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Hafez al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad (October 6, 1930 - June 10, 2000) was the president Syria from 1971 to 2000. Father of present president Bashar al-Assad.
Early life
Assad was born in Qardaha in western Syria as part of the minority Alawite community. He was the first member of his family to attend High School and finished top of his class. He joined the Ba'th party in 1946 at the age of 16. Because his family had no money to send him to university Assad went to the Syrian Military Academy (where he met Mustafa Tlass) and received a free higher education. He showed considerable talent, and the military sent him to be trained in the Soviet military. He rose through the ranks of the military and became an important figure. Assad opposed the 1958 union between Syria and Egypt which created the United Arab Republic (UAR). Stationed in Cairo, he worked with other officers to end the union, sticking to his pan-Arab ideals while arguing that the UAR concentrated too much power in the hands of the Nasser regime. As a result of this, al-Assad was briefly imprisoned by the Egyptian authorities at the breakup of the union in 1961, but Tlass escorted his family to Syria and he could later rejoin them there.
In the chaos that followed the dissolution of the UAR, a coalition of left-wing groups led by the Ba'th seized power. Assad was appointed head of the airforce in 1964. The state was officially ruled by Amin al-Hafiz, a Sunni Muslim, but through the Ba'th, it was effectively dominated by a coterie of young Alawites, a religious minority in Syria to which Assad belonged.
Rise to power
In 1966 the Ba'th launched a coup d'etat within the regime and cleared out the other parties from the government. Assad became Minister of Defence, and wielded considerable influence over government policy. However, there was much tension between the dominant radical wing of the Ba'th, which promoted an aggressive foreign policy and rapid social reform, and al-Assad's more pragmatic, military-based faction. After being discredited by the failure of the Syrian military in the Six-Day War in 1967, and enraged by the aborted Syrian intervention in the Jordanian-Palestinian Black September war, conflict erupted within the government. When president Salah Jadid realized the threat and ordered al-Assad and Tlass to be stripped of all party and government positions, it was too late: al-Assad swiftly launched a bloodless intra-party coup, the so-called "corrective revolution" of 1970. The party was purged, Jadid sent to prison, and al-Assad loyalists installed on key posts throughout the bureaucracy.
Internal policies
The police state
Al-Assad inherited a dictatorial regime shaped by years of unstable military rule, and lately organized along one-party lines after the Ba'th takeover. He not only continued this form of rule, but increased repression, and attempted to secure his domination of every sector in society through a vast web of police informers and agents. Under his rule, Syria turned genuinely totalitarian. Al-Assad was made the object of a state-sponsored cult of personality, depicting him as a wise, just and strong leader of Syria and of the Arab world in general.
Syria under al-Assad never quite reached the levels of repression practiced in neighbouring Iraq, ruled by a rivaling Ba'th faction. Where Saddam Hussein's policies of perpetual state terrorism aimed to secure his rule through fear, Hafez al-Assad took a more sophisticated approach to the excercise of power. Rather than immediately brutalizing restive communities, al-Assad's regime would often seek to bribe or threaten dissidents. Only after milder forms of persuasion had been tried and failed, swords would come out, but then the regime could be counted on to act with unflinching cruelty in order to set an example to would-be dissenters.
A shrewd power player, al-Assad would use diplomacy, terrorism and tank armadas to the same effect: invariably, he strived to build a strong Syria under his own one-man rule.
Stability and reforms
While dictatorial, the government of al-Assad initially achieved some popularity for bringing stability to Syria (which had experienced about 50 attempted coups since 1948). He also implemented many social reforms and infrastructure projects, notably the Thawra (revolution) dam on the river Eufrat. It was built with Soviet help, and still supplies much of Syria's electricity. Public schooling and other reforms were extended to larger segments of the population, and a notable rise in living standards occurred. The government's secularism meant that many members of religous minorities, such as the Alawites, Druze and Christians, naturally supported al-Assad for fear of a Sunni-dominated Islamic government, in which they feared a return to historic persecution.
Al-Assad also continued previous Ba'th policies by overseeing massive increases in Syria's military strength (again with Soviet support) and by maintaining a strong Arab nationalist stance. School curriculums and the state-controlled media gave much attention to the glorious past of Syria and the Arabs, and portrayed al-Assad's government as the lone uncorrupted champion of the Arab nation against Western imperialism and aggression. This propaganda aimed to legitimize the government, but also to unify the diverse and fractured Syrian society, and instill a nationalist sense of pride in the population.
Ethnic and religious opposition
These policies were popular with the majority of the population, but the emphasis on uruba, Arabism, also meant that the non-Arab populations were discriminated against. The biggest such population was the Kurds of northern Syria. Campaigns of Arabization led to tens of thousands of Kurds losing their Syrian citizenship, and only through military repression was the central government able to keep the lid on tensions in the Kurdistan areas of Syria.
Hafez Al-Assad worked continually to ensure the preeminence of his own Alawite sect within the government, and Alawites were appointed to fill virtually all important government posts (a notable exception was Mustafa Tlass, the Sunni defence minister). This was probably less a case of religious or ethnic solidarity, than an attempt to confine power to people close to al-Assad himself, but it simultaneously meant that the historically repressed Alawites became increasingly dependent on al-Assad. Many feared (and still fear) renewed marginalization and retribution from the majority Sunnis, Syria's historical rulers, should the Ba'th regime lose power.
The concentration of power in the hands of a religious group comprising no more than 10% of the population, meant that other groups felt increasingly excluded from power. Since political clout was also a valuable asset in trade and the economy, due to the corruption of the state appratus and the government-dominated economy (which was formally socialist, but in reality a mixed system of big monopolies and preserved small trade), the rising fortunes of the Alawites paid off in government spending in their areas of western Syria. As the unbalance became more and more distinct, discontent grew among Sunnis and some minorites.
The Muslim Brotherhood uprising
Many conservative Sunni's considered the Alawites a heretical breakaway sect from Islam, and resented being ruled by "non-Muslim" politicians. Al-Assad's embrace of secularism and his alliance with the Soviet Union (intensely impopular after its occupation of Afghanistan in 1979) increased tension between the government and the Sunni religious leadership. In the late 1970s, religious dissent became more and more pronounced, and the oppressive policies of the state pushed non-Islamist dissenters to join forces with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The religious fundamentalists portrayed the Syrian ruler as an "enemy of Allah", an "Atheist" or even "a Maronite", a Christian sect whose militias was at that time fighting Sunnis in Lebanon. Step by step, the underground opposition turned violent, into a low-level insurrection, and the harsh military reprisals further escalated violence.
Throughout the early 1980s the Muslim Brotherhood staged a series of bomb attacks against the government and its officials, including a nearly successful attempt to assassinate al-Assad on June 26 1980, during an official state reception for the president of Mali. As a machine gun salvo missed him, al-Assad ran to kick a hand grenade aside, and his bodyguard sacrificed himself to smother the explosion of another one. Surviving with only light damages, al-Assad's revenge was swift and merciless: only hours later many hundreds of imprisoned Islamists were murdered in a massacre carried out by his brother Rifaat al-Assad in Tadmor Prison[http://hrw.org/reports/1996/Syria2.htm].
Calls for vengeance grew within the brotherhood, and bomb attacks increased in frequency. Events culminated with a general insurrection in the conservative Sunni town of Hama in February 1982. Islamists and other opposition activists proclaimed Hama a "liberated city" and urged Syria to rise up against the "infidel". Brotherhood fighters swept the city of Ba'thists, breaking into the homes of government employees and suspected supporters of the regime, killing about 50.
In the eyes of al-Assad, this was total war. The army was mobilized, and Hafez again sent Rifaat's special forces and Mukhabarat agents to the city. After encountering fierce resistance, they used artillery to blast Hama into submission. After a two-week battle, the town was securely in government hands again. Then followed several weeks of torture and mass executions of suspected rebel sympathizers, killing many thousands, known as the Hama massacre. Robert Fisk, who was in Hama shortly after the massacre, estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 citizens were killed, but according to Thomas Friedman Rifaat later boasted of killing 38,000 people. Most of the old city was completely destroyed, including its palaces, mosques, ancient ruins and the famous Azzem Palace mansion. After the Hama uprising, the Islamist insurrection was broken, and the Brotherhood since operates in exile. Government repression in Syria hardened considerably, as al-Assad had spent in Hama any goodwill he previously had left with the Sunni majority, and now was compelled to rely on pure force to stay in power.
The challenge from Rifaat
In 1983, Hafez suffered a heart attack and was confined to a hospital. He named a six-man governing council to run the country in his abscence, among them long-time defense minister Mustafa Tlass. Curiously, all of the six were Sunnis, possibly because that meant they had no independent power over his Alawite-dominated government, and was thus less likely to try to keep power. Despite this, rumours spread that Hafez was dead or near death, and indeed his condition was very serious. In 1984 Hafez's brother Rifaat attempted to use internal security forces under his control to seize power. Rifaats Defence Company troops of some 50,000 men, complete with tanks and helicopters, began putting up roadblocks throughout Damascus, and tensions between Hafez loyalists and Rifaat supporters came close to all-out fighting. The stand-off was not ended until Hafez, still severely ill, rose from his sickbed to reassume power and speak to the nation. He then transferred command of the Defence Company, and, without formal accusations, sent Rifaat on an indefinite "work visit" to France.
Foreign policy
Israel
Al-Assad's foreign policy was shaped by the relation of Syria to Israel, although this conflict both preceded him and persists after his death. During his presidency, Syria played a major role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The war is, despite heavy losses and Israeli advances, presented by the Syrian government as a victory, as Syria regained some territory that had been occupied in 1967 through peace negotiations, headed by Henry Kissinger. Since then Assad-led Syria has carefully respected the UN-monitored cease-fire line in the occupied Golan Heights, instead using non-Syrian clients such as the Hizbullah and various Palestinian extremist groups to exert pressure on Israel. Syria denied Israel any recognition, and long preferred to refer to it as a "Zionist Entity". Only in the mid-1990s did Hafez moderate his country's policy towards Israel, as he realized the loss of Soviet support meant a different regional power balance. Pressed by the USA, he engaged in negotiations on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but these talks ultimately failed.
The Palestinians
The hostile attitude to Israel meant vocal support for the Palestinians, but that did not translate into friendly relations with their organizations. Hafez al-Assad were always wary of independent Palestinian organizations, as he aimed to bring the Palestinian issue under Syrian control in order to use it as a political tool. He soon developed an implacable animosity to Yassir Arafats Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), with which Syria fought bloody battles in Lebanon.
As Arafat moved the PLO in a more moderate direction, seeking compromise with Israel, al-Assad also feared regional isolation, and he resented the PLO underground's operations in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Arafat was depicted by Syria as a rogue madman and an American marionette, and after accusing him of supporting the Hama revolt, al-Assad backed the 1983 Abu Musa rebellion inside Arafats Fatah-movement. A number of Syrian attempts to kill Arafat were also made, but with no success. In 1999, Al-Assad had his right-hand man, the trusted defence minister Mustafa Tlass, make an on-the-record statement labelling Arafat "the son of 60,000 whores and 60,000 dogs", in addition to comparing him to a strip-tease dancer and a black cat, calling him a coward and, finally, pointing out that the Palestinian leader was getting uglier.
An effective strategy was undermining Arafat through support for radical groups both outside and inside the PLO. This way, Syria secured some influence over PLO politics, and was also able to literally blow up any attempts at negotiation with the US and Israel through pushing for terrorist attacks. The PLO's As-Sa'iqa faction was and is completely controlled by Syria, and under Hafez, groups such as the PFLP-GC and others were also turned into clients. In later years, Syria focused on supporting non-PLO Islamist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Lebanon
Syria also deployed troops, ostensibly as a peacekeeping force, to Lebanon in 1976, in another of al-Assads major foreign policy decisions. There it warred throughout the Lebanese Civil War to counter Israeli pressure in south Lebanon and secure Syrian primacy, and eventually turned into an occupation army. In 1991 the Syrians crushed the last factions resisting their rule, after having struck an under-the-table deal with the US government, in exchange for participating in the Gulf war. On US recommendations, Israel withdrew its air cover for the Lebanese military government of Michel Aoun, and after a ravaging air bombardment, Syrian forces poured into Beirut and the presidential palace. Al-Assad promptly set about writing treaties of "cooperation and friendship" with a puppet Lebanese government, which secured his Syria's indefinite domination of the country.
As a sort of provincial governor of Lebanon, al-Assad installed security strongman Ghazi Kanaan, who ruled from the Beqaa valley. From its bases in the Beqaa, Syria armed and used Palestinian and, most importantly, the Shia muslim Hizbullah guerilla as proxies in its war against Israel's occupation of south Lebanon. In 2000, Israel withdrew, and Syria then extended its control to the border, using Hizbullah. This de facto-occupation of Lebanon would not end until 2005, in the wake of the Hariri murder.
Saddam's Iraq
Despite the fact that Iraq was ruled by another branch of the Ba'th party, al-Assad's relations to to the Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein were extremely strained. Hostile rhetoric was intense, and Iraq was until Saddam's fall in 2003 listed in Syrian passports as one of the two countries no Syrian citizen could visit (the other being Israel). But with the exception of a few border guard skirmishes, and mutual support for cross-border raids by opposition groups, no heavy fighting broke out until 1991, when Syria joined the US-led United Nations coalition to expel Iraq from Kuwait.
Death and succession
Assad ruled the country until his death in 2000 due to a heart attack while speaking on the telephone with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. Hafez had originally groomed his son, Basil al-Assad as successor, but Basil died in a car accident in 1994. Hafez then called back a second son, Bashar al-Assad, and put him in intensive military and political training. Despite some concerns of unrest within the regime, the succession ultimately went smoothly, and Bashar rules Syria today. Hafez al-Assad is buried together with Basil in a mausoleum in his hometown, Qardaha.
Family
Family connections is presently an important part of Syrian politics. Several members of Hafez al-Assad's closest family has held positions within the government since his ascent to power. Most of the al-Assad and Makhlouf families have also grown tremendously wealthy, and parts of that fortune has reached their Alawite tribe in Qardaha and its surroundings.
- Rifaat al-Assad, brother. Formerly a powerful security chief; now in exile in France after attempting a coup d'êtat in 1984
- Jamil al-Assad, brother. Parliamentarian, commander of a minor militia.
- Anisah Makhlouf, wife.
- Basil al-Assad, son. Original candidate for succession. Died in 1994.
- Bashar al-Assad, son. President of Syria.
- Majd al-Assad, son. Electrical engineer; widely reported to have mental problems.
- Lt. Col. Maher al-Assad, son. Head of Presidential Guard.
- Dr. Bushra al-Assad, daughter. Pharmacist. Said to be a strong influence on both Hafez and Bashar, sometimes called the "brain" of Syrian politics. Married to Gen. Assef Shawqat.
- Gen. Adnan Makhlouf, cousin of Anisah Makhlouf. Commands the Republican Guard.
- Adnan al-Assad, cousin. Leader of "Struggle companies" militia in Damascus.
- Muhammad al-Assad, cousin. Another leader of the "Struggle companies".
- Gen. Assef Shawqat, son-in-law. Present head of military intelligence.
References
- Fisk, Robert (2001, 3rd edition). Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192801309 (pp. 181-187)
- Friedman, Thomas (1990, British edition). From Beirut to Jerusalem. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0006530702 (pp. 76-105)
- Human Rights Watch (1996). Syria's Tadmor Prison. HRW Report, Vol. 8, No. 2.
External links
- [http://www.2la.org/lebanon/ee/terrorsy.htm Syrian Massacre at Hama]
- [http://www.danielpipes.org/article/170 Syria - Cuba of the Middle east?]
Al-Assad, Hafez
Al-Assad, Hafez
Al-Assad, Hafez
ja:ハーフェズ・アル＝アサド
1930
1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday.
Events
January-February
- January 6 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed (Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City).
- February 18 - While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto
- February 18 - Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in an airplane and also the first cow to be milked in an airplane.
March
- March 2 - Mohandas Gandhi informs British viceroy of India that civil disobedience would begin nine days later
- March 5 - Danish painter Einar Wegener goes through a sexual reassignment surgery and takes the name Lili Elbe
- March 6 - first frozen foods of Clarence Birdseye go on sale in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
- March 12 - Mohandas Gandhi sets off to a 200-mile protest march towards the sea with 78 followers to protest the British monopoly on salt - more will join them during the Salt March that ends in April 5
- March 28 - Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara
- March 29 - Heinrich Brüning is appointed German Reichskanzler
- March 31 - The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in motion pictures for the next forty years
April-May
- April 5 - In an act of civil disobedience, Mahatma Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.
- April 6 - Hostess Twinkies are invented.
- April 21 - Fire in Ohio State Penitentiary near Columbus kills 320
- April 22 - The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
- April 28 - The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
- May 4/May 5 - Mohandas Gandhi is arrested again
- May 15 - Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess (the flight was from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois).
- May 17 - French Prime Minister André Tardieu decides to withdraw the remaining French troops from the Rheinland. They depart by June 30
- May 20 - Sergei Eisenstein arrives in New York City
- May 24 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Australia becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
- May 30 - Sergei Eisenstein arrives in Hollywood to work for Paramount Pictures - they part ways by October
June-August
- June 9 - Chicago Tribune journalist Alfred Lingle is shot in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Newspapers promise $55,000 reward for information. Liddle is later found to have had contacts to organized crime
- June 17 - U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law.
- June 17 - Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans mass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
- June 21 - One-year conscription comes into force in France
- July 7 - Lapua Movement marches in Helsinki, Finland
- July 7 - Building of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam) is started.
- July 13 - The first soccer World Cup starts: Lucien Laurent scores the first goal, for France against Mexico
- July 26 - Charles Creighton and James Hargis of Missouri begin their return journey to Los Angeles - driving 11 555 km using only a reverse gear. The trip lasts the next 42 days
- July 30 - Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in the first soccer World Cup Final
- July 31 - The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
- August 7 - Richard Bedford Bennett becomes Canada's eleventh prime minister.
- August 9 - Betty Boop premiers in the animated film Dizzy Dishes.
- August 12 - Turkish troops move into Persia to fight Kurdish insurgents
- August 27 - Military junta takes over in Peru
September-December
- September 6 - Josef Felix Urileu makes a successful military coup in Argentina
- September 8 - 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.
- September 12 - Wilfred Rhodes end his 1110-game first-class career by taking 5 for 95 for H.D.G. Leveson Gower's XI against the Australians.
- September 14 - National socialists win 107 seats in German parliament - 18.3% of all the votes makes them second largest party
- September 16 - overthrow of Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina.
- October 5 - British Airship R101 crashed in France en-route to India on its maiden voyage.
- October 24 - Brazil - Revolution of 1930 by Getúlio Dornelles Vargas
- November 1 - William Joseph Dess is born in New Castle, PA to Joseph and Mary Dess.
- November 2 - Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.
- November 25 - An earthquake in the Izu Peninsula of Japan kills 223 people and destroys 650 buildings
- December 2 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover goes before Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
- December 19 - Merap volcano erupts - 1300 dead
- December 24 - In London, Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his devide to project pictures to the clouds
- December 28 - Mohandas Gandhi leaves for Britain for negotiations
Unknown dates
- British White Paper demands restrictions on Jewish immigration into Palestine
- Rafael Leónidas Trujillo takes over in the Dominican Republic
- The Federal Bureau of Narcotics replaces the Narcotics Division of the Prohibition Unit.
- Walther Bothe and H. Becker discover the neutron.
- Abkhazia and Georgia, autonomous republics of the Soviet Union, are merged.
- The University of Queensland starts the pitch drop experiment.
- Jake paralysis outbreak occurs in United States.
Births
January-February
- January 2 - Julius LaRosa, American singer
- January 20 - Buzz Aldrin, American pilot and astronaut
- January 23 - Derek Walcott, West Indian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- January 26 - John Straffen, British serial killer
- January 29 - Bobby Bland, American singer
- January 30 - Gene Hackman, American actor
- February 27 - Peter Stone, American writer (d. 2003)
- February 28 - Leon Neil Cooper, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
March
- March 3 - Heiner Geißler, German politician
- March 6 - Allison Hayes, American actress (d. 1977)
- March 6 - Lorin Maazel, French-born conductor
- March 7 - Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon
- March 10 - Claude Bolling, French jazz pianist and composer
- March 15 - Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 17 - James Irwin, astronaut (d. 1991)
- March 19 - Ornette Coleman, American musician
- March 22 - Pat Robertson, American televangelist
- March 22 - Stephen Sondheim, American composer and lyricist
- March 24 - David Dacko, first President of the Central African Republic (d. 2003)
- March 24 - Steve McQueen, American actor, film director, and producer (d. 1980)
- March 25 - John Keel, American author
- March 26 - Sandra Day O'Connor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
- March 27 - David Janssen, American actor (d. 1980)
- March 28 - Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 30 - John Astin, American actor
- March 30 - Rolf Harris, Australian-born entertainer
- March 30 - Peter Marshall, American game show host
April
- April 3 - Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany
- April 8 - Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, Duke of Parma, French-born fascist
- April 10 - Pertti "Spede" Olavi Pasanen, Finnish television personality (d. 2001)
- April 11 - Anton LaVey, American religious leader (d. 1997)
- April 15 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland
- April 16 - Herbie Mann, American jazz flutist (d. 2003)
- April 21 - Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (d. 1989)
- April 25 - Paul Mazursky, American director and writer
- April 29 - Jean Rochefort, French actor
May-August
- May 4 - Roberta Peters, American soprano
- May 8 - Heather Harper, Irish soprano
- May 9 - Joan Sims, English actress (d. 2001)
- May 10 - Pat Summerall, American football player and broadcaster
- May 15 - Jasper Johns, American painter
- May 19 - Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright (d. 1965)
- May 21 - Malcolm Fraser, twenty-second Prime Minister of Australia
- May 22 - John Barth, American writer
- May 22 - Harvey Milk, American politician and civil rights activist (d. 1978)
- May 31 - Clint Eastwood, American actor, director, and producer
- June 2 - Charles Conrad, astronaut (d. 1999)
- June 8 - Robert Aumann, German-born mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics
- June 9 - Monique Serf, French musician (d. 1997)
- June 12 - Jim Nabors, American actor, musician, and comedian
- June 17 - Brian Statham, English cricketer (d. 2000)
- June 22 - Yuri Artyukhin, cosmonaut (d. 1998)
- June 27 - Ross Perot, American billionaire and politician
- July 2 - Carlos Menem, President of Argentina
- July 3 - Carlos Kleiber, Austrian conductor (d. 2004)
- July 4 - George Steinbrenner, baseball team owner
- July 11 - Harold Bloom, American literary critic
- July 15 - Jacques Derrida, Algerian-born French literary critic (d. 2004)
- July 25 - Maureen Forrester, Canadian contralto
- July 25 - Murray Chapple, New Zealand cricket captains (d. 1985)
- August 1 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist
- August 5 - Neil Armstrong, astronaut
- August 12 - George Soros, Hungarian-born businessman
- August 17 - Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
- August 21 - Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (d. 2002)
- August 25 - Sir Sean Connery, Scottish actor
- August 30 - Warren Buffett, American investor
September-December
- September 3 - Cherry Wilder, New Zealand author (d. 2002)
- September 7 - King Baudouin I of Belgium (d. 1993)
- September 25 - Shel Silverstein, American author, poet, and humorist (d. 1999)
- September 26 - Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (d. 1966)
- September 30 - Ray Charles, American singer and musician (d. 2004)
- October 1 - Sir Richard Harris, Irish actor (d. 2002)
- October 5 - Anne Haddy, Australian actress (d. 1999)
- October 5 - Pavel Popovich, cosmonaut
- October 5 - Reinhard Selten, German economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 6 - Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria (d. 2000)
- October 8 - Tōru Takemitsu, Japanese composer (d. 1996)
- October 10 - Yves Chauvin, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 10 - Harold Pinter, English playwright, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 11 - Sam Johnson, American politician
- October 17 - Robert Atkins, American nutritionist (d. 2003)
- October 28 - Bernie Ecclestone, English auto racing tycoon
- October 30 - Timothy Findley, Canadian author (d. 2002)
- November 14 - Edward White, astronaut (d. 1967)
- November 16 - Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer
- November 24 - Bob Friend, baseball player
- December 1 - Joachim Hoffmann, German historian (d. 2002)
- December 2 - Gary Becker, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 6 - Daniel Lisulo, Prime Minister of Zambia
2000
This article is about the year 2000. For other uses of 2000, see 2000 (number) or 2000 (breakdancing move).
2000 (MM) is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. Popular culture also holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium. By strict interpretation of the Gregorian Calendar, however, this distinction falls to the year 2001. This is due to the fact that the first century began with the year 1, and there does not exist a year zero. The first century (or first 100 years AD) was from January 1, in the year one (1 AD) through December 31, in the year one-hundred (100 AD). The second century began on January 1, in the year one-hundred and one (101 AD).
The year 2000 is also marked as:
- The International Year for a Culture of Peace.
- The World Mathematical Year.
See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.
Events
- January 1 - Millennium celebrations take place throughout the world. Y2K passes without the serious, widespread computer failures and malfunctions that had been predicted.
- January 5-January 8 - The 2000 al-Qaida Summit
- January 6 - The last remaining Pyrenean Ibex is found dead.
- January 10 - America On-line announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion. This is the largest-ever corporate merger.
- January 11 - the armed wing of Islamic Salvation Front concludes its negotiations with the government for an amnesty and disbands in Algeria.
- January 11 - The trawler Solway Harvester sinks off the Isle of Man.
- January 14 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Bosnian Muslims in a Bosnian village.
- January 16 - In Sacramento, California a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the state capitol building killing the driver.
- January 24 - God's Army, Karen militia group led by twins Johnny and Luther Htoo, take 700 hostages at a Thai hospital near the Burmese border.
- January 30 - St. Louis Rams 23 defeat the Tennessee Titans 16 to win the Super_Bowl_XXXIV
- January 30 - Off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169. Within a day, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes off the California coast into the Pacific Ocean, killing 88.
- January 31 - Dr. Harold Shipman in sentenced to life in prison for murder of at least 15 of his patients out of 365 suspected victims.
- February 4 - German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with sabotage of German railway lines.
- February 6 - Tarja Halonen is elected the first Finnish female president.
- February 13 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published.
- February 14 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
- March 1 - The Constitution of Finland is rewritten.
- March 2 - Hans Blix assumes the position of Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC.
- March 8 - Tokyo train disaster.
- March 9 - FBI arrests suspected purveyor of art forgeries, Ely Sakhai, in New York City.
- March 10 - The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5048. ([http://dynamic.nasdaq.com/dynamic/IndexChart.asp?symbol=IXIC&desc=NASDAQ+Composite&sec=nasdaq&site=nasdaq&months=84])
- March 18 - 2000 Taiwanese presidential election: Chen Shui-bian is elected President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
- March 20 - Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther, is captured after gun battle that left a sheriff's deputy dead.
- March 21 - Pope John Paul II began the first office visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to Israel.
- March 21 - US Supreme Court ruled the goverment lacked authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug, throwing out the Clinton administration's main anti-smoking initiative.
- March 26 - Presidential elections in Russia: Vladimir Putin elected President.
- March 30 - America's Cup 2000 retained by Team New Zealand near Auckland. Prada Challenge 2000 lost 0-5 in a "best-of-9".
April.]]
- April 1 - Japanese prime minister Keizo Obuchi suffers a stroke and falls into a coma.
- April 3 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
- April 5 - Yoshiro Mori replaces Obuchi as prime minister of Japan.
- April 7 - Attack submarine ex-Trepang completes being recycled.
- April 16 - Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, Raja of Perlis dies after a reign of 55 years. He was the longest reigning monarch in the world since the death of Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein.
- April 17 - Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin becomes Raja of Perlis.
- April 22 - In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.
- April 25 - The State of Vermont passes HB847, legalizing Civil Unions for same-sex couples.
- May 3 - A rare conjunction occurs on the New Moon including all seven of the traditional celestial bodies known from ancient times up until 1781 with the discovery of Uranus. The May 2000 conjunction consisted of: the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
- May 3 - Computer pioneer Datapoint Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- May 12 - The Tate Modern opens in London.
- May 13 - In Enschede a heavy fireworks explosion kills 20 and leaves an entire neighborhood in ruins.
- May 18 - Boo.com collapses due to lack of funds after six months.
- May 25 - Israel withdraws IDF troops from southern Lebanon after 22 years.
- May 28 - The volcano Mount Cameroon erupts.
- June 1 - Mark Mendlan, professional wrestler known by his ring name "Kid Gorgeous," is killed while wrestling at a show in New Hampshire.
- June 7 - U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the 4th circuit ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corp.
- June 10 - The New Jersey Devils defeat the Dallas Stars 4 games to 2 to win the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 10 - The 2000 European Football Championship begins, hosted jointly by Belgium and the Netherlands.
- June 21 - Section 28, a law preventing the promotion of homosexuality is repealed by the Scottish Parliament.
- June 23 - Palace Backpackers Hostel fire in Childers, Queensland, Australia, kills 15 people.
- June 30 - During a set of the band Pearl Jam at the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, 9 die and 26 are injured in the crowd.
July
- July 2 - France beat Italy 2-1 to win the 2000 European Football Championship with a golden goal.
- July 2 - Presidential election of Mexico. Vicente Fox wins the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
- July 10 - In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline
- July 10 - Death of Denis O Conor Donn, died 10th July 2000, aged 88; succeded by his son, Desmond as The O Connor Donn
- July 18 - Alex Salmond resigns as the leader of the Scottish National Party
- July 25 - A Concorde carrying Air France Flight 4590 crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 5 on the ground.
- August 1 - The Santa Cruz Operation announced that it will sell its Server Software and Services Divisions, as well as UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, to Caldera Systems,Inc.
- August 8 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
- August 12 - The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board.
- August 14 - The first comic of Megatokyo goes online. This webcomic will later become one of the most popular comics on the web (in terms of page views) and spawn numerous imitators.
- August 25 - the Emulex hoax - wire services publish fraudulent bad news about Emulex
- August 27 - The Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.
- September 5 - Tuvalu joins the United Nations.
- September 6 - In New York City, the United Nations Millennium Summit begins with more than 180 world leaders present.
- September 6 - The last wholly Swedish-owned arms manufacturer, Bofors, is sold to American arms manufacturer United Defense
- September 7–14 - The UK fuel protests take place, with refineries blockaded, and supply to the country's network of petrol stations halted.
- September 8 - Albania officially joins the World Trade Organization.
- September 15 - The 2000 Summer Olympics are opened in Sydney, Australia.
- September 16 - Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze is last seen alive; this day is taken as the commemoration date of his death.
- September 24 - The American Family Association begins lobbying the U.S. Congress to eradicate the National Endowment for the Arts for funding the controversial book One of the Guys by Robert Clark Young
- September 26 - Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 15,000 protesters) turned violent during the IMF and World Bank summits.
- September 28 - Ariel Sharon leads several hundred armed Israelis in a visit to the Temple Mount. Palestinian civil disorder increases into the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
- September 29 - The Long Kesh prison in Northern Ireland is closed.
- October 2 NBC Today Show expanded it to three hours (7:00–10:00 A.M. Eastern Time/Pacific Time; 6:00–9:00 A.M. Central Time/Mountain Time)
- October 5 - President Slobodan Milošević leaves office after widespread demonstrations throughout Serbia and the withdrawal of Russian support.
- October 11 - 250 million gallons of coal sludge spill in Martin County, Kentucky. Considered a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
- October 12 - In Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole is badly damaged by two suicide bombers who placed a small boat laden with explosives along-side the United States Navy destroyer, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
- October 21 15 Arab leaders convened in Cairo, Egypt, for their first summit in four years; the Libyan delegation walked out, angry over signs the summit would stop short of calling for breaking ties with Israel.
- October 22 – Mainichi Shinbun exposes Japanese archeologist Shinichi Fujimura as a fraud; Japanese archaeologists had based their treatises of his findings.
- October 26 - Pakistani authorities announce that their police have found an apparently ancient mummy of a persian princess in the province of Baluchistan. Iran, Pakistan and the Taliban all claim the mummy until Pakistan announces it is a forgery in April 17 2001
- October 31 - Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collides with construction equipment in the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport - 83 dead.
- October 31 - The last Jeremy clone has shut down.
November
- November - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq rejects new U.N. Security Council weapons inspections proposals
- November 1 - Yugoslavia's new democratic government joined the United Nations after eight years of U.N. ostracism under former strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
- November 3 - Widespread flooding throughout England and Wales after days of heavy rain
- November 4 - President Clinton vetoed a bill that would have criminalized the leaking of government secrets.
- November 7 - U.S. presidential election, 2000: Republican challenger George W. Bush defeats Democrat Vice President Al Gore, but the final outcome is not known for over a month because of disputed votes in Florida.
- November 7 - Criminal gang raids the Millennium Dome to steal The Millennium Star diamond but police surveillance catches them in the act
- November 7 - Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first First Lady of the United States to win public office
- November 11 - Kaprun disaster, Austria, where 155 skiers and snowboarders die when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel.
- November 13 - Richard C. Duncan presents his paper, "The Peak Of World Oil Production And The Road To The Olduvai Gorge", on the Olduvai theory (about the collapse of the industrial civilization), at the Summit 2000 Pardee Keynote Symposia of the Geological Society of America)
- November 14 - Netscape version 6.0 is launched following two years of open source development creating a stable Mozilla web browser upon which it is based
- November 16 - Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting US President to visit Vietnam
- November 17 - Catastrophical landslide in Log pod Mangartom,Slovenia, kills 7, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophies in Slovenia in the past 100 years.
- November 17 - Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru
- November 27 - Canada - Parliamentary elections - Jean Chrétien re-elected as Prime Minister as Liberal Party increases majority in House of Commons
- November 28 - Ukrainian politician Oleksander Moroz touches off the Cassette Scandal by publicly accusing President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
- December 1 - Mexico - Vicente Fox becomes the first opposition President to take office since Francisco I. Madero in 1911. He wins the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
- December 28 - U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.
- December 30 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines, within a span of a few hours killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
Unknown Date
- Limited reintroduction of routinely armed police in the UK for the first time since 1936.
- Scientists at University of Szeged's laboratory were first in the world to produce artificial heredity material.
- Millie I. Webb elected president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Births
- February 23 - Max & Sam Christy, American actors
- March 15- Amy and Emily Walton, English actresses
- April 25 - Jacob & Joshua Rips, American actors
- October 6 - Amanda Pace, American actress
- October 20 - Cooper and Oliver Guynes, American actors
- November 8 - Madison and Marissa Poer, actresses
Deaths
January
- January 2 - Patrick O'Brian, English writer (b. 1914)
- January 15 - Fran Ryan, American actress (b. 1916)
- January 19 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1934)
- January 19 - Hedy Lamarr, Austrian actress (b. 1913)
February
- February 9 - Beau Jack, American boxer (b. 1921)
- February 11 - Roger Vadim, French film director (b. 1928)
- February 12 - Jalacy "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins, American musician (b. 1929)
- February 12 - Tom Landry, American football coach (b. 1924)
- February 12 - Charles M. Schulz, American comic strip artist (b. 1921)
- February 23 - Sir Stanley Matthews, English footballer (b. 1915)
April
- April 6 - Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia (b. 1903)
- April 16 - Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, King of Malaysia (b. 1920)
- April 25 - David Merrick, American stage producer (b. 1911)
- April 29 - Phạm Văn Ðồng, Prime Minister of Vietnam (b. 1906)
May
- May 11 - Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (b. 1907)
- May 12 - Adam Petty, American race car driver (b. 1980)
- May 14 - Keizo Obuchi, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
- May 17 - Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1909)
- May 19 - Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut
President of Syria
This page lists presidents and other Heads of State of Syria. See also lists of incumbents.
Heads of Government of Syria, 1918-1920
- 'Ali Rida Basha ar-Rikabi: 30 September - 5 October 1918
- Emir Faisal: 5 October 1918 - 8 March 1920
Kings of Syria, 1920
- Faisal I: 8 March - 28 July 1920
Syrian Heads of State, 1922-1936
- Subhi Bay Barakat al-Khalidi: 28 June 1922 - 21 December 1925
- François Pierre-Alype (acting): 9 February - 28 April 1926
- Damad-i Shariyari Ahmad Nami Bay: 28 April 1926 - 15 February 1928
- Shaykh Taj ad-Din al-Hasani: 15 February 1928 - 19 November 1931
- Muhammad 'Ali Bay al-'Abid: 11 June 1932 - 21 December 1936
Presidents of Syria, 1936-present
- Hashim al-Atassi: 21 December 1936 - 7 July 1939
- Bahij ad-Din al-Khatib (Chairmen of the Council of Commissioners): 10 July 1939 - 16 September 1941
- Khalid al-'Azm (acting): 4 April - 16 September 1941
- Shaykh Taj ad-Din al-Hasani: 16 September 1941 - 17 January 1943
- Jamil al-Ulshi (acting): 17 January - 25 March 1943
- 'Ata' Bay al-Ayyubi (Head of State): 25 March - 17 August 1943
- Shukri al-Kuwatli: 17 August 1943 - 30 March 1949
- Husni al-Za'im: 30 March - 14 August 1949
- Hashim al-Atassi (Head of State): 15 August 1949 - 2 December 1951
- Fawzi as-Silu (Head of State): 3 December 1951 - 11 July 1953
- Adib al-Shishakli: 11 July 1953 - 25 February 1954
- Hashim al-Atassi: 28 February 1954 - 6 September 1955
- Shukri al-Kuwatli: 6 September 1955 - 22 February 1958
- part of the United Arab Republic: 22 February 1958 - 29 September 1961
- Maamun al-Kuzbari (acting): 29 September - 20 November 1961
- Izzat an-Nuss (acting): 20 November - 14 December 1961
- Nazim al-Kudsi: 14 December 1961 - 8 March 1963
- Louai al-Atassi (Chairman of the National Revolutionary Command Council): 9 March - 27 July 1963
- Amin al-Hafez (Chairman of the Presidential Council): 27 July 1963 - 23 February 1966
- Nureddin al-Atassi (Head of State): 25 February 1966 - 18 November 1970
- Ahmed Khatib (Head of State): 18 November 1970 - 22 February 1971
- Hafez al-Assad: 22 February 1971 - 10 June 2000
- Abdul-Halim Khaddam (acting): 10 June - 17 July 2000
- Bashar al-Assad: 17 July 2000 -
Syria, List of Presidents of
-
SyriaThe Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية) or Syria (Arabic: سوريا) is a country in the Levant region of the Middle East. It borders Lebanon to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north. Israel occupies the Golan Heights in the southwest of the country, and the dispute with Turkey over the Hatay Province now seems to have subsided. The ancient region of Syria, also known as Greater Syria, has often been taken to include the territories of Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and parts of Jordan, but excluding the Jazira region in the north-east of modern Syria.
Name
The name Syria comes from the ancient Greek name for the land of Aram at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and Arabia to the south and Cilicia to the north, stretching inland to include Mesopotamia, and having an uncertain border to the northeast that Pliny the Elder describes as including from west to east Commagene, Sophene, and Adiabene, "formerly known as Assyria" (N.H. 5.66). By Pliny's time, however, this larger Syria had been divided into a number of provinces under the Roman Empire (but politically independent from each other): Judaea (or "Judea" and later renamed Palestine in 135 AD-the region corresponding to the modern states of Israel and Jordan and the Palestinian territories) in the extreme southwest, Phoenicia corresponding to Lebanon, with Damascena to the inland side of Phoenicia, Coele-Syria (or "Hollow Syria") south of the Eleutheris river, and Mesopotamia.
History
Main article: History of Syria
Archaeologists have demonstrated that Syria was the center of one of the most ancient civilizations on earth. Around the excavated city of Ebla in north-eastern Syria, discovered in 1975, a great Semitic empire spread from the Red Sea north to Turkey and east to Mesopotamia from 2500 to 2400 B.C. The city of Ebla alone during that time had a population estimated at 260,000. Scholars believe the language of Ebla to be the oldest Semitic language. Other notable cities excavated include Mari, Ugarit and Dura Europos.
Syria was occupied successively by Canaanites, Hebrews, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Nabataeans, Byzantines, Arabs, and, in part, Crusaders before finally coming under the control of the Ottoman Turks. Syria is significant in the history of Christianity; Paul was converted on the road to Damascus and established the first organized Christian Church at Antioch in ancient Syria, from which he left on many of his missionary journeys.
Damascus, a city that has been inhabited as early as 8,000 to 10,000 BC is known to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world (along with Aleppo and Jericho). It came under Muslim rule in A.D. 636. Immediately thereafter, the city's power and prestige reached its peak, and it became the capital of the Omayyad Empire, which extended from Spain to the borders of Central Asia from A.D. 661 to A.D. 750, when the Abbasid caliphate was established at Baghdad, Iraq.
Damascus became a provincial capital of the Mameluke Empire around 1260. It was largely destroyed in 1400 by Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, who removed many of its craftsmen to Samarkand. Rebuilt, it continued to serve as a capital until 1516. In 1517, it fell under Ottoman rule. The Ottomans remained for the next 400 years, except for a brief occupation by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt from 1832 to 1840.
French occupation
Ottoman control ended when the forces of the Arab revolt entered Damascus in 1918 towards the end of the First World War. An independent Arab Kingdom of Syria was established under King Faysal of the Hashemite family, who later became King of Iraq. However, his rule over Syria ended in July 1920 when French forces entered Syria to impose their League of Nations mandate. Following the Battle of Maysalun of 23 July between the Syrian army under Yusuf al-Azmeh and the French, the French army entered Damascus and Faisal was exiled. The period of the Mandate was marked by increasing nationalist sentiment and a number of brutally repressed revolts, but also by infrastructural modernisation and economic development.
With the fall of France in 1940, Syria came under the control of the Vichy Government until the United Kingdom and Free French occupied the country in July 1941. Continuing pressure from Syrian nationalist groups forced the French to evacuate their troops in April 1946, leaving the country in the hands of a republican government that had been formed during the mandate.
Independence to 1970
Although rapid economic development followed the declaration of independence of April 17, 1946, Syrian politics from independence through the late 1960s were marked by upheaval. A series of military coups, begun in 1949, undermined civilian rule and led to army colonel Adib Shishakli's seizure of power in 1951. After the overthrow of President Shishakli in a 1954 coup, continued political maneuvering supported by competing factions in the military eventually brought Arab nationalist and socialist elements to power.
Syria's political instability during the years after the 1954 coup, the parallelism of Syrian and Egyptian policies, and the appeal of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's leadership in the wake of the 1956 Suez crisis created support in Syria for union with Egypt. On February 1, 1958, the two countries merged to create the United Arab Republic, and all Syrian political parties ceased overt activities.
The union was not a success, however. Following a military coup on September 28, 1961, Syria seceded, reestablishing itself as the Syrian Arab Republic. Instability characterized the next 18 months, with various coups culminating on March 8, 1963, in the installation by leftist Syrian Army officers of the National Council of the Revolutionary Command (NCRC), a group of military and civilian officials who assumed control of all executive and legislative authority. The takeover was engineered by members of the Arab Socialist Resurrection Party (Ba'ath Party), which had been active in Syria and other Arab countries since the late 1940s. The new cabinet was dominated by Ba'ath members.
The Ba'ath takeover in Syria followed a Ba'ath coup in Iraq the previous month. The new Syrian Government explored the possibility of federation with Egypt and Ba'ath–controlled Iraq. An agreement was concluded in Cairo on April 17, 1963, for a referendum on unity to be held in September 1963. However, serious disagreements among the parties soon developed, and the tripartite federation failed to materialize. Thereafter, the Ba'ath regimes in Syria and Iraq began to work for bilateral unity. These plans floundered in November 1963, when the Ba'ath regime in Iraq was overthrown. In May 1964, President Amin Hafiz of the NCRC promulgated a provisional constitution providing for a National Council of the Revolution (NCR), an appointed l | | |
