by Ben Atherton Updated Fri 9 Mar 2012
Photo: Father and son: Bashar al-Assad and Hafez al-Assad (Reuters)
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been accused of waging a brutal war against his own people as he fights rebels who want an end to his family's 40-year rule.
In doing so he is following in the footsteps of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who presided over the deaths of thousands of people when he unleashed his forces to crush an Islamist uprising in the early 1980s.
Bashar al-Assad had been showing signs of loosening his grip on the country until protests broke out last year.
"I admit to total incomprehension as to how this man has changed," French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who hosted Mr Assad in Paris in 2008, said recently.
"He was not a democrat, but two years ago he was not massacring women and children in Homs. He was not a murderer but he has become a murderer."
Below are key events in the modern history of Syria and the Assad dynasty:
1916
Diplomats from France and Great Britain draw up an agreement to carve up the Middle East into 'zones of influence' after the expected defeat of Ottoman Turkey in World War I. France will get the northern zone, including what are now Syria and Lebanon, while Britain will oversee the south, including Palestine, Jordan, and the Iraqi oil fields.
1918
The Sykes-Picot agreement, named after the diplomats who drew it up, is put into effect following the end of World War I.
1920
An independent Syria is established by Faisal I of the Hashemite dynasty, who had fought with Lawrence of Arabia against the Turks. His forces are defeated by the French, and French troops occupy Syria later that year.
Photo: Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi (centre), later Faisal I of Syria, with delegates including Lawrence of Arabia (in headdress third from right) at Versailles during the 1919 Paris peace conference. (Wikipedia)
1925-27
A rebellion launched by Sultan Pasha al-Atrash is put down by French troops amid heavy fighting in cities including Homs, Hama and Damascus - all flashpoints in the current rebellion.
Photo: Damascus in flames after a French air raid, October 18, 1925 (Wikipedia.fr)
1930
Hafez al-Assad is born into a minority Alawite family in western Syria.
1937
Syria and France negotiate a treaty to give Syria independence, but the government in Paris refuses to ratify it and World War II breaks out in 1939 before any progress can be made.
1940
France falls to Nazi Germany and Syria comes under the control of the puppet Vichy regime. The country is occupied by British, Commonwealth, and Free French forces in 1941.
Photo: Australian soldiers at the Vichy French Aleppo airfield, Syria, in June 1941. (Australian War Memorial/Wikipedia.fr)
1944
Syria is recognised as an independent state and French troops pull out in 1946, ushering in years of coups and political turmoil.
1958-61
Syria and Egypt unite under the banner of the United Arab Republic, with the head of state being Egypt's leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, before Syria secedes following a military coup.
1963
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party engineers another coup which gives its members a majority in a new cabinet.
1964
Now a high-ranking Ba'ath Party official, Hafez al-Assad becomes a general; in 1965 he will become commander-in-chief of the air force; by 1966, he is minister of defence.
1965
As his father rises through the ranks, Bashar al-Assad is born in Damascus.
Photo: The Assad family in the early 1970s. The young Bashar al-Assad stands in front of his father at far left. (Wikipedia)
1967
Pre-emptive Israeli strikes on Egyptian forces develop into the Six-Day War, with Syria and Jordan joining Egypt in attacks on the Jewish state. Israel prevails, and occupies Syria's Golan Heights along with the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Sinai peninsula.
Photo: Israeli tanks advance towards Syrian positions in the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War (Wikipedia)
1970
Hafez al-Assad seizes power in an internal Ba'ath Party coup. Assad loyalists are installed in key posts throughout the government. His regime builds up Syria's military and develops a cult of personality around the leader while ruthlessly suppressing internal dissent. But overall living standards rise and Syria experiences a relatively long period of stability
1982
Hafez al-Assad sends his troops in to crush a rebellion by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Up to 10,000 people die as troops bombard the city of Hama. During this period Syrian forces also take part in the civil war in neighbouring Lebanon.
Photo: A Syrian soldier and a member of the pro-Syria Amal militia next to a portrait of Hafez al-Assad in west Beirut, 1987.
1994
Bashar al-Assad, studying as an optician in London, is recalled to Syria as heir-apparent after his elder brother dies in a car crash.
Photo: Syrian girls chant slogans praising president Hafez al-Assad after he was elected to his fifth seven-year term in 1999 (Reuters: Khaled Al Hariri)
2000
Hafez al-Assad dies at the age of 69. Bashar al-Assad is elected unopposed as president with a claimed 97 per cent of the vote.
Photo: Bashar al-Assad at his father's funeral in Damascus, June 2000 (AFP: Rabih Moghrabi)
2007
Bashar al-Assad gets another seven-year term as president. During this period he makes cautious overtures to the West, with the so-called Damascus Spring leading to the release of hundreds of political prisoners. But Amnesty International says the Assad regime is still torturing and persecuting political opponents.
2011
Protests inspired by the wider Arab Spring movement break out in Syria in late January. Syrian forces violently put down a number of protest rallies. In June, Assad promises moves towards reform - but the repression continues. By the end of the year, Syria has been suspended by the Arab League and Assad's troops are engaged in a war with rebel forces, led by deserters gathered under the loose banner of the Free Syrian Army.
Photo: Syrian demonstrators protest against Bashar al-Assad on Christmas Day, 2011 (Reuters)
Source: ABC/Wikipedia/AFP/Reuters
Timeline: Syria and the Assads - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
