Salah al-Din al-Bitar (; 1912 – 21 July 1980) was a Syrian politician who co-founded the Baʿath 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 Ba'athist governments in Syria but became alienated from the party as it grew more radical. In 1966 he fled the country, lived mostly in Europe and remained politically active until he was assassinated in Paris in 1980 by unidentified hitmen linked to the regime of Hafez al-Assad.
Early years 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 and preachers in the district's mosques. 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 political vicissitudes of the time, as Midan played a leading role in the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925 against Francethen the mandatory and colonial power in Syria. The district was heavily bombarded during the revolt, resulting in considerable loss of life and physical damage to its infrastructure.
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. 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. In 1935, Bitar returned to Syria and took a job as a science teacher in Syria's most prestigious secondary school, and started a magazine with Aflaq, called al-Tali‘a [The Vanguard].
Ba'ath politics
Early political activity
During the next two years, Bitar, Aflaq and other associates edited a magazine entitled al-Tali`a (the vanguard). According to Batatu, this publication displayed more concern with social issues than with national problems. Bitar and Aflaq were unhappy with the National Bloc, the main party representing Syria in the Parliament, which Bitar called the "Syrian bourgeoisie". At the same time, huge student demonstrations took place all over Syria, which were breaking with the Syrian bourgeoisie, which Bitar and Aflak were part of, according to him. Their political stance was closer to the Syrian Communist Party than to any of the other political groups in Damascus. They became disillusioned with the French Communists in 1936, after the Popular Front government came to power in France. Although the French Communist Party was now part of the government, France's approach to its colonies barely changed.
The student movement gradually broke with the National Bloc when they signed the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence, which recognized Syria's independence but granted full emancipation gradually over a 25–year period and was seen as French hegemony camouflaged. The French then refused to ratify the treaty.
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 Arab Ihya Movement "the Arab Revival". On 24 October 1942, both Bitar and Aflaq resigned from their teaching positions to take up politics full-time.
Their first use of the name al-ba'ath al-'arabiwhich means resurrection or rebirthcame in may 1941 following Rashid Ali al-Gaylani's coup against the British in Iraq. The term had already been adopted by Zaki al-Arsuzia nationalist activist from Iskandarun province in north-western Syria who had come to Damascus in the wake of his native area's annexation by Turkey. Al-Arsuzi founded his own Arab Ba'ath party in 1940 and he disagreed with Bitar and Aflak on the Iraqi coup, arguing it was doomed to fail, while the two men were enthusiastic and wanted to send volunteers to Iraq. Al-Arsuzi's movement faded away following his exile by the French.
Bitar and Aflak slowly gained supporters and in 1945 the first elected Bureau of the Arab Ba'ath Movement was formed, including both men. The organisation gained many new members when most of the former supporters of Al-Arsuzi, led by Wahib al-Ghanim, joined it.
According to Bitar, most of the students joined them and not the communist party as "any political movement in Syria cannot materialize except through Arab nationalism", indicating that national independence was the priority at the time, rather than social issues. According to Patrick Seale, "Aflak and Arsuzi's achievement was to help lift this burden of guilt and inferiority. Aflak formulated a theory and a programme to rouse the Arab from what he considered a living death. This is what he meant by ba'ath".
On the leadership of the Ba'ath Party
In 1947, during the first party congress held in Damascus; Bitar was elected secretary general. Aflaq took the pre-eminent position of 'amid, sometimes translated as "doyen"; this made him the effective leader of the party with sweeping powers within the organization under the constitution adopted at the congress. In 1952 Syria's military leader Adib al-Shishakli banned all political parties. Bitar and Aflaq took refuge in neighboring Lebanon, where they came into contact with Akram al-Hawranian experienced politician who had recently established the Arab Socialist Party and had a considerable following among the peasantry of the Hama region in central Syria and a valuable foothold in the military officer corps. The three politicians agreed to merge their parties and co-operated in the overthrow of Shishakli in 1954, following which a congress ratified the merger of the two parties into the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. The rules and constitution of Bitar and Aflaq's party were adopted unchanged. All three were elected to the party's new National Command, along with a supporter of Hawrani.
Power politics: 1954–1958
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 Partyone of the Ba'ath's bitterest ideological enemies. He became Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1956 and held the post until 1958. Along with other Ba'athists, he agitated in favour of the unification of Syria with Nasser's Egypt.
United Arab Republic and interregnum: 1958–1963
Bitar expected to be appointed the Vice President of the United Arab Republic (UAR) but instead he was appointed the Minister of State for Arab Affairs, and later the Minister of Culture and National Guidance. At the beginning, Bitar was the only Syrian in the central cabinet. He and other Syrians in the UAR leadership became dismayed over the dominant role Nasser gave the Egyptians in administrating the UAR. Nasser had opposed the formation of a joint leadership council of Egyptians and Syrians.
On 23–24 December 1959 Bitartogether with Hawrani (the UAR Vice President and central Minister of Justice), Mustafa Hamdun (Syrian regional Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform) and Abd al-Ghani Qannut (the Syrian regional social affairs and labour minister), as well as all former members of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Ba'ath Party who worked within the UAR bureaucracyresigned their posts. The resignation were made public, and were accepted later in December. A fifth Syrian regional minister, Khalil al-Khallas, the Minister of Economy and a member of the Executive Council of Syria (the Syrian regional government), resigned in January 1960. Syrians began to resign en masse, and by August 1960 only three Syrians remained in the official decision-making bodies of the UAR. The lack of Syrian participation was "corrected" in September when five new Syrian cabinet members were appointed, but the ratio of two Egyptians for each Syrian central cabinet member was kept until 1961. From December 1959, Bitar and the Ba'ath Party began to oppose the UAR and its political structure. Bitar supported the coup of 28 September 1961, which dissolved the UAR as a de facto union between Egypt and Syria.
On 2 October 1961, Bitar, Hawrani and 14 other politiciansmostly conservativessigned a manifesto. Two months later, Bitar signed a similar document, the National Charter for the Separatist Regime. His signing both of these documents was used against him in the 1963 Unity Talks between Egypt, Iraq and Syria as proof of him lacking pro-Arab nationalist credentials. The manifesto, which was handwritten by Bitar, stated that Nasser had distorted "the idea of Arab nationalism" and accused him of strangling the "political and democratic life" in Syria. Bitar, then under popular criticism, withdrew his signature from the 2 October manifesto, but it was too late to prevent damage. Several members called upon Aflaq to expel Bitar from the party, citing his wild opportunism. After the dissolution of the UAR, Bitar did not join the reconstituted Syrian Regional Branch of the Ba'ath Party until after the 8 March 1963 Syrian coup d'état. Because of this, Aflaq became the unquestionable leader of the Ba'ath Party.
Terms as Prime Minister
First term
First cabinet: 9 March – 11 May 1963 Bitar's first cabinet was appointed by the National Council for the Revolutionary Command (NCRC) on 9 March 1963 in the aftermath of the 1963 Syrian coup d'état. Nine of the twenty cabinet members were Ba'athists. All vital ministries except the defense ministrywhich was headed by independent Nasserite General Muhammad al-Sufiwere given to Ba'athists. The Ba'athist–Nasserite coalition government was unstable and based upon power politics rather than any sort of allegiance. Bitar and Aflaq sought to gain popular legitimacy among the Syrian people and viewed the coalition government as a means towards gaining the blessings of Nasser, who was still popular in Syria. Many members wanted to turn the Ba'ath into a Syria-focused party and did not care about Nasser's position towards Syria. This faction later became known as the "Regionalists" ("Qutriyyin").
Bitar was also appointed foreign affairs minister. He represented Syria at the Egyptian–Syrian–Iraqi unity negotiations of March–April 1963. In the first round of negotiations, which lasted until 19 March when Bitar and Aflaq joined in, the Ba'ath Party was represented by Abd al-Karim Zuhurthe economy minister. Nasser treated them badly during the negotiations, and Bitar and Aflaq moved closer to the position of the Regionalists. Nasser would only resume negotiations if the Ba'ath Party made concessions to the Nasserites in Syria, which the Ba'athists refused to do. The Nasserite cabinet members of the United Arab Front, Nihad al-Qasim, the deputy prime minister and justice minister, and Abd al-Wahhab Hawmad, the finance minister, resigned in protest because of the Ba'ath Party's position on the issue. Propaganda campaigns by both Ba'athist and Nasserite forces ensued in Syria. Bitar and Lu'ay al-Atassi, the NCRC chairman, sharply rebuked the Nasserites.
The Ba'ath Party purged several pro-Egyptian officers from the military between 28 April and 2 May. After the signing of the Federal Union Agreement of 17 April, the Nasserites demanding more power for themselves in the political system. Both parties were averse to power-sharing but the Nasserites were outmaneuvered following the purge of their supporters in the officer corps, which ended their struggle for control over Syria. The Military Committee was adamantly opposed to continued negotiations with Nasser and the Nasserites, and by the time of the purge, Aflaq and Bitar had given up on them.