If Pope Saint Anicetus, a Syrian from Homs, became Bishop of Rome and ruled over the Catholic Church from 150 to about 167 (the Vatican's list cites 150 to 167 or 153 to 168), important political figures emerged from the city throughout the 20th century, including several heads of state and other high-ranking government officials.
Perhaps the best known was Dr Nour Al Deen Mohammad Ali Al Atassi, who was elected President of Syria between February 1966 and November 1970. Although a member of the Baath Party, this ideologue rose to the position of General Secretary even if his deputy, Salah Jadid, proved to be the man with the golden gun.
Consequently, Jadid deposed the doctor in the 1970 coup d'etat that, shortly thereafter, ushered in Hafez Al Assad's corrective move that ousted Jadid.
Damascus blamed Al Atassi for Syria's loss of the Golan Heights to Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War even though the Syrian Air Force, then under command of Defence Minister Hafez Al Assad proved ineffective. Al Atassi was incarcerated in the notorious Al Mazzih prison in Damascus, although he was never charged or tried. After 22 years in jail, Al Atassi was hospitalised following a heart attack in early 1992, when Paris sought his release and flew him to France for medical treatment. He died in Paris of cancer in early December 1992.
Party motto
Jamal Al Atassi, a cousin of Nour Al Deen Mohammad Ali Al Atassi, was also a leading Baath Party ideologue who earned a doctorate in clinical psychology in 1947, though he ended the practice in 1958 to devote his life to politics. Ironically, he invented the party's motto "One united Arab Nation with an eternal Message," and served as chief editor of the party's daily newspaper, Al Baath. Because he supported the ill-fated union with Egypt that formed the moribund United Arab Republic between 1958 and 1961, Jamal Al Atassi was perceived as a Nasserite, which sealed his fate among die-hard Baathists who never trusted the Egyptian Rayyis.
After the 1961 Nazim Al Kudsi coup, which dissolved the union, Jamal Al Atassi joined the opposition that dedicated its energies to restoring the UAR. Surprisingly, he was not left out of the political scene in 1963, when Nour Al Deen Mohammad Ali Al Atassi became Minister of the Interior, and Jamal Al Atassi became Minister of Information in the cabinet of Prime Minister Salah Al Deen Al Bitar. Uncompromising in his quest for reunification, Jamal Al Atassi was forced to resign within four months, only to form his own party, the Arab Socialist Union.
Ironically, Jamal Al Atassi supported Hafez Al Assad's 1970 corrective movement against his own cousin, with the chimerical vision that the former defence minister would seek reunification.
The wily Al Assad invited Jamal Al Atassi in March 1972 to be part of his National Progressive Front, hoping to win over the die-hard nationalist and his supporters, but the alliance lasted a mere year essentially for the same reasons. Though the Arab nationalist created the Democratic Arab Socialist Union, the party was promptly outlawed.
Jamal Al Atassi's daughter, Suhair, picked up where her father left off. After Hafez Al Assad died in 2000, several Syrian intellectuals led a resurgence of opposition activity, which became known as the "Damascus Spring," and which planted the seeds of the 2011 uprisings.
Although the 2000 gatherings were mere discussions rather than protest activities that mobilised hundreds of thousands a decade later, several politically savvy members adopted reform-minded activism.
Suhair Al Atassi, who founded the Jamal Al Atassi Forum, a discussion group named after her father, soon confronted Damascus' wrath. In 2005, authorities shut down the forum, which was revived online in mid-2011.
She also called on supporters to organise small-scale public protests in front of various Syrian embassies in Western capitals. On March 16, 2011, Suhair was arrested during a demonstration called by some of the relatives of the country's many political prisoners, which led to the Daraa uprisings that started the current cycle of repression. After three weeks in jail, Suhair was released but quickly became the unofficial spokesperson for the "Syrian revolution".
Fawaz Al Akhras, a consultant cardiologist in London, and his wife, Sahar Al Utrih, a retired career Syrian diplomat, hailed from two leading Sunni families in Homs. Their daughter Asma was born in London and grew up in Acton.
After primary and secondary education, Asma graduated from the King's College in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Sciences. A fluent French speaker, the first lady also earned a diploma in French Literature, which was typical of many Homsi elites for several generations. Asma moved to Syria in November 2000 and married Bashar Al Assad in December 2000 and gave him three children: Hafez, Zayn and Karim.
