In the world, many world-class billionaires exist in the form of "families", such as the Morgan family, the Rockefeller family, the DuPont family, etc., and dozens or hundreds of people share the wealth in a pot.
But in the political arena, there are few political families that can flourish.
Because wealth can be divided, money can make money, but power must be concentrated, and the more power is divided, the weaker it becomes, and in the end, the country will be chaotic.
In the ancient royal family, there were many stories of fathers and sons killing each other, and even in modern times, there were many cases of fighting in the same room in the struggle for power.
For example, in the Saudi royal family, the old king Salman appointed his son as the crown prince, and he belittled and arrested his brothers and nephews.
The Syrian Assad family next door is similar.
Rifaat. Assad, is Bashar. President Assad's own uncle is also a veteran who fought the world with the old Assad.
Rifaat's actions have put Syria, which has just emerged from the civil war, into danger again, and Bashar has regarded him as an enemy and has been wanted for many years. But in fact, it was not Bashar who fell out with Rifat first, but his father Assad Sr.
At that time, the elder Assad was very important to his younger brother Rifat, personally brought him into the army, and promoted him step by step after the successful coup.
But Rifaat's greed for power made him lose his mind, and in 1984 he plotted a mutiny to overthrow his brother, and was liquidated by the elder Assad after being suppressed.
After that, Rifaat briefly served as vice president and was sent abroad, only returning when his mother died.
Although Riffatt was kicked out of the country, he relied on his state-level connections to make a fortune in Europe. Many of the media outlets that attacked Assad during the war were fed by Rifaat.
So, the old Assad family, who was born at the bottom, has many brothers, why is Rifaat the only one who is the right-hand man of the old Assad? Why did Rifart in 1984 want a coup d'état to seize power? After leaving Europe, why did Rifaat have to fight against his nephew?
[a]
Brother Assad: To fight a tiger, you need to be a brother
Hafez. Assad, Syria's lion who has ruled the country for three decades, is one of the world's longest-serving dictators. To distinguish him from his son Bashar, he is often referred to as "Old Assad".
The elder Assad's family is from the northern Syrian coastal province of Latakia and is a local Alawite Muslim.
The elder Assad's family is relatively large, quite a lot of land, his father once went out to fight in the army, and after returning to marry several wives, the rest of his life is to have children and support his family. Thus, the elder Assad has more than a dozen brothers and sisters, and nine who are close.
He himself was the eldest of the half-brothers, born in 1930. There are three younger brothers under the elder Assad, and the third in line, and the elder Assad is seven years older than him.
The elder Assad was an ordinary peasant boy, but in high school, he was nodded by his teacher Arsuz and developed nationalist ideas.
This Zaki. Arsuz was not an idle man, he was one of the founders of the "Arab Baath Party" and was considered a pioneer of Syrian independence.
After graduating from high school, the elder Assad wanted to become a doctor, but at this time the family situation was tense, a large number of younger siblings had not grown up, and the elder Assad could not afford to pay the tuition, so he had to go to a free military school.
After graduating from military school, the elder Assad joined the Air Force and flew in the Second Middle East War. Because he was an Alawite and had military exploits, the old Assad was later sent to study in the Soviet Union and led a squadron after returning home.
However, the old Assad, who became an officer, did not forget his brother.
At that time, most of the brothers of the Assad family worked in the countryside and did not go to school, except for his younger brother Richat. Rifart also insisted on studying, and he was studying economics at college when his brother became a war hero.
The elder Assad believed that economics was useless in the Syrian government, after all, Syria was unstable at that time, and the main task was to fight the war. So he dropped his younger brother out of college and followed him into the army.
After a few years in the army, Rifat rose to the rank of officer, and was also sent by his brother to the Soviet Union to study armor.
After returning home, Rifaat worked with his brother, and at that time the elder Assad and his comrades-in-arms Umran and Jadid were already in power in the Social Baath Party.
In 1966, Jadid coup d'état, and the elder Assad overthrew President Amin, and Jadid came to power.
In fact, the old Assad also has ambitions for power, but he is more forbearing, and he promised to support the coups of Umran and Jadid, but he did not want to be the first bird.
After the successful coup d'état in 1966, Jadid led the country "all the way to the left", suppressing nationalist and religious forces and moving closer to the Soviet Union. But Syria was defeated in the Third Middle East War in 1967, which led to resentment of Jadid.
The old Assad has endured it for so long, and now there is no opponent of his own externally - the Social Baath Party is dominant, and dissidents and even comrades-in-arms in the party have been washed away.
After the elder Assad came to power, his younger brother Rifat was the person he relied on the most, after all, the Syrian government averaged a cabinet every year, and a coup d'état every three years, because of the gap between the party, the government, and the army. Without his cronies by his side, the elder Assad is prone to instability on the throne.
So, the elder Assad took control of the party and government, he handed over the security of the capital to his younger brother, and asked Rifaat to organize a force to control Damascus, and all the members were to choose Alawite Muslims.
This force was later known as the Syrian Republican Guard.
[two]
Richat: Big brother is sick, it's time for me to play
After the elder Assad came to power, he reversed the radical reforms of his predecessors, and Syria no longer blindly ran to the single path of the Soviet Union, but was eclectic, with religion and foreign investment. His subordinates are petty and filthy, and he also turns a blind eye.
Under the command of the elder Assad, all the power groups in Syria have been harmonious and have united to do a good job in development. Coupled with the continuous development of the oil industry, Syria's GDP growth rate once exceeded 12%, becoming an impressive economic power in the Middle East.
At that time, as a leader from a military background, the elder Assad also attached great importance to the army. He first attached importance to the training and equipment renewal of the army, and second, he attached importance to the command and control of the army.
But in terms of control, the old Assad is very "sick".
The supreme commander of the Syrian army is himself, and the defense of the city of Damascus below was handed over to his younger brother Rifat, and his troops were reorganized into the Republican Guard, which swelled to more than 20,000 people, and there was no shortage of tanks and armored vehicles.
His other brother, Jamil, took control of the Alawi militia in his hometown and became the king.
Except for the three Assad brothers, no one can touch the military power.
Four years after the elder Assad came to power, Syria and Egypt joined forces to launch the Fourth Middle East War, which was the highlight of the five Middle East wars for the Arabs.
At that time, Syrian armored troops penetrated the Golan Heights, and although they were eventually held back, the Israeli army suffered heavy casualties, and Syria's performance gained international respect.
The battle was the foundation of the old Assad regime, which had withstood the test of war, and the cult of personality of the old Assad became popular, and his portrait hung in the streets.
In those days, the Sunnis, as the most populous group in Syria, also had a lot of influence within the government, and the elder Assad respected the Sunnis and included them in his own power system in order to unite.
However, Sunnis became increasingly extreme in religious ideology, and in the late 70s, due to the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the spread of terrorist attacks in the Middle East, Sunni Muslims began a struggle for power in Syria. They bombed military academies, bombed governments, and even assassinated national leaders.
On June 26, 1980, the elder Assad received a visit from the President of Mali in Africa, and as a result, the Brotherhood assassins took the opportunity to assassinate the elder Assad with pistols and grenades.
Although the elder Assad survived, he completely lost patience with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In the early 80s, when oil prices fell and economic problems arose in Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood took the opportunity to operate in the Syrian province of Hama and established a Syrian branch.
In early February 1982, the Muslim Brotherhood revolted in Hama province, capturing the city of Hama, the capital of Hama, and killing hundreds of government officials.
The elder Assad ordered his younger brother Rifat to lead troops to quell the rebellion, and Richat led 20,000 men to fight in Hama Province, completely annihilating the insurgents, during which nearly 30,000 civilians were killed by mistake.
The incident, known as the "Hama massacre", cooled relations between Syria and Arab countries. But the elder Assad did not blame his younger brother Rifat, because he also gave the order to cut the grass and eradicate the roots, and if the Muslim Brotherhood did not get rid of it, there would be no peace in Syria.
Rifat, on the other hand, was more respected for counterinsurgency, was appointed vice president, and attracted more and more supporters.
At this time, Rifaat also floated up, feeling that he could be equal to his brother.
It happened that in 1983, the elder Assad collapsed from a heart attack, and doctors said that the situation was not optimistic. And the old Assad set up an ad hoc committee before entering the hospital, and found six of his cronies to govern the country, which did not include Vice President Rifaat.
Rifat was very dissatisfied, depressed all the time, and finally, at the behest of those around him, he launched a rebellion in Damascus and attacked the presidential palace.
Rebellion has always been a matter of no turning back, and Rifart felt that as long as he controlled the capital, even if his brother survived in the end, the government would be his own.
But he underestimated the perseverance of old Assad, and his brother actually struggled to get up from the hospital and walked to the barracks to exhort the soldiers not to rebel, and Rifaat suddenly became the commander of the bare pole.
[three]
"Uncle Guo" was not angry, and the Assad family removed him
In fact, the elder Assad did not hand over power to Rifaat because he felt that his younger brother had ambitions for the position of president.
The elder Assad said to Rifat after the coup: "Hafez . Assad is the state. This sentence has been repeated by Rifaat for half his life.
The coup failed, and Rifaat felt that he could not escape death, but after all, blood is thicker than water, and the old Assad did not kill the killer.
After leaving, the elder Assad also recognized his title of "vice president of Syria", which can be regarded as a comfort to his younger brother.
In 1992, the brothers' mother died, and Rifart returned to China for the funeral, and has been at home ever since.
Two years later, the elder Assad's eldest son and future successor, Basil, died in a car accident, and Rifaat thought he had another chance. However, the elder Assad called his second son Bashar back to China and sent him to the army to train his successor, cutting off Rifaat's last hope.
Rifart's thief is not dead, and he is still secretly sketching his own power network. It was not until 1998 that his sabotage of Bashar's succession route was discovered by the elder Assad, who was disheartened and announced the removal of Rifaat from his post and the complete expulsion of him from the country.
Rifaat has since left Europe, but he has been the "second-in-command" for decades, and he still enjoys the treatment of the country's leader overseas.
Rifart simply used his connections to start a business in Europe.
In fact, the governments of France, Britain, Spain, and Italy later confirmed that Rifaat had been engaged in money laundering in Europe.
It turned out that Rifart used his status as the leader of the country to register an offshore company, helped the black gold in the Middle East and the Americas bleach, and also transferred money from China through his son to launder the embezzled money.
With this business, Rifaat amassed an astonishing fortune, he remarried in Europe and had a bunch of children.
In 2000, the elder Assad died of illness, and his younger brother Rifaat was not allowed to return to China. Rifaat now took off his mask, claiming to be the president of Syria in Europe, and his nephew had no right to inherit the country.
Bashar ignored his uncle at first, he was busy with internal affairs, and he made the "Damascus Spring" in the country, which was well received.
Seeing that Bashar was doing a good job, Rifat's voice was much quieter, and he concentrated on business.
During the civil war, Rifaat also organized an anti-Assad "democratic committee", modeled after the old Assad's revolutionary committee, and became its own chairman, organizing a gang of shrimp soldiers and crabs to discredit Bashar in various ways.
During the same period, while wealthy businessmen and politicians in Syria were transferring their assets, Rifaat took the opportunity to make a windfall.
Since 2014, the European Union has begun to investigate Rifaat's corruption, and it turns out that since he was first kicked out of the country in the 80s, Rifaat has embezzled more than a billion pounds of property in Syria and transferred it to Europe.
The money was divided into more than a dozen accounts, belonging to his eight sons and two wives.
The French and British governments believe that Rifaat's actions constitute an international crime, but Rifaat produced a series of evidence to show that his property was given to him by his brother Assad Sr., as well as the "donation" of the Saudi royal family to him.
As of 2017, Rifaat has several villas, a castle, a horse farm, and an office floor in France. On the west and south coasts of Spain, the Rifaat family has more than 500 properties, most of which are tourist residences, with a total value of more than 600 million euros.
Most of this property was confiscated by the Spanish and French governments after 2017, and Rifaat was also sentenced to prison in France, but he himself is 80 years old and is not eligible to serve his sentence.
The Assad family did not care about the situation of this "imperial uncle", and the children of Rifaat in the country also disowned him. Because of Rifat's bad reputation in Syria, the government has repeatedly reiterated that he will be arrested if he returns home.
Therefore, Rifaat could only stay in France and watch his property being divided among Westerners. This "rebel uncle" has been tossed for 40 years, and then there is no news, and it is likely that he will spend his old age in depression.
Literature / Shogakuno
Reference: "The Struggle for Power within the Syrian Ruling Circle", Wang Shangzhi