FT: "Turkey's stance will seal the fate of Syria's Ceausescu"

An article published on the British Financial Times daily writes that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reminds of former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and that his fate depends on Turkey's stance in the future. "To understand Mr Assad, remember that he and his father Hafez have held the country in their grip for 42 years. But the onset of sanctions imposed by the European Union, the Arab League and now Turkey mean that Syria's already weakened economy is unlikely to stand the strains of external economic pressure and growing internal opposition," the article writes, adding, "The risk, however, is that a victory for democracy in Syria may come at a considerable price. If Mr. Assad is more like Ceausescu than other eastern European leaders, his country is more like Yugoslavia. Two-thirds of its population is Sunnis, but the regime draws its principal strength from minorities such as the Christians and the Druze and, above all, the heterodox Islamic sect, the Alawites. Over the years the oft-proclaimed secularism of the regime has been little more than a rejection of Sunni Arab nationalism. The worst case scenario is that Syria, like multi-confessional Yugoslavia, descends into chaos and civil war. That is the black cloud that hangs over not only Syria, but also the whole Levant."