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THE SANDS OF TIME: THE SYRIAN CONUNDRUM (PART 1)Brief ancient history
To put into proper context the current state of affairs in Syria we need to revisit the past.In all possibilities the history of Syria is intrinsically related to human civilisation andmore so to the enchanting and colourful history of the Middle East and the Maghreb.Syria has been home to some of mankind's earliest settlements, villages and, towns, citiesand rulers of the ancient world. Its monuments and relics can still be seen today invarious parts of the country and remains one of few places on earth to be mentioned by allmajor ancient world religions which dominated the area around the Mediterranean andWestern Europe. Its various ancient cities and town traces their histories to ancient timesthat pre-
dates most western settlements. Syria’s capital Damascus can claim to be the
only city to have been continuously inhabited in human history and has served as astrategic crossing point connecting Asia, Africa and Europe. Syria has been the site of numerous invasions, occupations, conquests and rule by the Ebla and Mari (Bronze Age3000 - 2000BC), the Hittites and the Arameans (1200 - 539BC), the Persians (539
–
333BC),
Alexander of Macedonia and the Hellenistic Empire (333
–
64BC), The Romansand Zenobia (64BC - 395AD), The Byzantine Empire (395 - 632AD), The RashedeenCaliphate (632 - 661AD),
the Abbasids (750 - 1199AD), The Mamelukes (1250 - 1516AD),the Ottoman Empire (1516-1918AD) and most recently the French. The colonial rule of the French came after the First World War when the League of Nations decided in 1922to split the dominion of the former Syria between two countries. The United Kingdomreceived Transjordan and Palestine, and France received what was to become modern-daySyria and Lebanon. Thus effectively from 1922 to 1945, modern day Syria was under theFrench colonial mandate until her independence in 1946. Scholars and researcher agreethat the events of 1948 that culminated in the foundation of modern day Israel changedthe role of post independent Syria. Syria has complex ethnic divisions and majority of Syrians are of Semitic (presumed to be descendants of biblical Shem and whose languageis part of the subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language that includes Hebrew, Aramaic,Arabic, and Amharic). By approximate divisions Syria's population is 90% Muslim (74%Sunni, and 16% other Muslim groups, including the Alawi, Shi'a, and Druze), 10% areChristians and there also is a tiny Syrian Jewish community.
The political history
From the her foundation, Syria has always been in the middle of a political, religious andhistorical conflict between Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, the West and the Islamic World.Her colourful past, political posturing and geographical location has made Syria afundamental part of what makes up the modern Middle East and to a greater extent amajor player in the politics of the Maghreb. Post independent Syria has history of experimenting with military regimes of various degrees of brutality and suppression.Syria
’
s love affair with totalitarianism began in the late 40s and culminated in the mostbrutal seizure of power by colonel Adib Shishakli's in 1951. Adib Shishakli had good
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relations with the west though he resented the idea of the existence of the state of Israel.Like other military dictators of his era Shishakli was a typical tyrant with a veryuncompromising attitude towards the opposition and the media. However, in February1954, President Shishakli was himself overthrown by elements that comprised of Arabnationalist, communist and socialist allegedly supported by Iraq. It is reasonable tosuggest that there are many factors that lie behind a desire for a unified Arab state todaybut in the 60s it was a strong sense of comradeship, common religious faith, sharedculture and uncompromising attitude towards the state of Israel and imperialism thatmade Syria, Egypt and Iraq attempt a unification. For example, the parallelism of Syrian and Egyptian policies and the appeal of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser'sleadership in the wake of the 1956 Suez crisis resulted in Syria and Egypt merging intothe United Arab Republic in 1958. However, this union meant to establish the new Arabunion as a major powerhouse only lasted less than 3 years.In 1963 Syria saw the emergence of the leftist National Council of the RevolutionaryCommand (NCRC) in principle under the Arab Socialist Resurrection Party or Ba'ath
Party. The Ba’ath Party and other
political parties who share similar political ideologiesby 1960 had already taken power in neighbouring countries such as Iraq and other partsof the Maghreb. With the new found comradeship and parallelism in policies and system
of rule the Syrian Ba’at
h explored the possibility of federation with Egypt and Ba'ath-controlled Iraq (for the three countries to merge). However, this too failed because of serious disagreements among the parties in reference to distribution of wealth, leadership,autonomy, etc
. This did not deter the Syrian Ba’ath party from having another go
through a bilateral unity with Iraq which was closer in political ideology than for instanceEgypt. However, these plans foundered in 1963 when the Ba'ath regime in Iraq wasoverthrown
during what came to be known as the ‘Ramadan Revolution’ led by general
Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif who eventually appointedthemselves Prime Minister and President of Iraq respectively.In 1966, president Hafiz of Syria was overthrown by the military backed by the newBa'ath Party. However, the new regimes of Syria and Egypt were weaker due to internalpolitical divisions and mistrust, lack of strategic direction coupled by eroded moralewithin the security and military wings. Syria and Egypt had sought to use theircombined military force to attack the state of Israel but in 1967 Israel decided to launchits own pre-emptive and decisive strike that only lasted for six days which in essence wasthe third Israel-Arab conflict. Syria further suffered another defeat at the hands of Israelin the 70s when Syrian forces sent to aid the PLO against Jordan were decimatedresulting in a crushing and humiliating blow to the confidence of the Syrian military andthe nation. In November 1970, Salah Jadid the Syrian de facto head of state attemptedto fire his then Minister of Defence General Hafez al-Assad and his right hand manGeneral Mustafa Tlass. However, Al Assad launched a counter pre-emptive action inform of an intra-
party coup dubbed the ‘Corrective
Action or Corrective
Movement’.
Jadid and his supporters were rounded up and brutally tortured and those who survivedwere sent to maximum security prisons throughout Syria and Lebanon. Jadid himself
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remained a prisoner the rest of his life until his death in 1993. The corrective actionfirmly established Hafez Al-Assad as the alpha leader and the sole political overlord of theSyrian politics for decades to come.
The Al-Assad regime: The Father (1970s-2000)
The Ba’ath party is a traditional power base in Syria and has been in power in manyforms since 1947. The Ba’ath party in Syrian was fo
unded by two Arab intellectualsMichel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar. The 1940s was a period of independence formany countries throughout the world and thus it was natural for the founders to choose aterm that reflected national rebirth or renaissance, and the motto at the time of itsfounding was Unity, Liberty and Socialism which refers to Arab unity, and freedom fromnon-Arab control and interference opposed to Western imperialism. Al-Assad was bornon October 6, 1930 into a poor Alawite family in Lattakia. He was the first member of
the Assad family to attain secondary school education and he joined the Ba’ath at the age
of 16. He graduated from the Syrian Military Academy 1955 as an Air force Pilot andadvanced through the army ranks to become a general but what he really wanted to bewas a medical doctor.
Three years after the ‘corrective action’ Al
-Assad decided to join Egypt in a surpriseattack on Israel which again ended a humiliating defeat for Egypt and Syria. However,in a twist of fate and political manoeuvring Al-Assad 20 years later participated in peacenegotiations with Israel in an effort to regain the Golan Heights, taken by Israel duringthe six-day war of 1967. Hafez considered Lebanon very important to Syria and thus alarge portion of his political life revolved around dealing with the issues to do with thestate of Lebanon. Like many Syrians he did not consent to Lebanon being anindependent and sovereign state for the simple reason being that the history of Lebanon isinextricably linked to the long history of Syria and at some historical point the two stateswere one. However, initially Syria regimes did not overtly dictate or appear to influencethe political and social direction of Lebanon until the beginning of civil unrest in thecountry in 1975. There is no consensus on what triggered the civil war itself but it isreasonable to suggest that outside intervention by Syria and militarisation of thePalestinian refugee population especially those in the border close to Syria provided fireto the already volatile political landscape in Lebanon. Initially, Syria intervened afterLebanese Druze warlord Kemal Jumblatt launched a vicious and unprovoked attackagainst members of Hezb al-
Kata’eb al
-Loubnaniyya or Phalange party supportedmainly by Maronite Christians. Al-Assad defied his Arab brethren by supporting theChristians and sent forces to enforce a cease-fire. However, Al-Assad quickly came underfire from his Arab comrades and countrymen and by 1978, Syria had switched sides andwas now supporting a leftist coalition of Palestinians, Druze and Muslims against theChristians. This popular and tactical switch bought Al-Assad popularity and allowedSyria to eventually occupy two-thirds of Lebanon.
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The Syrian Conundrum Part 1
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