narrator: the alawites' improbable rise to power in syria was set in motion by bashar's father, hafez al-assad. his path to power was through the military, which was dominated by alawites. a rising star in syria's socialist ba'ath party, at age 40, he engineered a coup to seize the presidency. >> hafez al-assad rose to power from the bottom up. he had to fight the battles that came with the coup d'états, that came with trying to corral the different forces of the country into his camp. >> he knew he had to gain support of the other minorities-- the druze, the christians, the shiites. so he said, "i'm a minority entity. you want to be with me because my interests are your interests." >> narrator: hafez al-assad secured his power by putting trusted family members in high government posts. >> the brother is in charge of security, the cousins of the banking system, in-laws in security as well, and military. so the reality is, this is a family business. >> narrator: like saddam hussein in iraq, assad's ba'ath party repressed any ethnic or religious challenges. >> the ba'ath party promised to get ri