Syria

Syria Syria: Past, Present, and Future Throughout history, leaders who have succeeded their fathers as heads of state have deviated from their parent’s policies, without however, abandoning their predecessors’ ultimate goals. President Bashar Al-Assad seems to be following this popular trend. Since the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, Basher has reformed many policies and has subsequently gained much public support from Syria’s previously dissatisfied citizens. The Rise of Hafez al-Assad After becoming an independent country, Syria’s first struggles were not far behind. The founding of Israel started a conflict that is still lingering in the Middle East today. Along with allied Arab armies, Syrians invaded Israel. The lack of military expertise and defeat against Israel led to the first of many Syrian conflicts beginning around 1948. During the 1950’s to early 1960’s there were frequent changes of government which were determined by military victories instead of political processes. On February 23, 1966 the extremist wing of the Ba’ath Party, known as Alawites, came to power. This was the beginning of the rise of Hafez al-Assad. (Hafez al-Assad) Syria under the Reign of al-Assad In 1971 the Ba’ath party merged under Assad and dramatically improved its relationships with syria, al-assad, bashar, syrian, israel, been, terrorism, hafez, countries, after, under, since, political, middle, government, terrorist, support, state, policy, peace, lebanon, however, death, attacks, syria’s, seems, president, policies, groups, first, reign, public, previously, popular, muslim