Bashar Al-Assad’s Security Shake-Up Is A Slap In The Face To His Late Father

Updated March 19, 2024 at 3:10 p.m.*

-Analysis-

In Syria, reports emerged recently about restructuring the security apparatus of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, including changes in top positions, reassigning or replacing top officials. In January, Kifah Melhem notably replaced Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, 76, as head of the National Security Bureau.

Some analysts view the restructuring as an alignment shift amid Russia and Iran’s muted struggle over Syria. Others downplayed the changes as a regular reshuffle, especially after reports that Mamlouk’s health was deteriorating. A third group said the changes are part of promised reforms that Assad pledged when he normalized ties with Arab countries last year.

Yet another theory is that the changes are part of Bashar al-Assad’s years-long effort to escape the shadow of his father, former President Hafez al-Assad, more than two decades after his death and his perceived victory in a global war.

The real reason behind replacing Mamlouk, the face of Syrian security for decades, may never be made clear. Mamlouk began his career in the 1980s, keeping secrets about the chemical program and is known for being a “closed box,” allowing no information leaks.

Isolating the old guard

Replacing Mamlouk with Melhem is Assad’s most recent step in process of isolating the old guard, who were appointed by Hafez al-Assad. This process began more than two decades ago, when Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father and began to put in place a “new generation” that has run the country in an era of war and blood. His decisions and actions aim not only to uproot his father’s legacy, but also to write a dark chapter in Syria’s history.

He began with measures such as issuing a new 1,000 Syrian pound banknote, which did not feature Hafez al-Assad, the “Founding Father”, like the previous version. In 2017, a new 2,000 note featured a wartime picture of Bashar al-Assad.

The shadow of his father has apparently triggered something in Assad’s mind.

Assad did not always have this inclination, at least before the war. Shortly after he assumed office as successor to his father, he said “President Hafez is still ruling Syria from his grave,” at a meeting of regional Baath Party leadership, attended by intelligence service chiefs.

The shadow of his father has apparently triggered something in Assad’s mind. That included chants of his supporters he heard during his speeches when the civil war began more than a decade ago: “They fought you, and forgot who your father was!”

In recent years, after what he perceived a “victory” in Syria’s civil war, a “global war”, Assad has distanced himself from his father’s shadow. Yet Assad’s regime has become merely a front; Russia and Iran virtually control his regime, despite the unprecedented economic slide.

Uprooting a legacy 

Syrians were accustomed to seeing two photos on every wall, in every corner, and next to every checkpoint: on the right, Bashar al-Assad and on the left, his father, Hafez. Today, the two photos are both of Bashar — and if anyone shares the wall with him, it is his brother Maher, not his father.

But the biggest and clearest indications for Assad’s dream of a “next era” emerged in 2023. The first indication came in a Sky New Arabia interview in August, when he was asked about his plans to transfer power to his son — as he had from his father.

“President Hafez Assad had no role in me being president.”

Assad denied the widely known story about a constitutional amendment that allowed him to take power, and said “President Hafez al-Assad had no role in me being president, because he did not secure any civil or military position for me through which I could be president.”

Assad claimed “did not discuss this point with him until in the last weeks of his life,” and that he was elected by the Baath Party after his father’s death.

The second indication came a month later, when a giant monument for Bashar was unveiled in the Homs countryside, launching the era of Bashar statues across the country; Hafez has more than 3,000 statues across the country.

Assad is uprooting, step by step, what remains of his father’s legacy, in an effort to build his own legacy, more than two decades after taking power.

*Originally published March 15, 2024, this article was updated March 19, 2024 with enriched media.