Person

Bashar al-Assad

b. 1965 · 21st century

Bashar al-Assad was president of Syria from 2000, succeeding his father Hafez al-Assad. His violent repression of the protests of 2011 led to a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions, in which he survived with Russian and Iranian help. In December 2024 a rebel offensive took Damascus and he fled to Russia, ending more than fifty years of Assad rule.

Bashar al-Assad
Image: khamenei.ir · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Syrian Arab Republic

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Bashar al-Assad. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/bashar-al-assad
MLA
“Bashar al-Assad.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/bashar-al-assad. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Bashar al-Assad.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/bashar-al-assad.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Bashar al-Assad’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/bashar-al-assad (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻