Baath (Syrian regional office)

The official slogan of the Baath Syrian branch is “ Unity, freedom, socialism ”, which is enshrined in the country's constitution. The eighth article of the Syrian constitution indicates that the Baath Party plays the leading role in the state and in Syria’s society It heads the National Progressive Front in order to unite the masses of the people and urge them to fulfill the goals of the Arab nation. The Syrian Constitution was adopted in 1973. The Constitution does not explicitly state that the president of a state must necessarily belong to the Syrian branch of the Baath Party, however, in accordance with the charter of the National Progressive Front, it is assumed that the president and secretary of the party must also be leaders of the NPF. The party has dominated the UAR parliament since 1963, after the March 8 Revolution . Throughout the parliamentary elections in Syria, the Syrian regional branch of the Baath Party has traditionally won a parliamentary majority of 167 seats and more. In 2003, following the parliamentary elections, the party won 135 seats in Mejlis al-Shaab . In the mid-2000s, there were approximately 800,000 party members in the country, and the main Baath press organs in Syria were the Al-Ba'ath and Al-Thawra newspapers.

The Baath has a membership of 21 members in the Syrian Regional Board (PSA). Since 1987, the PSA has included three Vice-Presidents of the Syrian Arab Republic, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the Commander of the General Staff, the Speaker of the Syrian People’s Council, and the secretaries of the party organizations in Hama and Aleppo , as well as as well as economics and higher education. The Seventh Congress of the Syrian Baath Regional Office was held in January 1980. During the congress, a new party institute was formed - the Central Committee, which should play the role of a connecting body in relations between the board and the regional branches of the party. The Central Committee has 75 members. During the same congress, a special Inspection was formed. During the eighth congress, it was decided to expand the number of members of the Central Committee to 95 people. The number of powers of the Central Committee included the elections of the regional government, while earlier the participants in the regional congress took part in the elections and the approval of the PSA.

The party has 19 branches in the country: one in each of the thirteen governorates , as well as one in Damascus, one in Aleppo and one in each of the four state universities. In most cases, the governor of the governorate, the chief of police, the mayor of the city center of the governorate, as well as other senior officials in the provincial or municipal hierarchy are members of the board of the local Ba'ath branch.

The Syrian Regional Congress takes place every four years. Despite the fact that all events at the congress are strictly regulated in advance and carefully planned, recently during the congresses there have been serious debates about economic and social issues. However, official criticism regarding economic stagnation was heard at the Baath congress in 1985, which was attended by 771 people.

The party also has internal structures among the Syrian armed forces. Representatives of the civil and military sectors of the party are met only during meetings and events at the regional level, while the military sector is represented on the regional board and traditionally sends its delegates to participate in regional congresses. The military sector of the party is divided into branches, which operate at the battalion level. The head of the military branch of the party is called tawjihi (“leader”, “leader”).

The party security law was passed in 1979. In accordance with the wording of this law, deviations from the party line and attacks on it were criminalized. The law was adopted as part of the internal ideological struggle against right-wing Islamist groups, which showed subversive activity in the late 1970s, including threatening state stability.

The party has three centers that carry out coordination activities in public organizations: the Bureau of Popular Organizations (which coordinates the activities of the armed groups of the people's militia, as well as the Union of Revolutionary Youth and the General Union of Syrian Women); The workers ’bureau (which coordinates the general federation of the Syrian trade unions) and the peasant bureau (responsible for the activities of the peasant federation). Children have the opportunity to join the avant-garde party already at school age (there is a division into the vanguard of boys and girls). Participants in the avant-garde can attend militarized summer camps on a cultural and educational basis, which are managed by representatives of the armed forces of Syria. In the mid-1970s, in the conditions of worsening of the domestic political situation and aggravation of the external threat due to the growth of radical Islamist movements, a campaign was launched to mobilize the peasants from the peasant federation.

The party runs its own political education system, including the Higher Political Institute. Damascus University has a special postgraduate program based on political knowledge, which is supervised by the Baath.

The authoritative Syrian politician Abdel Halim Haddam was dismissed from the middle of 2005, a member of the National Board of the Party and the Central Committee from mid-2005, after which, with the permission of Bashar al-Assad, he emigrated to Paris . Since January 2006, he has led the “Syrian government in exile” and is now in opposition to the strategy of the Syrian Baath regional office.

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