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Hafez al-Assad () ( October 6 , 1930 - June 10 , 2000 ) was the President of Syria from 1971 to 2000 . Assad was Syria's longest serving president, and his rule stabilized and consolidated the power of the country's government after decades of coups and counter-coups. His strongly authoritarian regime, under the leadership of the Baath Party dominated all aspects of Syrian political life. He thought that Lebanon was an artificial entity created by the French colonialism, and extracted from Syria . Assad set up a strategy to occupy and annex this neighboring country. He succeeded in 1990 to control Lebanon and establish a proxy government aligned with Syria's policies. Upon his death in 2000, he was succeeded by his son, current president Bashar Al-Assad . EARLY LIFE Assad was born in Qardaha in western Syria as part of the minority Alawite community. He was the first member of his family to attend High School . He joined the Ba'th party in 1946 at the age of 16. Because his family had no money to send him to University Assad went to the Syrian Military Academy (where he met Mustafa Tlass ) and received a free higher education. He showed considerable talent, and the military sent him to be Trained in the Soviet military. He rose through the ranks of the military and became an important figure. Assad opposed the 1958 union between Syria and Egypt which created the United Arab Republic (UAR). Stationed in Cairo , he worked with other officers to end the union, sticking to his Pan-Arab ideals while arguing that the UAR concentrated too much power in the hands of the Nasser regime. As a result of this, al-Assad was briefly imprisoned by the Egypt ian authorities at the breakup of the union in 1961 , but Tlass escorted his Family to Syria and he could later rejoin them there. In the chaos that followed the dissolution of the UAR , a coalition of left-wing groups led by the Ba'th seized power. Assad was appointed head of the Airforce in 1964. The state was officially ruled by Amin Al-Hafiz , a Sunni Muslim , but through the Ba'th, it was effectively dominated by a coterie of young Alawites, a religious minority in Syria to which Assad belonged. RISE TO POWER In of 1970 . The party was purged, Atassi and Jadid sent to prison, and al-Assad loyalists installed on key posts throughout the bureaucracy. INTERNAL POLICIES The police state Al-Assad inherited a dictatorial regime shaped by years of unstable military rule, and lately organized along one-party lines after the Ba'th takeover. He not only continued this form of rule, but increased repression, and attempted to secure his domination of every sector in society through a vast web of police informers and agents. Under his rule, Syria turned genuinely Totalitarian . Al-Assad was made the object of a state-sponsored Cult Of Personality , depicting him as a wise, just and strong leader of Syria and of the Arab World in general. Syria under al-Assad never quite reached the levels of repression practiced in neighbouring Iraq , ruled by a rivaling Ba'th faction. Where Saddam Hussein 's policies of perpetual State Terrorism aimed to secure his rule through fear, Hafez al-Assad took a more sophisticated approach to the exercise of power. Rather than immediately brutalizing restive communities, al-Assad's regime would often seek to bribe or threaten dissidents. Only after milder forms of persuasion had been tried and failed, swords would come out, but then the regime could be counted on to act with unflinching cruelty in order to set an example to would-be dissenters. A shrewd power player, al-Assad would use diplomacy, terrorism and tank armadas to the same effect: invariably, he strived to build a strong Syria under his own one-man rule. Stability and reforms While dictatorial, the government of al-Assad initially achieved some popularity for bringing stability to Syria (which had experienced about 50 attempted coups since 1948). He also implemented many social reforms and infrastructure projects, notably the Thawra (revolution) dam on the river Eufrat . It was built with Soviet help, and still supplies much of Syria's electricity. Public schooling and other reforms were extended to larger segments of the population, and a notable rise in living standards occurred. The government's Secularism meant that many members of religious minorities, such as the Alawite s, Druze and Christian s, naturally supported al-Assad for fear of a Sunni -dominated Islamic government, in which they feared a return to historic persecution. Al-Assad also continued previous Ba'th policies by overseeing massive increases in Syria's military strength (again with Soviet support) and by maintaining a strong Arab Nationalist stance. School curriculums and the state-controlled media gave much attention to the glorious past of Syria and the Arabs, and portrayed al-Assad's government as the lone uncorrupted champion of the Arab nation against Western Imperialism and aggression. This Propaganda aimed to legitimize the government, but also to unify the diverse and fractured Syrian society, and instill a nationalist sense of pride in the population. Ethnic and religious opposition These policies were popular with the majority of the population, but the emphasis on '''uruba'', Arabism, also meant that the non- Arab populations were discriminated against. The biggest such population was the Kurd s of northern Syria. Campaigns of Arabization led to tens of thousands of Kurds losing their Syrian Citizenship , and only through military repression was the central government able to keep the lid on tensions in the Kurdistan areas of Syria. Hafez Al-Assad worked continually to ensure the preeminence of his own Alawite sect within the government, and Alawites were appointed to fill virtually all important government posts (a notable exception was Mustafa Tlass , the Sunni defence minister). This was probably less a case of religious or ethnic solidarity, than an attempt to confine power to people close to al-Assad himself, but it simultaneously meant that the historically repressed Alawites became increasingly dependent on al-Assad. Many feared (and still fear) renewed marginalization and retribution from the majority Sunnis, Syria's historical rulers, should the Ba'th regime lose power. The concentration of power in the hands of a religious group comprising no more than 10% of the population, meant that other groups felt increasingly excluded from power. Since political clout was also a valuable asset in trade and the economy, due to the Corruption of the state appratus and the government-dominated economy (which was formally Socialist , but in reality a mixed system of big monopolies and preserved small trade), the rising fortunes of the Alawites paid off in government spending in their areas of western Syria. As the unbalance became more and more distinct, discontent grew among Sunnis and some minorites. The Muslim Brotherhood uprising Many conservative Sunnis considered the Alawites a heretical breakaway sect from Islam, and resented being ruled by "non-Muslim" politicians. Al-Assad's embrace of secularism and his alliance with the Soviet Union (intensely unpopular after its Occupation of Afghanistan in 1979 ) increased tension between the government and the Sunni religious leadership. In the late 1970s , religious dissent became more and more pronounced, and the oppressive policies of the state pushed non- Islamist dissenters to join forces with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood . The religious fundamentalists portrayed the Syrian ruler as an "enemy of Allah ", an " Atheist " or even "a Maronite ", a Christian sect whose militias was at that time fighting Sunnis in Lebanon . Step by step, the underground opposition turned violent, into a low-level insurrection, and the harsh military reprisals further escalated violence. Throughout the early in Tadmor Prison {Link without Title} . Calls for vengeance grew within the brotherhood, and bomb attacks increased in frequency. Events culminated with a general insurrection in the conservative Sunni town of Hama in February 1982 . Islamists and other opposition activists proclaimed Hama a "liberated city" and urged Syria to rise up against the "infidel". Brotherhood fighters swept the city of Ba'thists, breaking into the homes of government employees and suspected supporters of the regime, killing about 50. In the eyes of al-Assad, this was total war. The army was mobilized, and Hafez again sent Rifaat 's special forces and Mukhabarat agents to the city. After encountering fierce resistance, they used Artillery to blast Hama into submission. After a two-week battle, the town was securely in government hands again. Then followed several weeks of torture and mass executions of suspected rebel sympathizers, killing many thousands, known as the Hama Massacre . Robert Fisk , who was in Hama shortly after the massacre, estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 citizens were killed, but according to Thomas Friedman Rifaat later boasted of killing 38,000 people. Most of the old city was completely destroyed, including its palaces, mosques, ancient ruins and the famous Azzem Palace mansion. After the Hama uprising, the Islamist insurrection was broken, and the Brotherhood since operates in exile. Government repression in Syria hardened considerably, as al-Assad had spent in Hama any goodwill he previously had left with the Sunni majority, and now was compelled to rely on pure force to stay in power. The challenge from Rifaat In 1983 , Hafez suffered a Heart Attack and was confined to a hospital. He named a six-man governing council to run the country in his absence, among them long-time defense minister Mustafa Tlass . Curiously, all of the six were Sunni s, possibly because that meant they had no independent power over his Alawite -dominated government, and was thus less likely to try to keep power. Despite this, rumours spread that Hafez was dead or near death, and indeed his condition was very serious. In 1984 Hafez's brother Rifaat attempted to use internal security forces under his control to seize power. Rifaats ''Defence Company'' troops of some 50,000 men, complete with tanks and helicopters, began putting up roadblocks throughout Damascus , and tensions between Hafez loyalists and Rifaat supporters came close to all-out fighting. The stand-off was not ended until Hafez, still severely ill, rose from his sickbed to reassume power and speak to the nation. He then transferred command of the ''Defence Company'', and, without formal accusations, sent Rifaat on an indefinite "work visit" to France . FOREIGN POLICY Israel Al-Assad's foreign policy was shaped by the relation of Syria to Israel , although this conflict both preceded him and persists after his death. During his presidency, Syria played a major role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War . The war is, despite heavy losses and Israeli advances, presented by the Syrian government as a victory, as Syria regained some territory that had been occupied in 1967 through peace negotiations, headed by Henry Kissinger . Since then Assad-led Syria has carefully respected the UN -monitored cease-fire line in the occupied Golan Heights , instead using non-Syrian clients such as the Hizbullah and various Palestinian extremist groups to exert pressure on Israel. Syria denied Israel any recognition, and long preferred to refer to it as a "Zionist Entity". Only in the mid- 1990s did Hafez moderate his country's policy towards Israel, as he realized the loss of Soviet support meant a different regional power balance. Pressed by the USA , he engaged in negotiations on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights , but these talks ultimately failed. The Palestinians The hostile attitude to Israel meant vocal support for the Palestinian s, but that did not translate into friendly relations with their organizations. Hafez al-Assad were always wary of independent Palestinian organizations, as he aimed to bring the Palestinian issue under Syrian control in order to use it as a political tool. He soon developed an implacable animosity to Yassir Arafat s Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), with which Syria fought bloody battles in Lebanon. As Arafat moved the PLO in a more moderate direction, seeking compromise with Israel, al-Assad also feared regional isolation, and he resented the PLO underground's operations in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Arafat was depicted by Syria as a rogue madman and an American marionette, and after accusing him of supporting the Hama revolt, al-Assad backed the 1983 Abu Musa rebellion inside Arafats Fatah -movement. A number of Syrian attempts to kill Arafat were also made, but with no success. In 1999 , Al-Assad had his right-hand man, the trusted defence minister Mustafa Tlass , make an on-the-record statement labelling Arafat "the son of 60,000 whores and 60,000 dogs", in addition to comparing him to a strip-tease dancer and a black cat, calling him a coward and, finally, pointing out that the Palestinian leader was getting uglier. An effective strategy was undermining Arafat through support for radical groups both outside and inside the PLO. This way, Syria secured some influence over PLO politics, and was also able to literally blow up any attempts at negotiation with the US and Israel through pushing for Terrorist attacks. The PLO's As-Sa'iqa faction was and is completely controlled by Syria, and under Hafez, groups such as the PFLP-GC and others were also turned into clients. In later years, Syria focused on supporting non-PLO Islamist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad . Lebanon Hafez Al-Assad, driven by his hegemonic vision of a Baathist Pan-Arab state, never recognized the right of Lebanon to exist independently. Since his accession to power in 1971, Al-Assad decided to re-annex Lebanon , the Land of the Cedars. He believed that Lebanon was an integral part of Syria that the "French Colonialism " has extracted from his country. He considered that Lebanon was artificially created through the Sykes-Picot Agreement . In fact, all along its recent history, Syria persistently refused to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon or to clearly define the borders between the two countries. Since Lebanon was internationally recognized as an independent country and founding member of the United Nations and the Arab League , Assad needed a justification that could be accepted by the international community, in order to occupy this country and annex it to Syria . Since the early 1970s, Assad started to arm some Palestinian guerillas known as the Sa'ika, and sent them to fight in Lebanon and to create chaos in the neighboring country. Assad distributed arms to several factions that were fighting in Lebanon . He cleverly contributed to the start of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. On July 19, 1976, he made a famous speech in Damascus where he clearly stated that " Lebanon and Syria are one people", which implicitly signaled his intention to occupy the Land of the Cedars, in a similar way that Hitler used to invade Austria in 1938. Assad claimed that he will be sending 40,000 troops to protect the Maronite Christians who were fighting the Palestinians (initially armed by Assad). In the same year, the Palestinian militia committed the Damour Massacre . In 1978, after that Egypt signed the Camp David agreement with Israel, Assad felt that he was isolated, and decided to use the Palestinians in Lebanon in order to enforce his position. He sided with the Palestinians against the Maronites , and by September of that year, Maronites and the Syrian government were openly feuding. Some suspected that Syrian officials viewed Lebanon as rightfully Syrian territory. The Syrian army fought terrible battles against Bashir Gemayel in Ashrafieh . After several months of fighting, the Syrians lost and were obliged to withdraw from Ashrafieh . During its occupation of Lebanon , the Syrian army committed several crimes against the Lebanese population and their leaders. The Syrians bombarded several regions, killing thousands of Lebanese innocent citizens. They murdered the Druze leader Kamal Jumblat in 1977. They assassinated the French Ambassador Louis Delamare. They assassinated the President Bashir Gemayel 's daughter Maya, and killed the President himself though Lebanese proxies on September 14th, 1982. The Syrians tried to oblige Lebanon to sign unfair treaties that would undermine Lebanon 's independence and sovereignty. During the mandate of President Amine Gemayel , the Syrians tried to impose the "Tripartite Accord", but failed in their attempt after that Samir Geagea forged a blocking coalition with President Amine Gemayel against the Syrians . After the end of the mandate of President Gemayel, the Syrians tried to impose a President that would be totally controlled by Damascus . Again, despite the US support, they failed in their attempt, and Gemayel nominated General Michel Aoun as the Prime Minister of a transition Government. Aoun tried to apply UN Security Council resolution 520 and asked the Syrians to leave Lebanon immediately. Upon the Syrians ' refusal to cooperate, Aoun launched on 14 March 1989 the "War of Liberation" against the Syrian occupation of Lebanon . Due to the regional and international context, Aoun did not manage to recover Lebanon 's independence and was forced into exile in France on October 13th, 1990, following a Syrian invasion of the Baabda Palace in coordination with Israeli air forces. Syrian forces remained in Lebanon , effectively dominating its government from 1990 to 2005. They established a strong intelligence apparatus based in the town of Anjar. The Syrians secret services and military army persecuted the Lebanese resistance by killing and imprisoning its members in the Mazzeh jail, or torturing them in the Beau Rivage or Villa Jabre. The Syrian High Commissioners Ghazi Kanaan and Rustom Ghazaly had absolute power on all political issues. They contributed to the widespread corruption in Lebanon . After the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and the death of Hafez Al-Assad in 2000, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon faced fierce resistance from the Lebanese population. The Syrian occupation ended on April 26,2005 after the Cedar Revolution that took place as a reaction to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005. Saddam's Iraq Despite the fact that Iraq was ruled by another branch of the Ba'th party, al-Assad's relations to the Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein were extremely strained. Hostile rhetoric was intense, and Iraq was until Saddam's fall in 2003 listed in Syrian passports as one of the two countries no Syrian citizen could visit (the other being Israel). But with the exception of a few border guard skirmishes, and mutual support for cross-border raids by opposition groups, no heavy fighting broke out until 1991 , when Syria joined the US-led United Nations coalition to expel Iraq from Kuwait . DEATH AND SUCCESSION Assad ruled the country until his death in 2000 due to a Heart Attack while speaking on the telephone with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud . Hafez had originally groomed his son, Basil Al-Assad as successor, but Basil died in a car accident in 1994 . Hafez then called back a second son, Bashar Al-Assad , and put him in intensive military and political training. Despite some concerns of unrest within the regime, the succession ultimately went smoothly, and Bashar rules Syria today. Hafez al-Assad is buried together with Basil in a Mausoleum in his hometown, Qardaha . FAMILY Family connections are presently an important part of Syrian politics. Several members of Hafez al-Assad's closest family have held positions within the government since his ascent to power. Most of the al-Assad and Makhlouf families have also grown tremendously wealthy, and parts of that fortune has reached their Alawite tribe in Qardaha and its surroundings.
TRIVIA In official propaganda sources, Assad was often referred to as "the Fighting Comrade." REFERENCES
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