A message to the Baathists in Syria: Let your choice be with the people and not with a regime that Syria has never known in its history more unjust and oppressive to the people and plundering their livelihood.
Oh Baathists
On the sixty-second anniversary of the founding of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, I considered it my duty to address this message to you at a time when the tyranny of the ruling family system is increasing, its corruption is increasing, the suffering of the people is intensifying, the country is weak and backward, and poverty, hunger, and misery are spreading. All of this is taking place under the saying: “The Arab Socialist Baath Party is the leader of society.” and the state)
The vast majority of you, Baathists, did not accompany the party’s founding phase nor its struggle between its founding and its dissolution after the establishment of the United Arab Republic in 1958.
The party was a beacon of nationalist thought, fighting for Arab unity, fighting for the cause of Palestine, supporting the Arab national liberation movements, protecting public and individual freedoms and democracy, confronting military governments, and had a major role in overthrowing them, defending the issues of the masses, including workers, peasants, the poor, and the oppressed, fighting against foreign projects, and promoting national unity.
At that stage, the Baathists found in the Arab world preachers who preached their principles, struggling for independence, freedom, and democracy, and strugglers to support the national liberation movement and participate in it. They were not intimidated by power, nor corrupted by money. They were carriers of a national, patriotic, liberal, and progressive message.
The goal is to obscure the history of that stage so that the difference between a party that was fighting for a cause and a party that was exploited by the authorities to form a cover for it does not appear.
The party was the Arab Unity Party, and when faced with the choice of unity or party, it chose unity
The party was carrying the cause of freedom, freedom of the individual and freedom of society
The party was a fighter and defender of the people's issues and the rights of the masses, and at the same time it was working to strengthen national unity
Oh Baathists
After the collapse of the United Arab Republic on September 28, 1961, the Baathists failed to restore the unity of the party, and their orientations differed between those loyal to Gamal Abdel Nasser, represented by the Socialist Unionist Movement, and those hostile to him, represented by the Arab Socialist Movement. One group also committed to the national leadership, and another group formed the national organization. All of this is in addition to the military organization formed by a group of Baathist officers during the unification with Egypt
On February 8, 1963, the Baathists in Iraq seized power by force
On March 8, 1963, the military alliance between the Military Committee that was leading the Baathist military organization and the Nasserist movement and Major General Ziad Hariri’s group succeeded in seizing power and overthrowing the rule of secession.
Two months later, the Baathists, in agreement with Major General Ziad Hariri, Chief of Staff of the Army, succeeded in demobilizing the Nasserist officers from the armed forces, which prompted their ministers to resign from the government. A short time later, the Baathists overthrew Major General Ziad Hariri, who was appointed ambassador to France.
Thus, the Baathists ended the struggle for power with their Nasserist ally, and then with their ally, Ziad Hariri, to begin a new phase of the struggle for power between the Baathists themselves.
Oh Baathists
The civil and military leadership of the party at the time did not realize the danger of monopolizing power and monopolizing the decision, because that makes repression a means of protecting the regime from its masses and also opens the door to a conflict between those who aspire to possess power.
The leadership did not realize that violating the party’s principles calling for freedom and democracy would make whoever held power a ruler isolated from his people, whether he was an individual, group, or party.
The authorities pushed the Baathists to radically change their principles and adopt a comprehensive, Marxist, revolutionary thought
The conflict in the party began after the removal of the Nasserites and Major General Ziad Hariri, and this became apparent in Iraq, where the conflict led to the collapse of the party’s system on November 18, 1963.
It also emerged in Syria during the first national conferences and the sixth national conference, and the conflict continued in the following stages
Between the dates of March 8, 1963 and February 23, 1963, Syria witnessed the formation of seven governments due to successive conflicts over power and over the authority of the decision, and that conflict was resolved by direct military action on February 23, 1963.
These conflicts led to the paralysis of the state, its agencies and institutions, causing great damage to the country
Between the twenty-third of February 1966 and the sixteenth of November 1970, struggles over power in the party continued until the matter was settled by force in the October Movement of 1970.
At that stage, the major, painful, and dangerous blow that shook Syria was the defeat of June 1967. Many in the country and in the party expected an assessment of the defeat and its causes and a determination of responsibility, but that did not happen.
The conflict in the party intensified after the defeat in June, and a movement emerged led by the Qatari leadership calling for more revolutionary positions and extremism at home, as well as extremism in Arab relations. At the same time, another movement arose led by Lieutenant General Hafez al-Assad, a member of the Qatari leadership and Minister of Defense, calling for internal openness, restoring national unity, and achieving broader participation. Popularity in managing the country’s affairs and dialogue with the existing parties at the time, in addition to calling for Arab openness that would help mobilize energies and form the Eastern Front with the participation of Iraq and Jordan.
This conflict was resolved forcefully through an imbalance of power in the armed forces in favor of the second trend
One of the dangerous things that was used in the struggle for power was the use of military force, which ended the role of the party and whoever had the power had the leadership. Thus, the party was paralyzed, its role declined, and it became a cover for all those aspiring to power.
The ambitions of the movement supporting General Hafez al-Assad were to restore national unity, achieve political openness, economic breakthrough, dialogue with parties, form a national front, and draw up a constitution for the country, in addition to achieving the broadest popular participation in governance matters.
The first years of the seventies were largely satisfactory if we take into account the conditions that existed before that. The National Front was formed, there was a political and economic breakthrough, a constitution was drawn up for the country, constitutional institutions were formed, as well as a government was formed in which the Front’s parties participated.
At that stage, there was also broad Arab openness and the restoration of severed relations between Syria and a number of Arab countries. Strong relations were also built with Egypt and agreement was made on joint military action to liberate the occupied Arab territories. In addition, Syria succeeded in transferring the issue of the conflict with Israel and the issue of the war of liberation to the Defense Council. Arab, who contributed well to the preparation and participation
At that stage, all basic decisions were discussed and decided in the party leadership and in the leadership of the National Front, including the decision on the October War
The biggest problem at that stage was that the size of the party and its capabilities were not commensurate with its responsibilities in managing power and even its ability to truly participate. This was because the party conflicts since the March Movement and its aftermath had exhausted the party’s cadres, leaving only a small number of them remaining, and with the opening of the doors to join the party, dozens of people poured in. The thousands who the party was unable to prepare in a conscious party manner have become a burden on the party, and most of them came to the party for reasons not related to its principles, but rather related to power.
However, the dangerous thing that began to happen from the first days of the October Movement was General Hafez al-Assad’s disregard for the interference of his relatives in the affairs of power and the use of influence to practice corruption, collect bribes, and collect money, which opened the way for another type of agents of General Hafez al-Assad to follow the approach of his relatives in amassing wealth through corruption and appeared. It is as if it is a natural condition that legitimizes corruption
Since the beginning of 1974, the role of constitutional and party institutions has disappeared, and the role of the president remains. He is the president, he is the legislative authority, he is the executive authority, and he is the head of security who imprisons and who releases the prisoner. An anomalous situation arose in the country. Everyone was criticizing those conditions in closed rooms and they were praising the president in public, and this was the case. The phenomenon expresses the state of fear that existed in the party, the state, and at all levels
At that stage, the role of the security services advanced, and all party and governmental institutions lost their role assigned to them in the constitution, the law, or in their internal regulations.
The regime's behavior of isolation, exclusion and discrimination has led to the growth of situations that have shaken national unity, such as sectarianism and the Kurdish problem
At that stage, the competent people declined, and the opportunists, hypocrites, and applauds advanced
One of the dangerous and prominent matters that constituted a black hole in the history of the regime was President Hafez al-Assad’s attempt to transgress national and partisan values by working to pass on the presidency of the state to one of his sons.
After the death of President Hafez al-Assad and the assumption of power by his son, some Syrians hoped that the newcomer to the presidency would be more open and willing to develop the country, modernize it, and reform its corrupt conditions. Not even a year had passed before the conviction began to take hold that development, reform, and modernization were things that were not on the mind of the new president. .
The only notable development he made was to transform corruption into an institution composed of members of the ruling family and its agents, and this new segment was transformed into an economic force through its control over the country’s wealth, resources, and economic institutions.
Repression, torture, killing, and confiscation of freedoms also continued, among the regime's worst practices
Oh Baathists
Sixty-three years after the founding of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, let us ask what happened to its conditions and the conditions of the country under a regime that tightened its grip on the people and used the party as a cover for its practices.
The party’s ambitions were to achieve Arab unity from the Levant to Tetouan, and here we are today. Our ambition is to restore national unity that was dismantled by the sectarian tension that the regime produced through its behavior.
And its practice and approach to discrimination between citizens, in addition to the sectarian problem. The Kurdish problem has emerged due to the policy of discrimination, oppression and injustice practiced by the regime.
Our ambitions were to liberate Palestine, so all of Palestine became occupied, just as part of Syria was occupied. Let us question the slogan of freedom in light of the oppression and confiscation of public and individual freedoms and the transformation of the country into a large prison.
Let us ask ourselves about the reasons for the fear planted in the minds and hearts of citizens
Have you wondered, O Baathists, why the prisons in Syria are full of citizens who aspire to freedom and justice, at the same time crimes are multiplying and types that were not known are spreading in the country? Have you wondered why patriots are imprisoned for their opinions while criminals are released and having fun?
Have you wondered who protects these criminals and who protects crime?
You all know that most of these criminals are protected by some state agencies and some senior officials, and some of them were produced by the regime with its corruption and policies that led to lowering the standard of living, rising prices, and increasing poverty and unemployment.
Oh Baathists
The party placed in its principles and slogans the cause of the masses and their protection and rights, including workers, peasants, small earners, the deprived, the poor and the oppressed. Have you wondered what is happening to these citizens of injustice and persecution and the poverty, deprivation and hunger they suffer at a time when wealth is accumulated at the hands of the corrupt segment?
You all know how these people lived before November 1970. None of them owned a Sharwa Naqir, and the richest among them had a salary that did not exceed 500 Syrian pounds per month, and today they own most of the country’s wealth.
A young customs employee who is protected by relatives of the President of the State. His cash wealth was revealed, which amounted to two billion Syrian pounds, one hundred and thirty million dollars, two tons of gold, and jewelry estimated at more than one billion Syrian pounds, in addition to one hundred and forty properties registered in his name and in the names of his family members, in addition to what he owns outside the country.
If Hassan Makhlouf, the poor among them, possesses this wealth, then how are their elders and how are the members of the ruling family?
Oh Baathists
In the name of the interim leadership of the Arab Socialist Baath Party in Syria, I appeal to the honorable Baathists who have not been tainted by the practice of corruption, repression, or abuse of the homeland and citizens, to consider what the conditions of the party and the country have become, to bear their national responsibilities, to uproot fear from their hearts and minds, to organize themselves, to unite their efforts, and to To be partners with other people’s forces for the liberation of Syria and the salvation of its people, as this is a salvation of their principles and values, as well as a salvation of the country and its future.
Let your choice be with the people and not with a regime that Syria has never known in its history more oppressive and oppressive to the people and plundering their livelihood.
Rest assured, O Baathists, that change is coming and that the sun of freedom will shine again in the Syrian sky
Long live free Syria, lady
Abdul Halim Khaddam