A House in Damascus - Before the Fall by Stoddart Brian

Author:Stoddart, Brian [Stoddart, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2012-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Father, Son and Holy Ghost

~

One early foggy morning in January 1994, Basel al-Assad relegated his chauffeur to the back seat of the Mercedes, and drove himself to Damascus airport. At high speed in poor conditions he careered through a traffic circle and flipped the car several times. He died, the chauffeur and another passenger survived, and life changed dramatically for his brother Bashar, then a young doctor specialising in ophthalmology.

Something that struck all visitors to Syria immediately before the troubles was the ever-present symbolism of leadership, principally in the persons of President Bashar, his late father Hafez, and late brother Basel. Hafez shaped the new Syrian Arab Republic following the coup that brought him to power in 1970, Basel was his heir apparent, Bashar became the unexpected successor.

Bashar appeared in picture or profile on the windows of probably three in every five cars in Syria, if not more. This was certainly so in Alawite-predominant areas like Lattakia whence came the Assad family, but the images were also strongly visible elsewhere, and in Damascus. There was the military leader version, all combat fatigues and aviator shades with the general's determined look. The international statesman in Savile Row suit look had the engaging smile. Then there was the guide, the man looking forward confidently to the future. Sometimes Bashar was paired with Hafez, a reminder of the leadership continuity. Sometimes the two of them appeared with Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, a pointer to the complex regional role Syria had assumed in its ever present desire to see Lebanon disappear and the "true" boundaries of earlier times be restored. Hafez himself appeared in military image frequently, and sometimes the "lost" son and heir apparent appeared as well. These photographs, outlines, prints and other images adorned every prominent building and even apartment blocks. Photographs of Bashar appeared in every room of every official building and in the corridors. A favourite trick for every new consultant come to the office was to have a photograph taken sitting at work under the gaze of the President. There was a continuity, too—the "Bashar waving" photograph was identical to that of his father, even if the "wave" now had unfortunate reflections of the Saddam Hussein imagery that emerged from the Iraq war.

Some commentators had compared this phenomenon to that of the North Korean leadership cult, suggesting even that Hafez might have modelled the practice from there. Likenesses certainly flourished throughout Syria, and must have kept many artisans employed: statues huge and small dominated traffic circles and elsewhere, busts appeared outside buildings. On the way to Homs, two huge statues of present leader and father occupied prominent sites, and there was an even larger edifice between Homs and Tartous on the way to Lattakia. The "wave" was a favourite pose for these. It was suggested, however, that even then Bashar had already begun quietly discouraging the indiscriminate proliferation of statues, and that said something interesting about his perception of a necessarily changing role and associated "image".

When Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000 at his father's death, then, it was an accident caused by an accident.

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