The Ba'ath Party was founded in Damascus in 1947 by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar as a pan-Arab socialist party. Ba'athist officers seized power in Syria in 1963, and Hafez al-Assad consolidated personal control within the party in a 1970 coup, a rule that passed to his son Bashar al-Assad in 2000 and continued until the government's fall in December 2024. A separate Iraqi wing, active from the early 1950s, seized power in 1968 and ruled Iraq until the 2003 United States-led invasion removed Saddam Hussein, whose government carried out the Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds and the 1988 chemical attack on Halabja among its own recorded atrocities.
Facts
Founded Year Founded DateFounding congress in Damascus; the party later split into rival Syrian- and Iraqi-dominated commands after the 1966 coup, so it never held one fixed headquarters after this date. Classification
Institution TypePolitical Party Organization 1 Connections
Advocated
Source Ba'ath Party (Encyclopedia.com)
Associated With
Source Ba'ath Party (Wikipedia)
Founded By
Source Ba'ath Party (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Ba'ath Party (Encyclopedia.com)
Encyclopedia.com- Founding, Iraq, and Syria section
Institution type, description
The Ba'ath Party was founded in Damascus in 1947 by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar as a pan-Arab socialist party.
View the Source 2. Ba'ath Party (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationHistory section
The party was founded on 7 April 1947 as the Arab Ba'ath Party by Michel Aflaq (an Antiochian Orthodox Christian), Salah al-Din al-Bitar (a Sunni Muslim), and the followers of Zaki al-Arsuzi.
Founded By: Michel Aflaq, Lead section
The party was established by three key figures: Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi.
Associated With: Iraq, Lead section
would only hold power in Iraq and Syria
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