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Assef Shawkat
Assef Shawkat ( ar, آصِفُ شَوْكَتْ, ʾĀṣif Šawkat; 15 January 1950 – 18 July 2012) was the deputy Minister of Defense of Syria from September 2011 until his death in July 2012. He was the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, having married his older sister Bushra. He and three other top Syrian government officials were killed on 18 July 2012 in Damascus during a deadly bomb attack allegedly organized by the Free Syrian Army. Early life and education Assef Shawkat was born into an Alawite family in the village of Al-Madehleh in the Tartus region of Syria on 15 January 1950. He grew up in modest comfort and studied law and history at Damascus University before joining the Syrian army in the late 1970s. During this time, Shawkat married and had five children. Army career After joining the army, Shawkat began working his way up through the ranks, and by 1982 he was an officer in the Defense Companies paramilitary force headed by Rifaat al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ministry Of Defense (Syria)
The Ministry of Defense () is a government ministry office of the Syrian Arab Republic, responsible for defense affairs in Syria. Ministers of Defense State of Syria *Jamil al-Ulshi (1920s) *Yusuf al-'Azma (1920s) Mandatory Syria (First Syrian Republic) *Abd al-Ghaffar al-Atrash (September 1941) * Nasuhi al-Bukhari (19 August 1943 –?) (First Syrian Republic) *Jamil Mardam Bey (5 April 1945 – 26 August 1945) and (23 August 1948 – 12 December 1948) *Khalid al-Azm (26 August 1945 – 30 September 1945), (12 December 1948 – 17 April 1949) and (13 February 1955 – 13 September 1955) *Saadallah al-Jabiri (23 October 1945 – 27 April 1946) * Nabih al-Azma (27 April 1946 – 17 June 1946) * Ahmad al-Sharabati (28 October 1946 – 23 May 1948) *Husni al-Za'im (17 April 1949 – 1 July 1949) * Abdullah Atfeh (1 July 1949 – 28 December 1949) *Akram El-Hourani (28 December 1949 – 4 June 1950) *Fawzi Selu (4 June 1950 – 13 November 1951) and (9 June 1952 – 19 July 1953) *Z ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Intelligence (Syria)
The Military Intelligence Directorate ( ar, شعبة المخابرات العسكرية, translit=Shu'bat al-Mukhabarat al-'Askariyya), is the military intelligence service of Syria. Although its roots go back to the French mandate period (1923–1943), its current organization was established in 1969.Conflict Studies Journal at the University of New Brunswick . Lib.unb.ca. Retrieved on 19 October 2010. Its predecessor organisation was called the '''' (the Second Bureau). It is headquartered at the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coup D'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, military, or a dictator. Many scholars consider a coup successful when the usurpers seize and hold power for at least seven days. Etymology The term comes from French ''coup d'État'', literally meaning a 'stroke of state' or 'blow of state'. In French, the word ''État'' () is capitalized when it denotes a sovereign political entity. Although the concept of a coup d'état has featured in politics since antiquity, the phrase is of relatively recent coinage.Julius Caesar's civil war, 5 January 49 BC. It did not appear within an English text before the 19th century except when used in the translation of a French source, there being no simple phrase in English to convey the contextualized idea of a 'knockout blow to the existing administratio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hama
, timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 33 , geocode = C2987 , blank_name = Climate , blank_info = BSk , website = , footnotes = , name = Hama ( ar, حَمَاة ', ; syr, ܚܡܬ, ħ(ə)mɑθ, lit=fortress; Biblical Hebrew: ''Ḥamāṯ'') is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 854,000 (2009 census), Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria after Damascus, Aleppo and Homs. The city is renowned for its sev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of Syria
The president of Syria, officially the president of the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: رئيس سوريا) is the head of state of the Syrian Arab Republic. They are vested with sweeping powers that may be delegated, at their sole discretion, to their vice presidents. They appoint and dismiss the prime minister and other members of the Council of Ministers (the cabinet) and military officers. Bashar al-Assad is the 19th and current president of Syria. Bashar Al-Assad is the son of former president, Hafez al-Assad, who was the longest-serving president serving 29 years. Al-Assad is currently the second longest-serving president marking the 22nd year of his presidency in 2022 when he entered the post on 17 July 2000. Term of office Article 88 of the 2012 constitution states that the president serves a seven year term and "can be elected for only one more successive term." Article 155 states that Article 88 applies to the president "as of the next presidential elections." Eligibi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rifaat Al-Assad
Rifaat Ali al-Assad ( ar, رِفْعَتُ عَلِيِّ ٱلْأَسَدِ, Rifʿat al-ʾAsad; born 22 August 1937) is the younger brother of the late President of Syria, Hafez Assad, and Jamil al-Assad, and the uncle of the incumbent President Bashar al-Assad. He is alleged by some sources to be the commanding officer responsible for the Hama massacre of 1982. Later declassified material backs his claims that his brother Hafez al-Assad was responsible, as do a number of commentators. Despite accusations, Rifaat has always denied culpability. Rifaat lived in exile in France for 36 years and returned to Syria in October 2021 after being found guilty in France of acquiring millions of euros diverted from the Syrian state. In September 2022, France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation, confirmed the ruling. Early life and education Rifaat al-Assad was born in the village of Qardaha, near Lattakia in western Syria on 22 August 1937. He studied Political Science and Economics at Da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defense Companies (Syria)
The Defense Companies ( ar, سرايا الدفاع; ) were a paramilitary force in Syria that were commanded by Rifaat al-Assad. Their task was to defend the Assad government, and Damascus, from internal and external attack. In 1984 the 55,000 strong Defense Companies was broken up and merged into the Syrian Arab Army as the Republican Guard (Syria), Republican Guard, and the 14th Special Forces Division, comprising 5 Special Forces regiments. The rump force then became the 569th Armored Division, which years later became the 4th Armoured Division (Syria), 4th Armoured division History and deployment The lessons of the Six-Day War of 1967 pointed to the fact of the weak airborne and heavy armor capabilities of the Syrian Military. There was a perceptible lack of expertise in combined arms operations involving a combined deployment of armoured, artillery and airborne infantry units. Top Syrian military commanders and Hafez al Assad recognized the need to create a powerful and op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syrian Army
" (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six-Day War War of Attrition Black September Yom Kippur War Lebanese Civil War 1982 Lebanon War Islamist uprising in Syria Mountain War (Lebanon) Operation Desert Storm Syrian Civil War , decorations = , battle_honours = , battle_honours_label = , disbanded = , website = , commander1 = Marshal Bashar al-Assad , commander1_label =President of Syria , commander2 = Gen. Ali Mahmoud Abbas , commander2_label = Minister of Defense , commander3 = Gen. Abdul Karim Mahmoud Ibrahim , commander3_label = Chief of the General Staff , notable_commanders = , identification_symbol = , identification_symbol_label = , identification_symbol_2 = , identification_symbol_2_label = The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) ( a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damascus University
The University of Damascus ( ar, جَامِعَةُ دِمَشْقَ, ''Jāmi‘atu Dimashq'') is the largest and oldest university in Syria, located in the capital Damascus and has campuses in other Syrian cities. It was founded in 1923 through the merger of the School of Medicine (established 1903) and the Institute of Law (established 1913). Until 1958, it was named the Syrian University, but the name changed after the founding of the University of Aleppo. Damascus University was one of the most reputable universities in the Arab World before the war in Syria started in 2011. The University of Damascus consists of several faculties, higher Institutes, intermediate institutes and a school of nursing. One of the institutions specializes in teaching the Arabic language to foreigners, which is the largest institution of its kind in the Arab world. History In 1901, the establishment of the Office of the School of Medicine in Damascus was approved and in 1903 this school, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tartus Governorate
Tartus Governorate, also transliterated as Tartous Governorate, ( ar, مُحافظة طرطوس / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ṭarṭūs'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in western Syria, bordering Latakia Governorate to the north, Homs and Hama Governorates to the east, Lebanon to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It is one of the few governorates in Syria that has an Alawite majority. Sources list the area as 1,890 km² or 1,892 km², with its capital being Tartus. History The governorate was historically part of the Alawite State, which existed from 1920–1936.Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley. "Syria and Lebanon Under French Mandate." London: Oxford University Press, 1958. It was formerly part of Latakia governorate, but was split off circa 1972. The region has been relatively peaceful during the Syrian civil war, being a generally pro-Assad region that had remained under government control. However in 2013 massacres against Sunni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alawites
The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Islam. The Alawites revere Ali (Ali ibn Abi Talib), considered the first Imam of the Twelver school. The group is believed to have been founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century. Ibn Nusayr was a disciple of the tenth Twelver Imam, Ali al-Hadi and of the eleventh Twelver Imam, Hasan al-Askari. For this reason, Alawites are also called ''Nusayris''. Surveys suggest Alawites represent an important portion of the Syrian population and are a significant minority in the Hatay Province of Turkey and northern Lebanon. There is also a population living in the village of Ghajar in the Golan Heights. Alawites form the dominant religious group on the Syrian coast and towns near the coast, which are also inhabited by Sunnis, Christians, and Ismail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Syrian Army
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the government of Bashar al-Assad. (Pages 6, 14–17.) Initially a formal organization at its founding, its structure gradually dissipated by late 2012, and the FSA identity has since been used by various opposition groups. In late 2011, the FSA was considered the main Syrian military defectors group. It had success against far better equipped government forces. From July 2012 onward, the group was weakened by decreasing discipline, growing Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War, infighting, and a lack of funding, while Syrian opposition#Other groups affiliated with Syrian opposition, Islamist groups became dominant within the armed opposition. The Free Syrian Army aims to be "the military wing of the Syrian people's opposition to the regi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
