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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

Michel Aflaq

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(born 1910, Damascus, Syriadied June 23, 1989, Paris, France) Syrian social and political leader. While studying at the University of Paris (192934), he came to believe that the Arab nationalist struggle had to oppose both the native aristocracy and foreign rulers. Hoping to unite all the Arab states into a single socialist nation through nonviolence, he helped establish the Bath Party in 1946 and served as its teacher, theorist, and organizer. He persuaded the Syrian government to form the United Arab Republic with Egypt in 1958, but Syria withdrew from it in 1961. His career in Syrian politics ended in 1966 when he moved to Lebanon. Pan-Arabism.

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Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:

Michel 'Aflaq

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Michel 'Aflaq (1910-1989) was the founder and spiritual leader of the Arab Socialist Resurrection party, called the Ba'th party, for more than 25 years. He lived in Syria until 1966, and after being forced into exile, he assumed power within the Ba'th party in Iraq.

Michel 'Aflaq was born in 1910 in the Midan Quarter of Damascus, Syria, to a Greek Orthodox family of five children. His father was a local wheat dealer. 'Aflaq was educated in Greek Orthodox schools in Damascus and won a scholarship to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. He graduated from the Sorbonne with honors in history in 1936 and returned to Damascus to teach at the Tahjiz secondary school. 'Aflaq quit teaching in 1944 to concentrate full time on political activities.

While in France 'Aflaq was close to many Communists and wrote articles for several French Communist publications. In the late 1930s he became disenchanted with the Communists and the Syrian Communist party, and in 1940 he founded the Arab Resurrection party, known as the Ba'th party. He also in 1946 founded the party newspaper, al-Ba'th, which became a principal vehicle for his prolific writings.

Michel 'Aflaq was a dedicated Arab nationalist and a firm believer in socialism. A philosopher and visionary more than a practical politician, he had a strong personality and was highly intelligent. His long political career ultimately left him with influence in various parts of the Arab world outside his native land. In the 1940s and 1950s 'Aflaq organized political meetings and rallies in Syria and motivated party workers by providing long-range political analysis. He would often rely on his long-time friend, close companion since childhood, and party co-founder Salah al-Din al-Bitar to put these theories into policies.

'Aflaq's long political career took many turns. In 1947, and again in 1949, he ran unsuccessfully for the Syrian Parliament. But in between, in August 1949, he served as minister of education in a Hashim al-Atasi cabinet. In 1954 the party he and al-Bitar founded merged with the Socialist party of Akram al-Hawrani under the new name Arab Socialist Resurrectionist party. Al-Hawrani was a populist from the northern Syrian city of Hama. The new party also made the decision in 1954 to expand operations into neighboring Arab countries, and party leaders were present at several international socialist conferences in the mid-1950s.

Between 1958 and 1963, when the Ba'th party took power in both Syria and Iraq, 'Aflaq was engaged in considerable political maneuvering. He and his party initially supported the 1958 union of Egypt and Syria, but only 18 months later 'Aflaq fled to Beirut, Lebanon, disillusioned. He returned to Syria in September 1961 when the union with Egypt was dissolved and immediately tried to reassert his authority, which al-Hawrani had in the meantime tried to usurp. A May 1962 party national congress expelled al-Hawrani, but factionalism continued to plague the party as some in the party wanted to reestablish links with Egypt.

In February 1963 the Ba'th party took power in Iraq. The party also seized power in Syria the following month. But the party's rise to power only intensified party factionalism in Syria and Iraq, and the process undermined 'Aflaq's leadership of the Ba'th party movement. Over the years 'Aflaq had been unable to develop strong ties with the young military members in the Syrian Ba'th party who paid little attention to the older civilian leaders of the party. In 1965 'Aflaq lost his position as secretary general of the party, a position he had held for 25 years, but was given the honorary title of founder-leader.

Although he was in exile from Syria after February 1966, this was not the first time he had trouble or had to leave his country. During the 1940s and 1950s he was jailed frequently. He went into exile briefly in 1953, in 1959, and in 1964. In November 1966 the young military leaders of the Ba'th party in Syria threw 'Aflaq out of the party. However, he went on to become a leader of an international branch of the party from a base in Baghdad. Branches of the Ba'th party existed in most Arab countries, and 'Aflaq was the visionary for many of their leaders.

From the party's beginning 'Aflaq was the chief author of its ideology. The basic doctrine of the Ba'th party was summarized by its slogan: "Unity, liberation, socialism: One Arab nation having an immortal mission." This Arab nation was a permanent entity in history, and Arabism was defined as the feeling and consciousness of being Arab. For 'Aflaq and his supporters, the Arab nation comprised the entire area between the Sahara desert and the Atlantic and the Persian Gulf. The party proposed to make this Arab nation modern and secular, with full rights of citizenship for women. Islam would be secularized and made part of Arab culture, and all religious, communal, regional, racial, or tribal divisions would be subsumed into one Arab nation.

The overriding priority of the party was given to Arab unity, but the party did not develop a clear strategy for achieving unity. Liberation, the second Ba'th goal, was exceedingly popular with the post-World War II Arab generation, which wanted to be done with all forms of foreign domination. The third part of 'Aflaq's triad, socialism, in the early years of the party played a secondary role to concerns about Arab nationalism and unity and liberation. The form of socialism envisaged then was mild and allowed for private enterprise. Despite 'Aflaq's close ties in the early 1930s to Communism, the party constitution did not show any strong ties to Marxism.

The role of the party in 'Aflaq's conception was to be the vanguard of the people, and this vanguard represented the new Arab generation which would bring the people out of decades of neglect and backwardness into a new nation. Ba'th means resurrection. While the elitist role of the party was evident, in the early, formative years the system of government which the party espoused was not clear. The Ba'th party did use the electoral process to gain access to power in Syria, but abandoned that process in 1957 when the opportunity of unity with Egypt emerged.

'Aflaq clearly captured the imagination of politically aware Arabs in many countries, especially in the period 1946 to 1956. This was a time of incredible expansion of his party in Syria and elsewhere. The stress on nationalism, unity, and liberation won many hearts and minds. In the late 1960s and 1970s, however, when these parties obtained power in Syria and Iraq, practical considerations of policies and running governments divided the Ba'th party elites, and a new generation with different views emerged, leaving 'Aflaq with vastly diminished status in his movement in his later years.

'Aflaq lived his last years with the title of Pan-Arab General Secretary of the Iraqi Ba'th party, a position which ceremonially placed him above Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, though 'Aflaq's contributions to politics were minimal. He lived in Baghdad in virtual isolation until his deteriorating health necessitated a move to Paris to seek treatment. On June 10, 1989, 'Aflaq underwent heart surgery but never left the hospital, dying two weeks later. At the time of his death, a statement was issued by the Ba'th party leaders, stating 'Aflaq "led Arab masses for decades in their struggle against imperialism and for Arab unity." The statement also claimed that 'Aflaq had converted from Christianity to Islam during his life, but did not want this information to be interpreted politically, so he didn't make this announcement during his lifetime.

Further Reading

Michel 'Aflaq and the Ba'th Party are discussed prominently in several good books written about postindependence Syria. Among the better books are: Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa, edited by Bernard Reich (1990); The Struggle for Syria: Study of Postwar Arab Politics, 1945-1958, by Patrick Seale (1965); The Ba'th Party: A History from Its Origins to 1966, by John F. Devlin (1976); Syria, by Tabitha Petran (1972); The Arab Ba'th Socialist Party History, Ideology, and Organization, by Kamel S. Abu Jaber (1966); The Struggle for Power in Syria, by Nikolaos van Dam (1979); and Syria Under the Ba'th, 1963-1966, by Itamar Rabinovich (1972).

Gale Encyclopedia of the Mideast & N. Africa:

Michel Aflaq

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1910 - 1989

Syrian Christian pan-Arab nationalist; intellectual, teacher, journalist, and politician; one of the founders of the Baʿth party.

Michel (also Mishayl) Aflaq was born the son of a Greek Orthodox grain merchant in the Maydan quarter of Damascus. During the French mandate over Syria, he began his secondary education in the Greek Orthodox lyceneum in Damascus (1922 - 1926), but after long-standing disagreements with students and teachers, he transferred in his final year to the Damascus state secondary school (altajhiz). He studied at the University of Paris (1928 - 1934), where he took the licentiate in law. After returning to Damascus, he taught history in the state secondary school and in the French lay secondary school. He participated in Arab nationalism in Damascus and Paris, but after returning to Damascus devoted himself to literary activities, writing short stories, a novel, and a play. Social reform was his preoccupation in his earliest political action - articles published in al-Tali, a weekly that he and Salah al-Din al-Bitar, a fellow student and friend in Paris, and others published for six months in 1935 to 1936. Aflaq and Bitar were attracted by Marxism and were friendly with communists in Paris and in Syria, but they never joined the party. The French author André Gide (1869 - 1951) was their greatest influence; the two friends became disillusioned by communist support for the 1936 Franco - Syrian treaty and the denunciation of the communists by intellectuals such as Gide.

With the start of World War II, Aflaq and Bitar organized a group of pan-Arab students, but the group's principal activity before 1943 was the distribution of occasional handbills. These circulars were identified simply as from al-Ihya al-Arabi (the Arab Awakening) or, from the later half of 1941 on, al-Baʿth al-Arabi (the Arab Resurrection), a term that Zaki al-Arsuzi had used to designate a similar group of students formed by him in 1940. Meanwhile, in May 1941, Aflaq and Bitar organized a group to send arms and volunteers to assist Rashid Ali al-Kaylani against the British.

Aflaq's literary activity won him a substantial reputation, and his teaching had a great impact on some students. Aflaq and Bitar were of middle economic status, but their families were considered notable and aristocratic. Nevertheless, with fewer than ten members in 1943, growth was slow and organization weak until two better positioned notables, Jalal al-Sayyid of Dayr al-Zawr and Midhat al-Bitar of Damascus, joined the leadership during 1942 to 1943. Thereafter, the undefined group without a fixed name became in 1943 the movement (haraka), in 1944 the party of the Arab Resurrection (al-Baʿth al-Arabi), with a permanent office, and in 1946 a newspaper. The followers of Arsuzi - now led by Wahib Ghanim - then joined, and a congress of 247 members met in Damascus to adopt a constitution on 4 April 1947.

Aflaq was elected the first amid (dean) and thereafter held, at least nominally, the leading position in the Baʿth party, as well as the editorship of the newspaper. Yet he was soon the focus of unending controversy. The most detailed information is provided by self-interested sources other than Aflaq, but these are consistent with each other and the public actions of the party. Aflaq possessed both ambition and envy. He ran without success for the Syrian parliament in 1943 and 1947. He was minister of education during the Hinnawi period but resigned when he failed to be elected to the constituent assembly; then when al-Sayyid was offered a place in the cabinet, Aflaq and Bitar foreclosed the appointment by demanding two positions. Unlike alSayyid, Aflaq had no power base of his own. Consequently, he was neither willing nor able to prevent the appropriation of the party by Akram alHawrani (also spelled Hurani, Hourani). Although party rules forbade membership by the military, Aflaq cooperated with Hawrani, whose greatest strength was a following in the officers corps. Despite the opposition of al-Sayyid, the Baʿth and Hawrani's Arab Socialist party cooperated and merged in November 1952 to form the Arab Socialist Baʿth party. Aflaq and Hawrani became political exiles from January to October of 1953, but in 1954 their party numbered 2,500, in contrast to the 500 of premerger Baʿth in 1952. Hawrani's military friends and his political strength and skill kept the party at the center of power until Syria's union with Egypt in 1958 - the formation of the United Arab Republic (UAR). Aflaq and Hawrani had been instrumental in this, but they defected at the end of 1959 and moved to Beirut (Lebanon). The party organization had been amended in 1954 to reflect its pan-Arab character, which was based on its growth outside Syria. Aflaq had been reelected secretary general and a member of the National Command (the executive body composed of representatives from the various regions [countries]), and he had retained these positions even though the party had been dissolved in Syria. As a strong pan-Arab, he broke with Hawrani, who took a Syrianist line, especially after Syria's secession from the UAR in 1961.

Aflaq's position in the party enabled him to take an active part in both Iraqi and Syrian politics after their Baʿthist coups in early 1963, but as the military Baʿthists gained control in Syria, Aflaq's influence waned until finally, following the coup of 23 February 1966, he fled Syria and was expelled from the party. During the rivalry between the Syria Baʿth and the Iraqi Baʿth, which came to power in 1968, the Iraqis continued to recognize Aflaq as secretary general of the party. In Syria, he was sentenced to death in absentia in 1971, and Arsuzi was accorded the honor of being the true founder of the Baʿth. Aflaq moved to Baghdad around 1980 and died there in 1989. At his death the Iraqi Baʿth announced that he had long been a secret convert to Islam.

Aflaq's version of Arabism is idealistic and metaphysical; it presents the ideology that became standard by the 1930s - Islamic modernism is combined with the historical vision of the Arab nation that holds that from the time of the earliest-known Arabs, the ancient Semitic peoples, they have been in perpetual conflict with aggressive neighbors - notably the Aryans - including the Europeans. Periods of Arab power and glory have been followed by corruption and disunion due to foreign influences and abasement by imperialism, from which the nation has recovered by returning to its true culture. The greatest of these awakenings was engendered by the gift of Islam, which, in Aflaq's version, was induced or earned by the prophet Muhammad's acting for the nation. To regain the lost greatness, according to Aflaq, every Arab must act as Muhammad did.

Amidst the chaos in Baghdad that accompanied the fall of the Baʿthist government in Iraq at the hands of invading U.S. troops in the spring of 2003, the tomb and mosque complex built over Aflaq's grave was looted (including by a Western journalist, who openly wrote about his act). The American-selected provisional government of Iraq later reportedly ordered the destruction of the tomb as part of the "de-Baʿthification" program in Iraq. Before this could occur, the tomb complex was found to conceal a secret Baʿth party archive containing over three million documents.

Bibliography

Aflaq, Michel. Fi sabil al-baʿth (In the path of resurrection). Beirut, 1959; 2d edition, 1963.

Aflaq, Michel. Maʿraka al-masir al-wahid (The battle of the sole destiny). Beirut, 1958; 2d edition, 1963.

Aflaq, Michel. Nuqtat al-bidaya: Ahadith baʿd al-khamis min haziran (The beginning point: Talks after the fifth of June). Beirut, 1971.

Devlin, John F. The Baʿth Party: A History from Its Origins to 1966. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1976.

Salem-Babikian, Norma. "A Partial Reconstruction of Michel Aflaq's Thought." Muslim World 67 (October 1977): 280 - 294.

— C. ERNEST DAWN

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Michel Aflaq

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"Aflaq" redirects here. For the insurer, see AFLAC.
Michel Aflaq
Secretary General of the National Command of the Iraq-based Ba'ath Party
In office
February 1968 – 23 June 1989
Deputy Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
Preceded by None–post established
Succeeded by Saddam Hussein
Secretary General of the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
In office
1954 – April 1965
Preceded by None–post established
Succeeded by Munif al-Razzaz
Personal details
Born 1910
Damascus, Ottoman Syria
Died 23 June 1989
Paris, France
Political party Arab Ba'ath Movement (1940–1947)
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (1947–1966)
Iraq-based Ba'ath Party (1968–1989)
Religion Greek Orthodox

Michel Aflaq (Arabic: ميشيل عفلق‎, Damascus, 1910 – Paris, 23 June 1989) was a Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Ba'athism and its political movement; he is considered by several Ba'athists to be the principal founder of Ba'athist thought. He published various books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Battle for One Destiny (1958) and The Struggle Against Distorting the Movement of Arab Revolution (1975).

Born into a middle class family in Damascus, Syria, Aflaq studied at the Sorbonne, where he met his future political companion Salah al-Din al-Bitar. He returned to Syria in 1932, and began his political career in communist politics. Aflaq became a communist activist, but broke his ties with the communist movement when the Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party supported France's colonial policies. Later in 1940 Aflaq and al-Bitar established the Arab Ihya Movement (later renaming itself the Arab Ba'ath Movement, taking the name from Zaki al-Arsuzi's group by the same name). The movement proved successful, and in 1947 the Arab Ba'ath Movement merged with al-Arsuzi's Arab Ba'ath organisation to establish the Arab Ba'ath Party. Aflaq was elected to the party's executive committee and was elected "'Amid" (meaning the party's leader).

The Arab Ba'ath Party merged with Akram al-Hawrani's Arab Socialist Party to establish the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1952; Aflaq was elected the party's leader in 1954. During the mid-to-late 1950s the party began developing relations with Gamal Abdel Nasser, the President of Egypt, which eventually led to the establishment of the United Arab Republic (UAR). Nasser forced Aflaq to dissolve the party, which he did, but without consulting with party members. Shortly after the UAR's dissolution, Aflaq was reelected as Secretary General of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party. Following the 1963 Syrian coup d'état, Aflaq's position within the party was weakened to such an extent that he was forced to resign as the party's leader in 1965. Aflaq was ousted during the 1966 Syrian coup d'état, which led to a schism within the Ba'ath Party. He escaped to Lebanon, but later went to Iraq. In 1968 Aflaq was elected Secretary General of the Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party; during his tenure he held no de facto power. He held the post until his death on 23 June 1989.

Aflaq's theories about society, economics and politics, which are collectively known as Ba'athism, hold that the Arab world needs to be unified into one Arab Nation in order to achieve an advanced state of development. He was critical of both capitalism and communism, and critical of Karl Marx's view of dialectical materialism as the only truth. Ba'athist thought placed much emphasis on liberty and Arab socialism – a socialism with Arab characteristics, which was not part of the international socialist movement as defined by the West. Aflaq believed in the separation of state and religion, and was a strong believer in secularisation, but was against atheism. Although a Christian, he believed Islam to be proof of "Arab genius". In the aftermath of the 1966 Ba'ath Party split, the Syrian-led Ba'ath Party accused Aflaq of stealing al-Arsuzi's ideas, and called him a "thief". The Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party rejects this however, and does not believe that al-Arsuzi contributed to Ba'athist thought.

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Early life: 1910–1939

Born in Damascus to a middle class Greek Antiochian Orthodox Christian family,[1] Aflaq was first educated in the westernized schools of the French Mandate of Syria.[2] In 1929, he left Syria to study philosophy abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris. During his stay Aflaq was influenced by the works of Henri Bergson, and met his longtime collaborator Salah al-Din al-Bitar, a fellow Syrian nationalist.[3] Aflaq founded an Arab Student Union at the Sorbonne, and discovered the writings of Karl Marx. He returned to Syria in 1932, and became active in communist politics, but left the movement when the government of Léon Blum, supported by the French Communist Party (FCP), continued France's old politics towards its colonies. Aflaq, and others, had believed that the FCP followed pro-independence policies towards the French colonies. It had not helped that the Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party (SLCP) supported the FCP's decision. From then on Aflaq saw the communist movement as a tool of the Soviet Union.[4] He was impressed by the organisation and ideology of Antun Saadeh's Syrian Social Nationalist Party.[2]

Arab Ba'ath Movement: 1940–1947

Aflaq as seen in the late 1930s

Upon their return to Syria, Aflaq and al-Bitar became teachers at Tajhiz all'-Ula, "the most prestigious secondary school in Syria". Aflaq taught history, while al-Bitar taught maths and physics. By 1940, Aflaq and al-Bitar had managed to set up a student circle, which usually met on Fridays. That year, the Arab Ihya Movement, a political party, was established by Aflaq and al-Bitar. They used most of their spare time in 1941 to agitate for the party. It was in 1942 that Aflaq showed his skills as "a compelling speaker" who was able to utilize the "theatrical pause" to great effect.[5] The party changed its name to Arab Ba'ath Movement to signify the radical changes which were sweeping the Middle East; Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, the Prime Minister of Iraq, had challenged Britain's domination over Iraq. The replacement of the word "Revival" with "Ba'ath" (Arabic: بعث‎, literally means resurrection/rebirth) signified that Arab revival had been replaced ideologically by the need for an Arab rebirth. The change of name led to Zaki al-Arsuzi, leader of the Arab Ba'ath Party, to accuse Aflaq and al-Bitar of stealing his party's name from him. Though both men were promoting a party platform based on an Arab nationalist stance, Aflaq and al-Arsuzi became bitter rivals.[6]

On 24 October 1942, both Aflaq and al-Bitar resigned from their teaching positions, now determined to devote themselves fully to the political struggle.[5] In 1941 the Syrian Committee to Help Iraq was established to support the Iraqi Government led by Rashid Ali al-Gaylani against the British invasion during the Anglo–Iraqi War.[7] Al-Arsuzi, the leader of the other Arab Ba'ath movement, was skeptical of the new committee, and opposed helping the Iraqis on the ground that they would lose anyway.[8] In 1941 the movement began publishing documents under the name the "Arab Ihya Movement". Later, in 1945, Aflaq and al-Bitar asked the French Mandate authorities to grant the movement a party license. The Arab Ba'ath movement did not become an official party until 1947, when it merged with al-Arsuzi's Arab Ba'ath Movement to found the Arab Ba'ath Party.[9] The Arab Ba'ath Movement, led by Aflaq and al-Bitar, drew supporters from al-Arsuzi's Ba'ath Movement; during the 1940s, al-Arsuzi started to seclude himself from the public eye, he developed a deep distrust of others and became, according to some of his associates, paranoid.[10] When the two Ba'ath movements merged and established the Arab Ba'ath Party in 1947, the only subject discussed was how much socialism to include; Wahib al-Ghanim and Jalal al-Sayyid from the al-Arsuzi led Ba'ath movement wanted Aflaq and al-Bitar to adopt more radical socialist policies.[11]

Early political career and the UAR: 1947–1963

Founding and early years

The Arab Ba'ath Party's first congress was held in Damascus in 1947.[12] Aflaq took the pre-eminent position of Amid, sometimes translated as 'doyen' or as 'leader';[13] and was elected to a four-member executive committee, under the constitution adopted at the congress, this made him effective leader of the party, with sweeping powers within the organisation; al-Bitar was elected Secretary General of the National Command. Zaki al-Arsuzi, the leader of the Arab Ba'ath, was not given any position, or membership in the party.[11] Aflaq as Amid was responsible for ideological affairs and became the party's mentor, while al-Bitar controlled the party's day-to-day management.[14] The merger would prove problematic, several members of the al-Arsuzi-led Ba'ath Party were more left-leaning, and would become, later in Aflaq's tenure as leader, highly critical of his leadership.[15]

In the late 1940s, Aflaq and al-Bitar gave free lessons on Ba'athist thought, and in 1948 they established al-Ba'ath (English: rebirth/resurrection). Aflaq tested the Ba'ath Party's strength during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War after early Syrian defeats – he led several demonstrations against the government led by President Shukri al-Quwatli. He personally led demonstrations, and claimed that al-Quwatli, a landowner, was a corrupt and capitalistic politician, who was to blame for the Syrians army's defeat. Aflaq called for al-Quwatli's resignation, and wrote several al-Ba'ath articles criticising his presidency and his prime minister, Jamil Mardam Bey.[14] Aflaq was later arrested on the orders of al-Quwatli's prime minister Bey.[16] Al-Quwali's government was brought down in a coup d'état led by military officer Husni al-Za'im. Al-Za'im banned all parties, claiming that Syria was not ready to establish a liberal democracy yet. Aflaq, who had been set free, was rearrested during al-Zai'm's presidency and sent to the notorious Mezzeh Prison. Al-Za'im's rule did not last for long, and in August 1949, he was toppled, and Hashim al-Atassi, who was democratically-elected, took his place. Al-Atassi estblished a national unity government, and Aflaq was appointed to the post of Minister of Education, the first and only government post he would ever hold; he held it from August to December 1949. Al-Attasi's presidency did not last for very long either, and in 1951 Adib Shishakli took power in a military coup.[17]

Aflaq at first extended his support to the new government, believing that he and the Ba'ath Party could collaborate with Shishakli because they shared the same Arab nationalist sentiments. His analysis of Shishakli proved to be wrong, and one of Shishakli's first decisions as ruler was to ban all political parties, including the Ba'ath Party.[17] The Ba'ath Party leadership, and several leading members, escaped to Lebanon in the wake of increased government repression. In Lebanon Aflaq and al-Bitar agreed to a merger of the Arab Ba'ath Party and the Arab Socialist Party (ASP), led by Akram al-Hawrani, to establish the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1952.[18] The newly formed party worked as a base of operation against Shishali's rule – Aflaq and the rest cooperated with non-Ba'athist opposition forces too. Shishakli was toppled in February 1954.[17]

Power politics: 1954–1963

Aflaq (right) with al-Hawrani, as seen together in 1957

Following the overthrow of al-Shishakli, Syria held its first democratic elections in five years. The Ba'ath Party, led by Aflaq, al-Bitar and al-Hawrani, had 22 members elected to parliament.[note 1] This increase in influence can largely be attributed to al-Hawrani – several old ASP strongholds voted for the Ba'ath Party because of al-Hawrani's presence.[19] By this time Aflaq was losing much of his power to al-Hawrani and his supporters, who were in a majority in the party. A proof of this was the decision of the Ba'ath Party to collaborate openly with the Syrian Communist Party (SCP), a move Aflaq opposed.[20] Aflaq was elected the party's Secretary General of the newly-established National Command, a title equivalent to 'party leader', by the party's Second National Congress.[21]

When, under the United Arab Republic (UAR), Aflaq was forced by Nasser to dissolve the party, he disbanded the party by himself, instead of convening a congress on the matter.[22] The UAR proved to be disastrous for the Ba'ath Party – the party was sidelined to a great extent by Nasser's regime. The Ba'ath movement, which was on the verge in 1958 of becoming the dominant Arab nationalist movement, found itself in disarray after three years of Nasserist rule.[23] Only a handful of Ba'athists were given public office in the UAR's government, al-Hawrani became Vice President and al-Bitar became Minister of Culture and Guidance.[24] Several members, mostly young, blamed Aflaq for this situation; it was he who dissolved the party in 1958 without consulting the National Congress. Hafez al-Assad and Salah Jadid amongst others, eventually established the Military Committee to save the Syrian Ba'ath movement from annihilation.[25] The party's Third National Congress in 1959 supported Aflaq's decision to dissolve the party, but a 1960 National Congress, in which Jadid was a delegate representing the then-unknown Military Committee, reversed the decision and called for the Ba'ath Party's reestablishment. The Congress also decided to improve relations with Nasser by democratising the UAR from within. A faction within the party, led by al-Hawrani, called for Syria's secession.[26] When the UAR broke-up in 1961, some members applauded the dissolution, among them was al-Bitar.[24]

The Ba'ath Party captured 20 seats, down from 22, in the 1961 election.[27] In 1962, after four years, Aflaq convened the Fifth Congress in Homs. Al-Hawrani was not invited; cells that had stayed active and defied Aflaq's orders, and Ba'athists who become Nasserists during the period of the UAR, were not invited to the congress. Aflaq was reelected the National Command's Secretary General, and ordered the reestablishment of the Syrian-regional Ba'ath organisation. During the congress, Aflaq and the Military Committee, through Muhammad Umran, made contact for the first time; the committee asked for permission to initiate a coup d'état; Aflaq supported the conspiracy.[28] Following the success of the February 1963 Iraqi coup d'état, led by the Ba'ath Party's Iraqi cell, the Military Committee hastly convened to hatch a coup against Nazim al-Kudsi's presidency. The Syrian 1963 coup d'état proved successful, and a Ba'athist government in Syria was established.[29] The plotters first order was to establish the National Council of the Revolutionary Command (NCRC), consisting entirely of Ba'athists and Nasserists, and controlled by military personnel rather than civilians from the very beginning.[30]

The struggle: 1963–1968

The beginning: 1963–1964

Aflaq and Salah Jadid in 1963, shortly after taking power

The relationship between the Ba'athists and the Nasserists were at best, uncomfortable. The Ba'ath Party's rise to power in Iraq and Syria put Nasser, as he put it, "between the hammer and the anvil". The establishment of a union between Iraq and Syria would weaken his credentials as a pan-Arab leader.[31] Nasser started launching bitter propaganda attacks against the party; Aflaq was dismissed as an ineffectual theorist who was mocked as a puppet "Roman emperor"and accused of being a "Cypriot Christian".[32] In several Ba'ath Party meetings Aflaq responded with pure anger, and became a anti-Nasserist. Because of the position he took, Aflaq had a falling out with al-Bitar who still believed there was a chance to reestablish good ties with Nasser.[33]

The break with Nasser weakened the original leaders of the Ba'ath Party, which in turn gave the Military Committee room to expand. After taking power, the Military Committee looked for theoretical guidance, but instead of going to Aflaq to solve problems (which was usual before), they contacted the party's Marxist faction led by Hammud al-Shufi.[34] At the Syrian Ba'athist Regional Congress, the Military Committee "proved" that it was rebelling equally against Aflaq and the traditional leadership, as against their moderate social and economic policies. The Military Committee was bent on removing Aflaq from a position of power, believing that he had become old and frail. At the Sixth National Congress held in October 1963, Aflaq was barely able to hold on to his post as Secretary General – the Marxist factions led by al-Shufi and Ali Salih al-Sadi, in Syria and Iraq respectively, were the majority group. Another problem facing Aflaq was that several of his colleagues were not elected to party office, for instance al-Bitar was not reelected to a seat in the National Command. Instead of the traditional civilian leadership, a new leadership consisting of military officers was gradually growing; Jadid and Amin al-Hafiz from Syria and Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Salih Mahdi Ammash from Iraq were elected to the National Command. While the Military Committee was in fact taking control over the Ba'ath Party from the civilian leadership, they were sensitive to such criticism, and stated, in an ideological pamphlet, that civilian-military symbiosis was of major importance, if socialist reconstruction was to be achieved.[35] To the outside world Aflaq seemed to be in charge. As the Tunisian newspaper L'Action put it; "The philosopher who made two coups [Iraqi and Syrian coups] in a month".[36]

The Ba'ath movement was not running as smoothly as the rest of the world believed; the Ba'ath Party cell in Iraq was already starting to lose membership. The Iraqi military and the party's militant arm, the National Guard, detested each others. Al-Sadi, leader of the Iraqi-Ba'ath Party cell, was eventually exiled to Madrid on 11 November by several military officers and moderate Ba'athists.[37] An anxious Aflaq hastily traveled to Syria and dissolved the Iraqi-cell's Regional Command, exclaiming that the National Command would rule Iraq in its place until a new Regional Command was elected. This was not greeted warmly by the majority of Iraqi military officers and Ba'athists – the idea that a Christian was to rule over a Muslim country was considered "insensitive".

The situation in Iraq did not improve, Abdul Salam Arif, the President of Iraq and a Nasserist, plotted a coup against the Ba'ath Party on 18 November, which succeeded. The dream of cornering Nasser's pan-Arab project was over; instead, it was Nasser and the Nasserists who were cornering the Ba'ath movement. On hearing the news, Aflaq and several Ba'athists fled Iraq for Syria.[38]

The schism: 1964–1965

After a falling out with the Military Committee, of which he was a member, Muhammad Umran told Aflaq about the Committee's secret plans to oust the civilian leadership, led by Aflaq, and take over the Ba'ath Party. Shortly after, Umran was sent into exile as Ambassador to Spain for supporting the Aflaq faction.[39] Aflaq responded to the threat posed to his leadership by invoking his office as Secretary General, and calling for the National Command to dissolve the Regional Command. He was forced to withdraw his request, when the majority of Ba'ath Party members proved to oppose such a move. A contest for power, between Aflaq and the Military Committee, ensued in the open; but it was a struggle Aflaq was losing.[39] It was plain from the very beginning that the initiative lay with the anti-Aflaq forces.[40] To counter the military threat, Aflaq invoked party rules and regulations against them. To counter this, the Military Committee befriended a staunchly anti-Aflaq civilian faction calling themselves the "Regionalists" – this group had not dissolved their party organisations as ordered by Aflaq in the 1950s.[40]

The Regional Congress of the Ba'ath Party's Syrian-cell, in March 1965, devolved power from the center, the National Command, to the Regional Command. From then on, the Regional Command was considered Syria's ex officio's head of state. The Regional Secretary had the power to appoint the Prime Minister, the cabinet, the chief of staff and top military commanders. Aflaq was unsettled by the way things were moving, and in May he convened the Eighth National Congress to get a showdown between his followers and those of the Military Committee. However, this never came to fruition. Several civilian members of the National Command, such as the Lebanese Jibran Majdalani and the Saudi Ali Ghannam, advised caution, believing that if he pressed the Military Committee too hard the military would take over the Syrian-cell, and then the Ba'ath Party—as had happened in Iraq following the ousting of the Ba'ath Party's Iraqi-cell. Because of their concerns, Aflaq kept quiet. But to his astonishment, keeping quiet caused him to lose his post as Secretary General – Aflaq was succeeded as Secretary General of the National Command by Munif al-Razzaz, a Jordanian of Syrian origin. However, the power between the two camps was unexpectedly reshuffled when Amin al-Hafiz defected to Aflaq's camp. In contrast to other military officers al-Hafiz had very little influence within or outside the party.[41] Al-Hafiz's defection led to a resurgence of activity within Aflaq's faction, al-Bitar and Umran were brought back from Spain to form a new government.[42]

Downfall: 1966–1968

Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (left), the Regional Secretary of the Iraqi Ba'ath branch, shaking hands with Aflaq in 1968

Al-Razzaz, Aflaq's successor as Secretary General, came from the pro-Aflaq faction. With the defection of al-Hafez, he ordered that the National Command was the de jure ruling body of the Ba'ath Party. He appointed al-Bitar Prime Minister, Umran defence minister, Manseur al-Atrash as Chairman of the National Council of the Revolutionary Command and al-Hafiz retained his post as President of Syria. Salah Jadid, the Military Committee's strongman, responded by arresting several Umran supporters. Umran responded by dismissing a handful of pro-Jadid officials. The most important of these dismissals was the removal of Ahmad Suwaydani from the post of head of the country's military intelligence to head of the Officer Administration.[43] On 23 February a coup d'état led by Jadid and Hafez al-Assad overthrew the Syrian Government and the Ba'ath Party leadership.[44] Aflaq was exiled from Syria, and ordered to never to return his homeland. Members of the party's other factions fled; Aflaq was captured and detained, along with other pro-Aflaq supporters, in a government guest house.[45] When the new rulers launched a purge in August that year, Aflaq managed to make his escape, with the help of Nasim Al Safarjalani and Malek Bashour, both closely trusted friends and colleagues, and hence was able to flee to Beirut, Lebanon,[46] and later to Brazil.[47]

Aflag's downfall caused a split within the Ba'ath Party; the party was de facto dissolved and two Ba'ath Parties were established, one Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party and one Syrian-led Ba'ath Party. The Syrian-led party was led by Jadid and his supporters and hailed Zaki al-Arsuzi, the founder of the Arab Ba'ath in 1940, as the father of Ba'athist thought, while the Iraqi-led party led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein, still proclaimed Aflaq to be the founder of Ba'athist thought.[48] In February 1966 at the Ninth National Congress, held after the coup which ousted the pro-Aflaq faction, the Iraqi delegation split with the Syrian Ba'athists. The Iraqi's held the true Ninth National Congress in February 1968 in Beirut,[49] and elected Aflaq as Secretary General of the National Command.[43] Aflaq's election to the Secretary Generalship also proved to be his final break with al-Bitar; before the congress convened al-Bitar announced that he had left the Ba'ath Party and given up on the Ba'athist movement as a whole.[50]

Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party: 1968–1989

Michel Aflaq in conversation with Saddam Hussein in 1988.

Aflaq moved to Baghdad following his reelection to the Secretary Generalship in February 1968. He stayed there until 1970, when the Jordan–Palestine War broke out, he criticised the Ba'ath leadership of doing too little to help Palestine during the conflict.[43] During the conflict, Aflaq lobbied extensively for Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Aflaq wanted Iraqi intervention; al-Bakr, however, refused to get Iraq involved in such a conflict. Because of this, Aflaq returned to Lebanon in self-imposed exile.[43] The government of Hafez al-Assad, the President of Syria, condemned Aflaq to death in absentia in 1971.[7] After four years of self-imposed exile Aflaq returned to Iraq In 1974, a year before the Lebanese Civil War broke out.[51] He refrained from taking part in Iraqi politics. He published several works during this period, the most notable being The Struggle Against Distorting the Movement of Arab Revolution in 1975. Aflaq regained some of his influence when he befriended Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq from 1979 until 2003. During the Iran–Iraq War the Iranian leadership accused Hussein of being under the control of a Christian, and Aflaq himself was labelled "a Christian infidel".[43] Effectively, throughout his tenure as Secretary General in Iraq, Aflaq was given all due honour as the founder of the Ba'ath movement, but on policy-making, he was ignored.[51]

Death

Aflaq's coffin carried by Saddam Hussein and Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri

Aflaq died on 23 June 1989 in Paris, after undergoing heart surgery there.[7] Saddam Hussein claimed that Aflaq had converted to Islam prior to his death – a claim that was later disputed by Aflaq's own family.[52] Even so, Aflaq was given an Islamic funeral.[51] Aflaq's alleged conversion is considered by his family as a tool used by Saddam to disassociate Ba'athism with Christianity.[53] The tomb constructed on the orders of Hussein was later used by American soldiers after the 2003 American invasion of Iraq as a military barracks for troops stationed within the Green Zone.[54][55] According to Aflaq's family, the tomb was badly damaged during the invasion.[56]

Aflaq's thought

Further information: Ba'athism

"Unity, liberty, socialism"

Era 20th century philosophy
Region Eastern Philosophy
School Ba'athism, Arab nationalism
Main interests Politics, philosophy, sociology, nationalism, philology history
Notable ideas Principal founder of Ba'athism (with al-Bitar and Zaki al-Arsuzi), The Battle for One Destiny, The Struggle Against Distorting the Movement of Arab Revolution
“ "What liberty could be wider and greater than binding oneself to the renaissance of one's nation and its revolution? The liberty we seek is not opposed to legislative measures to curb the exploitations of feudalists, capitalists and opportunists. It is a new and strict liberty which stands against pressure and confusion. Dictatorship is a precarious, unsuitable and self-contradictory system which does not allow the consciousness of the people to grow." ”

— Aflaq in a speech, talking about one of the key Ba'athist tenets; "freedom will come to the Arabs through unity [the establishment of the Arab Nation]"[57]

The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party slogan "Unity, liberty, socialism" is the key tenant of Aflaq's and Ba'athist thought. Unity meant the unification of the Arab people into one nation, the Arab Nation. The creation of an Arab Nation would have direct implications on Arab development. The establishment of this new state would lead to an Arab Ba'ath (literally meaning "rennaisance").[2] The Arab nations of his time could only progressively "decline" if not unified; these nations had various ailments – "feudalism, sectarianism, regionalism, intellectual reactionism". The only way to "cure" the Arab nations was, according to Aflaq, through a revolutionary movement. Aflaq was influenced by Marxism in that he saw the need for a vanguard party to rule the Arab Nation for an indefinite period of time (the period would be a transition from the old to the new).[58]

The need for liberty was one of the defining features of Ba'athism,[59] however, liberty not in the sense used by liberal democracies.[60] Aflaq was a strong believer in pluralism of thought,[59] but paradoxically, against pluralism in the form of votes. In theory, the Ba'ath Party would rule, and guide the people, in a transitional period of time without consulting the people[60] because the party knew what was right.[61]

The last tenet, 'socialism', did not mean socialism as it is defined in the West, but rather a unique form of Arab socialism. Aflaq coined the word Arab socialism for his variant of socialism. Socialism, in its original form in the Arab world had, according to Aflaq, first come into being under the rule of Muhammad. The point of Arab socialism was not to answer questions such as: how much state control was necessary, or economic equality; but instead Arab socialism was a system that freed the Arab people from oppression and enslavement, which in turn created independent individuals.[62]

Aflaq opposed Marx's view that dialectical materialism was the only truth, but believed that the "importance of material economic conditions in life" was one of the greatest discoveries in modern history.[63] Even so, Aflaq was critical of both capitalism and communism, and did not want either of the two power blocs to collapse during the Cold War – believing that the Cold War was a sort of check and balance on their power.[64]

Role of Islam

Aflaq, an old man close to the end of his life

What Aflaq saw in Islam was a revolutionary movement. In contast to other nationalities, the Arab awakening and expansion was attributed to a religious message. Because of this, Aflaq believed that the Arab's spirituality was directly linked to Islam, therefore, one could never take Islam out of the equation of what is, and is not, an Arab. Arab nationalism, just as Islam had been during the lifetime of Muhammad, was a spiritual revolutionary movement which was leading the Arabs to a new renaissance: Arab nationalism was the second revolution to appear in the Arab world. All Arab religious communities should, according to Aflaq, respect and worship the spirituality of Islam, even if they did not worship Islam in a religious sense – Aflaq was a Christian who worshipped Islam.[65] Aflaq did not believe it was necessary to worship Muhammad, but believed that all Arabs should strive to emulate Muhammad. In the words of Aflaq himself, Arabs "belong to the nation that gave birth to a Muhammad; or rather, because this Arab individual is a member of the community which Muhammad put all his efforts into creating [...] Muhammad was all the Arabs; let us today make all the Arabs Muhammad." The Muslim of Muhammad's days were, according to Aflaq, synonymous with Arabs – the Arabs were the only ones to preach the message of Islam during Muhammad's lifetime. In contrast to Jesus, who was a religious leader, but not a political leader, Muhammad was both – the first leader of Islam and of the Arab world. Therefore, secularisation could not take the same shape in the Arab world as it did in the West.[66]

Aflaq called on all Arabs, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike, to admire the role Islam had played in creating an Arab character. But his view on Islam was purely spiritual, and Aflaq emphasised that Islam "should not be imposed" on state and society. Time and again Aflaq emphasised that the Ba'ath party was against atheism, but also against fundamentalism; the fundamentalists represented a "shallow, false faith." According to Ba'athist ideology, all religions were equal. Despite his anti-atheist stance, Aflaq was a strong supporter of secular government, and stated that a Ba'athist state would replace religion with a state "based on a foundation – Arab nationalism, and a moral – freedom."[67]

Legacy

Fouad Ajami criticised Aflaq for a lack of real substance, stating, "Nearly three hundred pages of text yield no insight, on his part, into what went wrong and what needed to be done; there is only the visible infatuation with words" and "Aflaq summons the party to renounce power and go back to its 'pure essence'". There is some truth in this critique. Aflaq spent much time writing optimistically about the future, and the past, of the Arab Nation, and how the Arab World could be unified. As Kanan Makiya, the author of Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, notes: for "Aflaq, reality is confined to the inner world of the party." In contrast to other philosophers, such as Karl Marx or John Locke, Aflaq's ideological view of the world makes no clear stand on the materialistic or socioeconomic behavior of humanity.[68] While other philosophers usually separate between what is real and what is not real, Aflaq does not define what is and what ought to be, instead both are molded into the same category, what is attainable.[69]

In contrast to his longtime friend and colleague Salah al-Din al-Bitar, who was more practical when it came to politics, Aflaq was a "visionary, the dreamer rather unfitted for political life".[70] Aflaq was described by his associates as an "ascetic, shy and intense figure living a simple and upretensious life." He has been accused of seeking help from other people instead of fulfilling his goal by himself or with others he led; Aflaq collaborated with Gamal Abdel Nasser, Abd al-Karim Qasim and Abdul Rahman Arif in 1958, to Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Ali Salih al-Sadi in 1963 and finally in the 1970s to Saddam Hussein.[71] There are several Ba'athists, mostly from the Syrian-led Ba'ath Party, who believe Aflaq stole Ba'athist ideology from its original founder, Zaki al-Arsuzi. These individuals have denounced, and labelled, Aflaq as a "thief".[72]

In his writings Aflaq had been stridently in favor of free speech and other human rights and aid for the lower classes. During the Military Committee's gradual take over of power in Syria, Aflaq rallied against what he saw as the establishment of a military dictatorship, instead of the democracy for which Aflaq had planned.[44] These ideals were never realized by the regimes that used his ideology. Most scholars see the Assad regime in Syria and Saddam's regime in Iraq to have only employed Aflaq's ideology as a pretense for dictatorship.[73] In short, Aflaq's Ba'athism was used to create dictatorships in Syria and Iraq.

Selected works

  • فِي سَبِيلِ البعث (English: On the Way of Resurrection, published ?)
  • Itihad Souriyya was Misr (English: Unity Between Syria and Egypt, published 1958)
  • Ma'rakat al-Masir al-Wahid (English: The Battle for One Destiny, published 1958)
  • Nuqtat al-Bidayya (English: The Starting Point, published 1971)
  • Al-Ba'ath wa al-Wihda (English: The Ba'ath and Arab Unity, published 1972)
  • Al-Ba'ath wa al-Ishirakiyya (English: The Ba'ath and Socialism, published 1973)
  • Al-Nidal did Tashweeh Harakat al-Thawra al-Arabiyya (English: The Struggle Against Distorting the Movement of Arab Revolution, published 1975)

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ^ Exactly how many seats the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party won, varies from a low 16 seats to a high 22.

References

  1. ^ Helms 1984, pp. 64–65.
  2. ^ a b c Salem 1994, p. 61.
  3. ^ Benewick & Green 1988, p. 4.
  4. ^ Ali 2003, p. 110.
  5. ^ a b Seale 1990, p. 29.
  6. ^ Seale 1990, p. 30.
  7. ^ a b c Tucker 2010, p. 30.
  8. ^ Curtis & 1971, p. 139.
  9. ^ Rabil 2006, p. 17.
  10. ^ Curtis 1971, pp. 138–139.
  11. ^ a b Seale 1990, p. 34.
  12. ^ Rabinovich 1972, p. 228.
  13. ^ Jabel 1966.
  14. ^ a b Moubayed 2006, p. 131.
  15. ^ Abdulghani 1984, p. 27.
  16. ^ Moubayed 2006, pp. 131–132.
  17. ^ a b c Moubayed 2006, p. 132.
  18. ^ George 2003, pp. 66–67.
  19. ^ Commins 2004, p. 66.
  20. ^ Abdulghani 1984, p. 28.
  21. ^ Benewick & Green 1988, p. 4.
  22. ^ Seale 1990, p. 98.
  23. ^ Seale 1990, p. 65.
  24. ^ a b Reich 1990, p. 109.
  25. ^ Seale 1990, pp. 61–62.
  26. ^ Seale 1990, p. 66.
  27. ^ Nohlen, Florian & Hartmann 2001, p. 221.
  28. ^ Seale 1990, p. 75.
  29. ^ Seale 1990, pp. 76–78.
  30. ^ Seale 1990, p. 78.
  31. ^ Seale 1990, p. 81.
  32. ^ Seale 1990, pp. 81–82.
  33. ^ Seale 1990, p. 82.
  34. ^ Seale 1990, p. 86.
  35. ^ Seale 1990, p. 88.
  36. ^ Seale 1990, p. 90.
  37. ^ Seale 1990, pp. 90–91.
  38. ^ Seale 1990, p. 91.
  39. ^ a b Seale 1990, p. 96.
  40. ^ a b Seale 1990, p. 97.
  41. ^ Seale 1990, p. 99.
  42. ^ Seale 1990, pp. 100–101.
  43. ^ a b c d e Moubayed 2006, p. 347.
  44. ^ a b Moubayed 2006, p. 134.
  45. ^ Seale 1990, p. 102.
  46. ^ Seale 1990, pp. 111.
  47. ^ Commins 2004, p. 26.
  48. ^ Bengio 1998, p. 218.
  49. ^ Kostiner 1998, p. 36.
  50. ^ Reich 1990, p. 110.
  51. ^ a b c Shair 2006, p. 39.
  52. ^ Harris 1997, p. 39.
  53. ^ "Michel Aflaq". Georgetown University. http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/people/michel-aflaq. Retrieved 21 December 2011. 
  54. ^ Robertson, Campbell; Farrell, Stephen (31 December 2008). "Green Zone, Heart of U.S. Occupation, Reverts to Iraqi Control". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/world/middleeast/01greenzone.html. Retrieved 21 December 2011. 
  55. ^ House Diggity (23 May 2006). "Foosball and Baathism". House in Iraq. http://hdiggity.blogspot.com/2006/05/foosball-and-baathism.html. Retrieved 3 March 2012. 
  56. ^ Fisk, Robert (11 September 2009). "Saddam revisited as Iraq accuses Syria of sheltering Baathist bombers". The Independent. UK: Independent Print Limited. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-saddam-revisited-as-iraq-accuses-syria-of-sheltering-baathist-bombers-1785453.html. Retrieved 21 December 2011. 
  57. ^ Hopwood 1988, p. 87.
  58. ^ Salem 1994, p. 62.
  59. ^ a b Salem 1994, pp. 66–67.
  60. ^ a b Salem 1994, pp. 67–68].
  61. ^ Salem 1994, p. 67.
  62. ^ Salem 1994, pp. 69–70.
  63. ^ Salem 1994, p. 68.
  64. ^ Ginat 2010, p. 118.
  65. ^ Makiya 1998, p. 198.
  66. ^ Makiya 1998, pp. 198–199.
  67. ^ Harris 1997, p. 33.
  68. ^ Makiya 1998, p. 201.
  69. ^ Makiya 1998, pp. 201–202.
  70. ^ Hopwood 1988, p. 88.
  71. ^ Benewick & Green 1988, p. 5.
  72. ^ Curtis 1971, p. 138.
  73. ^ Tucker & Roberts 2008, p. 183.

Bibliography

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