Bashar al-Assad

"I am Syrian, I was made in Syria, I have to live in Syria and die in Syria."

- Bashar al-Assad

Bashar Hafez al-Assad (Arabic: بشار حافظ الأسد‎ Baššār Ḥāfiẓ al-ʾAsad, Levantine pronunciation: [baʃˈʃaːr ˈħaːfezˤ elˈʔasad]; born September 11, 1965) is the current President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Syrian-led branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death in 2000.

Villainy
Al-Assad graduated from the medical school of the University of Damascus in 1988 and he started to work as a physician in the army. 4 years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital, in London, specializing in ophthalmology. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel, the heir apparent to their father Hafez al-Assad, was killed in a car crash, Bashar was hastily recalled to Syria to take over his role. He entered the military academy and he took charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. In December 2000, al-Assad married Asma Assad (née Akhras). He was elected as President of Syria in 2000, 2007 and 2014, unopposed each time.

Initially seen by the domestic and international community as a potential reformer and gaining the nickname "The Hope," this expectation gave way to the events of the Syrian civil war. The domestic Syrian opposition and large parts of the wider international community - namely the European Union and the Arab League - have subsequently called for al-Assad's resignation from power.

The bloody response to the popular demand for political change led to an utterly devasting civil war which has claimed more than half a million lives and drove millions of Syrians to flee the country. To maintain their leader, Assad's forces used war techniques such as torture, massive execution of prisoners, toxic gas attacks on civilians and tnt droppings on housing buildings. Among the casualties, more than 11,000 were children. These atrocities have caused several other soverign governments - including those of the United States and France - to demand that al-Assad be investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity. al-Assad has already been referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and an ad hoc tribunal to investigate al-Assad's government has also been proposed. Al-Assad has of course denied that he has committed any war crimes.