Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who appears to have fled after rebels entered Damascusruled for a quarter of a century the Syria with an iron fist, suffocating a rebellion in blood, which turned into a civil war, one of the bloodiest of the 21st century.

An ophthalmologist by profession, he rose to the top of state power at the age of 34, in 2000, upon the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, whom he succeeded.

In 2011 he was faced with the Arab Spring in his own country, a series of pro-democracy protests that soon turned into a bloody civil war involving various jihadist forces, including the Islamic State group.

She managed to stay in power with her massive support of Russiaof Iran and her Hezbollah. An Alevi himself, he emerged as the protector of Syria’s minorities and a unique bulwark against extremism and chaos.

Taking care of his appearance, he prefers well-tailored suits and a dark tie to military uniform as a leader. But beneath a low-key and almost shy appearance, he demonstrates a will to maintain power at all costs.

A journalist who met Bashar al-Assad on several occasions before and after the start of the Syrian uprising in 2011 describes a “unique and complex personality”.

“Every time I met him, he was calm, even in the most critical and difficult moments of the war,” says the journalist, who asked not to be named.

“They are exactly the characteristics of his father,” Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 30 years with an iron fist, he adds. Bashar al-Assad “managed to make himself indispensable. In politics, it’s important to know how to deal the cards and he managed to control the game.”

Head of the Baath party, Hafez al-Assad had imposed an authoritarian and paranoid regime on Syria, where the slightest hint of dissent could send someone to prison.

His brother’s car accident

Born on September 11, 1965, Bashar, the second son of Hafez al-Assad, was not destined to become president, but his life changed dramatically when his older brother, Bassel, who was to succeed his father, was killed in a car accident. in 1994.

He then had to abandon his studies in London, where he met his wife, Asma, a Syrian-British Sunni, with whom he had three children.

Dubbed “the Rose of the Desert” by Vogue magazine before the rebellion, his wife would later be compared to Marie-Antoinette.

After his father’s death in 2000, Bashar became president by referendum, unopposed.

In his inauguration at the age of 34, he embodied for many Syrians, who have been calling for more freedoms, the image of a reformer who could end years of oppression and establish a more liberal economy in a country where state control has been suffocating. .

At the beginning of his presidency, Assad was seen in public behind the wheel of his car or dining in restaurants tete-a-tete with his wife. He also relaxed some of the restrictions his father had imposed.

But the image of the reformer was quickly disintegrated, with the arrests and imprisonment of intellectuals, teachers or other members of the reform movement, after a short “Damascus Spring”.

The Arab Spring in Syria

When the Arab Spring arrived in Syria in March 2011, peaceful protests called for change.

Assad, who is also the head of the army, then carried out a brutal crackdown, which was quickly followed by a civil war.

During the war, which has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced half the population, Assad has remained steadfast in his positions.

Thanks to the support of his Iranian and Russian contractors, he managed to recover two-thirds of the territory. He also managed to “monopolize decision-making and have the full support of the military,” explains a researcher in Damascus.

Even at the height of the civil war, he remains unmoved, convinced of his ability to crush an insurgency, which he denounces as “terrorist” and the product of “a conspiracy” hatched by enemy countries to overthrow him.

Abandoned by his Russian and Iranian allies, who were themselves greatly weakened, he was nevertheless forced, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, to flee the country today, eleven days after a lightning attack was launched on November 27 by the rebels, to which his forces offered almost no resistance.

Among the most powerful symbols of the fall of Damascus is the liberation of the grim Sendaya prison, where thousands of opponents of the al-Assad dynasty had been imprisoned, tortured and murdered.