Amin al-Hafiz

Amin al-Hafiz was born in 1921 in a Sunni Arab family, the son of a police officer from the city of Aleppo. When he was young, like other students, he threw stones at the French colonial authorities during the French mandate of Syria. In 1948, at the age of 27, al-Hafiz volunteered to fight in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. In 1954, he joined the uprising against Adib Shishakli and was promoted to command the Eastern Front at Deir ez-Zor and then to be commander of the Homs academy, before being posted to Cairo. When Syria broke with Egypt in September 1961, al-Hafiz was sent home to Damascus.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=80}}

File:Nasser receives President Hafiz, 1964.jpg on his arrival to Cairo for the Arab League summit, 1964.]]

{{see also|Ba'athist Syria}}

During his stay in Damascus, he was contacted again by the military committee's leader, Muhammad Umran. In December 1961, the Qudsi regime exiled Amin to Buenos Aires as military attaché, and it was from there that he was summoned back to Syria by the victorious officers after the 8 March coup.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=80}} The coup d'état, led by the military committee, introduced al-Hafiz to public life. In the aftermath, the National Council of the Revolutionary Command (NCRC) became the country's supreme organ. It was dominated by the Syrian branch of the radical, pan-Arab Ba'ath Party. Amin became president, instituted socialist reforms, and oriented his country towards the Eastern Bloc.

{{main|1966 Syrian coup d'état}}

On 23 February 1966, al-Hafiz was overthrown by a radical Ba'athist faction headed by Chief of Staff Salah Jadid.{{cite news|title=Amin al-Hafez obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/feb/16/syria|work=The Guardian|access-date=31 May 2012|agency=Associated Press|date=16 February 2010|location=London}}{{cite news|title=Salah Jadid, 63, Leader of Syria Deposed and Imprisoned by Assad|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/24/obituaries/salah-jadid-63-leader-of-syria-deposed-and-imprisoned-by-assad.html|work=The New York Times|access-date=31 May 2012|agency=Associated Press|date=24 August 1993}} A late warning telegram of the coup d'état was sent from Egyptian President Gamal Abdel 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" ({{lang|ar-Latn|qutri}}) camp of the Ba'ath Party, which promoted ambitions for a Greater Syria, and the more traditionally pan-Arab al-Hafiz faction, called the "nationalist" (qawmi) faction. Jadid's supporters were also seen as more radically left-wing.{{cite web|title=Syria:Coups and Countercoups, 1961-70|url=http://countrystudies.us/syria/15.htm|work=countrystudies.us/|access-date=31 May 2012}} The coup was also supported and led by officers from Syria's religious minorities, especially the Alawites and the Druze, whereas al-Hafiz belonged to the majority Sunni population.

After being wounded in the three-hour shootout that preceded the coup, in which two of his children were seriously injured, al-Hafiz 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.{{cite news|title=Amin al-Hafez obituary: Leader of Syria's first Ba'athist regime|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/feb/16/syria|work=The Guardian|access-date=31 May 2012|date=16 February 2010|location=London|first=Lawrence|last=Joffe}} After the fall of Saddam in the Iraq War of 2003, al-Hafiz was quietly allowed to return to Syria.{{cite news|title=Syria Heralds Reforms, But Many Have Doubts|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/17/AR2005051701426_pf.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=31 May 2012|author=Anthony Shadid|date=18 May 2005}} He died in Aleppo on 17 December 2009; reports of his age differ, but he was believed to be in his late 80s.[http://syria-news.com/readnews.php?sy_seq=106325 Syria-news] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005225517/http://syria-news.com/readnews.php?sy_seq=106325 |date=5 October 2011 }} {{in lang|ar}}{{cite news|title=Amin al-Hafez, Baathist Leader of Syria in 1960s, Dies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/world/middleeast/19hafez.html|work=The New York Times|access-date=31 May 2012|author=AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE|date=18 December 2009}} He received a state-sponsored funeral.

Amin al-Hafiz was portrayed by Waleed Zuaiter in the Netflix series The Spy.{{cite web |title=The Spy – Full Cast and Crew |url=https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-spy/cast/1000506455/ |website=TV Guide |access-date=12 September 2023}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Seale |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Seale |title=Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East |publisher=University of California Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0520069763 |url=https://archive.org/details/asadofsyriastrug00seal}}

{{SyrianPresidents}}

{{SyrianPrimeMinisters}}

{{SyriaInterioreMinisters}}

{{Ba'ath Party}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hafiz, Amin Al-}}

Category:1921 births

Category:2009 deaths

Category:Leaders ousted by a coup

Category:Members of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party

Category:Members of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region

Category:People from Aleppo

Category:Presidents of Syria

Category:Prime ministers of Syria

Category:Syrian Arab nationalists

Category:Ministers of interior of Syria

Category:Syrian Sunni Muslims

Category:Syrian expatriates in Iraq

Category:Military attachés

Category:Syrian exiles

Category:Diplomats for Syria