For decades, statues of Hafez al-Assad symbolized power and repression. Today, they fall as Syrians reclaim public spaces ...

In 1970, Hafez al-Assad took power in Syria after a coup he dubbed the “Corrective Movement.” This was after years of intense conflict within the Baath Party, beginning with the 1961 coup ending Syria ...

Rif Dimashq Governorate, Syria - January 14, 2025 The huge toppled statue of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in the Damascus countryside town of Deir Atiyam in Qalamoun remains a symbol of ...

A colossal statue of Hafez al-Assad was once a powerful symbol of Syria’s ruling regime, looming over the Damascus-Aleppo highway. Now, like that regime, it is toppled, and Syrians have been ...

A colossal statue of Hafez al-Assad was once a powerful symbol of Syria’s ruling regime, looming over the Damascus-Aleppo highway. Now, like that regime, it is toppled, and Syrians have been visiting ...

Arriving at the newly designated Yabous checkpoint, visitors were confronted with a startling sight: a torn portrait of Bashar Assad alongside a fading image of his father, Hafez Assad.

Bassel al-Assad died in a 1994 road accident. He had been the presumed successor to his father Hafez al-Assad who set up the paranoid, secretive, repressive system of government that Bashar ...

Some of the changes were less surprising, such as removing all references to ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad. Others, however, sparked swift backlash.