (2013). "22. Propaganda in Egypt and Syria's "Cyberwars": Contexts, Actors, Tools, and Tactics". In Auerbach, Castronovo, Jonathan, Russ (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 422.
Wieland, Carsten (2018). "6: De-neutralizing Aid: All Roads Lead to Damascus". Syria and the Neutrality Trap: The Dilemmas of Delivering Humanitarian Aid Through Violent Regimes. London: I. B. Tauris. p. 68.
Hensman, Rohini (2018). "7: The Syrian Uprising". Indefensible: Democracy, Counterrevolution, and the Rhetoric of Anti-Imperialism. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
^ abKing, Esther (2 November 2016). "Assad denies responsibility for Syrian war". Politico. Retrieved 21 December 2016. The Syrian president maintained he was fighting to preserve his country and criticized the West for intervening. "Good government or bad, it's not your mission" to change it, he said.
^writer(s) (6 October 2016). "'Bombing hospitals is a war crime,' Syria's Assad says". ITV News. Retrieved 21 December 2016. The intense bombardment of Aleppo during an army offensive that began two weeks ago has included several strikes on hospitals, residents and medical workers there have said. But Assad denied any knowledge of such attacks, saying that there were only "allegations".
^Norris, Pippa; Martinez i Coma, Ferran; Grömping, Max (2015). "The Year in Elections, 2014". Election Integrity Project. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2020. The Syrian election ranked as worst among all the contests held during 2014.
^Rudy Jaafar and Maria J. Stephan. (2009). "Lebanon's Independence Intifada: How an Unarmed Insurrection Expelled Syrian Forces", in Maria J. Stephan (ed.), Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169–85.
ISBN 978-0-415-52391-2. In the nearly 50-minute speech, President al-Assad gave his interpretation to the protests in Syria and other Arab countries, almost mocking the Arab Spring, invoking the outside regional and international conspirators and their inside 'agents' as the evil 'them'.. Resorting to conspiratorial attribution to explain the 'real' reasons behind the protests in Syria, al-Assad bestowed a pathological inevitability on the actions of political opposition, where the oppressive political system he heads turns into a noble victim, recipient of foreign illnesses.. [Assad speech]"Conspiracies are like germs: They procreate at every moment everywhere; they cannot be annihilated, but the immunity of the body can be strengthened against them.".. dissent loses its political meaning, or moral justification, acquiring 'othering' essence when the president places it in the dismissive context of the 'fitna'.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link
^Oweis, Khaled Yacoub (18 May 2011). "U.S. imposes sanctions on Syria's Assad". Reuters. Archived from the original on 18 May 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2015. The U.S. move, announced by the Treasury Department, freezes any of the Syrian officials' assets that are in the United States or otherwise fall within U.S. jurisdiction and generally bars U.S. individuals and companies from dealing with them.
^"Syrian Live Blog". Listening Post. Al Jazeera. 6 January 2012. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
^ ab"Bashar Assad may be weaker than he thinks". The Economist. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014. In Latakia and Tartus, two coastal cities near the Alawite heartland, posters of missing soldiers adorn the walls. When IS took over four government bases in the east of the country this summer, slaughtering dozens of soldiers and displaying some of their heads on spikes in Raqqa, IS's stronghold, families started to lose faith in the government. A visitor to the region reports hearing one man complain: "We're running out of sons to give them."
^Flores, Reena (2 May 2015). "Flash Points: Is Syria's Assad losing power?". CBS News. Retrieved 3 May 2015. "a lot of suspicion within the regime itself about who's doing what and if folks are leaving." [...] "These are signs that I think demonstrate a bit of weakness and instability in the regime that you haven't seen in recent months," he said. He cites the waning support from the nation's minority Alawite community as one of these important shifts.
^Harel, Amos; Cohen, Gili; Khoury, Jack (6 May 2015). "Syrian rebel victories stretch Assad's forces". Haaretz. Retrieved 6 May 2015. There have also been increasing reports of Assad relatives, businessmen and high-ranking members of the Alawite community fleeing Damascus for the coastal city of Latakia, or other countries, after transferring large sums of money to banks in Lebanon, eastern Europe and the United Arab Emirates.
^Karkouti, Mustapha (9 May 2015). "Time to reconsider 'Life after Al Assad'". Gulf News. Retrieved 10 May 2015. [The] reality on the ground can't be more clear as the population in the regime-controlled parts of Syria are preparing for life after the Al Assad dynasty. According to information received by this author, many businessmen and financiers who flourished under the regime have successfully moved huge amounts of money and capital to neighbouring Lebanon. Some of these funds are now known to have been secretly deposited in Europe.
^Sherlock, Ruth; Malouf, Carol (11 May 2015). "Bashar al-Assad's spy chief arrested over Syria coup plot". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2015. Mamlouk had also used a businessman from Aleppo as an intermediary to contact Rifaat al-Assad, Bashar's uncle, who has lived abroad exile since he was accused of seeking to mount a coup in Syria in the 1980s.
ISBN 978-977-85412-3-6. Because he lacks his father's leadership skills... Bashar may settle for consensus among his junta of Alawi officers... When Bashar assumed office he attempted to consolidate power through "authoritarian upgrading".. However, the conservative military establishment and senior members of the regime were not favorable to Bashar's reforms, which forced Bashar to retire such senior personnel in order to further consolidate his power. But Bashar struggled to appoint new and loyal staff, his Ba'athist regime became increasingly like a sectarian family clan{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
)
^"Flight of Icarus? The PYD's Precarious Rise in Syria"(PDF). International Crisis Group. 8 May 2014. p. 23. Archived from the original(PDF) on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2014. The regime aims to compel people to take refuge in their sectarian and communitarian identities; to split each community into competing branches, dividing those who support it from those who oppose it
^Meuse, Alison (18 April 2015). "Syria's Minorities: Caught Between Sword Of ISIS And Wrath of Assad". NPR. Retrieved 19 April 2015. Karim Bitar, a Middle East analyst at Paris think tank IRIS [...] says [...] "Minorities are often used as a shield by authoritarian regimes, who try to portray themselves as protectors and as a bulwark"
^"Flight of Icarus? The PYD's Precarious Rise in Syria"(PDF). International Crisis Group. 8 May 2014. p. 23. Archived from the original(PDF) on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2014. The regime aims to compel people to take refuge in their sectarian and communitarian identities; to split each community into competing branches, dividing those who support it from those who oppose it
^Bronstein, Scott; Griffin, Drew (26 September 2014). "Syrian rebel groups unite to fight ISIS". CNN. Retrieved 1 October 2014. Under the agreement, moderate Muslim rebel groups fighting under the Supreme Military Council of Syria agreed to form an alliance with the predominantly Christian Syriac Military Council.
^Norris, Pippa; Martinez i Coma, Ferran; Grömping, Max (2015). "The Year in Elections, 2014". Election Integrity Project. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2020. The Syrian election ranked as worst among all the contests held during 2014.
^Booth, Robert; Mahmood, Mona; Harding, Luke (14 March 2013). "Exclusive: secret Assad emails lift lid on life of leader's inner circle". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2015. Before a speech in December his media consultant prepared a long list of themes, reporting that the advice was based on "consultations with a good number of people in addition to the media and political adviser for the Iranian ambassador".
Mammone, Andrea; Godin, Emmanuel; Jenkins, Brian, eds. (2012). Mapping the Extreme Right in Contemporary Europe: From Local to Transnational. New York: Routledge.
Belhadj, Souhaïl (2013). La Syrie de Bashar Al-Asad : Anatomie d'un régime autoritaire [Bashar's Syria: Anatomy of an Authoritarian Regime] (in French). Belin.
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