Syria’s half a century of Assad dynasty rule

PARIS: After a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels toppled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, AFP looks back at more than 50 years of rule by the Assad dynasty.

Assad’s fall followed years of bloodshed and division in Syria

1970: Hafez takes power

Hafez al-Assad, Syria’s defence minister and the father of Bashar, takes power in a bloodless military coup on November 16, 1970.

Assad, who leads the Baath Party, is elected president on March 12, 1971. He is the only candidate.

He is Syria’s first head of state from the Alawite Muslim sect, a minority that makes up 10 percent of the mainly Sunni country’s population.

1973: war with Israel

Egypt and Syria launch an attack on Israel on October 6, 1973 in a bid to win back territories they lost in the June 1967 war but they are pushed back.

1976: Lebanon war

In June 1974, US president Richard Nixon visits Damascus and announces the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Syria, frozen since 1967.

Two years later, Syrian troops enter Lebanon during the civil war with United States support after an appeal by embattled Christian forces.

For three decades Syria will be a dominant military and political force in Lebanon, before withdrawing its troops in 2005 under international pressure after the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri.

1982: Hama massacre

Assad’s army carries out a massacre in Hama in central Syria, killing what rights group say were thousands of people, an event that traumatised the country for generations to come.

The killings targeted people accused of being members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, and came after an armed uprising by the group.

The Brotherhood had previously been accused of a 1979 Aleppo attack in which 80 military cadets, all Alawites, were killed in a hail of gunfire and grenades at their academy.

1990: courting the West

After a period of tensions, Syria’s ties with the United States begin to thaw in 1990-1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union to which Damascus was allied.

Syria joins the US-led coalition against Saddam Hussein after Iraq invades Kuwait.

2000: Bashar takes over

Hafez al-Assad dies on June 10, 2000, aged 69. The same day Parliament amends the constitution to lower the minimum age required to become president – a tailor-made change for Bashar who was born in 1965.

A month later, Bashar al-Assad becomes Syria’s new head of state, winning a referendum with 97 percent of the vote. He is the only candidate.

2000: ‘Damascus Spring’

In September that year, 100 intellectuals call for the lifting of martial law, in place since 1963, more freedom and political pluralism. This becomes known as the “Damascus Spring”.

But the period of apparent openness is short-lived, and Assad’s government cracks down on dissent, arresting 10 opponents in July 2001.

2011: civil war

In March 2011, protesters take to the streets of towns and cities around Syria, defying Assad’s zero-tolerance for dissent.

Inspired by the Arab Spring, the protesters called for civil liberties and freedom for political prisoners, facing tremendous personal risk and with many paying with their lives.

The demonstrators face a brutal crack down and a nearly 14-year full-blown civil war ensues, with several regional and international powers getting involved, as well as jihadists.

Over the years, Assad clings on to power with massive military backing from Russia and Iran, and manages to win back nearly two thirds of the territory.

The war kills more than 500,000 people, and displaces millions.

2023: return to the Arab diplomatic scene

Syria rejoins the Arab League in May 2023 and Assad takes part in his first summit for more than a decade.

Syria had been expelled in 2011 in response to its crackdown on the popular uprising.

2024: Bashar flees

After an 11-day lightning offensive, Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allies enter Damascus. Assad flees the country to an unknown destination. The Kremlin denied he was in Russia after local new agencies reported he was in Moscow.