https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez_al-Assad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawites
Daddy Assad got swept into power as part of a military coup by the Ba'ath Party shortly after the same thing happened in Iraq with another familiar character, Saddam Hussein.
He then proceeded to rule with the iron fist of a socialist military dictator (with the backing and advice of the Soviets). Up until the year 2000 people in Syria only had access to state sponsored television/radio/news until their information sphere got embiggened first with satellite dishes and later with smartphones which caused the minority tribe in charge to lose control of their internal propaganda narratives.
Note on the map all the lines are straight as Syria was never an actual viable country by design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes–Picot_Agreement
It is a violent tribal society. This goes much deeper than the basics of Sunni/Shia splits, if you are the wrong tribe or clan or from the wrong village or wrong family you deserve a gruesome death, 'etc. This pattern repeats across most of the Middle East region which traditionally needed strong rulers/empires to forcefully hold it together.
I assure you the guys from the various rebel factions, ISIS, 'etc, who beheaded people and cut out their hearts on YouTube were not complaining about over-grazing or human rights.
It didn't start with climate change, it started back here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_the_Ottoman_Empir...