Bashar al-Assad facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bashar al-Assad
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بَشَّارُ الْأَسَد
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Assad in 2018
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| 19th President of Syria | |
| Assumed office 17 July 2000 |
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| Prime Minister | Muhammad Mustafa Mero Muhammad Naji al-Otari Adel Safar Riyad Farid Hijab Omar Ibrahim Ghalawanji Wael Nader al-Halqi Imad Khamis Hussein Arnous |
| Vice President | Abdul Halim Khaddam Zuhair Masharqa Farouk al-Sharaa Najah al-Attar |
| Preceded by | Hafez al-Assad Abdul Halim Khaddam (acting) |
| General Secretary of the National Council of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party | |
| Assumed office 18 May 2017 |
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| Deputy | Abdullah al-Ahmar Hilal Hilal Ibrahim al-Hadid |
| Preceded by | Hafez al-Assad |
| General Secretary of the Central Command of the Syrian Regional Branch | |
| Assumed office 24 June 2000 |
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| Deputy | Sulayman Qaddah Mohammed Saeed Bekheitan Hilal Hilal Ibrahim al-Hadid |
| Preceded by | Hafez al-Assad |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 September 1965 Damascus, Syria |
| Political party | Syrian Ba'ath Party |
| Other political affiliations |
National Progressive Front |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | al-Assad family |
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| Parents |
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| Alma mater | Damascus University |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Syria |
| Branch/service | Syrian Armed Forces |
| Years of service | 1988–present |
| Rank | Field marshal |
| Unit | Republican Guard (until 2000) |
| Commands | Syrian Armed Forces |
| Battles/wars | Syrian civil war |
Bashar Hafez al-Assad (Arabic: بَشَّارُ ٱلْأَسَدِ, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the Secretary-General of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.
His father and predecessor was General Hafez al-Assad, whose presidency between 1971 to 2000; marked the transfiguration of Syria from a republican state into a dynastic military dictatorship.
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Early life, family and education
Bashar Hafez al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, the second son and third child of Anisa Makhlouf and Hafez al-Assad. Al-Assad in Arabic means "the Lion". Assad's paternal grandfather, 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.
Assad's father, Hafez, was born to an impoverished rural family of Alawite background and rose through the Ba'ath Party ranks to take control of the Syrian branch of the Party in the 1970 Corrective Revolution, culminating in his rise to the Syrian presidency. Hafez promoted his supporters within the Ba'ath Party, many of whom were also of Alawite background. After the revolution, Alawite strongmen were installed while Sunnis, Druze, and Ismailis were removed from the army and Ba'ath party.
The younger Assad had five siblings, three of whom are deceased. A sister named Bushra died in infancy. Assad's youngest brother, Majd, was not a public figure and little is known about him other than he was intellectually disabled, and died in 2009 after a "long illness".
Unlike his brothers Bassel and Maher, and second sister, also named Bushra, Bashar was quiet, reserved and lacked interest in politics or the military. The Assad children reportedly rarely saw their father, and Bashar later stated that he only entered his father's office once while he was president. He was described as "soft-spoken", and according to a university friend, he was timid, avoided eye contact and spoke in a low voice.
Assad received his primary and secondary education in the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus. In 1982, he graduated from high school and then studied medicine at Damascus University.
Medical career and rise to power
In 1988, Assad graduated from medical school and began working as an army doctor at the Tishrin Military Hospital on the outskirts of Damascus. Four years later, he settled in London to start postgraduate training in ophthalmology at the Western Eye Hospital. He was described as a "geeky I.T. guy" during his time in London. Bashar had few political aspirations, and his father had been grooming Bashar's older brother Bassel as the future president. However, he died in a car accident in 1994 and Bashar was recalled to the Syrian Army shortly thereafter. State propoganda soon began elevating Bashar's public imagery as "the hope of the masses" to prepare him as the next patriarch in charge of Syria, to continue the rule of Assad dynasty.
Soon after the death of Bassel, Hafez al-Assad decided to make Bashar the new heir apparent. Over the next six and a half years, until his death in 2000, Hafez prepared Bashar for taking over power. General Bahjat Suleiman, an officer in the Defense Companies, was entrusted with overseeing preparations for a smooth transition, 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.
To establish his credentials in the military, Bashar entered the military academy at Homs in 1994 and was propelled through the ranks to become a colonel of the elite Syrian Republican Guard in January 1999. 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.
In 1998, Bashar took charge of Syria's Lebanon file, which had since the 1970s been handled by Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, who had until then been a potential contender for president. By taking charge of Syrian affairs in Lebanon, Bashar was able to push Khaddam aside and establish his own power base in Lebanon. In the same year, after minor consultation with Lebanese politicians, Bashar installed Emile Lahoud, a loyal ally of his, as the President of Lebanon and pushed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri aside, by not placing his political weight behind his nomination as prime minister. To further weaken the old Syrian order in Lebanon, Bashar replaced the long-serving de facto Syrian High Commissioner of Lebanon, Ghazi Kanaan, with Rustum Ghazaleh.
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. 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.
Presidency
On 17 July 2000, Assad became president, succeeding his father, who died in office on 10 June 2000. In the 2000 and 2007 elections, he received 97.29% and 97.6% support, respectively. On 16 July 2014, Assad was sworn in for another seven-year term after another election gave him 88.7% of the vote. The election was held only in areas controlled by the Syrian government during the country's ongoing civil war and was criticised by the United Nations (UN). Assad was re-elected in 2021 with over 95% of the vote in national election. Throughout his leadership, human rights groups have characterized Syria's human rights situation as poor. The Assad government describes itself as secular, while various political scientists write that his regime exploits sectarian tensions in the country.
Initially lauded by the Western press as a potential reformer, Bashar al-Assad's economic liberalisation programme worsened inequalities, alienating the Syrian rural population and urban working classes. Since he lacked the respect commanded by his father, many members of the Old Guard resigned or were purged. The United States (U.S.), the European Union (EU), and the majority of the Arab League called for Assad's resignation from the presidency in 2011 after he ordered a violent crackdown on Arab Spring protesters, which led to the Syrian civil war. In December 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated that findings from an inquiry by the UN implicated Assad in war crimes. Assad has rejected allegations of war crimes and criticised the American-led intervention in Syria for attempting regime change. On 15 November 2023, France issued an arrest warrant against Assad over the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians in Syria.
Personal life
Assad speaks fluent English and basic conversational French, having studied at the Franco-Arab al-Hurriyah school in Damascus.
In December 2000, Assad married Asma Akhras, a British citizen of Syrian origin from Acton, London. In 2001, Asma gave birth to their first child, a son named Hafez after the child's grandfather Hafez al-Assad. Their daughter Zein was born in 2003, followed by their second son Karim in 2004. In January 2013, Assad stated in an interview that his wife was pregnant; however, there were no later reports of them having a fourth child.
Bashar is an Alawite Muslim.
Assad's sister, Bushra al-Assad, and mother, Anisa Makhlouf, left Syria in 2012 and 2013, respectively, to live in the United Arab Emirates. Makhlouf died in Damascus in 2016.
On 8 March 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Assad and his wife both tested positive for COVID-19 according to the presidential office. They were reported to be in good health with "minor symptoms". On 30 March, it was announced that both had recovered and tested negative for the disease.
Images for kids
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Bassel al-Assad, Bashar's older brother, died in 1994, paving the way for Bashar's future presidency.
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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.
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Protesters take to the streets during Lebanon's "Independence Intifada", also known as the Cedar Revolution
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Anti-Assad demonstrations in Douma, 8 April 2011
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Destroyed vehicle on a devastated Aleppo street, 6 October 2012
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A poster of Bashar al-Assad at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus
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Assad greeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, 21 October 2015
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Assad with Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu, 9 September 2017
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Bashar al-Assad meets with Iran's representative on Syrian affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, 6 May 2016
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Assad with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Damascus, 3 May 2023
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Syrian opposition at its greatest extent, March 2013
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Military-Ba'ath party nexus constructed by Hafiz al-Assad during the 1970s constitute the backbone of Bashar al-Assad's (centre) dictatorship
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Military situation, September 2021
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Anti-Assad demonstrations in Berlin, 18 March 2023
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Anti-Assad demonstrations held in Paris, 14 December 2016
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Bashar al-Assad with his wife Asma in Moscow, 27 January 2005
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See also
In Spanish: Bashar al-Ásad para niños
- List of international presidential trips made by Bashar al-Assad
- Presidency of Hafez al-Assad
