Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad (بشار الاسد) (born September 11, 1965) is the current President of Syria (The Syrian Arab Republic) and the son of former President Hafez al-Assad.

Personal

Assad speaks fluent English and French, having studied at the Franco-Arab al-Hurriyet elite school in Damascus (the Syrian capital), before going on to medical school there at the Damascus University Faculty of Medicine. He then went on to get a subspeciality training in the field of ophthalmology in London's academic hospitals.

Related Topics:
Damascus - Ophthalmology - London

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Initially Bashar had few political aspirations. Hafez al-Assad had been grooming Bashar's older brother, Basil al-Assad to be the future president. However, Basil's premature death in an automobile accident in 1994 suddenly made Bashar his father's new heir apparent. When the elder Assad died in 2000, Bashar was duly elected President unopposed with apparent massive popular support, after Syria's Majlis Al Shaa'b (Parliament) swiftly voted to lower the minimum age for candidates from 40 to 34.

Related Topics:
Basil al-Assad - 1994 - Heir apparent - 2000

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The al-Assad family are members of the minority muslim Alawite group, and members of that group have been prominent in the governmental hierarchy since 1963 when Baath seized power. Their origins are to be found in the Latakia area of north-west Syria.

Related Topics:
Alawite - Latakia

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