Salah al-Din al-Bitar
Salah ad-Din al - Bitar (Arabic صلاح الدين البيطار, DMG Salah ad - Din al - Bitar, * 1912 in Damascus, † July 21, 1980 in Paris) was a Syrian Prime Minister, pan-Arab nationalist and mastermind of Baathism. He was a Sunni Muslim.
Life and work
Salah ad-Din al - Bitars family belonged to the middle class of his country. He developed early on an Arab nationalist and began to wonder, to expel the French colonial power from the League of Nations Mandate for Syria and Lebanon.
His life and his activities are closely intertwined with those of Michel Aflaqs. After he had reached his secondary education in Damascus, he went with Aflaq at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he studied physics. When he returned from France in 1932, he taught in public schools. Both men brought their nationalist ideas in the classroom, were therefore dismissed after repeated admonitions and were financially dependent on their families during this time.
His friendship with Aflaq meant that he became more and more involved in politics. In 1943 he ran unsuccessfully for the Syrian parliament as a deputy of Damascus. In 1946, he became chief editor of the party newspaper al - Baath. In 1947, he was with Michel Aflaq founder of the Baath Party, the Socialist in 1952 with Akram al - Hauranis party united to form the Socialist Arab Bath Party.
During his political activities he was taken prisoner several times: in 1945 during the government Quwatli, 1949 by Zaim and in 1952 and 1954 by Shishakli. In 1954 he stood as a candidate - this time successful - for Parliament as a representative of Damascus. In 1956 he became foreign minister and remained so until the formation of the United Arab Republic in 1958. Doing so, he gained international recognition in 1957 as head of the Syrian delegation to the UN.
After the seizure of the Baath Party in 1963 Bitar was initially proposed by the party vice- Shibli al - Aysami as president, the coup officers agreed but instead on Louai al - Atassi. Bitar in 1963, 1964 and early 1966 in rivalry with Yusuf Zuayyin several times Prime Minister of Syria, but fell in the spring of 1966 final party internal purges ( " corrective movements " ) of a left alliance of Druze and Alawite military ( General Salah Jadid ) to victims who between fracture Syrian and Iraqi Baath Party led Bitar and initially displaced into Lebanese exile. After another " corrective movement " by Lieutenant General Hafiz al -Assad, which Prime Minister and Minister of Defense was on 23 November 1970, Bitar returned back to Damascus in 1970, but was only a few months later, finally exiled to Paris, where he died on July 21 1980 an assassination attempt succumbed. Akram al - Haurani then accused the Syrian regime of being behind the assassination.