PARTY OF ARAB SOCIALIST REVIVAL
PARTY OF ARAB SOCIALIST REVIVAL
THE ARAB SOCIALIST BAʽATH PARTY (PASV; THE ARAB SOCIALIST BAʽATH PARTY) is a Syrian party founded by Michel Aflyak, Salah ad-din Bitar and Zaki Arsuzi in 1947.
The party's ideology is based on Baathism - a synthesis of Arab socialism and pan-Arabism. Baathism pursues the goal of uniting the Arab world into a single state. The goals of the PASV include building a socialist society, uniting and developing a single Arab state, preserving Arab identity, eliminating class discrimination and any forms of exploitation. According to the PASV Charter, the foreign policy of the Arab state should proceed from Arab national interests and from the Arab mission, consisting in making its contribution to the creation of a harmonious, free and secure world, striving for progress.
Formed in 1947, the party was called the Arab Renaissance Party. In 1954, the party merged with the Arab Socialist Party and added to its name a reference to the party's socialist affiliation. In 1966, the party split into the Syrian and Iraqi PASV movements, positioning themselves as the party's successors and having their branches in Syria and Iraq, respectively.
In 1978-1979. Syrian and Iraqi Baathists made an attempt to normalize relations between the two states, the presidents of Syria Hafez Assad and Iraqi Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr negotiated the unification of the two countries.
The party has influence in many Arab countries. Regional branches of the PASV appeared in the late 1940s - early 1950s in Yemen (both the pro-Iraqi party and the pro-Syrian, represented in parliament), in Lebanon (pro-Syrian), in Palestine (pro-Syrian - “al-Saika” and pro-Iraqi - “Arab Front liberation ") and in other Arab countries.
Until 2000, Hafez al-Assad was the PASV General Secretary. The Secretary of the PASV regional leadership in the Syrian branch since 2000 is the President of Syria Bashar al-Assad, who has been the President of Syria since 2000.
Since 1979, Saddam Hussein has been the Secretary General of the Iraqi regional leadership of the PASV. From 2006 to the present, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri is the Secretary General of the Iraqi branch of the Arab Socialist Party.
In 2018, the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party and the United Russia Party entered into a cooperation agreement. The party also cooperates with the Cypriot Communist Party (AKEL), the Korean Workers' Party, the Russian Communist Party, and the Austrian Social Democratic Party. Among the Arab parties with which PASV cooperates include the Tunisian Democratic Socialist Party, the Mauritanian Union for the Republic Party, and the Egyptian National Progressive Unionist Party.
In the elections to the Syrian People's Council in 2007 and 2012, the party received 134 seats (54% of the total number of seats in the lower house of parliament). In the 2016 parliamentary elections, the party won 200 seats (80% of the total).
In the parliamentary elections in 2020, the party received a smaller number of seats - 177 seats, which amounted to 70.8% of the total.
At the moment, the Syrian branch of the party is the ruling party, while the Iraqi branch is in opposition.
The party's headquarters are located in Damascus, the capital of Syria.
Official site of the party: http://www.baath-party.org