The departure of Bashar Al-Assad from power in Syria is the last of the authoritarian leaders removed as a result of the protests, which culminated in 2011 with the "Arab Spring".
Syria's iron-fisted leader Bashar al-Assad is the second generation of an autocratic family dynasty that held power for more than five decades, and his disappearance amid a rapid rebel advance signals a realignment of power in a vital strategic location. Middle East, like Syria.
Assad is known for a brutal rule over Syria, which since 2011 has been wracked by a civil war that has ravaged the country and turned it into a breeding ground for the extremist group ISIS, while sparking an international proxy war and refugee crisis that displaced millions from their homes.
The war began after the Assad regime refused to budge in the face of mass pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring, instead mounting a brutal crackdown on the peaceful movement – killing and imprisoning thousands in the first few months alone.
Assad's forces have since been accused of gross human rights abuses and brutal attacks against civilians during the 13-year war, including using chemical weapons against their own people.
The United States, Jordan, Turkey and the European Union at the start of the war called for Assad to leave. But the Western-sanctioned and internationally isolated regime has so far climbed to power thanks to the support of powerful allies Russia and Iran, and a relentless campaign against the opposition.
Assad took power in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who rose from poverty to lead the Baath Party and took power in 1970, becoming the country's president the following year.
The younger Assad grew up in the shadow of his father, a Soviet ally who ruled Syria for three decades and helped push a minority Alawite population into key political, social and military positions.
Like the son who succeeded him, Hafez al-Assad tolerated little dissent with widespread repression and periodic periods of extreme state violence. In 1982 in the city of Hama, which rebels captured earlier this week, Hafez al-Assad ordered his army and intelligence services to massacre thousands of his opponents, ending an insurgency led by the Muslim Brotherhood.
As the second son unwilling to take up his father's mantle, Assad studied ophthalmology in London while his older brother Bassel, who had been groomed to succeed Hafez, died in a car accident in 1994.
Bashar al-Assad then studied military science, later becoming a colonel in the Syrian army. After his father's death in June 2000, it took just hours for the Syrian parliament to amend the constitution to lower Assad's presidential eligibility age from 40 to 34, a move that allowed him to succeed his father last month descendants. Many observers in Europe and the United States seemed encouraged by the incoming president, who presented himself as a fresh, youthful leader who could usher in a more progressive and moderate regime.
Assad's wife, Asma al-Assad, whom he married in 2000, a Syrian-born former investment banker who grew up in London, helped illuminate this view. But Western hopes for a more moderate Syria were dashed when the new leader maintained his country's traditional ties to militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. They then turned to direct condemnation of the regime after it confronted the pro-democracy ground in 2011 with brute force.
In May 2011, then-US President Barack Obama said the Assad regime had "chosen the path of mass killings and arrests of its own citizens" and called on him to lead a democratic transition "or leave the the road".
Assad has been re-elected overwhelmingly every seven years, most recently in 2021 in what the US, UK, France, Germany and Italy deemed "fraudulent elections". The conflict is a cornerstone of Assad's brutal legacy, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and what the United Nations said earlier this year were more than 7 million internally displaced and more than 6 million international refugees. (A2 Televizion)
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