It is a Syria in ruins that Bashar Al-Assad, victorious in the last presidential election on Wednesday, May 26, is preparing to lead for the 21st consecutive year. A country ravaged by a war that has killed nearly 400,000 people and thrown millions of Syrians into exile on the roads.
Bashar, the master of chaos, documentary by Antoine Vitkine which will be broadcast on Tuesday June 1 on France 5, looks back on the maneuvers put in place by the Syrian leader to retain his power despite the intervention of Western countries in what was, at the beginning, only a civil war. Thanks to his skilful instrumentalization of the Islamic State and the jihadists, Bashar Al-Assad will succeed in remaining at the head of Syria.
“The Syrian government was not attacking the Islamic State”
At the origin of the Syrian conflict, the “Arab Springs”, peaceful protest movements carried by peoples thirsty for freedom and democracy, which extended to all Arab countries in 2011. If many nations affected by these large-scale popular revolutions see their leaders fall, Bashar Al-Assad, President of Syria, wavers but does not sink. Supported by his historical allies, Russia and Iran, the one who is now considered a dictator implements an unlimited murderous repression against his people, going so far as to use chemical weapons. Ihe international community, supporting the shocked Syrian opposition, is crying out for his departure.
But the arrival of the Islamic State and many jihadists, who take advantage of the destabilization of the region to set up in many Syrian cities in 2012, is a game-changer. Westerners are backing down, for fear of seeing the Islamists seize power. Bashar Al-Assad takes advantage of this. “Bashar understood that if he created an enemy, if he converted all his enemies to jihadism, the West would gradually come back to him”, testifies in the documentary of Antoine Vitkine Firas Tlass, a Syrian businessman in exile. “To many times, we observed that the Syrian government was not attacking the Islamic State”, confirms Robert Ford, American ambassador stationed in Syria from 2011 to 2014, also interviewed in the film. A documentary which reveals behind the scenes of the bitter geopolitical battle in which Syria has been the subject since the beginning of the conflict.
The documentaryBashar, the master of chaos, is broadcast on June 1 at 8:50 p.m. on France 5.