Syrian President Bashar Assad fled to Russia over the weekend, ending a nearly 14-year struggle to maintain power in his country amid a civil war that turned into a battlefield for international and regional powers.
But the Assad people came to know through the news of war in Syria was not who some expected when he came to power.
Rise to Power
Assad’s father, Hafez Assad, had been cultivating Bashar’s oldest brother Basil as his successor. In 1994, Basil was killed in a car crash in Damascus. Bashar was then brought home from his ophthalmology practice in London and put through military training, where he was elevated to the rank of colonel to give him the credentials to one day rule Syria.
Hafez ruled Syria for nearly 30 years, during which he established a Soviet-style centralized economy. He also formed an alliance with the Shiite clerical leadership in Iran, sealed Syrian domination over Lebanon and set up a network of Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups.
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Syrias President Bashar al-Assad (C) and his wife Asma al-Assad (L) attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Asian Games at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou in Chinas eastern Zhejiang province on September 23, 2023. ( PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images)
When Hafez died in 2000, the country’s parliament lowered the age requirement to become president from 40 to 34, and through a nationwide referendum, Bashar became president, having been the only candidate.
Bashar initially seemed the opposite of his father. When Bashar came to power, he spoke with a slight lisp, was tall, lanky, quiet and had a gentle demeanor. His only official position previous to becoming president was the head of the Syrian Computer Society, so people believed he was a geeky tech-savvy fan of computers with a gentle demeanor.
Bashar also freed political prisoners and allowed more open discourse.
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FILE – This April 13, 2016 file photo released on the official Facebook page of Syrian Presidency, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad casting his ballot in the parliamentary elections, as his wife Asma, left, stands next to him, in Damascus, Syria. (Syrian Presidency via AP, File)
Syria’s Princess Diana?
Several months after taking office, Bashar married Asma al-Akhras, a British-born woman who is known for being attractive and stylish. The two eventually had three children.
The couple lived in an apartment in the upscale neighborhood of Abu Rummaneh in Damascus, as opposed to a mansion like other Arab leaders.
Asma, who was born in Acton, West London, to Sunni Muslims from Homs, Syria, became known as Syria’s Princess Diana.
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Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad attends the harvest of Damascena (Damask) roses in the village of al-Marah, in the Damascus countryside, on May 25, 2023. (LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)
She gained degrees in computer science and French literature at Queen’s College London and went into banking, working as a hedge funds analyst.
She married Bashar in a “secret” wedding in 2000 when he was 35, and she was just 25.
As Bashar continued to rule, things began to change.
Changing Directions
In 2005, Bashar suffered a blow with the loss of Syria’s decades-long control over neighboring Lebanon after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Many in Lebanon accused Bashar of being behind the murder. Syria was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon and a pro-American government came to power.
During the same time, the Arab world split into two – one side was U.S.-allied and included Sunni-led countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, while the other side consisted of Syria and Iran, along with their connections to Hezbollah and Palestinian militants.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad arrives in Jeddah, to attend the Arab League summit the following day, Saudi Arabia, May 18, 2023.
Bashar appointed family members to key roles, while also giving entrusted roles to Asma.
In 2011, rulers in Tunisian and Egypt were toppled by protesters, though Bashar dismissed that it could also happen in Syria.
His security forces staged a brutal crackdown while Bashar denied he faced a popular revolt. Instead, he blamed “foreign-backed terrorists” for trying to destabilize his regime.
The uprising spiraled into civil war with millions of Syrians fleeing to Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Europe.
In March 2011, Vogue magazine published a profile on Asma, calling her a “Rose in the Desert” and “the very freshest and most magnetic of first ladies.” The article, which described the Assads as “wildly democratic” and portrayed them as progressive and intelligent, was based on an interview conducted in late 2010. It was pulled from the internet weeks after its publication, as Assad’s bloody crackdown on Syrian dissidents was well under way.
“Subsequent to our interview, as the terrible events of the past year and a half unfolded in Syria, it became clear that its priorities and values were completely at odds with those of Vogue,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, said at the time.
Lavish Spending
In 2012, Wikileaks published private emails from the 42-year-old Brit showing she blew through $350,000 on 130 pieces of furniture when the country’s civil war had been raging for one year.
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Syria’s First Lady Asma al-Assad takes part in a graduation ceremony of future teachers of a Syrian Organisation for Persons with Disabilities, in Damascus on December 3, 2018. (LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)
The published emails also reportedly showed she also bought a pair of $7,000 shoes with crystal-encrusted heels and had the goods shipped to Dubai to get around sanctions.
The couple’s ultra-modern presidential mansion – commissioned in 1979 and designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange – is thought to have cost $1 billion.
In 1989, the Washington Post reported that a single room was fitted with 125,000 Italian marble tiles at a cost of $85 per tile. The total cost spent on a single room was about $10.6 million.
On the same day her husband is believed to have dropped sarin gas on civilians in Khan Sheikhoun, Asma posted a photo of herself wearing a chic polka-dotted dress, seemingly deep in thought and smiling.
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Asma’s social media posts depicted her as a humanitarian, adorned with photos of the first lady reading to children and embracing the family of a Syrian who was killed in the nation’s civil war – all with the affectionate hashtag #WeLoveYouAsma.
The photos are a stark contrast to the ones on news channels that showed Syrian children lying dead in the streets after choking on poison gas that the U.S. and its allies said was unleashed by her dictator husband.
In May, Syrian officials announced that Asma had been diagnosed with leukemia, forcing her to temporarily withdraw from public life.
Bashar’s office released a statement at the time, saying Asma was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and will “adhere to a specialized treatment protocol that includes stringent infection prevention measures.
Acute myeloid leukemia is an aggressive cancer of the bone marrow and the blood.
Asma was previously been treated for breast cancer.
Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and The Associated Press contributed to this report.