Amin al-Hafiz

This article is about the Syrian politician. For similarly named Lebanese politician and Prime Minister, see Amin al-Hafez (Lebanon).

Amin Al-Hafiz أمين الحافظ


Regional Secretary of the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch
In office 4 October 1964 – 19 December 1965
Secretary General	Michel Aflaq Munif al-Razzaz
Preceded by	Shibli al-Aysami
Succeeded by	Nureddin al-Atassi (Regional Command dissolved in December 1965, new Regional Secretary elected in March 1966)
President of Syria
In office 27 July 1963 – 23 February 1966
Preceded by	Lu'ay al-Atassi
Succeeded by	Nureddin al-Atassi
Prime Minister of Syria
In office 4 October 1964 – 23 September 1965
Preceded by	Salah al-Din Bitar
Succeeded by	Yusuf Zu'ayyin
In office 12 November 1963 – 13 May 1964
Preceded by	Salah al-Din Bitar
Succeeded by	Salah al-Din Bitar
Member of the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
In office 23 October 1963 – 23 February 1966
Member of the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch
In office 1 February 1964 – 19 December 1965
Personal details
Born	1918 Aleppo, Syria
Died	December 17, 2009(2009-12-17) (aged 91) Aleppo, Syria
Political party	Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
Spouse(s)	Zeinab al-Hafiz
Religion	Sunni Islam

Amin al-Hafiz أمين الحافظ
Born	1918
Died	December 17, 2009(2009-12-17) (aged 91)
Allegiance	Syria
Service/branch	Syrian Arab Army
Years of service	1938-1966
Rank	General of the Army

Amin al-Hafiz (or Hafez; 1921 – 17 December 2009)^[1] (Arabic: أمين الحافظ‎‎) was a Syrian politician, General and member of the Ba'ath Party.

Career

Early life

Al-Hafiz was born in the city of Aleppo.

His first main political role was in 1958, as a Brigadier and leader of a Syrian Army delegation that visited Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian president. The two states duly merged into one United Arab Republic in February that year, and al-Hafiz was posted to Cairo. The union crumbled after a Syrian uprising in September 1961, and the resultant secessionist government banished, al-Hafiz was sent to Argentina, as Syria's military attaché.^[2]

Rise to power

Hafiz (right) with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser on his arrival to Cairo for the Arab League summit, 1964

The 1963 Syrian coup d'état led by the Military Committee introduced Hafiz to public life. In the aftermath of the coup the National Council of the Revolutionary Command (NCRC) became the country's supreme organ. The NCRC was dominated by the Syrian branch of the radical, pan-Arab Ba'ath Party. Hafiz became President, instituted socialist reforms and oriented his country towards the Eastern Bloc.

Al Hafiz with King Hussein

Eli Cohen affair

The details of Eli Cohen and his covert operations are impossible to verify, and his importance maybe exaggerated by Israeli historians. In any case Al-Hafiz himself rebutted and denied the allegations of his stature within the Syrian military or political sphere.^[3] Allegedly, during his exile in Buenos Aires, Hafez befriended a supposed Lebanese trader named Kamal Amin Thaabet, an allegation which he flatly denied. According to Hafez, he never met Cohen in Argentina. His account was that Cohen was a socialite who befriended officers in the Syrian Army but was never a part of the military in any official capacity. Generally, the importance of the intelligence provided to the Israelis was greatly exaggerated.^[4] Thaabet was actually an Egyptian-born Israeli Mossad agent, Eli Cohen. Thaabet/Cohen arrived in Syria in early 1962, a year before Hafez’s return, and soon began passing information about Syrian military plans to Israel.^[2]

As president, Hafez groomed Thaabet/Cohen to be a future defence minister and possibly even his successor, an allegation which he also flatly denied and challenged.^[4] Hafez invited Thaabet/Cohen to functions and gave him tours of secret fortifications in the Golan Heights. When Cohen was revealed as a spy in January 1965, Hafez personally interrogated him and ordered the arrest of 500 of his highly placed friends. Despite international pleas for clemency, Hafez had Cohen publicly hanged in Damascus.^[2]

Downfall

On 23 February 1966, he was overthrown by a radical Ba'athist faction headed by Chief of Staff Salah Jadid.^[5]^[6] A late warning telegram of the coup d'état was sent from President Nasser to Nasim al-Safarjalani (The General Secretary of Presidential Council), on the early morning of the coup d'état. The coup sprung out of factional rivalry between Jadid's "regionalist" (qutri) camp of the Ba'ath Party, which promoted ambitions for a Greater Syria and the more traditionally pan-Arab Hafiz faction, called the "nationalist" (qawmi) faction. Jadid's supporters were also seen as more radically left-wing.^[7] But the coup was also supported and led by officers from Syria's religious minorities, especially the Alawite Muslims and the Druze, whereas Hafiz belonged to the majority Sunni population. Alawis have ruled Syria ever since.

Exile and return

After being wounded in the three-hour shootout that preceded the coup, in which two of his own children were seriously wounded, Hafez was jailed in Damascus's Mezzeh prison before being sent to Lebanon in June 1967. A year later he was relocated to Baghdad. In 1971, the courts of Damascus sentenced him to death in absentia, however Saddam Hussein "treated him and his fellow exile, Ba'ath founder Michel Aflaq, like royalty" and the sentence was not carried out.^[8] After the fall of Saddam in the Iraq War of 2003, al-Hafiz was quietly allowed to return to Syria.^[9] He died in Aleppo on December 17, 2009; reports of his age differ, but he was believed to be in his late 80's.^[1]^[10] He received a state sponsored funeral.^[8]

References

1 2 Syria-news (Arabic)
1 2 3 Joffe, Lawrence (16 February 2010). "Amin al-Hafez obituary". The Guardian. London.
↑ "شاهد على العصر". YouTube. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
1 2 Al Jazeera Interview. "Shahid Al Asr" 2001.
↑ Associated Press (16 February 2010). "Amin al-Hafez obituary". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
↑ Associated Press (August 24, 1993). "Salah Jadid, 63, Leader of Syria Deposed and Imprisoned by Assad". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
↑ "Syria:Coups and Countercoups, 1961-70". http://countrystudies.us/. Retrieved 31 May 2012. External link in |publisher= (help)
1 2 Joffe, Lawrence (16 February 2010). "Amin al-Hafez obituary: Leader of Syria's first Ba'athist regime". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
↑ Anthony Shadid (May 18, 2005). "Syria Heralds Reforms, But Many Have Doubts". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
↑ AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE (December 18, 2009). "Amin el-Hafez, Baathist Leader of Syria in 1960s, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 May 2012.

Presidents of Syria

French Mandate	Subhi Bey Barakat François Pierre-Alype^AP Ahmad Nami Taj al-Din al-Hasani^AP Léon Solomiac^AP Mohammed Ali Bey al-Abed Hashim al-Atassi Bahij al-Khatib Khalid al-Azm^AP Taj al-Din al-Hasani Jamil al-Ulshi^AP Ata Bey al-Ayyubi Shukri al-Quwatli

Syrian Republic	Shukri al-Quwatli Husni al-Za'im^† Sami al-Hinnawi^AP^† Hashim al-Atassi Adib Shishakli^AP^† Fawzi Selu^† Adib Shishakli Maamun al-Kuzbari^AP^† Hashim al-Atassi Shukri al-Quwatli

United Arab Republic	Gamal Abdel Nasser

Syrian Arab Republic	Maamun al-Kuzbari^AP Izzat al-Nuss^AP^† Nazim al-Kudsi Lu'ay al-Atassi^† Amin al-Hafiz^† Nureddin al-Atassi^† Ahmad al-Khatib^AP Hafez al-Assad Abdul Halim Khaddam^AP Bashar al-Assad

^AP: Acting president; ^†: Military

Prime Ministers of Syria since 1920

Kingdom of Syria (1920)	al-Rikabi H. al-Atassi* al-Durubi al-Ulshi

French Mandate of Syria (1920–1946) post established 1932	H. al-Azm al-Hasani A. al-Ayyubi Mardam al-Haffar al-Bukhari post vacant, 1939–41 K. al-Azm al-Hakim H. al-Barazi al-Ulshi al-Jabiri al-Khoury al-Jabiri

Syrian Republic (1946–1958)	al-Jabiri K. al-Azm* Mardam K. al-Azm al-Za'im M. al-Barazi H. al-Atassi al-Kudsi K. al-Azm al-Kudsi K. al-Azm al-Hakim al-Khatib al-Dawalibi Selu Shishakli al-Asali al-Ghazzi al-Khoury al-Asali al-Ghazzi al-Asali

United Arab Republic (1958–1961)	Kahala Sarraj

Syrian Arab Republic (1961–present)	al-Kuzbari al-Nuss al-Dawalibi al-Azma K. al-Azm al-Bitar al-Hafiz al-Bitar al-Hafiz Zuaiyin al-Bitar Zuaiyin N. al-Atassi al-Assad Khleifawi M. al-Ayyubi Khleifawi al-Halabi al-Kasm Zuabi Mero al-Otari Safar Hijab Ghalawanji* al-Halqi Khamis

* acting

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