1970 Syrian coup d'etat

1970 coup led by Hafez al-Assad the coup the reform program Corrective Movement (Syria) July 2026 1970 Syrian coup d'etat the Arab Cold War General Hafez al-Assad (1930-2000), the new president of Syria in November 1970.png Hafez al-Assad shortly after the success of the movement 13–16 November 1970 Syria 1963 Syrian Arab Republic Assadist victory Overthrow of Salah Jadid and his allies Purge of Aflaqists from the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region Beginning of the Assad family's hereditary rule and cult of personality Syria 1963 Syrian Government Flag of the Ba'ath Party.svg Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction) Ba'ath Party 23px Syrian Arab Armed Forces Syria 1963 Salah JadidSyria 1963 Nureddin al-Atassi Syria 1963 Hafez al-AssadSyria 1963 Rifaat al-AssadSyria 1963 Mustafa TlassSyria 1963 Iskandar Salama No deaths Jadid and Assad conflict (30 October 1970–12 November 1970)Seale McConville 1990 162Seale McConville 1990 164 The 1970 Syrian coup d'etat, also called the Corrective Revolution (ar ثورة التصحيح Thawrat al-Tashih) or the Corrective Movement (ar الحركة التصحيحية al-Ḥarakah at-Taṣḥīḥīyya), was a bloodless military coup d'état led by General Hafez al-Assad on 13 November 1970 in Syria. Assad promised to sustain and improve the "nationalist socialist line" of the state and the Ba'ath Party.Hinnebusch Raymond Syria: Revolution From Above Routledge 2001 0-415-26779-X New York 61 The Ba'ath party adopted an ideological revision, absolving itself of Salah Jadid's doctrine of exporting revolutions. The new doctrine placed emphasis on defeating Israel, by developing the Syrian military with the support of the Soviet Union.Hinnebusch Raymond Syria: Revolution From Above Routledge 2001 0-415-26779-X New York 60–61 Assad would rule Ba'athist Syria until his death in 2000, after which he was succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad who in turn ruled until the collapse of his regime in December 2024. Events Assad started planning to seize power shortly after the failed Syrian military intervention in the Black September crisis in Jordan.Seale McConville 1990 162 While Assad had been in de facto command of Syrian politics since 1969, Salah Jadid and his supporters still held all the formal trappings of power.Seale McConville 1990 162 After attending the funeral of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Assad returned to Syria to attend the Emergency National Congress held on 30 October 1970.Seale McConville 1990 162 At the congress, Assad was condemned by Jadid and his supporters, who formed the majority of the party delegates.Seale McConville 1990 162 However, before attending the congress, Assad had ordered troops loyal to him to surround the building in which the congress was held.Seale McConville 1990 162 Criticism of Assad's political position continued, but with Assad's troops surrounding the building, the majority of delegates knew that they had lost the battle.Seale McConville 1990 162 Assad and Mustafa Tlass were stripped of their government posts during the congress, although this move had little practical influence.Seale McConville 1990 162 When the National Congress broke up on 12 November 1970, Assad ordered loyalists to arrest the leading members of Jadid's government.Seale McConville 1990 164 While many leading middle men were offered posts in Syria's embassies abroad, Jadid refused, telling Assad, "If I ever take power you will be dragged through the streets until you die."Seale McConville 1990 164 In response, Assad imprisoned Jadid, who spent the rest of his life at Mezze prison.Seale McConville 1990 164 There were no fatalities, and the country remained calm following the coup.Seale McConville 1990 164 The only proof to the outside world that something was amiss was that official dailies, radio, and, television stations either stopped publishing or were off the air.Seale McConville 1990 164 A Temporary Regional Command was established shortly after, and on 16 November 1970, the new government published its first decree. Assad was declared the winner of sham elections and was sworn in as President on 12 March 1971.Seale McConville 1990 164https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/14/archives/syrian-voters-back-assad-as-president.html Syrian Voters Back Assad as President The New York Times 14 March 1971 Aftermath Presidency of Hafez al-Assad 1971 Party Purges Assad's faction, which was far smaller than the pro-Jadid faction, began recruiting Aflaqites to top positions to cement their power.Seale McConville 1990 171 Assad appealed directly to Michel Aflaq's sympathizers by stating: "Let us rebuild together and if we fail our heads will all be on the block together".Seale McConville 1990 171 Around 2,000 people responded to Assad's invitation; among them were Georges Saddiqni, a party ideologist, and Shakir al-Fahham, one of the secretaries of the Ba'ath Party's founding congress in 1947.Seale McConville 1990 171–172 left|thumb|Newspaper announces another military coup, 1970 However, despite trying to strengthen his hold on the party, at a 1970 Regional Command meeting, its members opposed Assad's motion to appoint a figurehead to lead the party. As a result, Assad went on to establish a separate power base apart from the party.Lefevre 2013 12 Suspecting sympathisers of the Old Guard as a threat to his power, Hafez al-Assad carried out a purge in 1971, rounding up hundreds of party members and conducted a showtrial against Michel Aflaq, former Syrian President Amin al-Hafiz and numerous Baathists. Aflaq, Amin and three Baath leaders were sentenced to death via absentia, while ninety-nine party members were imprisoned on accusations of collaboration with the Iraqi Ba'ath. Leaders of the Old Guard like Aflaq and Amin al-Hafiz had found refuge in Baghdad, following the 1968 Baathist seizure of power in Iraq. The purges erased all remaining influence of Aflaqists within the Syrian Baath party.Seale McConville 1990 175 Domestic Policies Corrective Movement program (Syria) Political reforms left|thumb|Hafez Assad in November of 1970. As part of his "corrective movement," at the 11th National Congress Assad introduced a general revision of national policy. Included in these revisions were measures introduced to consolidate his rule. His Ba'athist predecessors had restricted control of Islam in public life and government.Alianak 2007 129–130 Because the Constitution allowed only Muslims to become president,Reich 1990 55 Assad, unlike Jadid, presented himself as a pious Muslim. In order to gain support from the ulamah—the Islamic scholarship — he prayed in Sunni mosques, even though he was an Alawite. Among the measures Assad introduced were the raising in rank of some 2,000 religious functionaries, and the appointment of an alim as minister of religious functionaries and construction of mosques. He appointed a little-known Sunni teacher, Ahmad al-Khatib, as Head of State in order to satisfy the Sunni majority.Alianak 2007 129–130 Assad also appointed Sunnis to senior positions in the government, the military, and the party. All of his prime ministers, defense ministers, and foreign ministers, a majority of his cabinet, were Sunnis. In the early 1970s, Assad was verified as an authentic Muslim by the Sunni Mufti of Damascus and made the Hajj—the pilgrimage to Mecca. In his speeches, he often used terms such as "jihad" (struggle) and "shahada" (martyrdom) when referring to fighting Israel.Reich 1990 55 The coup turned Syria's social and political structures upside down. The Alawites, Assad's sect, although no more than 12% of the population, came to occupy coveted positions in every sector of life in Syria.Hafez al-Assad Seale, Patrick Patrick Seale The Guardian 15 June 2000 https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/jun/15/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1 19 March 2011 Many rural Alawites supported the expansion of state institutions and military over the private sector mostly composed of Sunni-led bourgeousie as a means to enhance their privileges in the public sector. Popular dissatisfaction over Alawite dominace became one of the most significant sources of the Ba’athist regime's legitimacy crisis in Syria.Hinnebusch Raymond Syria: Revolution From Above Routledge 2001 0-415-26779-X New York 65–68 4: Power and Politics Under Asad Economic reforms Assad reversed his predecessor's policy of radical economic socialism, and strengthened the private sector's role in the economy.Freedmen 2002 179 In many ways the Corrective Movement resulted in a tacit alliance between the political elite and the Damascene bourgeoisie,Hinnebusch Raymond Syria: Revolution From Above Routledge 2001 0-415-26779-X New York 87 State-Society Relations Under Asad of whom the latter had previously provided the primary base of support for the National Party of Syria prior to the Ba'ath Party's seizure of power in 1963. Foreign policy The crux of the new foreign policy adopted by Hafez al-Assad was based on strengthening relations with U.S.S.R, in order to develop Syrian military and economy.Hinnebusch Raymond Syria: Revolution From Above Routledge 2001 0-415-26779-X New York 61 4: Power and Politics Under Assad The reforms also sought to normalize Syria's relations with the other Arab states since it had been isolated diplomatically during Jadid's short-lived rule.Freedmen 2002 179 Assad tried to establish working relations with Egypt and Saudi Arabia in order to establish the so-called "Cairo–Damascus–Riyadh axis" to strengthen security cooperation against Israel.Freedmen 2002 179 The cooperation agreement was effective, and when Egypt and Syria failed to win the October War in 1973, Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil producers ceased selling oil to the West.Freedmen 2002 179 Legacy thumb|Newspaper article announcing Assad's inauguration as president, 1971 The policies implemented by Hafez al-Assad following his consolidation of power significantly transformed the Baath party and state. Syria's 1973 constitution re-inforced the "leading role" of the Ba'ath Party in the society and transformed the neo-Baathist revolutionary state into a personalist "Presidential Monarchy" which concentrated all power under the Syrian President. After attaining undisputed jurisdiction in the military, party and bureaucracy; Assad strengthened his grip by assigning cadres of Alawite loyalists to key posts of various state institutions. Members of Assad family became influential in various sectors of the economy, business community and Ba'athist military.Hinnebusch Raymond Syria: Revolution From Above Routledge 2001 0-415-26779-X New York 62–64 When the communist governments in the Eastern Bloc collapsed, an ideological crisis within the government arose.Zisser 2001 47 However, Assad and his supporters hit back, stating that because of the "Corrective Movement under the leadership of the warrior Hafez al-Assad", the principles of economic and political pluralism, which had been introduced "some two decades" beforehand, safeguarded the Syrian government from the possibility of collapse.Zisser 2001 47 Later, on 27 January 2000, Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Sharaa stated, "I am not exaggerating when I say that the Corrective Movement, which took place in 1970 under the leadership of Hafez al-Assad ... has crystallized for the first time in modern Arab history a mature and realistic pan-Arab ideology."Korany Dessouki 2010 430 The day of the Corrective Movement was one of the main public holidays in Ba'athist Syria.Publications Publitec https://www.google.com/books/edition/Who_s_Who_in_the_Arab_World_2007_2008/NHCQBAFMwawC?hl=ru&gbpv=1&dq=corrective+movement+syria&pg=PA1037&printsec=frontcover Who's Who in the Arab World 2007-2008 2011-12-22 Walter de Gruyter 978-3-11-093004-7 en See also 1966 Syrian coup d'état Corrective Move Corrective revolution (Egypt) June 13 Corrective Movement Ramadan Revolution References Bibliography Alianak Sonia https://books.google.com/books?id=IiV_q4CYXA0C Middle Eastern Leaders and Islam: A Precarious Equilibrium Peter Lang 2007 978-0-8204-6924-9 Studies in international relations New York 137244736 https://books.google.com/books?id=64PWMY5QksMC The Foreign Policies of Arab States: The Challenge of Globalization American University in Cairo Press 2010 978-977-416-360-9 Korany Bahgat An AUC Forum for International Affairs edition Cairo; New York Dessouki Ali E. Hillal Freedman Robert Owen https://archive.org/details/middleeastafteri00free_0 The Middle East After Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait University of Florida Press 1993 978-0-8130-1214-8 Freedman Robert Owen Gainesville CITEREFFreedmen1993 registration The Middle East Enters the Twenty-first Century University Press of Florida 2002 978-0-8130-3110-1 Freedman Robert Owen Gainesville, FL CITEREFFreedmen2002 Hinnebusch Raymond A. Syria: Revolution from Above Routledge 2001 978-0-415-28568-1 The Contemporary Middle East London; New York ocm53294884 Lefèvre Raphaël https://books.google.com/books?id=99pMAgAAQBAJ Ashes of Hama: The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria Oxford University Press 2013 978-0-19-936533-3 Oxford CITEREFLefevre2013 Seale Patrick https://archive.org/details/asadofsyriastrug00seal Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East McConville Maureen University of California Press 1990 978-0-520-06976-3 Berkeley, Calif. registration Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary Greenwood Press 1990 978-0-313-26213-5 Reich Bernard New York Zisser Eyal https://books.google.com/books?id=_KR89t0433sC Asad's Legacy: Syria in Transition C. Hurst & Co. 2001 978-1-85065-450-6 London History Category:1970 in Syria Category:1970s coups d'état Category:Coups d'état in Syria Category:Arab nationalism in Syria Category:Arab nationalist rebellions Category:Revolutions in Syria Category:Nonviolent revolutions Category:History of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region Category:Ba'athist Syria Category:Hafez al-Assad