Bashar al-Assad is a former President of the Syrian Arab Republic and the former Secretary-General of the Ba'ath Party.

Bashar al-Assad was born on September 11, 1965, as the son of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. He assumed the presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic in the year 2000.

He was the Secretary-General of the Ba'ath Party and the son of the previous president, Hafez al-Assad. Following the death of Hafez al-Assad, the presidential office was briefly held on an interim basis by Abdul Halim Khaddam.

Graduating from the Faculty of Medicine at Damascus University in 1988, Bashar al-Assad pursued studies in ophthalmology. In order to continue his specialization, he traveled to England in 1992.

After the death of his brother Basil al-Assad in a traffic accident in 1994, Bashar al-Assad returned to Syria, where he was prepared to become the successor of his father, Hafez al-Assad. Entering the Syrian military, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces on June 11, 2006, by interim President Abdul Halim Khaddam following his father’s death. During the period of strained Syrian-Lebanese relations in 1995, Bashar al-Assad was entrusted with the Lebanon file, and it is claimed that he played a role in the election of Emile Lahoud as President of Lebanon in 1998.

After the death of his father, the Syrian parliament convened and amended the constitutional requirement for presidential candidacy, lowering the minimum age from 40 to 34, which enabled Bashar al-Assad to become President of Syria. From the beginning of his presidency, he followed his father’s policies regarding Syrian-Israeli relations and drew attention with his anti-Israel and anti-United States speeches at various international conferences, presenting a stance distinct from other Arab countries. Following the September 11 attacks, relations between the United States and Syria became increasingly tense, with the United States accusing Syria of “supporting terrorism.” Relations between the two countries deteriorated further after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, Syrian troops were withdrawn from Lebanon.

In early 2011, anti-government protests that began across the Arab world spread to Syria by the end of January. In response to protests demanding political reforms, the state of emergency that had been in force since 1963 was lifted on April 19, 2011. Despite this development, clashes between the Bashar al-Assad administration and demonstrators continued.

In November 2024, a coalition of Syrian opposition forces launched a series of attacks aimed at overthrowing Assad’s rule. Under the command of Ahmed al-Sharaa, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and opposition units entered Damascus on December 8, 2024. Following these developments, Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow, where he was granted political asylum by the Russian government.

Source: Biyografiler.com