1.
Abdul Rahman Arif
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Hajj Abdul Rahman Mohammed Arif Aljumaily was the third President of Iraq, a position he held from April 16,1966 to July 17,1968. He was a soldier, and supported the military coup in 1958 that overthrew the monarchy. He also supported the coup that brought his brother, Abdul Salam Arif and it is speculated that the transfer of power possibly occurred because the Iraqi military thought that Abdul Salam should be succeeded by his weak and easier to manipulate brother instead. Arif was appointed president by the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council and he continued his brothers policies, but with a more nationalistic profile. Like his brother Abdul Salam, he was a supporter of Egypts pan-Arabist president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Arif Abdul Razzak, another pro-Nasser Air Force Commander, attempted a coup détat on Arif, and lightly bombed the Presidential Palace with Soviet MiG17 jets and it was his second failed coup attempt on the Arif government. President Arif went on TV to declare that on occasion, Abdul Razzak would definitely be punished. His presidency was widely believed to be slack and indecisive, however, there are historical clues that he was not corrupt. The ill-advised law that he passed in 1967 to absolve himself from paying income tax is probably an indication that he was not capable of getting wealth otherwise. Regardless, American officials in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration welcomed Iraqs brief return to rule under Bazzaz as well as Arifs thwarting of Razzaks second coup attempt on June 30. The political atmosphere engendered by the costly Arab defeat prompted Iraq to break relations with the U. S. on June 7, and ultimately ensured the collapse of Arifs relatively moderate government. On July 17,1968, while Arif was sleeping, his own assistants along with members of the Baath Party, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, overthrew him in a bloodless coup. As Arif and his brother had done in the 1963 coup against Qasim, the coalition declared victory once they had captured the radio station and it was accomplished when the defense minister, Hardan Al-Tikriti, phoned Arif informing him that he was no longer president. He returned to Iraq in 1979, when Saddam Hussein came to power and he was allowed to leave the country once to undertake the Hajj. Arif left Iraq permanently after Hussein was removed from power by the U. S. -led invasion and he died in Amman on August 24,2007, being yet the only Iraqi leader to die a normal death. He was married to Faika Abdul-Mageed Faris Alanee, the existence of Israel is an error which we must put right. This is our opportunity to wipe out the disgrace which is Israel which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear – to wipe Israel off the map, speaking on the Radio,1 June 1967 I hope there will be stability and security in all parts of Iraq and neighboring Arab countries, he said
2.
Ba'athist Iraq
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Baathist Iraq, formally the Iraqi Republic, covers the history of Iraq between 1968 and 2003, during the period of the Arab Socialist Baath Partys rule. This period began with high growth and soaring prosperity, but ended with Iraq facing social, political. The average annual income decreased because of external factors. During al-Bakrs de jure rule, the economy grew. However, several factors were threatening the countrys stability, among them the countrys conflict with Iran. An external problem was the conflict with Iran, which would contribute to the Iran–Iraq War. The Baath Party, which was secular in nature, harshly repressed the protests, another policy change was Iraqs foreign policy towards Iran, a Shia Muslim country. Deteriorating relations eventually led to the Iran–Iraq War, which started in 1980 when Iraq launched an invasion of Iran. Following the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Iraqis believed the Iranians to be weak and this notion proved to be incorrect, and the war lasted for eight years. Iraqs economy deteriorated during the war, and the country dependent on foreign donations to fund their war effort. The war ended in a stalemate when a ceasefire was reached in 1988, when the war ended, Iraq found itself in the midst of an economic depression, owed millions of dollars to foreign countries, and was unable to repay its creditors. Kuwait, which had increased oil output following the war, reducing international oil prices. In response to this, Saddam threatened Kuwait that, unless it reduced its oil output, negotiations broke down, and on 2 August 1990, Iraq launched an invasion of Kuwait. The resulting international response led to the Persian Gulf War, which Iraq lost, the United Nations initiated economic sanctions in the wars aftermath to weaken the Baathist Iraqi government. The countrys economic conditions worsened during the 1990s, and at the turn of the 21st century, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks of 2001, the United States initiated a Global War on Terrorism, and labelled Iraq as a part of an Axis of Evil. In 2003, U. S. coalition forces invaded Iraq, in contrast to previous coups détat in Iraqs history, the 1968 coup, referred to as the 17 July Revolution, was, according to Con Coughlin, a relatively civil affair. All telephone lines were cut at 03,00, by which time several tanks had been commanded to halt in front of the Presidential Palace. Abdul Rahman Arif, the then-President of Iraq, first knew of the coup when jubilant members of the Republican Guard started shooting into the air in a premature triumph
3.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
4.
Arab Socialist Union (Iraq)
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This article refers to the ASU in Iraq. For sister parties in other Arab states, see Arab Socialist Union The Iraqi Arab Socialist Union was a party in Iraq based on the principles of Nasserist Arab socialism. It was a party to the Arab Socialist Union parties that sprung up in a number of Arab countries. The Iraqi Arab Socialist Union was founded in July 1964 came on the establishment of preparatory committee also not, chairman of the Iraqi ASU just the former secretary general of the Iraqi Baath Party, Fuad al-Rikabi. Iraqi ASU was the General Secretary and Information Minister Abdul Karim Farhan, several smaller parties are dissolved and joined the IASU, the most important of these was a union with Nassers Egypt oriented ANM. In September 1964 the Egyptian and Iraqi ASU were combined in a joint Executive Committee under Nassers leadership, a group led by al-Rikabi split then as Arab Socialist Movement from. Arif was instead in July 1968 was overthrown by a Baathist coup military, immediately dissolved the IASU Preparatory Committee and finally ar-Rikabi were thrown into prison. As in Syria, the Iraqi Baathists 1973-1979 rival progressive and patriotic parties tied in a coalition of the Progressive National Front, a patriotic, Nasserist was a movement it anymore
5.
Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)
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The Arab Socialist Baath Party, also referred to as the pro-Iraqi Baath movement, was a neo-Baathist political party headquartered in Baghdad, Iraq. It is one of two parties emerged from the 1966 split of the original Baath Party. Baathists seized power in Iraq for the first time in 1963, the partys regional organisation governed Iraq between 1968 and 2003, for many years under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. The Arab Socialist Baath Party – Iraq Region was banned in 2003 by the Coalition Provisional Authority following the invasion of Iraq, the two movements established separate National Commands, the National Command was in theory the highest party body in both movements, and controlled their respective baathist movements. However, in countries the National Command was under the control of its respective Regional Command. In the Iraqi-dominated Baath movement, all National Command members came from their branch, for instance. In theory the National Command was the highest party organ between national congresses, with the power to control the affairs of Regional Commands in other regions, delegates to a National Congress elected the members of the National Command, who were eligible for reelection. While the National Command had few de facto powers, many of its members also held seats in the Iraqi Regional Command. Aflaq was elected Secretary-General of the National Command at the Ninth National Congress, held in February 1968 in Beirut, Lebanon and he retained his post until his death in 1989, when he was succeeded by Saddam Hussein. After Saddam Hussein was executed on 30 December 2006, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri became de facto leader of the Baath Party on 3 January 2007, as Secretary of the Iraqi Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, he is the highest-ranked surviving member of the former Baath party. The party branch in Algeria, the Arab Socialist Baath Party of Algeria, is led by Ahmed Choutri, the party is banned, and Choutri was forced to flee to Iraq during the 1990s because of governmental repression against the Algerian Baath movement. The party sympathises with the Iraqi baathist insurgency and supports Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, following his return to Algeria in 2003, Choutri wrote The Baathist Faith of President Saddam. The Nationalist Democratic Assembly represents the Iraqi-dominated Baath Party in Bahrain, the group is led by Hassan Ali as Secretary General, and Mahmoud Kassab as Deputy Secretary General. It was established by Bahrainis who had studied in Baathist Iraq during the 1960s and 1970s, the party boycotted the 2002 parliamentary election but not the 2006 election. The 2011 parliamentary by-election was boycotted by the party in solidarity with the Bahraini uprising, the party opposes the governments naturalisation policies, and contends that it is unfair for ethnic Bahrainis to compete equally with foreign workers for jobs. The Nationalist Democratic Assembly remains pro-Saddam Hussein and, according to its webpage and it opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, considering it an act of brutality against the Iraqi people. The party actively supports the overthrow of the monarchy, with a peaceful transition to democracy. The Arab Socialist Baath Party - Egypt is a branch in Egypt
6.
Iraqi Armed Forces
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The Iraqi Armed Forces are the military forces of the Iraqi government. They consist of the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Air Force, and they were initially formed in the early 1920s. Six military Coup détats were mounted by the Army between 1936 and 1941, the armed forces first saw combat in the Anglo-Iraqi War of 1941. They fought against Israel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, in the 1967 Six Day War, two wars with the Kurds were fought in 1961–70 and 1974–75. A much larger conflict was the Iran–Iraq War, initiated by the Iraqis in 1980, the Iraqi armed forces have had mixed success at the strategic level but consistently poor tactical performance during most of their history. Iraq had one of the largest and strongest militaries in the world in 1990, the armed forces are administered by the Ministry of Defence. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which toppled the Saddam Hussein regime, the Iraqi Army, in particular, is one of the most trusted national institutions of Iraq. Iraqi Armed Forces deficiencies have been identified in enabling functions, such as, e. g. logistics, in high-end conventional operations, Iraqi capabilities are currently limited by lack of artillery and air power. There are also concerns regarding corruption and sectarian agendas within the force, Article 9 of the Constitution of Iraq establishes the legal basis of the Iraqi Armed Forces. Much of the wording of Article 9 draws upon Article 27 of the 2004 Transitional Administrative Law, part C expressively notes that military personnel are allowed to vote in elections. The Second Section says that military service shall be regulated by law, Iraqs legislation on defence dates from the Coalition Provisional Authority period of 2003–2004. CPA Order 22 established the New Iraqi Army on August 18,2003, in the process, the New Iraqi Army was expanded to include an Army, Air Force, Coastal Defense Force, reserve forces, and other elements. Iraq does not appear to have issued a national defence review or white paper. Much of defence policy since 2003 has been set by the United States, for example, one mission objective for Multi-National Force-Iraq was an Iraq that has a security force that can maintain domestic order and deny Iraq as a safe haven for terrorists. To do this, the U. S. aimed to train and equip Iraqs security forces, in 2010 there are at least three major defence tasks. The armed forces of Iraq as a modern country began to be formed by the British after they assumed mandated control over Iraq after 1917. During the March 1921 Cairo conference, it was agreed that an Iraqi Army would be created along British lines, with training, king Faisal wanted an army of 15, 000–20,000 men. The army actually grew from 3,500 in 1922 to 7,000 in 1927, the army became a modernising influence in the country
7.
Iraqi Army
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The Iraqi Army, officially the Iraqi Ground Forces, is the ground force component of the Iraqi military, having been active in various incarnations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The Iraqi Army in its form was first created by the United Kingdom during the inter-war period of de facto British control of Mandatory Iraq. Following the invasion of Iraq by U. S. forces in 2003, because of the Iraqi insurgency that began shortly after the invasion, the Iraqi Army was later designed to initially be a counter-insurgency force. With the withdrawal of U. S. troops in 2011, the threat of war with newly forming Republic of Turkey, which claimed the Ottoman vilayet of Mosul as part of their country, led the British to form the Iraqi Army on 6 January 1921. The Mussa Al-Kadhum Brigade consisted of officers, whose barracks were located in Kadhimyah. The United Kingdom provided support and training to the Iraqi Army, Iraqi Army Day celebrates the soldiers that fight for Iraq. From 1533 to 1918, Iraq was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, after 1917, the United Kingdom took control of the country. The first Iraqi military forces established by the British were the Iraq Levies, in August 1921, the British installed Hashemite King Faisal I as the client ruler of the British Mandate of Iraq. Faisal had been forced out as the King of Syria by the French, likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arab elites from the region for appointments to government and ministry offices in Iraq. The British and the Iraqis formalized the relationship between the two nations with the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922, with Faisals ascension to the throne, the Iraqi Army became the Royal Iraqi Army. In 1922, the army totalled 3,618 men and this was well below the 6,000 men requested by the Iraqi monarchy and even less than the British set limit of 4,500. Unattractive salaries hindered early recruiting efforts, at this time, the United Kingdom maintained the right to levy local forces like the British-officered Iraq Levies which were under direct British control. With a strength of 4,984 men, the Iraq Levies outnumbered the army with its British set limit of 4,500 men. In 1924, the RIrA grew to 5,772 men and and it was to stay at 7,500 men until 1933. The force now had six battalions, three cavalry regiments, two mountain regiments, and one field battery. In 1932, the Kingdom of Iraq was granted official independence, the pro-British faction was represented by politicians such as Nuri as-Said who did not oppose a continued British presence. The anti-British faction was represented by such as Rashid Ali al-Gaylani who demanded that remaining British influence in the country be removed. From 1936 to 1941, five coups by the RIrA occurred during each year led by the officers of the Army against the government to pressure the government to concede to Army demands
8.
Iraqi Navy
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The Iraqi Navy is one of the components of the military of Iraq. Its primary responsibilities are the protection of Iraqs coastline and offshore assets, initially called the Iraqi Coastal Defense Force, its official name was changed on 12 January 2005. As of February 2011, the navy had approximately 5,000 sailors and marines which form an Operational headquarters, five afloat squadrons, and two marine battalions. Headed by Rear Admiral Muhammad Jawad, the navy had plans to build six Al Uboor-class patrol boats in Baghdad and this project however, was ultimately canceled. Additionally, two Assad-class corvettes built for Iraq in the 1980s by Italy were originally planned to be delivered sometime around 2006–2007. The ships however, were found to be in a worse state than originally believed, forcing the Iraqi navy to reconsider the deal and instead buy 4, newer, smaller modified-Diciotti class vessels. The 5 British corvettes and 1 Soviet patrol boat operated by the Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi Navy were destroyed in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, respectively. The Iraqi Navy is designed for water protection, preventing the smuggling of people, oil and weapons. As a result, it mainly needs patrol boats and these may be backed up by fast attack craft. The patrol boats need to have the ability to launch rigid-inflatable boats for boarding ships, the Iraqi Navy is building a second Marine battalion. The Iraqi Navy was formed in 1937 as a small four-ship force headquartered in Basra, between 1937 and 1958, it was primarily a riverine force. Following the 14 July Revolution of 1958, the Iraqi Navy began to expand, operationally based in the port of Umm Qasr, the Arabic Gulf Academy for Sea Studies was established in Basra, which offered a bachelors degree in war and engineering naval studies. By 1988, the Navy grew to a force of 5,000, much of the Navy was destroyed during Operation Pearl. Between 1977 and 1987, the Iraqi Navy received eight Osa-class missile boats, armed with Styx anti-ship missiles, the Iraqi Navy was almost completely destroyed during the Gulf War of 1991. The force had 19 ships sunk and 6 vessels damaged, in total, more than 100 Iraqi ships were destroyed. The Navy was not rebuilt and played part in the Iraq War. Of the units that remained by late 2002, most were in a state of repair. Whatever units that remained after 1991 were used primarily for safeguarding Saddams palaces on the Tigris river, in January 2004, the Iraqi Coastal Defense Force officially began training its first 214 volunteers
9.
Iraqi Air Force
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The Iraqi Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the Iraqi Armed Forces, responsible for the policing of international borders and surveillance of national assets. The IQAF also acts as a force for the Iraqi Navy. The Iraqi Air Force was founded in 1931, during British control of Iraq after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WW1, the air force used both Soviet and British aircraft throughout the 1950s and 1960s. When Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979, the air force grew very quickly when Iraq ordered more Soviet and French aircraft. Its peak came after the long and bloody Iran–Iraq War, which ended in 1988 and its downfall came during the Gulf War and continued while coalition forces enforced no-fly zones. The remains of Iraqs air force were destroyed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, after the invasion, the IQAF was rebuilt, receiving most of its training and aircraft from the United States. The Royal Iraqi Air Force considered its founding day as 22 April 1931, before the creation of the new air force, the RAF Iraq Command was in charge of all British Armed Forces elements in Iraq in the 1920s and early 1930s. The RIrAF was based at the airport in the Washash neighborhood of Baghdad, and consisted of five pilots, aeronautics students trained at the RAF College Cranwell, and 32 aircraft mechanics. The original five pilots were Natiq Mohammed Khalil al-Tay, Mohammed Ali Jawad, Hafdhi Aziz, Akrem Talib Mushtaq, and Musa Ali. During the early years of the Royal Iraqi Air Force, it received aircraft from the United Kingdom as well as Breda Ba.65 attack planes. In the years following Iraqi independence, the Air Force was still dependent on the Royal Air Force, the Iraqi government allocated the majority of its military expenditure to the Iraqi Army and by 1936 the Royal Iraqi Air Force had only 37 pilots and 55 aircraft. The following year, the Air Force showed some growth, increasing its number of pilots to 127. The RIrAF was first used in combat against the revolts by tribes in Diwaniya and Rumaytha southern Iraq in 1934 under order of Bakr Sidqi, where it suffered its first combat loss. The RIrAF was destroyed as a force, resulting in an alliance with the Axis which involved Luftwaffe aircraft. The German units were Special Staff F and Fliegerführer Irak, however losses, a lack of spares and replacements resulted in their departure, following which the coup was defeated by British forces. A roughly 1946 order of battle for the Air Force can be found in Janes Fighting Aircraft of World War II. The RIrAF was still recovering from its destruction by the British in 1948 when they joined in the war against the newly created state of Israel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Even though the RIrAF now had some modern aircraft, the RIrAF played a role in the first war against Israel
10.
Tahir Yahya
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Tahir Yahya was Prime Minister of Iraq twice, from 1963 to 1965 and a short term in 1967-1968. He was educated at the Baghdad Military College and the Staff College and he was the 4th child to Mulla Yahya el-ogaily, a prominent tobacco merchant between North and Central Iraq. At the age of sixteen, he joined the Baghdad Teachers College and he then pursued further education in military sciences. He was an officer and played polo for the Iraqi army. He led the Iraqi armored company where he was wounded in the battle at the Kfar Masaryk, at the end of his term, Yahya warned president Arif of the upcoming Baath coup détat and their plans to overthrow his government, but Arif did not take any action. This led to Yahya submitting his resignation on 8 July 1968 and that same morning Yahya was arrested and Arif was deported to London. Yahya spent three years in prison, torture, and health neglect, in 1971 he was released, only to be put under house arrest until dying in his house in Mansur, Baghdad, in 1986. Head officer Khalid Battalion 1952 Commander of 20th Brigade 1955 General Director of Police and security Directorate July 14,1958 Chief of staff February 8,1963 Minister of Defense, Interim 1964
11.
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
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Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr was the fourth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 17 July 1968 until 16 July 1979. Al-Bakr first rose to prominence following the 14 July Revolution which overthrew the monarchy, in the newly established government, al-Bakr was involved in improving Iraqi–Soviet relations. In 1959 al-Bakr was forced to resign from the Iraqi military, following his forced retirement, he became the chairman of the Baath Partys Iraqi branchs Military Bureau. Through this office he was able to recruit members to the baathist cause through patronage, Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim was overthrown in the Ramadan Revolution, al-Bakr was appointed Prime Minister, and later, Vice President of Iraq in a baath-nasserist coalition government. The government lasted for more than a year, and was ousted in November 1963. Following the Arab Socialist Baath Partys ouster from government in 1963, al-Bakr and it was during this period that al-Bakr was elected the Baath Partys Iraqi branchs Secretary General, and appointed his cousin, Saddam Hussein, to be the party cells deputy leader. Al-Bakr and the Baath Party regained power in the coup of 1968, in the coups aftermath, al-Bakr was elected Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and President, he was later appointed Prime Minister. Saddam, the Baath Partys deputy, became Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and Vice President, during his rule, Iraq was blossoming, high economic growth due to high international oil prices strengthened Iraqs role in the Arab world and increased the peoples standard of living. Land reforms were introduced, and wealth was distributed more equally, a sort of socialist economy was established in the late-1970s, under the direction of Saddam. Al-Bakr gradually lost power to Saddam in the 1970s, when the latter strengthened his position within the party, in 1979, al-Bakr resigned from all public offices for health reasons and died in 1982. Al-Bakr was born 1 July 1914 in Tikrit, Ottoman Iraq and he entered the Iraqi Military Academy in 1938 after spending six years as a primary-school teacher. During his early career, he took part in the Rashid Ali al-Gaylanis failed revolt against the British in 1941. After 15 years of trying to rehabilitate himself al-Bakr was reinstated in the Iraqi Army in 1956 – the same year that he became a member of the Arab Socialist Baath Partys Iraqi branch, the following year, in 1957, al-Bakr was promoted to brigadier. It was at about time that al-Bakr got into contact with the Free Officers. Al-Bakr helped bring down the Hashemite Monarchy and bring Abd al-Karim Qasim to power during the 14 July Revolution. He had a stint in the public limelight during Qasims rule. It was during this period, that became a member of the Baath Party. Even so, al-Bakr retained his prominence within the Arab Socialist Baath Partys Iraqi branch and it was in the late 1950s, when Saddam became a member of the Baath Party, that the two established a bond
12.
Saddam Hussein
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Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries, the state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraqs economy to grow at a rapid pace, positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population. Saddam formally rose to power in 1979, although he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years prior. He suppressed several movements, particularly Shia and Kurdish movements, seeking to overthrow the government or gain independence, and maintained power during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. Whereas some in the Arab world lauded Saddam for his opposition to the United States, the total number of Iraqis killed by the security services of Saddams government in various purges and genocides is unknown, but the lowest estimate is 250,000. Saddams Baath party was disbanded and elections were held, following his capture on 13 December 2003, the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted of charges of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shiites and his execution was carried out on 30 December 2006. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her newborn son Saddam and he is always referred to by this personal name, which may be followed by the patronymic and other elements. He never knew his father, Hussein Abd al-Majid, who disappeared six months before Saddam was born, shortly afterward, Saddams 13-year-old brother died of cancer. The infant Saddam was sent to the family of his maternal uncle Khairallah Talfah until he was three and his mother remarried, and Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return, at about age 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle Kharaillah Talfah. Later in his relatives from his native Tikrit became some of his closest advisors and supporters. Under the guidance of his uncle he attended a high school in Baghdad. After secondary school Saddam studied at an Iraqi law school for three years, dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Baath Party, during this time, Saddam apparently supported himself as a secondary school teacher. Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, in Iraq progressives and socialists assailed traditional political elites. Moreover, the nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt profoundly influenced young Baathists like Saddam. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, with the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq, Egypt, and Libya
13.
Ba'athism
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The ideology is officially based on the theories of the Syrian intellectuals Zaki al-Arsuzi, Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar. A Baathist society seeks enlightenment, renaissance of Arab culture, values, Baathism is based on principles of Arab nationalism, pan-Arabism, Arab socialism, as well as social progress. A Baathist state supports socialist economics to a degree, and supports public ownership over the heights of the economy. The two Baathist states which have existed forbade criticism of their ideology through authoritarian governance, the origins of Baathism began with the political thought developed by Zaki al-Arsuzi and Michel Aflaq. While Aflaq, Bitar and Arsuzi were never members of the same organization, the closest they ever came to being members of the same organization was in 1939, when those three together with Michel Quzman, Shakir al-As and Ilyas Qandalaft, tried to establish a party. This did not happen because Arsuzi personally disliked Aflaq, and Aflaq seemed to have reciprocated the feeling, though Aflaq was influenced by him, Arsuzi initially did not cooperate with Aflaqs movement. Arsuzi was an Arab from Alexandretta who had associated with Arab nationalist politics during the interwar period. He was inspired by the French Revolution, the German and Italian unification movements, and his views were influenced by a number of prominent European and Eurasian philosophical and political figures, among them Georg Hegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Oswald Spengler. When Arsuzi left the LNA party in 1939 after its leader died. On 29 November 1940, Arsuzi founded the Arab Baath Party, Aflaqs movement supported al-Gaylanis government and the Iraqi governments war against the British, and organized volunteers to go to Iraq and fight for the Iraqi government. However, Arsuzi opposed al-Gaylanis government, considering the coup to be poorly-planned, at this point, Arsuzis party lost members and support that transferred to Aflaqs movement. Subsequently, Arsuzis direct influence in Arab politics collapsed after Vichy French authorities expelled him from Syria in 1941, Aflaqs Arab Baath Movements next major political action was its support of Lebanons war of independence from France in 1943. In 1966 the Baath movement split in half, one Syrian-dominated, Aflaq is today considered the founder of the Baathist movement, or at least, its most notable contributor. There were other notable ideologues as well, such as Arsuzi, from the founding of the Arab Baath Movement until the mid-1950s in Syria and the early 1960s in Iraq, the ideology of the Baath Party was largely synonymous with that of Aflaqs. Aflaqs view on Arab nationalism is considered by some, such as historian Paul Salem of the Middle East Institute and he insisted on the overthrow of the old ruling classes, and supported the creation of a secular society by separating Islam from 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 Baathism is Arab socialism, a socialism with Arab characteristics which is not associated with the international socialist movement, and pan-Arab ideology. Baathism, as developed by Aflaq and Bitar, was a unique left-wing Arab-centric ideology, the ideology presented itself as representing the Arab spirit against materialistic communism and Arab history against dead reaction. Aflaq supported Sati al-Husris view that language was the principal defining unifying factor of the Arab nation because language led to the unity of thought, norms, history was also another unifying feature, as it was the fertile ground in which our consciousness took shape
14.
Arab Ba'ath
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Zakī al-Arsūzī was a Syrian philosopher, philologist, sociologist, historian, and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Baathism and he published several books during his lifetime, most notably The Genius of Arabic in its Tongue. Born into a family in Latakia, Syria, al-Arsuzi studied at the Sorbonne. In 1930, he returned to Syria, where he became a member of the League of National Action in 1933, in 1938, he moved to Damascus because of his disillusionment with party work, and in 1939, he left the LNA. In Damascus al-Arsuzi established and headed a group consisting of mostly secondary school pupils who would often discuss European history, nationalism, shortly after leaving the LNA, al-Arsuzi established the Arab National Party, an Arab nationalist party with a defined creed. In 1947, the two merged, forming a single Arab Baath Party. Despite the merger, Al-Arsuzi neither attended its founding conference nor was given membership, during the rest of the 1940s and 1950s, al-Arsuzi stayed out of politics and worked as a teacher. He made a comeback during the 1960s power struggle in the Baath Party between Aflaq and al-Bitar on one hand and Salah Jadid and Hafiz al-Assad on the other. When Aflaq and al-Bitar lost the struggle and were forced to escape from Syria in 1966. The key to Arab unification, according to al-Arsuzi, is through language, in contrast to the Latin language, al-Arsuzi argued, Arabic was far less arbitrary and far more intuitive. Despite his contributions to Baathist thought, al-Arsuzi is barely mentioned in Western or Arab scholarship and this omission may be linked to the fact that Sati al-Husri, a contemporary Arab nationalist, had many of the same ideas as al-Arsuzi but was better able to articulate them. Zaki al-Arsuzi was born in 1900 or 1901 to a family of Alawi origins in Latakia on the Syrian coast of the Ottoman Empire. His mother, Maryam came from a prominent religious family, while his father, with his two brothers, one sister and his parents moved to Antioch in 1904. Arsuzi began his studies at a kuttab where he memorised the Quran, four years later, his parents enrolled him into a rüşdiye to give him a proper Ottoman education. His father was arrested by Ottoman authorities in 1915 for nationalist activities and his father was imprisoned for a short period before he and his family were sent to internal exile in the Anatolian city of Konya. After a year in exile, Najib and his family were allowed to back to Antioch. According to Arsuzi, his father replaced the Ottoman flag with the Hashemite flag on the Antioch government house upon hearing the news that Faisal I of Iraq had entered Damascus and this however, was never independently verified. In the aftermath of World War I, Arsuzi began studying at Institut Laïc in Lebanon and it was here that Arsuzi was introduced to philosophy
15.
Arab Ba'ath Movement
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The Arab Baath Movement, also literally translated as Arab Resurrection Movement or Arab Renaissance Movement, was the Baathist political movement and predecessor of the Arab Socialist Baath Party. The party was first named Arab Ihya Movement literally translated as Arab Revitalization Movement and it was founded in 1940 by Michel Aflaq. Its founders, Aflaq and Bitar were both associated with nationalism and socialism, the Movement was formed in 1940 as the Arab Ihya Movement by Syrian expatriate Michel Aflaq. The Syrian Committee sent weapons and volunteers to fight alongside Iraqi forces against the British, Aflaq unsuccessfully ran as a candidate for the Syrian parliament in 1943. After the Syrian election defeat, the Movement sought cooperation with parties in elections in Syria. The Party became the Arab Baath Party in 1947, and al-Hawranis Arab Socialist Movement later merged into the party in the 1950s to establish the Arab Socialist Baath Party
16.
Ba'ath Party
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Zakī al-Arsūzī was a Syrian philosopher, philologist, sociologist, historian, and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Baathism and he published several books during his lifetime, most notably The Genius of Arabic in its Tongue. Born into a family in Latakia, Syria, al-Arsuzi studied at the Sorbonne. In 1930, he returned to Syria, where he became a member of the League of National Action in 1933, in 1938, he moved to Damascus because of his disillusionment with party work, and in 1939, he left the LNA. In Damascus al-Arsuzi established and headed a group consisting of mostly secondary school pupils who would often discuss European history, nationalism, shortly after leaving the LNA, al-Arsuzi established the Arab National Party, an Arab nationalist party with a defined creed. In 1947, the two merged, forming a single Arab Baath Party. Despite the merger, Al-Arsuzi neither attended its founding conference nor was given membership, during the rest of the 1940s and 1950s, al-Arsuzi stayed out of politics and worked as a teacher. He made a comeback during the 1960s power struggle in the Baath Party between Aflaq and al-Bitar on one hand and Salah Jadid and Hafiz al-Assad on the other. When Aflaq and al-Bitar lost the struggle and were forced to escape from Syria in 1966. The key to Arab unification, according to al-Arsuzi, is through language, in contrast to the Latin language, al-Arsuzi argued, Arabic was far less arbitrary and far more intuitive. Despite his contributions to Baathist thought, al-Arsuzi is barely mentioned in Western or Arab scholarship and this omission may be linked to the fact that Sati al-Husri, a contemporary Arab nationalist, had many of the same ideas as al-Arsuzi but was better able to articulate them. Zaki al-Arsuzi was born in 1900 or 1901 to a family of Alawi origins in Latakia on the Syrian coast of the Ottoman Empire. His mother, Maryam came from a prominent religious family, while his father, with his two brothers, one sister and his parents moved to Antioch in 1904. Arsuzi began his studies at a kuttab where he memorised the Quran, four years later, his parents enrolled him into a rüşdiye to give him a proper Ottoman education. His father was arrested by Ottoman authorities in 1915 for nationalist activities and his father was imprisoned for a short period before he and his family were sent to internal exile in the Anatolian city of Konya. After a year in exile, Najib and his family were allowed to back to Antioch. According to Arsuzi, his father replaced the Ottoman flag with the Hashemite flag on the Antioch government house upon hearing the news that Faisal I of Iraq had entered Damascus and this however, was never independently verified. In the aftermath of World War I, Arsuzi began studying at Institut Laïc in Lebanon and it was here that Arsuzi was introduced to philosophy
17.
Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction)
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The Arab Socialist Baath Party, also referred to as the pro-Syrian Baath movement, is a neo-Baathist political party, with branches across the Arab world. The party emerged from a split in the Baath Party in February 1966, the party leads the government in Syria. From 1970 until 2000, the party was led by the Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, as of 2000, leadership has been shared between his son Bashar al-Assad and Abdullah al-Ahmar. The Syrian branch of the party is the largest organisation within the Syrian-led Baath Party, Hafez al-Assad became the secretary of the Syrian Regional Command of the party in 1970, and Secretary General of the National Command in late 1970. Despite being deceased, Hafez al-Assad is still the official Secretary General of the National Command, Bashar al-Assad became the Regional Secretary of the party in Syria after his fathers death in 2000. Abdullah al-Ahmar serves as the Assistant Secretary General of the National Command, the highest organ of the party is the Party Congress. The Congress elects a General Secretary and a National Command, under the National Command there is a Regional Command for each state in which the party operates. The regions are divided into branches, which are divided into companies, a branch consists of two or more companies. A company comprises three to seven cells, each cell has between three and seven members. In theory, the National Command of the party is the government for the entire Arab nation. The body comprises 21 members, half of whom are Syrian, in practice, the Syrian Regional Command is the more powerful institution inside the party. The Syrian Regional Command is the political leadership in Syria. A seat in National Command has become a sinecure, an honorary post given to Syrian politicians as they retire from political life. Hafez al-Assad rarely had time to attend National Command meetings, instead, he appointed Vice President for Party Affairs Zuhayr Mashariqa or Abd al-Halim Khaddam to represent him at National Command meetings. There is a branch in Algeria. There is a branch in Bahrain. There is a branch in Egypt. The party was known in Iraq as Left-wing Baath or Qutr Al-Iraq
18.
Zaki al-Arsuzi
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Zakī al-Arsūzī was a Syrian philosopher, philologist, sociologist, historian, and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Baathism and he published several books during his lifetime, most notably The Genius of Arabic in its Tongue. Born into a family in Latakia, Syria, al-Arsuzi studied at the Sorbonne. In 1930, he returned to Syria, where he became a member of the League of National Action in 1933, in 1938, he moved to Damascus because of his disillusionment with party work, and in 1939, he left the LNA. In Damascus al-Arsuzi established and headed a group consisting of mostly secondary school pupils who would often discuss European history, nationalism, shortly after leaving the LNA, al-Arsuzi established the Arab National Party, an Arab nationalist party with a defined creed. In 1947, the two merged, forming a single Arab Baath Party. Despite the merger, Al-Arsuzi neither attended its founding conference nor was given membership, during the rest of the 1940s and 1950s, al-Arsuzi stayed out of politics and worked as a teacher. He made a comeback during the 1960s power struggle in the Baath Party between Aflaq and al-Bitar on one hand and Salah Jadid and Hafiz al-Assad on the other. When Aflaq and al-Bitar lost the struggle and were forced to escape from Syria in 1966. The key to Arab unification, according to al-Arsuzi, is through language, in contrast to the Latin language, al-Arsuzi argued, Arabic was far less arbitrary and far more intuitive. Despite his contributions to Baathist thought, al-Arsuzi is barely mentioned in Western or Arab scholarship and this omission may be linked to the fact that Sati al-Husri, a contemporary Arab nationalist, had many of the same ideas as al-Arsuzi but was better able to articulate them. Zaki al-Arsuzi was born in 1900 or 1901 to a family of Alawi origins in Latakia on the Syrian coast of the Ottoman Empire. His mother, Maryam came from a prominent religious family, while his father, with his two brothers, one sister and his parents moved to Antioch in 1904. Arsuzi began his studies at a kuttab where he memorised the Quran, four years later, his parents enrolled him into a rüşdiye to give him a proper Ottoman education. His father was arrested by Ottoman authorities in 1915 for nationalist activities and his father was imprisoned for a short period before he and his family were sent to internal exile in the Anatolian city of Konya. After a year in exile, Najib and his family were allowed to back to Antioch. According to Arsuzi, his father replaced the Ottoman flag with the Hashemite flag on the Antioch government house upon hearing the news that Faisal I of Iraq had entered Damascus and this however, was never independently verified. In the aftermath of World War I, Arsuzi began studying at Institut Laïc in Lebanon and it was here that Arsuzi was introduced to philosophy
19.
Michel Aflaq
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Michel Aflaq was a Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Baathism and its political movement and he published various books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Battle for One Destiny and The Struggle Against Distorting the Movement of Arab Revolution. Born into a family in Damascus, Syria, Aflaq studied at the Sorbonne. He returned to Syria in 1932, and began his career in communist politics. Aflaq became a communist activist, but broke his ties with the communist movement when the Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party supported Frances colonial policies, later in 1940 Aflaq and al-Bitar established the Arab Ihya Movement. The movement proved successful, and in 1947 the Arab Baath Movement merged with al-Arsuzis Arab Baath organisation to establish the Arab Baath Party, Aflaq was elected to the partys executive committee and was elected Amid. The Arab Baath Party merged with Akram al-Hawranis Arab Socialist Party to establish the Arab Socialist Baath Party in 1952, 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. Nasser forced Aflaq to dissolve the party, which he did, shortly after the UARs dissolution, Aflaq was reelected as Secretary General of the National Command of the Baath Party. Following the 8th of March Revolution, Aflaqs position within the party was weakened to such an extent that he was forced to resign as the leader in 1965. Aflaq was ousted during the 1966 Syrian coup détat, which led to a schism within the Baath Party and he escaped to Lebanon, but later went to Iraq. In 1968 Aflaq was elected Secretary General of the Iraqi-led Baath Party and he held the post until his death on 23 June 1989. He was critical of capitalism and communism, and critical of Karl Marxs view of dialectical materialism as the only truth. Baathist thought placed much emphasis on liberty and Arab socialism – a socialism with Arab characteristics, 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 Baath Party split, the Syrian-led Baath Party accused Aflaq of stealing al-Arsuzis ideas, and called him a thief. The Iraqi-led Baath Party rejects this, and does not believe that al-Arsuzi contributed to Baathist thought, born on 9 January 1910 in Damascus to a middle class Greek Orthodox Christian family, his father, Joseph, working as a grain merchant. Aflaq was first educated in the schools of the French Mandate of Syria. In 1929, he left Syria to study 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, Aflaq founded an Arab Student Union at the Sorbonne, and discovered the writings of Karl Marx
20.
Salah al-Din al-Bitar
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Salah ad-Din al-Bitar was a Syrian politician who co-founded the Arab Baath Party with Michel Aflaq in the early 1940s. As students in Paris in the early 1930s, the two formulated a doctrine that combined aspects of nationalism and socialism, Bitar later served as prime minister in several early Baathist governments in Syria but became alienated from the party as it grew more radical. In 1966 he fled the country, lived mostly in Europe, according to historian Hanna Batatu, Bitar was born in the Midan area of Damascus in 1912, he was the son of a reasonably well-off Sunni Muslim grain merchant. His family were religious and many of his recent ancestors had been ulama, Bitar grew up in a conservative family atmosphere and attended a Muslim elementary school before receiving his secondary education in Maktab Anbar. He was exposed to the vicissitudes of the time, as Midan played a leading role in the Great Syrian Revolution of 1925 against France—then the mandatory power in Syria. The district was heavily bombarded with considerable loss of life and physical damage, Bitar traveled to France in 1929 to study in the Sorbonne. There he became acquainted with Michel Aflaq, also the son of a Midan grain merchant who was from a Christian Orthodox family and they were both interested in the political and intellectual movements of the time, and began applying nationalist and Marxist ideas to the situation of their homeland. Bitar returned to Syria in 1934, and took a job teaching physics and mathematics at the Tajhiz al-Ula, during the next two years, Bitar, Aflaq and other associates edited a review entitled al-Talia. According to Batatu, this publication displayed more concern with social issues than with national problems, Bitar and Aflaqs political stance was closer to the Syrian Communist Party than to any of the other political groups in Damascus. They became disillusioned with the Communists in 1936, after the Popular Front government came to power in France, although the French Communist Party was now part of the government, Frances approach to its colonies barely changed. Bitar and Aflaq were unhappy with the Syrian partys stance in these circumstances, in 1939, Aflaq and Bitar began to attract a small following of students, and in 1941 they issued leaflets agitating against French rule, using the title al-ihyaa al-arabi—the Arab Resurrection. On 24 October 1942 both Bitar and Aflaq resigned from their positions to take up politics full-time. They slowly gained supporters and in 1945 the first elected Bureau of the Arab Baath Movement was formed, the following year, the organisation gained many new members when most of the former supporters of Arsuzi, led by Wahib al-Ghanim, joined it. In 1947, during the first party congress held in Damascus, in 1952 Syrias military dictator Adib al-Shishakli banned all political parties. The rules and constitution of Bitar and Aflaqs party were adopted unchanged, all three were elected to the partys new National Command, along with a supporter of Hawrani. Following the overthrow of Shishakli, Syria held its first democratic elections in five years, Bitar was elected as a deputy for Damascus, defeating the secretary general of the Syrian Social National Party—one of the Baaths bitterest ideological enemies. He became Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1956 and held the post until 1958, along with other Baathists, he agitated in favour of the unification of Syria with Nassers Egypt. At the beginning, Bitar was the only Syrian in the central cabinet and he and other Syrians in the UAR leadership became dismayed over the dominant role Nasser gave the Egyptians in administrating the UAR
21.
Abdullah Rimawi
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Abdullah Rimawi was the head of the Baath Party in Jordan in the 1950s. He served as Foreign Affairs Minister in Sulayman al-Nabulsis government in 1957, a staunch pan-Arabist, Rimawi became one of the most vocal opponents of the Hashemite ruling family in Jordan and favored union with Syria. He fled Jordan in 1957 as the result of a crisis between the leftist government he was a part of and the royal family. He based himself in the United Arab Republic where he drew closer to UAR President Gamal Abdel Nasser provoking his expulsion from the Baath Party—which was at odds with Nasser—in 1959, soon after he founded a splinter party called the Arab Socialist Revolutionary Baath Party. During his exile, he made a number of attempts to attack or undermine the Jordanian monarchy. Rimawi was born in 1920 in the town of Beit Rima, near Ramallah and he attended primary school in his hometown and secondary school at the Arab College in Jerusalem, graduating in 1937. He then enrolled at the American University of Beirut where he studied Western political theory and he graduated with a BA in mathematics and natural science in 1940. Afterward, Rimawi returned to Palestine and got a job as a professor in the Nablus school authority and he would later work in various high schools in Jaffa, Tulkarm, and Ramla until 1945. In 1945, the Arab Higher Committee was reestablished and Rimawi was appointed head of its Public Instruction Department and he was a vocal opponent of the Palestine Partition Plan devised in 1947 which proposed the division of Palestine into two separate Arab and Jewish states. In January 1948, during the Palestine War, Rimawi issued a broadcast from AHC radio dismissing claims by the Haganah that wealthy Arabs were fleeing their homes and he stated many Palestinians were simply leaving to join Arab fighters camps to train themselves for war. That same year, Rimawi had joined the Holy War Army of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni in 1948, Rimawi and Abdullah Nawas founded the social, cultural and political al-Baath newspaper in 1948, although at that time neither officially joined the Baath Party. However, with assistance from Cairo-based exiled Jordanian Army general Abdullah el-Tell, by the end of the war, much of what was the British Mandate of Palestine fell into Israeli hands, but the Arab Legion of Transjordan captured a large swathe of territory called the West Bank. Rimawi, who was popular in the Ramallah-Jerusalem area of the West Bank, on the orders of then-Transjordanian Prime Minister Tawfik Abu al-Huda, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Bayir Jail located in the countrys southern desert. On October 18, he went on a strike and was soon released with the aid of Raghib al-Nashashibi who had close relations with Abu al-Huda. Rimawi initiated his career in 1950 when he was elected to the Jordanian Parliament as an independent representative of the District of Ramallah. Along with the rest of the parliament, he voted to recognize the new union between the West Bank and Transjordan to form the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan under Abdullah I. Prior to his election, he studied law in Jerusalem, gaining a law certificate in 1951, in the spring of 1951, Rimawi hosted the Baath Partys first organizational conference at his Ramallah home. The partys regional command conference, in which Rimawi was selected as the partys secretary-general, was held in 1952, King Hussein had since succeeded his father Talal who had briefly become king following the assassination of Abdullah I
22.
Fuad al-Rikabi
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Fuad al-Rikabi was an Iraqi politician and a founder of the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Baath Party. Al-Rikabi became the Secretary of Iraqi Regional Command of the Baath Party in 1954, throughout his term of leadership, the Iraqi Regional Branch expanded its membership and became a leading party in Iraqs political landscape. Following the 14 July Revolution of 1958 which toppled the monarchy, as soon as the government was established, a power struggle quickly began between Qasim, an Iraqi nationalist who supported the Iraqi Communist Party, and Abdul Salam Arif, an Arab nationalist. Along with other members, al-Rikabi resigned in protest when Arif lost the power struggle in late 1958. Al-Rikabi and the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Baath Party came to the conclusion that the way to expedite Iraqs entry into the United Arab Republic was to assassinate Qasim. The assassination attempt failed, and most of the leading Baathists and co-conspirators, including al-Rikabi, shortly after, on 29 November 1959, the Iraqi Regional Command was dissolved. Al-Rikabi supported the Nasserist faction—supporters of Gamal Abdel Nasser—in a power struggle within the Baath Party in the late 1950s against the Aflaqites and he agreed with Abdullah Rimawis observation that the National Command, the ruling organ of the Baath Party, had deviated from Baathist thought. Al-Rikabi tried but failed to get the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Baath Party to break away from the National Command, from then on al-Rikabi was a prominent Nasserite, active first in Rimawis Revolutionary Baath Command and then in Arifs Arab Socialist Union. Following the Baath Partys seizure of power in the 17 July Revolution of 1968 and he was killed by fellow inmates according to an official account, media unaffiliated to the Iraqi state claimed he was killed by the Iraqi security services. Al-Rikabi was born into a Shia family in Nasiriyah in 1937 and he attended the engineering school in Baghdad. The Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Baath Party was established either in 1951 or 1952, the party initially consisted of a majority of Shia Muslims, as al-Rikabi recruited supporters mainly from his friends and family, but it slowly became Sunni-dominated. Between 1952 and 1963,54 per cent of the members of the Baath Regional Command were considered Shia Muslims and this majority is largely explained by al-Rikabis effective recruitment drive in Shia areas. Between 1963 and 1970, after al-Rikabis resignation, Shia representation in the Regional Command dropped to 14 percent, however, of the three factions which existed within the Baath Party, two had Shia leaders. According to police records membership of the Iraqi Regional Branch had increased to 289 by 1955, the front welcomed the 14 July Revolution of 1958, which toppled the Iraqi monarchy. A cabinet headed by Abd al-Karim Qasim as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence was established shortly after the 14 July Revolution, al-Rikabi, who represented the Baath Party, was appointed Minister of Development. Iraq had been invited to join the United Arab Republic, a union consisting of Egypt and Syria. Michel Aflaq, the founder of Baathism, the Baath Party. Arif lost the struggle, and on 30 November 1958 he was forced to resign from his posts of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior
23.
Salah Jadid
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Salah Jadid was a Syrian general and political figure in the Arab Socialist Baath Party in Syria, and the countrys de facto leader from 1966 until 1970. Jadid was born in 1926 in the village of Dweir Baabda, near the city of Jableh. However, there is another report stating his birth year as 1924 and he studied at the Homs Military Academy, and entered the Syrian Army in 1946. Even so, Jadid remained close to the SSNP, his brother and he changed allegiance again in the 1950s, when he became a member of the Arab Nationalist Movement, a party supporting Gamal Abdel Nassers ideological beliefs. Jadid supported Syrias ascension into the United Arab Republic, a republic consisting of Egypt. During the UAR-era, Jadid was stationed in Cairo, Egypt, Jadid established the Military Committee alongside other Baathists in 1959. The chief aim of the Military Committee was to protect the UARs existence, in the beginning there was only four members of the Military Committee, the others were Hafez al-Assad, Abd al-Karim al-Jundi and Muhammad Umran. The Military Committee also tried to save the Syrian Baath movement from annihilation, Committee members were among those who blamed Aflaq for the Baath Partys failing during the UAR years. 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 Syrias secession. The Military Committee did not succeed in its aims, and in September 1961 the UAR was dissolved, nazim al-Qudsi, who led the first post-UAR government, persecuted Jadid and the others for their Nasserite loyalties, and all of them were forced to retire from the Syrian Army. Many of these men were Alawis, giving the government a sectarian character, several were military men, and all belonged on the Baath Partys left wing. Domestically, Jadid attempted a socialist transformation of Syrian society at forced pace, creating unrest, opponents of the government were harshly suppressed, while the Baath Party replaced parliament as law-making body and other parties were banned. After the war, in particular, tensions began to increase between Jadids followers and those who argued that the called for a more moderate stance on socialism. While Jadid retained the allegiance of most of the civilian Baath apparatus, in 1969, Assad purged several Jadid loyalists, and from that point on Jadid had lost his preeminence in the state. This action was not supported by Assads more pragmatic Baath faction, the action helped trigger the simmering conflict between Jadids and Assads wings of the Baath Party and army. The Syrian communist party aligned itself with Salah Jadid, the Soviet ambassador, Nuritdin Mukhitdinov was drawn in the power struggle. In November 1970, Jadid attempted to fire Assad and his supporter Mustafa Tlass, Jadid was arrested on 13 November 1970, and remained in the Mezzeh prison in Damascus until his death, while al-Assad would remain in power until his death in 2000. Jadid died of an attack in a hospital on 19 August 1993
24.
Hafez al-Assad
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In 1966, Assad participated in a second coup, which toppled the traditional leaders of the Baath Party, and brought a radical military faction headed by Salah Jadid to power. Assad was appointed minister by the new government. In 1970 Assad seized power by toppling Jadid, and appointed himself the leader of Syria in the period 1970–71. He sided with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in turn for support against Israel, while he had forsaken pan-Arabism—or at least the pan-Arab concept of unifying the Arab world into one Arab nation—he did seek to make Syria the defender of Arab interest against Israel. When he took power, Assad instituted one-man rule and organized state services into sectarian lines, the formerly collegial powers of Baathist decision-making were curtailed, and were transferred to the Syrian presidency. The Syrian government ceased to be a one-party system in the sense of the word. To maintain this system, a cult of personality centered on Assad. Having become the source of initiative inside the Syrian government. His first choice as successor was his brother Rifaat, who was seen as corrupt. In 1983–84, when Hafezs health was in doubt, Rifaat attempted to seize power, when Hafezs health did improve, Rifaat was exiled from Syria. His next choice of successor was his eldest son, Bassel, however Bassels 1994 death in a car accident forced Assad to turn to his third choice—his younger son Bashar al-Assad, who at that time had no practical political experience. This move was met with criticism within some quarters of the Syrian ruling class. Assad died in 2000 and was succeeded by Bashar al-Assad as President, Hafez was born on 6 October 1930 in Qardaha to an Alawite family of the Kalbiyya tribe. His parents were Nasa and Ali Sulayman al-Assad, Hafez was Alis ninth son, and the fourth from his second marriage. Sulayman married twice, had children and was known for his strength and shooting abilities. By the 1920s he was respected locally, and like others he initially opposed the French Mandate for Syria. Nevertheless, Ali Sulayman later cooperated with the French administration and was appointed to an official post. In 1936, he was one of 80 Alawite notables who signed a letter addressed to the French Prime Minister saying that Alawi people rejected attachment to Syria, for his accomplishments, he was called al-Assad by local residents and made the nickname his surname in 1927
25.
Bashar al-Assad
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Bashar Hafez al-Assad is the 19th and current President of Syria, holding the office since 17 July 2000. He is also commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling Arab Socialist Baath Party and he is a son of Hafez al-Assad, who was President of Syria from 1971 to 2000. Born and raised in Damascus, Assad graduated from the school of Damascus University in 1988. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital in London, in 1994, after his elder brother Bassel died in a car crash, Bashar was recalled to Syria to take over Bassels role as heir apparent. He entered the academy, taking charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. On 10 July 2000, Assad was elected as President, succeeding his father, in the 2000 and subsequent 2007 election, he received 99. 7% and 97. 6% support, respectively, in referendums on his leadership. On 16 July 2014, Assad was sworn in for another term after taking 88. 7% of votes in the first contested presidential election in Baathist Syrias history. The Assad government describes itself as secular, while some claim that the government exploits sectarian tensions in the country. During the Syrian Civil War, an inquiry by the United Nations reported finding evidence which implicated Assad in war crimes, in June 2014, Assad was included in a list of war crimes indictments of government officials and rebels handed to the International Criminal Court. Assad has rejected allegations of war crimes, and criticised the American-led intervention in Syria for attempting regime change, however, after the election of Donald Trump, the priority of the United States concerning Assad is to no longer force him out of power. Bashar Hafez al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, al-Assad in Arabic means the Lion, Assads peasant paternal grandfather had changed the family name from Wahsh upon acquiring minor noble status in 1927. Hafez promoted his supporters within the Baath Party, many of whom were also of Alawite background, after the coup, Alawite strongmen were installed while Sunnis, Druzes and Ismailis were purged from the army and Baath party. Assad had five siblings, three of whom are deceased, a sister named Bushra died in infancy. Assads youngest brother, Majd, was not a figure and little is known about him other than he was intellectually disabled. Unlike his brothers Bassel and Maher, and second sister, also named Bushra, Bashar was quiet, reserved and lacked interest in politics or the military. The Assad children reportedly rarely saw their father, and Bashar later stated that he entered his fathers office once while he was president. Assad received his primary and secondary education in the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus, in 1982, he graduated from high school and went on to study medicine at Damascus University. In 1988, Assad graduated from school and began working as an army doctor at the Tishrin military hospital on the outskirts of Damascus
26.
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri
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Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is a former Iraqi statesman and military commander. He served as Vice Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council until the 2003 U. S. -led invasion of Iraq and was regarded as the closest advisor and he led the Iraqi insurgent Naqshbandi Army. Al-Douri is the most high-profile Baathist official to successfully evade capture after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Al-Douri continued to lead elements of the Iraqi insurgency such as the Naqshbandi Army against the then-occupation forces and waged an insurgency against the current regime in Baghdad. Following the execution of Saddam Hussein on 30 December 2006, al-Douri was confirmed as the new leader of the banned Iraqi Baath Party on 3 January 2007. The Shiite militant organization Asaib Ahl al-Haq has alleged to have killed him, according to the BBC, Shiite militias claimed to have killed him, but the Iraqi Baath party denies his death, and his death has not been confirmed. A Kurdish news source reported that Iraq did not have al-Douris DNA to confirm his death. Born in 1942, al-Douri began his life in his hometown of Ad-Dawr, nicknamed the Iceman for his humble origins selling blocks of ice, he became involved in revolutionary politics in his late teenage years. Both served in the intelligence apparatus of the Baath Party. Al-Douri was a member of the Baathist government under Saddam Hussein. This was due to the fact that both al-Douri and Hussein came from the same Tikriti tribal background, when the Baathists seized power in 1968, he was made interior minister where he oversaw efforts to sideline political rivals to the Baath Party, mainly the Iraqi Communist Party. Al-Douri became the chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council prior to 2003, giving him unprecedented amounts of power. As vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, al-Douri was involved in the wars against Iran, during the 1988–1989 Al-Anfal Campaign, al-Douri was said to have ordered Ali Hassan al-Majid to use Mustard and Sarin nerve gas on Kurdish fighters in Halabja. He was complicit in the invasion of Saudi Arabia and the attack on the town of Khafji in January 1991, during the 1991 uprisings in Iraq, he was involved in the suppression of the revolt led by the Iraqi marsh Arabs. When the Kurds rebelled again in 1991, al-Douri warned them If you have forgotten Halabja, in 1993, al-Douri was involved in the state-sponsored Return to Faith Campaign, which sought to encourage devotion to Islam in Iraqi social life. This saw aspects of Islam fused into the Iraqi media, education system, on 22 November 1998, al-Douri escaped an assassination attempt when visiting Karbala. Following the October 2000 events, Arab leaders including al-Douri gathered in Cairo condemning Israels reaction to the protests, in response to the Palestinian protests, Al-Douri was said to have remarked The Jews will be taught a lesson. He blamed Kuwait for being responsible for Iraqs suffering and scrutinised the United States of Americas aggressive stance towards Iraq and these comments sparked the Kuwaiti representative to stand up and protest to which al-Douri responded Shut up, sit down you small American agent, you monkey. Al-Douri, a member of the Naqshbandi Order, was able to use his position in the regime to support to the Naqshbandi community within Iraq
27.
Ramadan Revolution
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Qasims former deputy Abdul Salam Arif was given the largely ceremonial title of President, while prominent Baathist general Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr was named Prime Minister. This made him from that time begin to minimize the Communist movement and he ordered the party to be disarmed and most of the party leaders to be arrested. However, the party retained Air Commander Celalettin Alaoqati and Lt. Col. Fadhil Abbas Mahdawi, an overlapping set of both internal and regional factors created conditions conducive to the overthrow of Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim and his staff. Also to blame may be an increasingly forceful disagreement with Field Marshal Abdul Salam Aref and this was because of the game of international politics and its role in the promotion of or endorsement of Qasims political opposition. Qasims removal took place on 8 February 1963, the day of Ramadan. The coup had been in its planning stages since 1962, and several attempts had been planned, only to be abandoned for fear of discovery. The coup had been planned for January 18, but was moved to 25 January, then 8 February after Qasim gained knowledge of the proposed attempt. The coup began in the morning of 8 February 1963. A bitter two-day struggle unfolded with heavy fighting between the Ba’athist conspirators and pro-Qasim forces, Qasim took refuge in the Ministry of Defence, where fighting became particularly heavy. Communist sympathisers took to the streets to resist the coup adding to the high casualties, on 9 February Qasim eventually offered his surrender in return for safe passage out of the country. His request was refused, and on the afternoon of the 9th, Qasim was given a mock trial over Baghdad radio and then killed. His dead body was displayed on television by leaders of the soon after his death. The Baathist government was overthrown on 10 November 1963 by Nasserist elements of the military and it is also widely believed that the CIA provided the new government with lists of communists and other leftists, who were then arrested or killed by the Baath Partys militia—the National Guard. Permit me to tell you that I know for a certainty that what happened in Iraq on 8 February had the support of American Intelligence, some of those who now rule in Baghdad do not know of this thing but I am aware of the truth. Numerous meetings were held between the Baath party and American Intelligence, the important in Kuwait. On 8 February a secret radio beamed to Iraq was supplying the men who pulled the coup with the names and addresses of the Communists there so that they could be arrested and executed. In addition, the lists in question proved to be in part out of date, batatus explanation is supported by declassified U. S. Although it may not have organized the coup, U. S and that same year, the Syrian party’s military committee succeeded in persuading Nasserist and independent officers to make common cause with it, and successfully carried out a military coup on 8 March
28.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
29.
Sanctions against Iraq
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The sanctions against Iraq were a near-total financial and trade embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council on the Iraqi Republic. They began August 6,1990, four days after Iraqs invasion of Kuwait, stayed largely in force until May 2003, and persisted in part, including reparations to Kuwait, through the present. The original stated purposes of the sanctions were to compel Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, to pay reparations, initially the UN Security Council imposed stringent economic sanctions on Iraq by adopting and enforcing United Nations Security Council Resolution 661. After the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, those sanctions were extended and elaborated on, including linkage to removal of weapons of mass destruction, by Resolution 687. The sanctions banned all trade and financial resources except for medicine and in humanitarian circumstances foodstuffs and these sanctions included strict limits both on the items that could be imported into Iraq and on those that could be exported. Initially, the UN Sanctions Committee issued no complete list of items that could not be imported into Iraq, instead, it evaluated applications for importing items to Iraq on a case-by-case basis, in theory allowing foodstuffs, medicines and products for essential civilian needs and barring everything else. The Committee made its decision in secret, any Committee member could veto a permission without giving any reason, in 2002 the process was streamlined, and the sanctions committee established a Good Review List for certain items. Anything not on the Goods Review list could be imported without restriction, limitations on Iraqi exports made it difficult to fund the import of goods into Iraq. The Government of Iraq declined offers to enable Iraq to sell limited quantities of oil to meet its peoples needs, implementation of the Programme started in December 1996, its first shipment of supplies arrived in March 1997. The Programme was funded exclusively with the proceeds from Iraqi oil exports, at first, Iraq was permitted to sell $2 billion worth of oil every six months, with two-thirds of that amount to be used to meet Iraq’s humanitarian needs. In 1998, the limit was raised to $5.26 billion every six months, in December 1999, Security Council resolution 1284 removed the limit on the amount of oil exported. Of the 72% allocated to humanitarian purposes, 59% was earmarked for the contracting of supplies and equipment by the Government of Iraq for the 15 central, 13% for the three northern governorates, where the United Nations implemented the Programme on behalf of the Government of Iraq. Enforcement of the sanctions was primarily by means of military force, the legal side of sanctions were enforcement through actions brought by individual governments. In the United States, legal enforcement was handled by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, for example, in 2005 OFAC fined Voices in the Wilderness $20,000 for gifting medicine and other humanitarian supplies to Iraqis without prior acquisition of an export license as required by law. In a similar case, OFAC is still attempting to collect a $10,000 fine, there is a general consensus that the sanctions achieved the express goals of limiting Iraqi arms. High rates of malnutrition, lack of supplies, and diseases from lack of clean water were reported during sanctions. The modern Iraqi economy had been dependent on oil exports, in 1989. A drawback of this dependence was the narrowing of the economic base, some claim that, as a result, the post-1990 sanctions had a particularly devastating effect on Iraq’s economy and food security levels of the population
30.
Iraq War
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The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces. An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3–4 years of conflict and it became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition, the insurgency and many dimensions of the civil armed conflict continue. The invasion began on 20 March 2003, with the U. S. joined by the United Kingdom and several allies, launching a shock. Iraqi forces were overwhelmed as U. S. forces swept through the country. The invasion led to the collapse of the Baathist government, President Hussein was captured during Operation Red Dawn in December of that same year, the United States responded with a troop surge in 2007. The winding down of U. S. involvement in Iraq accelerated under President Barack Obama, the U. S. formally withdrew all combat troops from Iraq by December 2011. Select U. S. officials accused Saddam of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, while others cited the desire to end a repressive dictatorship, after the invasion, no substantial evidence was found to verify the initial claims about WMDs. The rationale and misrepresentation of pre-war intelligence faced heavy criticism within the U. S. in the aftermath of the invasion, Iraq held multi-party elections in 2005. Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister in 2006 and remained in office until 2014, the al-Maliki government enacted policies that were widely seen as having the effect of alienating the countrys Sunni minority and worsening sectarian tensions. The Iraq War caused hundreds of thousands of civilian, and thousands of military casualties, the majority of casualties occurred as a result of the insurgency and civil conflicts between 2004 and 2007. A1990 Frontline report on The arming of Iraq said, Officially, most Western nations participated in an arms embargo against Iraq during the 1980s. Western companies, primarily in Germany and Great Britain, but also in the United States, sold Iraq the key technology for its chemical, missile, any Western governments seemed remarkably indifferent, if not enthusiastic, about those deals. N Washington, the government consistently followed a policy which allowed and perhaps encouraged the growth of Saddam Husseins arsenal. The Western arming of Iraq took place in the context of the Iran-Iraq War, prior to September 2002, the CIA was the George W. Bush administrations main provider of intelligence on Iraq. The agency was out to disprove linkage between Iraq and terrorism the Pentagon adviser told me, the U. N. had prohibited Iraq from developing or possessing such weapons after the Gulf War and required Iraq to permit inspections confirming compliance. This was confirmed by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, during 2002, Bush repeatedly warned of military action against Iraq unless inspections were allowed to progress unfettered. In accordance with U. N. Security Council Resolution 1441, Iraq agreed to new inspections under United Nations Monitoring, as part of its weapons inspection obligations, Iraq was required to supply a full declaration of its current weapons capabilities and manufacturing
31.
De-Ba'athification
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De-Baathification refers to a policy undertaken in Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority and subsequent Iraqi governments to remove the Baath Partys influence in the new Iraqi political system. It is considered to be Iraqs equivalent to Germanys Denazification after World War II and it was first outlined in CPA Order 1 which entered into force on 16 May 2003. The declared that all public sector employees affiliated with the Baath Party were to be removed from their positions, the policy was highly controversial among US academics, institutions, government, military, and international media and debate outlets. The policy under the Coalition Provisional Authority was officially rescinded on 28 June 2004 as part of the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government on 30 June 2004, however, elements of the policy continued under the Iraqi Governing Council and later under the elected Iraqi Parliament. Proponents of the policy contend that the policy effectively cleansed Iraqi society of Baathist influence, critics argue that the policy was not only undemocratic, but also a significant factor in the deteriorating security situation throughout Iraq. The goal of the policy is contained in the language of the preamble of Order No,1, This order implements the declaration by eliminating the party’s structures and removing its leadership from positions of authority and responsibility in Iraqi society. The overarching goal of the invasion was the seizure and removal of weapons of mass destruction, the actual time-frame for the development of the policy was a matter of weeks. The Department of Defense argued for an expansive policy targeting any and this was in contrast to the State Department and CIA, who advocated a less comprehensive de-Saddamification policy which would only target those accused of crimes and upper echelon leadership. According to Charles Fergusons interviews, the time the policy was discussed outside of the National Security Council or the Department of Defense’s Office of Special Plans was on 15 May 2003. Prior to Paul Bremer’s arrival in Iraq on 12 May 2003, he met with Douglas Feith and the Office of Special Plans, following the meeting, the final draft was written, and was sent via courier to Iraq after Bremer’s arrival. Per National Security Presidential Directive 24, the Department of Defense was the organization in charge of the occupation. To this end, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith created the Office of Special Plans in order to devise Department of Defense strategy for occupying Iraq, in addition to Wolfowitz and Feith, Walter Slocombe accepted the position of overseeing the implementation of the Department of Defense’s occupation strategy. All of this occurred under the purview of the then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, according to Charles Ferguson’s film interview with Gen. Jay Garner, Paul Bremer told Garner that I was given my orders. This led Garner to believe that Bremer was not responsible for the content of the policy, another important actor in the creation of the policy of de-Baathification was exile leader of the Iraqi National Congress Ahmad Chalabi. Jay Garner, Col. Paul Hughes, Robert Hutchings, Ambassador Barbara Bodine and these strategies are found in the Potsdam Agreement of 1945, the German Instrument of Surrender, and the General Order No.1 for post-war Japan. As the highest authority in Iraq, orders issued from his office carried the force of law in Iraq and it was through CPA orders that Bremer and his administrative team enacted the policy of de-Baathification crafted in the Office of Special Plans at the Department of Defense. A total of 100 orders were issued by the CPA between May 2003 and June 2004, entering into force on 16 May 2003, Order No. 1, entitled De-Baathification of Iraqi Society, describes the objectives of the policy developed by the Office of Special Plans
32.
Modern history of Syria
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Ottoman Syria was turned into the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920, which was however soon committed under French Mandate. From 1938 known as a Republic, Syria gained independence in 1946, entering the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, in the context of the Arab Spring of 2011, Bashar al-Assads government is involved in the ongoing Syrian civil war. The mandate region was subdivided into six states and they were the states of Damascus, Aleppo, Alawites, Jabal Druze, the autonomous Sanjak of Alexandretta, and the State of Greater Lebanon, which later became the modern country of Lebanon. The drawing of those states was based in part on the sectarian make-up on the ground in Syria, however, nearly all the Syrian sects were hostile to the French mandate and to the division it created. This was best demonstrated by the revolts that the French encountered in all of the Syrian states. In July 1922, France established a federation between three of the states, Damascus, Aleppo, and the Alawite under the name of the Syrian Federation. Jabal Druze, Sanjak of Alexandretta, and Greater Lebanon were not parts of this federation, on 1 December 1924, the Alawite state seceded from the federation when the states of Aleppo and Damascus were united into the State of Syria. In 1925, a revolt in Jabal Druze led by Sultan Pasha el Atrash spread to other Syrian states, France tried to retaliate by having the parliament of Aleppo declare secession from the union with Damascus, but the voting was foiled by Syrian patriots. On 14 May 1930, the State of Syria was declared the Republic of Syria, two years later, in 1932, a new flag for the republic was adopted. The flag carried three red stars represented the three districts of the republic. In 1936, the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence was signed, a treaty that would not be ratified by the French legislature, however, the treaty allowed Jabal Druze, the Alawite, and Alexandretta to be incorporated into the Syrian republic within the following two years. Greater Lebanon was the state that did not join the Syrian Republic. Hashim al-Atassi, who was Prime Minister under King Faisals brief reign, was the first president to be elected under a new constitution adopted after the independence treaty, in September 1938, France again separated the Syrian district of Alexandretta and transformed it into the Republic of Hatay. The Republic of Hatay joined Turkey in the year, in June 1939. Syria did not recognize the incorporation of Hatay into Turkey and the issue is still disputed until the present time. With the fall of France in 1940 during World War II, Syria came under the control of the Vichy Government until the British, Syria proclaimed its independence again in 1941 but it wasnt until 1 January 1944, that it was recognized as an independent republic. On 27 September 1941, France proclaimed, by virtue of, and within the framework of the Mandate, the proclamation said the independence and sovereignty of Syria and Lebanon will not affect the juridical situation as it results from the Mandate Act. Duncan Hall said Thus, the Syrian mandate may be said to have terminated without any formal action on the part of the League or its successor
33.
Syrian Civil War
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The Syrian Civil War is an armed conflict taking place in Syria. Syrian opposition groups formed the Free Syrian Army and seized control of the area surrounding Aleppo, over time, some factions of the Syrian opposition split from their original moderate position to pursue an Islamist vision for Syria, joining groups such as al-Nusra Front and ISIL. In 2015, the Yekîneyên Parastina Gel joined forces with Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Russia and Hezbollah militarily engaged in support of the Syrian government, while beginning in 2014, a coalition of NATO countries began launching airstrikes against ISIL. International organizations have accused the Syrian government, ISIL, and some groups of severe human rights violations. The conflict has caused a major refugee crisis, over the course of the war a number of peace initiatives have been launched, including the March 2017 Geneva peace talks on Syria led by the United Nations, but fighting continues. Syria became an independent republic in 1946, although democratic rule ended with a coup in March 1949, a popular uprising against military rule in 1954 saw the army transfer power to civilians. From 1958 to 1961, a union with Egypt replaced Syrias parliamentary system with a highly centralized presidential government. The secular Baath Syrian Regional Branch government came to power through a successful coup détat in 1963, for the next several years Syria went through additional coups and changes in leadership. In March 1971, Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, declared himself President, on 31 January 1973, Hafez al-Assad implemented a new constitution, which led to a national crisis. They labeled Assad the enemy of Allah and called for a jihad against his rule, the government survived a series of armed revolts by Sunni Islamists, mainly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, from 1976 until 1982. Upon Hafez al-Assads death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad was elected as President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma, a Sunni Muslim born and educated in Britain, initially inspired hopes for democratic reforms. The Damascus Spring, a period of social and political debate, the Damascus Spring largely ended in August 2001 with the arrest and imprisonment of ten leading activists who had called for democratic elections and a campaign of civil disobedience. In the opinion of his critics, Bashar al-Assad had failed to deliver on promised reforms, Syrian Arabs, together with some 600,000 Palestinian Arabs, make up roughly 74 percent of the population. Syria Muslims are 74 percent Sunnis, and 13 percent Shias,3 percent were Druze, not all of the Sunnis are Arabs. Bashar is married to a Sunni, with whom he has several children and he is affiliated with the sect that his parents belong to, the minority Alawite sect which comprises an estimated 8-12 percent of the total population. Assyrians, an indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking Christian Semitic people, numbering approximately 500,000, are mainly in northeast Syria. A larger population lives over the border in northern Iraq, other ethnic groups include Armenians, Circassians, Turkmens, Greeks, Mhallami, Kawliya, Yezidi, Shabaks, and Mandeans. Socioeconomic inequality increased significantly after free market policies were initiated by Hafez al-Assad in his later years, the country also faced particularly high youth unemployment rates
34.
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of Algeria
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The Arab Socialist Baath Party of Algeria, is a political party in Algeria. It is the Algerian regional branch of the Iraqi-led Baath Party and it is led by Ahmed Choutri. The party is banned, and Choutri was forced to flee to Iraq during the 1990s because of governmental repression against the Algerian Baath movement. The party sympathised with the Iraqi baathist insurgency and supported Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, following his return to Algeria in 2003, Choutri wrote The Baathist Faith of President Saddam
35.
Nationalist Democratic Assembly
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The Nationalist Democratic Assembly is a political party in Bahrain. It is the Bahraini regional branch of the Iraqi-led Baath Party, the party is led by Secretary General Hassan Ali and Deputy Secretary General Mahmoud Kassab. It was established by Bahrainis who had studied in Baathist Iraq during the 1960s and 1970s, the party boycotted the 2002 parliamentary election but not the 2006 election. The 2011 parliamentary by-election was boycotted by the party in solidarity with the Bahraini uprising, the party opposes the governments naturalisation policies, and contends that it is unfair for ethnic Bahrainis to compete equally with foreign workers for jobs. It remains pro-Saddam Hussein and, according to its webpage, supports the Arab Spring and it opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, considering it an act of brutality against the Iraqi people. The party actively supports the overthrow of the monarchy, with a peaceful transition to democracy. It is part of a four-party opposition alliance opposing the government, which comprises two Shia Islamist parties and the leftist National Democratic Action Society
36.
Jordanian Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
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The Jordanian Arab Socialist Baath Party, previously known as the Arab Socialist Baath Party – Jordan Region is a political party in Jordan. It is the Jordanian regional branch of the Iraqi-led Baath Party, following the establishment of the Baath Party in Syria in 1947, baathist ideas spread throughout the Arab world. In Jordan baathist thought first spread to the East Bank in the late-1940s, several people expressed their support for baathist ideology at these meetings, but the regional branch itself was not formed until 1951 in Karak by a group of teachers. A clinic owned by Abd al-Rahman Shuqyar became a place for baathists in the organisations early days. In the West Bank the party was most active in the cities of Jerusalem, bahjat Abu Gharbiyah was the West Bank baath member, and, because of it, was responsible for building up the party organisation in this area. The partys first regional conference was held in 1951 at Abdullah Rimawis home, at this meeting the partys first ideological programme was laid out, and a plan which mapped out the future course of the party. The following year, in 1952, another meeting was held, at this conference a Regional Command was elected with Rimawi as its General Secretary, while Shugyar, Gharbiyah and Nawas were elected to the Central Committee. Rimawi and Nawas would prove to be leaders, and their recruitment campaign proved successful in both Jordanian and Palestinian neighbourhoods and cities. The regional branch became a party on 28 August 1956 by a decision of the Jordanian High Court. Both Rimawi and Nawas were elected to Parliament during the 1950 and 1951 elections as independents, the party managed to get three baathists elected to Parliament in the 1951 election. However, during the 1954 election they lost all their seats, Rimawi was re-elected in the 1956 election to the Jordanian parliament, and retained his seat until the 1961 election. As voting patterns would prove, the largest concentrations of baathists lived in Irbid and Amman on the East Bank, Shuqyar during his forced exile inside Jordan, was influenced by communist thought during his exile. When his exile ended, Shuqyar tried to form a National Front with the Jordanian Communist Party, however, his fellow baathist colleagues opposed this idea, and, because of it, Shuqyar left the party. The party was legally registered in 1993, but was forced to change its name to Jordanian Arab Socialist Baath Party. From then on it has been led by Akram al-Homsi, khalil Haddadeen, Jordans former Minister of Information, was elected to Parliament during the 1993 and 1997 elections on a pro-Iraqi and pro-Saddam Hussein stance. At the time of the 1966 split, the party had an estimated 1,000 members and it was active in the Arab Liberation Front. The ALFs first leader was Jordanian, Zaid Haydar, munif al-Razzaz, who joined the party in 1966, eventually became an ALF leader. From there, he climbed the party ladder and became a member of the National Command before he was placed under house arrest by Iraqi authorities, shahir Abu Shahut became the first leader of the party after the 1966 split
37.
Arab Ba'ath Progressive Party
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The Arab Baath Progressive Party is a political party in Jordan. It is the Jordanian regional branch of the Syrian-led Baath Party and it was legally registered for the first time in 1993. The party is small, and has, according to a WikiLeaks document, despite it small size, the branch is able through its leader, Fuad Dabbour, able to get a decent footprint in Jordanian media. Dabbours fiery statements on policy are frequently quoted by the press. The party is known than its pro-Iraqi counterpart, the Jordanian Arab Socialist Baath Party. It is the party branch of the Syrian-dominated Baath Party in Jordan, Fuad Dabbour is the branchs Regional Secretary. It is believed that the party has fewer than 200 members, the partys stated objectives are, The struggle for the supremacy and institutionalization of democracy as well as the rule of law and constitution. The removal of control of the people’s will and achievement of political, adherence to the monotheistic religions and respect of the national heritage and the Arab nation’s unity. Consolidation of the system and the achievement of Arab economic integration. Mahmood Ma′ayteh Fuad Dabbour Jordanian Arab Socialist Baath Party
Abdul Rahman Arif
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