Corrective Movement (Syria)

1970 coup
Part of the Syrian Civil War
Hafez al-Assad shortly after the success of the movement
Date 13 November 1970 Location Syria Result Overthrow of Salah Jadid and his allies Appointment of a temporary regional command of the Ba'ath Syrian regional branch Purge of Aflaqists from the Ba'ath Party Condemnation of Michel Aflaq and Amin al-Hafiz to death via absentia Establishment of personality cult Beginning of al-Assad family's hereditary rule
Belligerents
Syrian Government Ba'ath Party	Syrian Armed Forces
Commanders and leaders
Salah Jadid (POW) Nureddin al-Atassi	Hafez al-Assad Rifaat al-Assad Mustafa Tlass
Casualties and losses
No deaths

Part of a series on
Ba'athism
Organisations Arab Ba'ath 1940–1947 Arab Ba'ath Movement 1940–1947 Ba'ath Party 1947–1966 Baath Party (pro-Iraqi) 1968–2003 Baath Party (pro-Syrian) 1966–present
People Zaki al-Arsuzi Michel Aflaq Salah al-Din al-Bitar Abdullah Rimawi Wahib al-Ghanim Fuad al-Rikabi Salah Jadid Hafez al-Assad Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Saddam Hussein Bashar al-Assad Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri
Literature On the Way of Resurrection The Battle for One Destiny The Genius of Arabic in Its Tongue
History Ba'athist Iraq Ramadan Revolution November 1963 coup d'état 17 July Revolution Iran–Iraq War Gulf War UN sanctions Iraq War De-Ba'athification Baathist Syria Syrian Committee to Help Iraq 1963 / 1966 coup d'états Corrective Revolution Intervention in Lebanon Syrian occupation of Lebanon Syrian civil war
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Splinter groups Arab Socialist Revolutionary Ba'ath Party 1960–1962/63 Socialist Lebanon 1965–1970 Arab Revolutionary Workers Party 1966–present Democratic Socialist Arab Ba'ath Party 1970–present Sudanese Ba'ath Party 2002–present
Related topics Arab nationalism Arab socialism Nasserism Pan-Arabism
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The Corrective Movement (

Al-Assad started planning to seize power shortly after the failed Syrian military intervention in the Black September crisis in Jordan.^[4] While Al-Assad had been in de facto command of Syrian politics since 1969, Salah Jadid and his supporters still held all the formal trappings of power.^[4] After attending Gamal Abdel Nasser's funeral, Al-Assad returned to Syria to attend the Emergency National Congress held on 30 October 1970.^[4] At the congress, Al-Assad was condemned by Jadid and his supporters, who formed the majority of the party delegates.^[4] However, before attending the congress, Al-Assad had ordered troops loyal to him to surround the building in which the congress was held.^[4] Criticism of Al-Assad's political position continued, but with Assad's troops surrounding the building, the majority of delegates knew that they had lost the battle.^[4] Assad and Mustafa Tlass were stripped of their government posts during the congress, although this move had little practical influence.^[4]

When the National Congress broke up on 12 November 1970, Al-Assad ordered loyalists to arrest the leading members of Jadid's government.

Assad's faction, which was far smaller than the pro-Jadid faction, began recruiting Aflaqites to top positions to cement their power.[6] Assad appealed directly to Michel Aflaq's sympathizers by stating: "Let us rebuild together and if we fail our heads will all be on the block together".^[6] An estimated 2,000 people responded to Assad's invitation, among them were Georges Saddiqni, a party ideologist, and Shakir al-Fahham, one of the secretaries of the Ba'ath Party's founding congress in 1947.^[7]

However, despite trying to strengthen his hold on the party, at a 1970 Regional Command meeting, its members opposed Assad's motion to appoint a figurehead to lead the party. As a result, Assad went on to establish a separate power base apart from the party.

As part of his "corrective movement," at the 11th National Congress Assad introduced a general revision of national policy. Included in these revisions were measures introduced to consolidate his rule. His Ba'athist predecessors had restricted control of Islam in public life and government.[10] Because the Constitution allowed only Muslims to become president,^[11] Assad, unlike Jadid, presented himself as a pious Muslim. In order to gain support from the ulamah—the Islamic scholarship — he prayed in Sunni mosques, even though he was an Alawite. Among the measures Assad introduced were the raising in rank of some 2,000 religious functionaries, and the appointment of an alim as minister of religious functionaries and construction of mosques. He appointed a little-known Sunni teacher, Ahmad al-Khatib, as Head of State in order to satisfy the Sunni majority.^[10] Assad also appointed Sunnis to senior positions in the government, the military, and the party. All of his prime ministers, defense ministers, and foreign ministers, a majority of his cabinet, were Sunnis. In the early 1970s, Assad was verified as an authentic Muslim by the Sunni Mufti of Damascus and made the Hajj—the pilgrimage to Mecca. In his speeches, he often used terms such as "jihad" (struggle) and "shahada" (martyrdom) when referring to fighting Israel.^[11]

The coup turned Syria's social and political structures upside down. The Alawites, Assad's sect, although no more than 12% of the population, came to occupy coveted positions in every sector of life in Syria.^[1] Many rural Alawites supported the expansion of state institutions and military over the private sector mostly composed of Sunni-led bourgeousie; as a means to enhance their privileges in the public sector. Popular dissatisfaction over Alawite dominace became one of the most significant sources of Baathist regime's legitimacy crisis in Syria.^[12]

Economic reforms

Assad reverted his predecessor's policy of radical economic socialism, and strengthened the private sector's role in the economy.^[13] In many ways the Corrective Movement resulted in a tacit alliance between the political elite and the Damascene bourgeoisie,^[14] of whom the latter had previously provided the primary base of support for the National Party of Syria prior to the Ba'ath Party's seizure of power in 1963.

Foreign policy

The crux of the new foreign policy adopted by

When the communist governments in the Eastern Bloc collapsed, an ideological crisis within the government arose.^[17] However, Assad and his supporters hit back, stating that because of the "Corrective Movement under the leadership of the warrior Hafez al-Assad", the principles of economic and political pluralism, which had been introduced "some two decades" beforehand, safeguarded the Syrian government from the possibility of collapse.^[17]

Later, on 27 January 2000,