After greater than 13 years of conflict, a whole lot of 1000’s of individuals killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, the 24-year rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is over.
Massive crowds on Sunday gathered within the streets of Damascus to have a good time, after opposition forces took management of the capital in a gorgeous advance that noticed them seize a number of key cities in a matter of days.
Al-Assad reportedly fled the nation on an airplane, bringing an finish to greater than 53 years of his household’s authoritarian rule over Syria.
His departure leaves a rustic in ruins and hundreds of thousands of Syrians questioning what’s subsequent.
A person who wasn’t meant to guide
When al-Assad inherited energy in 2000 after the demise of his father, Hafez, there was cautious optimism for political change in Syria.
Initially a watch physician learning in London, al-Assad was by no means meant to grow to be president. He was known as again to Syria after the demise of his older brother, Basil. To ensure that Bashar to imagine the presidency, the parliament needed to decrease the minimal age for candidates from 40 to 34. He gained a referendum with greater than 97 p.c of the vote, the place he was the one candidate.
The quiet, reserved man initially sparked hopes for reform, however except for just a few restricted financial modifications, his rule intently resembled his father’s 30 years of authoritarian governance.
The Syrian rebellion
A decade later, in March 2011, al-Assad confronted his first main problem as Syrians took to the streets demanding democracy, civil liberties and the discharge of political prisoners.
Al-Assad dismissed the rebellion as a international conspiracy, labelling his opponents as “terrorists”.
As chief of the nation’s solely authorized political energy, the Baath Celebration, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, his response was a brutal crackdown.
This solely intensified the protests, which rapidly escalated.
In 2012, the federal government used heavy weapons towards insurgent teams, together with air raids. The unrest unfold, prompting an armed revolt that drew in regional and worldwide powers.
Clinging to energy
Within the years that adopted, the al-Assad authorities clung to energy with the political and navy backing of Russia and Iran, in addition to the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Al-Assad regularly managed to win again many of the territory his forces had initially misplaced. However he dominated over a fractured nation, with solely partial management and a slim base of assist, notably from the Alawite minority of which his household is an element.
A truce was declared in March 2020 following an settlement between Russia and neighbouring Turkey, which has traditionally supported some opposition teams in Syria.
However Syria continued to undergo from frequent bombardments and combating, whereas al-Assad ignored a United Nations-led political course of to carry a few democratic transition.
For years, al-Assad introduced himself because the protector of Syria’s minorities, positioning himself as a bulwark towards “extremism” and the one drive able to restoring stability to the war-torn nation.
In a number of elections held over time, together with throughout the conflict in government-controlled areas, official outcomes confirmed al-Assad successful the overwhelming majority of the vote. In Might 2021, he was re-elected for a fourth time period with 95.1 p.c of the ballots forged.
However his authorities was unable to regain legitimacy within the eyes of a lot of the worldwide group, with a lot of nations and human rights teams alleging that the polls had been neither free nor truthful.
In the meantime, his authorities confronted accusations of killing and imprisoning 1000’s, in addition to ravenous total communities in besieged rebel-held areas throughout the conflict. It was additionally accused on quite a few events of utilizing chemical weapons towards its personal folks, prices al-Assad denied.
In 2023, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded there have been “cheap grounds to consider” that the Syrian authorities used chemical weapons in assaults on April 7, 2018 in Douma, close to Damascus.
In November 2023, France issued a global arrest warrant for al-Assad, accusing him of complicity in crimes towards humanity associated to chemical assaults blamed on his authorities in 2013. The next day, the Worldwide Court docket of Justice, the UN high court docket, ordered the Syrian authorities to place an finish to torture and different types of merciless, inhumane, or degrading therapy.
“For Syrians, [al-Assad] will all the time be remembered because the president who exhibited poor management, destroyed his nation, and displaced his personal folks,” mentioned Syrian coverage analyst Marwan Kabalan.
“He not solely misplaced his rule, however he misplaced a whole homeland.”
In 2023, after greater than 12 years of conflict, al-Assad was welcomed again into the Arab League by the identical Arab states that had as soon as shunned him. The choice to reinstate Syria’s membership marked a dramatic diplomatic reversal as a number of Arab nations sought to re-engage with al-Assad.
However the scenario on the bottom remained the identical. Syrians, who had been hoping for a brand new starting, had been nonetheless residing in financial collapse and a humanitarian disaster.
And over the previous 10 days, the long-stagnant conflict got here roaring again with the speedy advance of opposition fighters, who rapidly took management of a number of main cities at a time when al-Assad’s allies had been busy with their very own conflicts elsewhere.
“For many years, this regime has been a supply of oppression, instability and devastation,” Fadel Abdulghani, the manager director of the Syrian Community for Human Rights, informed Al Jazeera.
He mentioned whereas the duty of rebuilding Syria is big, he remained hopeful.
“I’m optimistic and I believe we will construct on that additional in direction of establishing a democratic state.”