Having usurped power from the ruling prime minister of the nation, rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa declared his victory on December 9, 2024, to Syria and to a stunned world. His rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, had recently launched a lightning offensive which toppled the hereditary dictatorship that had been in power in the country since 1971. Initially, HTS only controlled a small section of the northwest of Syria. In just 11 days, they marched onto the capital, Damascus, prompting the former president Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia.
“This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the entire Islamic nation,” the new president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa said.
Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, took power in Syria following a coup on the government in 1970. His regime was characterized by sham elections, multiple wars with neighboring countries, and the increasing consolidation of power. He planned his successor to be his eldest son, Bassel. However, following Bassel’s death during a 1994 car crash, Bashar, Hafez’s second eldest son, returned from London, where he had been studying to be an ophthalmologist. When Hafez died in 2000, many outside observers believed that Bashar would lead a more moderate government considering his education in the West.
This quickly proved to be incorrect. Bashar al-Assad led a brutal dictatorship—often considered harsher than that of his father. The dictatorship curtailed many remaining freedoms and committed extreme violations of human rights. These included ethnic cleansing, war crimes and chemical weapons attacks targeting civilian populations. The scale of these actions causes continued skepticism about the country, even with the new government.
“I don’t trust the new regime considering what has happened in the past,” junior Anirudh Arvind said.
In response to these extreme actions, mass protests against the Assad regime started in 2011, largely invigorated by similar revolutions in neighboring states during the Arab Spring. This eventually ignited a devastating multi-sided civil war. Among many NHP students, such a drastic revolt against the ruling regime was not particularly unexpected.
“The revolution was inevitable,” junior Arvin Ghai said. “The prior government went too far with all the violence they inflicted over the last few decades.”
Many groups tried to influence the region, including the Syrian government (with assistance from Russia), Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Syrian Democratic Forces (a Kurdish-based group still active in the northeast), Turkey (which still controls areas of Syria), the Syrian Free Army (an opposition group with support from the United States) and the terrorist group ISIS. This war has devastated Syria, with hundreds of thousands of deaths (including 300 thousand civilians), 7.2 million people internally displaced and 6.2 million refugees fleeing the country.
The war had been protracted in recent years, with little major developments until the rapid offensive launched by the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Salam on November 27, 2024. The group had not been a particularly major force in the country until this offensive, but was able to topple the decades-long rule of Assad in Syria.
“I hope they do the right things for their people, and early indications look like they are,” AP Government & Politics teacher Mr. Galvin said.
While often radical during the war, the new government has expressed moderate sentiments and has pledged to protect minorities. They have also begun prosecutions against senior officials of the Assad regime.
The future for the foreign relations of the nation remains unclear. Given that Assad had been a constant factor in the affairs of Syria for decades, many nations, particularly within the western world, have taken caution in establishing ties with the new government. The United States currently has two thousand troops in the country, sent there in order to fight ISIS.
“Realistically, they’re going to demilitarize under the command of [President Trump] as he shifts towards new goals,” senior Tristan Jacob said.
This drastic shift in the Syrian government marks an opportunity for real change in the country. However, only time will tell how the new government will treat the people of this war-torn nation.
