Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“martyr” had been used for both the former president, who died a natural death and his son,
who died in a car crash. It was clear that we would never grasp the subtleties of this defin-
ition, so we left it alone. We were also puzzled at the extent of the use of posters, pictures
and statues in a country where this was notionally discouraged and where it seemed in con-
tradiction to strict religious teachings.
The macho imagery of the leaders and their heroic statues was everywhere. This was not a
family to be messed with as the inhabitants of Hama could testify after their failed uprising
against them in 1982, when from 10,000 to 40,000 people were massacred. This, sadly was
only the start of much worse, recent events.
I have a theory about dictators. They tend to be outsiders, displaced from their birthplace,
from broken families or from religious or ethnic minorities. Hafez Al-Assad comes from
the minority Alawi group, which is more closely linked to the Shia than the Sunni branch
of Islam. He also came from the coastal and remote mountainous province of Latakia (a
French protectorate at the time of his birth), and his country had been part of the Ottoman
Empire for centuries. He was not part of the ruling elite and was the first of his family to
receive a higher education. He was the archetype of an outsider.
