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93-564: The formation of the congress followed the July 1919 " Pan-Syrian " Syrian National Congress . The addition of Palestine to the name followed the Franco-British boundary agreement of December 1920 which formally defined the territory of Palestine out of the region viewed by the Pan-Syrian nationalists as Greater Syria . On 21 September, after twenty-six days of discussion, the joint congress issued

186-654: A Maoist term, as the Six-Day War was proclaimed as a "people's war" against Israel). The Syrian Communist Party played an important role in Jadid's government, with some communists holding ministerial posts, and Jadid established "fairly close relations" with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . The government supported a more radical economic program including state ownership over industry and foreign trade , while at

279-446: A deadly civil war began after Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown of the 2011 Syrian revolution , which continues to this day. Michel Aflaq is today considered the founder of the Ba'athist movement, or at least its most notable contributor. Other notable ideologues include Zaki Arsuzi , who influenced Aflaq, and Salah al-Din al-Bitar , who worked directly with Aflaq. From the founding of

372-508: A pan-Arab icon, the rival Ba'athist regimes in Syria and Iraq both incorporated Saladin into their official propaganda. State propaganda compared Hafez al-Assad to Saladin in official portraits, statues, literature, etc. as part of the wider promotion of the pervasive personality cult of Assadism . After his father's death, Bashar al-Assad inherited the personality cult and intensified it with technocratic themes. In contemporary Syria, Saladin

465-463: A "new society". Aflaq supported the idea of a committed activist revolutionary party based on the Leninist model, which in practice was based on democratic centralism . The revolutionary party would seize political power and from there on transform society for the greater good. While the revolutionary party was numerically a minority, it was an all-powerful institution which had the right to initiate

558-456: A Ba'ath party would ensure a policy of proselytization to keep the uneducated masses out of the party until the party leadership was imbued with the thoughts of enlightenment. However, the party was also a political organisation, and, as Aflaq notes, politics was "a means [... and] is the most serious of matters at this present stage". Ba'athism was similar to Leninist thought in that a vanguard party would rule for an unspecified length to construct

651-403: A consequence of the split, Arsuzi took Aflaq's place as the official father of Ba'athist thought in the pro-Syrian Ba'ath movement, while in the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath movement Aflaq was still considered the de jure father of Ba'athist thought. The Iraqi Ba'ath wing granted asylum to Aflaq after seizing power through the coup of 1968 . The Al-Assad family and Saddam Hussein emerged dominant in

744-627: A five-year-long struggle, and with the end of the war, on 17 April 1946, Syria became a recognized independent state. However, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict of 1948, and the rise of pan-Arabist nationalist movements, led to multiple coups d'état, the most famous that of 1949 by Husni al-Za'im . It was during this revolutionary period that the Ba'ath Socialist Party emerged for the first time. The party, founded in 1947, promoted pan-Arabist and anti-imperialist ideas. It quickly gained popularity, becoming

837-472: A major problem was the disillusionment of the Arab youth. Disillusionment led to individualism and individualism was not a healthy sign in an underdeveloped country , in contrast to developed countries , where it was seen as a healthy sign. The party's main task before the revolution was to spread enlightened ideas to the people and to challenge reactionary and conservative elements in society. According to Aflaq,

930-547: A means to empower the Muslim World . Through his books like Taba'i al-lstibdad (The Nature of Tyranny) and Umm al-Qura (The Mother of Villages—Mecca), Kawakibi defied the Ottoman sultan and promoted Islamic revolution to overthrow various political tyrannies. Kawakibi believed that pristine Islam opposed tyranny and advocated a political system that was a middle road between democracy and dictatorship. He argued that tyranny leads to

1023-444: A person truly believed these lies; ultimately, it was whether they acted as though they did." —Tamara Al-Om, British-Syrian political scientist Israeli historian Avraham Ben-Tzur labeled the Ba'ath Party which took power in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état as the "Neo-Ba'ath", claiming they had gone beyond their pan-Arab ideological basis by stressing the preeminence of the military apparatus. This ideological transformation

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1116-572: A policy, even if the majority of the population were against it. As with the Leninist model, the Ba'ath party would dictate what was right and what was wrong, since the general population were still influenced by the old value and moral system. According to Aflaq, the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) against the Ottoman Empire failed to unify the Arab world because it was led by a reactionary class. He believed

1209-527: A public statement to the League of Nations demanding: 1) Recognition of the independence and national rule (al-Sultan al-Qawmi) of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine 2) Recognition of the right of these countries to unite in the framework of a civilian government, responsible to a parliament elected by the people, and in association with the other Arab lands; 3) Immediate annulment of the Mandate; 4) The departure of

1302-505: A pure form of pan-Syrian nationalism is the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), founded in 1932 by Antoun Saadeh . Saadeh, a strong proponent of the irredentist notion of Greater Syria , was an admirer of Adolf Hitler and incorporated Nazi symbolism into his party insignia. The SSNP considers the reason for its loss of territory to the "foreign" Israelis that many Syrians embraced pan-Arab views which led to

1395-424: A reality all of its own – far removed from reality itself – derived from its own ideology , creating 'a world of appearances' that perpetuated its power and dominance over its people. Constructing a reality that was 'permeated with hypocrisy and lies' where ... 'the repression of culture is called its development' ... its people were forced to ‘ live within a lie ’ ... It was not important whether or not

1488-608: A religious party, nor should it be one". During his vice presidency, at the time of the Shia riots, Saddam discussed the need to convince large segments of the population to convert to the party line 's stance on religion. When Aflaq died in 1989, an official announcement by the Iraqi Regional Command stated that Aflaq had converted to Islam before his death, but an unnamed Western diplomat in Iraq told William Harris that Aflaq's family

1581-598: A revolutionary process, and a revolution could only succeed if the revolutionaries were pure and devoted nearly religiously to the task. Aflaq supported the Leninist view of the need for a vanguard party following a successful revolution, which was not an "inevitable outcome". In Ba'athist ideology, the vanguard was the Ba'ath party. Aflaq believed that the youth were the key for a successful revolution. The youth were open to change and enlightenment because they still had not been indoctrinated with other views. According to Aflaq,

1674-467: A truly free society. We did not adopt socialism out of books, abstractions, humanism, or pity, but rather out of need ... for the Arab working class is the mover of history in this period. Socialism is an important pillar of the Ba'athist programme. Although influenced by Western socialists and Marxist parties, the Ba'ath party founders constructed a socialist vision which they believed to be more adaptable to Arab historical context. Articles 26–37 of

1767-586: Is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation and development of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a socialist revolutionary government. The ideology is officially based on the theories of the Syrian intellectuals Michel Aflaq (per the Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party ), Zaki al-Arsuzi (per the Syrian-led Ba'ath Party ), and Salah al-Din al-Bitar . Ba'athist leaders of

1860-545: Is as fearful of Islam today as she has been in the past. She now knows that the strength of Islam (which in the past expressed that of the Arabs) has been reborn and has appeared in a new form: Arab nationalism. Though a Christian, Aflaq viewed the creation of Islam as proof of "Arab genius" and a testament of Arab culture, values, and thought. According to Aflaq, the essence of Islam was its revolutionary qualities. Aflaq called on all Arabs, both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to admire

1953-523: Is based on the principles of secularism , Arab nationalism , pan-Arabism , and Arab socialism . Ba'athism advocates socialist economic policies such as state ownership of natural resources, protectionism , distribution of lands to peasants, and planned economies . Although inspired by Western socialist thinkers, early Ba'athist theoreticians rejected the Marxist class-struggle concept, arguing that it hampers Arab unity. Ba'athists contend that socialism

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2046-447: Is not a luxury in the life of the nation but its basis and its essence and its meaning. Fundamentally, Aflaq had an authoritarian perspective on liberty . In contrast to the liberal democratic concept of liberty, in Aflaq's vision, liberty would be ensured by a Ba'ath party which was not elected by the populace because the party had the common good at heart. Historian Paul Salem considered

2139-467: Is not worthy of freedom Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi , — In Taba’i al-lstibdad ("The Nature of Tyranny") Rashid Rida's comrade Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1854-1902), a Syrian of Kurdish origin born in Aleppo, was another major Muslim figure who championed Arab unity. Al-Kawakibi believed that Arabs are the best people to lead Islamic revival , and promoted the re-kindling of Arab consciousness as

2232-637: Is portrayed as a national hero in mass media, Arab TV shows, educational curricula, popular culture, and conservative Muslim circles. Butrus al-Bustani , a Mount Lebanon -born convert from the Maronite Church to Protestantism , started one of the region's first nationalist newspapers, Nafir Suria in Beirut in the aftermath of the Mount Lebanon civil war of 1860 and the massacre of Christians in Damascus in

2325-499: Is the only way to develop modern Arab society and unite it. The two Ba'athist states which have existed ( Iraq and Syria ) prevented criticism of their ideology through authoritarian means of governance. Ba'athist Syria has been labelled " neo-Ba'athist " because the form of Ba'athism developed by the leadership of the Syrian Ba'ath party is quite distinct from the Ba'athism which Aflaq and Bitar wrote about. Ba'athism originated in

2418-503: Is the true goal of Arab unity... Arab unity is the obligatory basis for constructing a socialist society". With the rise of the Syrian neo-Ba'athists, however, this focus shifted. As American scholar John F. Devlin writes, the "Ba'ath Party, which started with unity as its overwhelming top priority, which was prepared to work within a variety of Middle Eastern political systems, which wanted social justice in society, had pretty much disappeared by

2511-896: The Ahvaz region of Iran , the Sinai Peninsula , and the Cilicia region of Turkey. Historically, it is mostly after the end of the First World War that the pan-Syrian nationalism became very political with the creation of many political parties from the Syrian diaspora. Amongst these organizations were: the Syrian Union Party and the Syrian Moderates Party (both originating in Cairo); the National Democratic Party (Buenos Aires);

2604-603: The Arab Ba'ath Movement until the mid-1950s in Syria and the early 1960s in Iraq , the ideology of the Ba'ath Party was largely synonymous with that of Aflaq's. For more than 2 decades, Michel Aflaq's 1940 essay compilation, titled, " Fi Sabil al-Ba’ath " (trans: "The Road to Renaissance") was the primary ideological book of the Ba'ath party . Additionally, Aflaq's views on Arab nationalism are considered by some, such as historian Paul Salem of

2697-610: The Ayyubid sultan Saladin , the Sunni leader who re-captured Jerusalem and led Muslims to victory against European Crusaders . Following the Balfour declaration , Sykes-Picot deal and imposition of the French Mandate , Saladin was popularized by nationalists and Islamists as a heroic figure of Syrian resistance against Zionism and Western imperialism . Capitalizing on his status as

2790-578: The Ba'athist narratives of the Assad regime . The Free Syrian Army has incorporated symbols of nationalist insignia into their flags and military uniforms during the Syrian civil war . Syrian nationalism arose as a modern school of thought in the late 19th century, in conjunction with the Nahda movement, then sweeping the Ottoman -ruled Arab world . One of the towering historical figures in Syrian nationalism has been

2883-449: The Cold War . Michel Aflaq supported the Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri 's view that language was the principal defining and unifying factor of the "Arab nation" because language led to the unity of thought, norms and ideals. History was another unifying feature for them, as it was the "fertile ground in which our consciousness took shape". The centre of Aflaq's Ba'athist thought was

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2976-490: The Middle East Institute , as romantic and poetic. Aflaq's ideology was developed in the context of decolonisation and other events in the Arab world during his life. It recast conservative Arab nationalist thought to reflect strong revolutionary and progressive themes. For example, Aflaq insisted on the overthrow of the old ruling classes and supported the creation of a secular society by separating Islam from

3069-626: The Young Turks . At the same time, he had established a secret society known as the "Society of the Arab Association" ( Jam'iyyat al-Jami'a al-Arabiyya ), which was clandestinely making efforts for the establishment of an Islamic Empire spanning the Arabian Peninsula , Greater Syria and Iraq ; with its government being headquartered in Damascus. The empire was to be headed by an Arab Caliph , and

3162-592: The interwar period . He was inspired by the French Revolution , the German and Italian unification movements, and the Japanese economic "miracle" . His views were influenced by a number of prominent European philosophical and political figures, among them Georg Hegel , Karl Marx , Friedrich Nietzsche and Oswald Spengler . Arsuzi left the League of Nationalist Action (LNA) in 1939 after its popular leader died and

3255-484: The nationalism of the region of Syria , as a cultural or political entity known as " Greater Syria ". It should not be confused with the Arab nationalism , which is the official state doctrine of the Syrian Arab Republic 's ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party , and it should not be assumed that Syrian nationalism necessarily propagates the interests of modern-day Syria or its government . Rather, it predates

3348-595: The "Arab spirit against materialistic communism " and "Arab history against dead reaction ". It holds ideological similarity and a favourable outlook to the Non-Aligned Movement politics of Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru , Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser , and Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito and historically opposed affiliation with either the American -led Western Bloc or the Soviet -led Eastern Bloc during

3441-542: The 1947 Ba'ath Party Charter outlines the key principles of Ba'athist socialism. Some of them are: " Michel Aflaq was a deep admirer of Marxist tenets, and he considered the Marxist concept of the importance of material economic conditions in life to be one of modern humanity's greatest discoveries. However, he disagreed with the Marxist view that dialectical materialism was the only truth, as Aflaq believed that Marxism had forgotten human spirituality. While believing that

3534-455: The Arab world together and liberty provided the Arab people with freedom, socialism was the cornerstone which made unity and liberty possible as no socialism meant no revolution. In Aflaq's view, a constitutional democratic system would not succeed in a country such as Syria that was dominated by a "pseudo-feudalist" economic system in which the repression of the peasant nullified the people's political liberty. Liberty meant little to nothing to

3627-478: The Arab world, all classes, not just the working class, were working against capitalist domination of the foreign powers . What was a struggle between various classes in the West was in the Arab world a fight for political and economic independence. For Aflaq, socialism was a necessary means to accomplish the goal of initiating an Arabic " renaissance " period, in other words, a period of modernisation. While unity brought

3720-411: The Ba'ath party's main priorities, according to Aflaq, was to disseminate new ideas and thoughts and to give individuals the liberty they needed to pursue ideas. To do this, the party would interpose itself between the Arab people and both their foreign imperialist oppressors and those forms of tyranny that arise within Arab society. While the notion of liberty was an important ideal to Aflaq, he favored

3813-512: The Ba'ath party's slogan, "One Nation, Bearing an Eternal Message". Aflaq thought that the Arab nation could only reach this renaissance through a revolutionary process towards the goals of "unity, liberty, and socialism". In Aflaq's view, a nation could only "progress" or "decline", and Arab states of his time were consistently declining because of their "illnesses"—" feudalism , sectarianism , regionalism , intellectual reactionism ". These problems, Aflaq believed, could only be resolved through

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3906-588: The British and the French with the Sykes-Picot agreement . After a brief attempt in 1919 to establish an independent Arab Kingdom of Syria under King Faisal , in 1920 the territory was split into three separate regions under the control of France. After years of conflict and revolts, in 1936 Syria managed to negotiate a treaty of independence from France and became a nation with Hashim al-Atassi as its first president. In

3999-501: The Caliph was to appoint a president for every five-year term, from a list of candidates suggested to him by the Council of Representatives. What is a nation or a people? Is it a heap of creatures . . . slaves of a king? Or is it a community connected by ties of race, language, fatherland, and common rights?!.. A nation that does not feel, in its entirety or its majority, the tortures of tyranny

4092-578: The French and British forces from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine; 5) The annulment of the Balfour Declaration . + These three delegates traveled to Geneva from London, where they were part of a delegation authorized by the Fourth congress of the Palestine Arab Congress . Pan-Syrianism Syrian nationalism , also known as Pan-Syrian nationalism (or pan-Syrianism), refers to

4185-550: The Iraqi government's war against the British and organized volunteers to go to Iraq and fight for the Iraqi government. However, Arsuzi opposed Gaylani's government, considering the coup to be poorly planned and a failure. Because of this, Arsuzi's party lost members and support that transferred to Aflaq's movement. Arsuzi's direct influence in Arab politics collapsed after Vichy French authorities expelled him from Syria in 1941. Aflaq's Arab Ba'ath Movement's next major political action

4278-528: The Leninist model of a continuous revolutionary struggle and he did not develop concepts for a society in which liberty was protected by a set of institutions and rules. His vision of a one-party state ruled by the Ba'ath party, which disseminated information to the public, was in many ways contrary to his view on individual interactions. The Ba'ath party through its preeminence would establish "liberty". According to Aflaq, liberty could not just come from nowhere as it needed an enlightened progressive group to create

4371-705: The New Syria Party and the Syrian National Society (both in the United States). The National Democratic Party, the Syrian Moderates Party, the New Syria Party, and the Syrian National Society advocated a unified, federated and independent state of Greater Syria, with the United States as a guarantor of its independence. However, this nationalism did not last for long as these parties sympathized with Lebanese and Arab nationalisms. The only party that did not wane

4464-546: The Syrian and Iraqi Ba'ath parties, respectively, eventually building personalist dictatorships in the two countries. Hostilities between the two Ba'ath movements lasted until the death of Hafez al-Assad in 2000, after which his successor Bashar al-Assad pursued reconciliation with Iraq. Throughout their reigns, the two Ba'athist autocracies built police states that enforced mass surveillance and ideological indoctrination and subordinated all student organisations , trade unions , and other civil society institutions to

4557-442: The autocratic rule of the Ottoman dynasts and the domination of Turkish nationalist CUP in imperial politics. He was also a vehement opponent of European colonial powers and urged the Arab people to launch revolutionary action to resist Europe's imperialist plots. During World War I , Rida issued a fatwa urging Syrians to support the Ottoman empire against Allied colonial powers and simultaneously oppose groups linked to

4650-431: The building of Greater Syria as a step forward to building an Arab nation. The pure form completely rejects the idea of an Arab nation, stating that Greater Syria is a complete nation on its own. Syrian nationalism is a generally secular movement, believing that a Syrian can have any religion indigenous to the area: Sunni or Shia Muslim , Christian or Jewish . This has attracted many Christians to it (as well as to

4743-619: The cause of the progressive revolution and its effect. A major obstacle to the success of the revolution in Aflaq's mind was the Arab League . He believed that the Arab League strengthened both regional interests and the reactionary classes, thus weakening the chance of establishing an Arab nation. Because the majority of Arab states were under the rule of the reactionary classes, Aflaq revised his ideology to meet reality. Instead of creating an Arab nation through an Arab-wide progressive revolution,

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4836-631: The chaotic years of the 1950s and 1960s, the Military Committee of the Syrian Ba'ath party , led by its civilian leadership, launched a coup in 1963 that established a one-party state in Syria. In 1966, the military wing of the Syrian Ba'ath initiated another coup which overthrew the Old Guard led by Aflaq and Bitar, resulting in a schism within the Ba'athist movement : one Syrian-dominated and one Iraqi-dominated . Scholar Ofra Bengio claims that as

4929-475: The classical Ba'athist leaders of the old guard, including Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar . The coup led a permanent schism between the Syrian and Iraqi regional branches of the Ba'ath Party, and many Syrian Ba'athist leaders defected to Iraq. In the original Ba'ath ideology, pan-Arabism was the means to reach the end of both economic and social transformation. As an early party document states, " [s]ocialism

5022-533: The concept would work for small and weak societies, he thought that the concept of dialectical materialism as the only truth in Arab development was wrong. For a people as spiritual as the Arabs, the working class was just a group, albeit the most important group, in a much larger movement to free the Arab nation. Unlike Karl Marx , Aflaq was uncertain what place the working class had in history. In contrast to Marx, Aflaq also believed in nationalism and believed that in

5115-452: The dominance of Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the conflict, where they did not care about sacrificing what Syrians had for their agenda and personal benefits instead of limiting other non-Syrian Arabs to supporting Syrians' decisions. According to Antoun, this happened when the Syrians had a weak ideology that did not unite them. Assadism Ba'athism , also spelled Baathism ,

5208-458: The early 1960s. In its place rose Ba'ath organisations which focused primarily on their own region, which advocated, and created where possible, authoritarian centralised governments, which rested heavily on military power and which were very close to other socialist movements and were less distinctively Ba'athist". Munif al-Razzaz , the former Secretary General of the National Command of

5301-631: The equally non-religious Arab nationalism), since the Christian churches form a religious minority in the Middle East , and often fear being dwarfed by Muslim majority populations. Syria's geography as a crossroads also explains the diversity of the area of Syria. Syrian nationalism often advocates a "Greater Syria", based on ancient concepts of the boundaries of the region then known as "Syria" (stretching from southern Turkey through Lebanon, Palestine into Jordan), but also including Cyprus , Iraq , Kuwait ,

5394-453: The existence of the modern Syrian state, which succeeded French mandate rule in 1946. The term refers to the loosely defined Levantine region of Syria, known in Arabic as ash-Shām ( Arabic : ٱلـشَّـام ). Some Syrian opposition forces fighting against the current Arab Republic government are strong advocates of historical Syrian nationalism that harkens back to a "Golden Age", contesting

5487-463: The existing monarchy and the reactionary class. To copy the German example, he thought, would be disastrous and would lead to the enslavement of the Arab people. The only way to combat the reactionary classes lay in "progressive" revolution, Aflaq claimed, central to which is the struggle for unity. This struggle could not be separated from the social revolution, for to separate these two would be to weaken

5580-466: The feature baʽth (literally meaning " renaissance "). This renaissance, according to Aflaq, could only be reached by uniting the Arab nation, and it would transform the Arab world politically, economically, intellectually, and morally. This "future renaissance" would be a "rebirth", while the first Arab renaissance had been the seventh-century emergence of Islam , according to Aflaq. The new renaissance would bring another Arab message, summed up in

5673-494: The following years, Syria passed from being still under the influence of France to being controlled by Vichy France in 1940 during World War II, to becoming again occupied by British and Free French forces with the 1941 Syria–Lebanon campaign . After 1941, the Prime Minister of Iraq Nuri Pasha al-Said expressed his support for a Greater Syrian country that includes Iraq , Syria, Lebanon , Palestine and Jordan . After

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5766-407: The general poverty-stricken populace of Syria, and Aflaq saw socialism as the solution to their plight. According to Aflaq, the ultimate goal of socialism was not to answer the question of how much state control was necessary or economic equality, but instead socialism was "a means to satisfy the animal needs of man so he can be free to pursue his duties as a human being". In other words, socialism

5859-472: The idea that the nation is a part of the Arab world , it also claims Syria as the leader of the Arab people, opposing therefore pan-Arabist movements that would position all Arabs on the same level. The movement culminated in the creation of a party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) founded in 1932 by Antoun Saadeh . A modern-day political movement that advocates the Greater Syria's borders with

5952-508: The initial founding of the Military Committee by disgruntled Syrian officers exiled in Cairo in 1959, the chain of events and the total corruption of Ba'athism proceeded with intolerable logic". Salah al-Din al-Bitar , a member of the Ba'ath old guard, agreed, stating that the 1966 Syrian coup d'état "marked the end of Ba'athist politics in Syria". Ba'ath party founder Michel Aflaq shared

6045-438: The land now known as Syria was left without a common identity to bond the different ethnicities together. Already during the period of the Tanzimat , thinkers like Butrus al-Bustani, belonging to the Nahda movement, were claiming the existence of a natural Syrian nation, or Great Syria, also known as the region of the Levant. Nonetheless, after World War I, the area was subject to the division into spheres of influence operated by

6138-417: The main task would be of progressive revolutionaries spreading the revolution from one Arab country to the next. Once successfully transformed, the created progressive revolutionary countries would then one by one unite until the Arab world had evolved into a single Arab nation. The revolution would not succeed if the progressive revolutionary governments did not contribute to spreading the revolution. Liberty

6231-466: The major figures in the pan-Arab trend was the Syrian Islamist cleric Muhammad Rashid Rida , who played a key role in the formation of Arab societies and campaigned for the autonomy of Arab vilayets like Syria from the Ottoman Empire . Through his seminal pan-Islamist journal Al-Manar , Rida wrote on a wide range of issues, with topics covering religion, politics, science, technology, and culture. A strong proponent of Arab unity; Rida criticized

6324-449: The many languages of the Syrian people and instead believed that if a national language has to be used for shared communication and written culture, without losing everyone's other language, it has to be 'Syrianised' Arabic. Apart from the conventional pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism advocated by most Syrian nationalists, a minority of Syrian nationalists also articulated independent pan-Syrianism. Although pan-Syrian trends may include

6417-562: The modern era include the former president of Iraq Saddam Hussein , former president of Syria Hafez al-Assad , and his son, the current president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad . The Ba'athist ideology advocates the " enlightenment of the Arabs " as well as the renaissance of their culture , values and society. It also advocates the creation of one-party states and rejects political pluralism in an unspecified length of time—the Ba'ath party theoretically uses an unspecified amount of time to develop an "enlightened" Arabic society. Ba'athism

6510-495: The movement. The reactionary classes, who are content with the status quo , would oppose the "progressive" revolution. Even if the revolution succeeded in one "region" (country), that region would be unable to develop because of the resource constraints, small populations and anti-revolution forces held by other Arab leaders. For a revolution to succeed, the Arab world would have to evolve into an "organic whole" (literally become one). In short, Aflaq though that Arab unity would be both

6603-402: The party and the state. Both regimes pursued Arabization of ethnic minorities and legitimized their authoritarian rule by implanting conspiratorial anti-Zionist , anti-Western sentiments upon the citizens. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003 during the United States invasion , and the Iraqi Ba'ath party was subsequently banned under the new De-Ba'athification policy . In Syria,

6696-439: The party fell into disarray, founding the short-lived Arab National Party. It dissolved later that year. On 29 November 1940, Arsuzi founded the Arab Ba'ath . A significant conflict and turning point in the development of Ba'athism occurred when Arsuzi's and Aflaq's movements sparred over the 1941 Iraqi coup d'etat by Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani and the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War . Aflaq's movement supported Gaylani's government and

6789-464: The political thought of Syrian philosophers Michel Aflaq , Salah al-Din al-Bitar , and Zaki Arsuzi . They are considered the founders of the ideology, despite forming different organizations. In the 1940s, Bitar and Aflaq co-founded the Ba'ath Party , while Arsuzi founded the Arab National Party and later the Arab Ba'ath . The closest they ever came to being members of the same organization

6882-458: The region's mixture of different peoples . However, Greater Syria does not have a history as a state, and its inhabitants do not identify as members of a Greater Syrian nation. The idea of a Greater Syria is not inherently political; it bases itself on culture, seeing that people from the region share many traditions. Pan-Syrian nationalism can be distinguished in two forms: a pragmatic and a pure form. The pragmatic form accepts pan-Arabism and sees

6975-449: The role Islam had played in creating an Arab character, but his view on Islam was purely spiritual and Aflaq emphasized that it "should not be imposed" on state and society. Time and again, Aflaq emphasized that the Ba'ath party was against atheism , but also against fundamentalism , as the fundamentalists represented a "shallow, false faith". According to Ba'athist ideology, all religions were equal. Despite his anti-atheist stance, Aflaq

7068-556: The ruling class, who supported the monarchy as the leaders of the Arab Revolt did, were synonymous with a reactionary class. In Ba'athist ideology, the ruling class is replaced by a revolutionary progressive class. Aflaq was bitterly opposed to any kind of monarchy and described the Arab Revolt as "the illusions of kings and feudal lords who understood unity as the gathering of backwardness to backwardness, exploitation to exploitation and numbers to numbers like sheep". According to Aflaq, it

7161-478: The same year. Bustani, who was deeply opposed to all forms of sectarianism, said Ḥubb al-Waṭan min al-Īmān ("Love of the homeland is a matter of faith"). As early as 1870, when discerning the notion of fatherland from that of the nation and applying the latter to Greater Syria , Francis Marrash would point to the role played by language, among other factors, in counterbalancing religious and sectarian differences, and thus, in defining national identity. One of

7254-419: The second biggest party in the Syrian parliament in the 1954 elections. The Ba'ath party played a major role in offering the Syrian community a new imagined identity that could even connect them to other countries in the Arab world under existent traditions. Syrian nationalism posited a common Syrian history and nationality , grouping all the different religious sects and variations in the area, as well as

7347-437: The sentiment by stating, "I no longer recognise my party!" The coup left Salah Jadid in power, and under him, the Syrian government abandoned the traditional goal of pan-Arab unity and replaced it with a radical form of Western socialism. The far-left shift was reflected strongly in the ideological propaganda of the new government, marked by widespread usage of terminology such as " class struggle " and " people's war " (itself

7440-416: The state. Not all these ideas were his, but it was Aflaq who succeeded in turning these beliefs into a transnational movement. The core basis of Ba'athism is Arab socialism , socialism with Arab characteristics which is separate from the international socialist movement and pan-Arab ideology. Ba'athism as developed by Aflaq and Bitar is a unique left-wing , Arab-centric ideology. It claims to represent

7533-488: The unitary Ba'ath Party, agreed with the distinction of "neo-Ba'ath", writing that from 1961 onwards there existed two Ba'ath parties: "the military Ba'ath Party and the Ba'ath Party, and real power lay with the former". According to Razzaz, the military Ba'ath (as paraphrased by Martin Seymour) "was and remains Ba'athist only in name; that it was and remains little more than a military clique with civilian hangers-on; and that from

7626-516: The weakening of the national spirit and the degradation of national culture. Kawakibi's second major work, Umm al-Qura , was about an Islamic congress of representatives from all across the Muslim world, who held debates to discuss Islamic socio-political revival. Rashid Rida popularised the work through Al-Manar in 1902. As in many other countries of the region, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire,

7719-493: The weakness of such a system "quite obvious". Aflaq saw liberty as one of the defining features of Ba'athism. Articulation of thoughts and the interaction between individuals were a way of building a new society. According to Aflaq, it was liberty which created new values and thoughts. Aflaq believed that living under imperialism , colonialism , or a religious or non-enlightened dictatorship weakened liberty as ideas came from above, not from below through human interaction. One of

7812-499: Was a strong supporter of secular government and stated a Ba'athist state would replace religion with a state "based on a foundation, Arab nationalism, and a moral; freedom". During the Shia riots against the Iraqi Ba'ath government in the late-1970s , Aflaq warned Saddam Hussein of making any concessions to the rioters, exclaiming that the Ba'ath Party "is with [religious] faith, but is not

7905-458: Was a system which freed the population from enslavement and created independent individuals. However, economic equality was a major tenet in Ba'athist ideology, as the elimination of inequality would "eliminate all privilege, exploitation, and domination by one group over another". In short, if liberty was to succeed, the Arab people needed socialism. Aflaq labeled this form of socialism Arab socialism to signify that it existed in harmony with and

7998-489: Was continued after the 1966 Syrian coup d'état , led by radical leftist officers including Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad , which moved the party further into a militarist "neo-Ba'ath" organization that became independent of the National Command of the unified Ba'ath party . Following its violent seizure of power, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 400 people, the neo-Ba'athist military committee purged

8091-522: Was in 1939, when, together with Michel Quzman, Shakir al-As and Ilyas Qandalaft, they briefly tried to establish a party. The party likely failed due to personal animosity between Arsuzi and Aflaq. Arsuzi formed the Arab Ba'ath in 1940 and his views influenced Aflaq, who alongside the more junior Bitar founded the Arab Ihya Movement in 1940, later renamed the Arab Ba'ath Movement in 1943. Though Aflaq

8184-429: Was in some ways subordinate to Arab nationalism . According to Aflaq, who was a Christian , the teaching and reforms of Muhammad had given socialism an authentic Arab expression. Socialism was viewed by Aflaq as justice, and the reforms of Muhammad were both just and wise. According to Aflaq, modern Ba'athists would initiate another way of just and radical forms just as Muhammad had done in the seventh century. Europe

8277-483: Was influenced by him, Arsuzi initially did not cooperate with Aflaq's movement. Arsuzi suspected that the existence of the Arab Ihya Movement, which occasionally titled itself "Arab Ba'ath" during 1941, was part of an imperialist plot to prevent his influence over the Arabs by creating a movement of the same name. Arsuzi was an Arab from Alexandretta who had been associated with Arab nationalist politics during

8370-435: Was its support of Lebanon 's war of independence from France in 1943. Still, the movement did not solidify for years until it held its first party congress in 1947 and formally merged with Arsuzi's Arab Ba'ath Party. Although socialist values existed in the two Ba'ath movements from their inception, they weren't emphasized until the party merged with Akram Al-Hawrani 's Arab Socialist Movement in 1953. Taking advantage of

8463-632: Was not aware that he had undergone any religious conversion. Prior to, during, and after the Gulf War of 1990–91, the government became progressively more Islamic, and by the beginning of the 1990s, Saddam proclaimed the Ba'ath party to be the party "of Arabism and Islam". "Much like Vaclav Havel 's description in The Power of the Powerless of life under a totalitarian regime which 'demands conformity, uniformity and discipline' ... Syrian regime narrated

8556-515: Was the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, later founded. As the pan-Syrian ideology is based on a shared geographical culture, it is open to different opinions about the state of languages. The pan-Arabism seemed to exclude minorities as they would not necessarily speak Arabic, the pan-Syrian ideology gained followers. While al-Bustani considered Standard Arabic an essential part of this identity, Saadeh considered Arabic to be one of

8649-414: Was the reactionary class's view of Arab unity which had left the Arab Revolt "struggling for unity without blood and nerve". He saw the German unification as proof of this, putting him at odds with some Arab nationalists who were Germanophiles . In Aflaq's view, Bismarck 's unification of Germany established the most repressive nation the world had ever seen, a development which could largely be blamed on

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