ARTICLES on this
PAGE: Hafez, Bashar, Rafaat
Hafez
al-Assad
Arabic: hafizu
l-'assad
(Qardaha, Syria 1930-
Damascus 2000) President
of
Syria
(1971-2000).
All through his rule,
he was the most valued
ally of the
Soviet Union in the Middle
East, but he
also became slightly more
pro-Western in his last
years in power. But even if he has been in
contact
with the main leaders of the West several times,
he
remained an outcast in their eyes.
The main reasons for
this were several: His
stalemate position
towards
Israel,
where he claimed that every inch
of occupied Syrian
land from 1967 should be returned to
Syria
(a
position that was
against historical records and even many Qu'ranic verses).
Second,
Syria's
presence in
Lebanon
(which outlived the
Israel control over
the southern parts of the country). Third,
repeated allegations
that
Syria
is strongly involved in international
terrorism fostered the
image of him as a problematic political
figure.
Fourth, because of
repeated reports of political oppression
inside
Syria.
Assad worked on making
Syria
into a leading nation in the Arab
world. In this effort
he never became very successful, and he is
more
remembered for a
negative relationship with the leader of
Iraq,
Saddam Hussayn and the
king of Jordan, King Hussein, as well as
his
support of radical and
often violent Muslim groups that are based
in
Lebanon
and
Syria.
STRONG
PERSONALITY
While accusations
against Assad have been manifold, few have
accused him of lack of
shrewdness, political cleverness,
intelligence
and charisma. He has
been one of the best informed, and hardest
working politicians in
the Middle East. He was famous for his
long
sessions and working
days 18 hours a day as well as
self-deprecating
humor. Henry Kissinger (who was the first
American
foreign minister to
visit
Syria
in 20 years, when he came in 1973)
noted:
His
tactic was to open with a statement of the most
extreme
position to test what the traffic would bear. He might
then
allow himself to be driven back to the attainable, fighting
a
dogged rear-guard action that made clear that
concessions
could be exacted only at a heavy price and that
discouraged
excessive expectations of them.
Assad was well-known
for a modest life style, without much
excess.
He lived in a normal
villa in a residential neighbourhood in
Damascus.
But around him, there were several people who got rich thanks
to
nepotism in the Syrian
society.
ALAWITE
BACKGROUND
Assad belonged to the
Alawites, a small Shi'i group, that through
the
centuries has not had
national political power. Among the main
group
of Syrians, the
Sunnis, many will say that the Alawites are
heretics.
This means that Assad lacked a backbone in the
Syrian
population, and his
survival as a political leader has rested on
control
and suppression of
contending groups. Assad early made sure
that
many of the important
positions in the Syrian society were filled
with
fellow Alawites. It is
also believed that this is one of the main
reasons
for Assad's continued
politics of state control over the economy:
A
liberalization would
have meant that other groups in the society
(Sunnis and
Christians) would have gained economical force,
and
through this, also
political force.
Assad built a political system, where the army was both a
symbol
of
Syria's
power, as well as a technique of controlling the country.
At
more than one
occasion, the army was used against
Syria's
own
population in order to
protect political stability.
Assad also saw to the construction of an effective police
state,
where there where no
less than 15 competing intelligence agencies.
ECONOMICAL
FAILURE
Internally, Assad's
politics have not resulted in much
economical
progress. The country
has had a system of strong political
control
with almost all
aspects of the economy, and many businessmen
have
found it hard to
establish companies and run them.
Syria
is in several fields the least developed country in
the
region. Only recently
have the country opened up for computer
technology,
telecommunications and there was until the end of
this
rule, minimal
possibilities for private initiative in the economical life
of
the country. The
society is dominated by agriculture, which
employs
25% of the workforce,
but this is only made possible through
heavy
state
subsidies.
The
Syria
that he died from, faced economical stagnation,
high
growth in population
(3,3% a year) and high unemployment rates
(20% or more). It is
also a country with several scenarios of
coming
conflicts and even
civil war, even if the transition of power to his
son
Bashar, turned out to
be tranquil.
BIOGRAPHY
1930 Ocotber 6: Born
in the small village of
Qardaha, as the ninth
of
what would be eleven
children, in a family of respected
Alawites.
1946: Assad joins the
Ba'th Party as a student activist.
1951: Assad starts at
the Homs
Military
Academy.
1955: Assad graduates
from the Homs
Military
Academy as an
air
force
pilot.
1958: Assad receives
flying training in the Soviet
Union.
1960: Assad is one of
4 founders of the Military Committee.
1963 March 8: After
the Ba'th Party takes power in
Syria,
with the
Military Committee as
a driving force, Assad becomes commander of
the air
force.
1966: Assad becomes
minister of defence, after participating in
a
coup against the
civilian leaders of
Syria.
1967 June: Under the
leadership of Assad,
Syria loses the
Golan
Heights to
Israel,
as a result of the Six-Day War.
End of 1960's: Assad's
rivalry with effective leader of
Syria,
Salah
al-Jadid, becomes more
and more central to Syrian politics. Assad
focused on improved
military force, while Jadid focused on a
socialist
reformation of the
Syrian society.
1969 February: Assad
becomes the real ruler of
Syria,
but he keeps
Nuriddin Attasi as
president of
Syria.
1970 November 12:
Assad has his opponents arrested, and takes
full control over
Syria.
Once again, he does not enter any official
leading position,
leaving Ahamd Khatib as president.
1971 February: Assad
stages the referendum in which he receives
and official 99,2% in
support of him becoming the country's new
president.
1973 January: A new
constitution for
Syria
is presented, declaring
that the country is a
"democratic, popular, socialist state".
October: Closer
relationship between
Syria
and
Egypt,
results in a
military attack on
Israel,
which at first brings victory to
Syria
and
Egypt,
but ends with the defeat of both states.
1974: Assad performs
the umra in
Mecca.
1976: Assad intervenes
in the ongoing civil war of
Lebanon.
He takes
the Christian side,
after the Muslims rejected a peace proposal
from
him January this same
year.
1980 June:
Assasination attempt on Assad's life.
1982: Assad cracks
down on Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood
in
Hama.
1983 November: Assad
suffers from a heart attack. His rivals,
among them his brother
Rifaat, tries to seize control of
Syria.
1984 February:
Tensions between Rifaat's forces and elite
forces
from the army that are
loyal to Hafez.
March 30: On the
verge of an armed conflicts between the two
military groups, a
meeting is held with Rifaat, Hafez and their
old
mother. The outcome of
this meeting, and other meetings, is that
Rifaat is sent abroad
as a Syrian representative, while Hafez can
return to office
without the challenge of Rifaat's troops. Hafez
uses
the following time to
weaken his brother's position and
strengthening
his
own.
End of the 1980's:
With decline of the Soviet Union, Assad
starts to
orient himself more in
the direction of the West.
1991 October: Assad
participates in the Middle East
peace
conference, where
there were direct talks with
Israel's
representatives. Assad
insisted on a uncompromising land for
peace-line, involving
that
Israel
would have to withdraw from the
Golan
Heights before any details could be decided
upon.
December: In the
fourth plebiscite on his continuation as
president,
Assad received 99,9%
of the votes.
1999 February: Assad
participates in the funeral of King Hussein
of
Jordan,
to the surprise of world medias.
February 11: Assad
is reelected in a referendum for a new
constitutional
term.
September: Hundreds
of supporters of Hafez' brother, Rifaat,
are
arrested in
Damascus and Latakia.
This is interpreted as a way of
helping his son,
Bashar, to get rid of all possible opponents
when
Hafez
dies.
2000 June 10: After
repeated reports on his ill health, Assad
dies
from heart attack. Few
days after his passing away, his son,
Bashar,
took office and was
elected
Syria's
new president. This was all
according to Hafez'
plans.
ARTICLES on this
PAGE: Hafez, Bashar, Rafaat
