1967 Syrian coup d'état
| 1967 Syrian coup d'etat | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Arab Cold War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Haydar al-Hassan |
 Farouk Razak | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
|
Presidential Guard Military Police Division |
10th Motorized Division 11th Infantry Division | ||||||
The 1967 Syrian coup d'etat, also known as the April Coup among other names, was a coup carried out by the Democratic Arab Socialist Union with supporters within the Syrian Armed Forces against President Haydar al-Hassan and his government of the First Syrian Republic. The coup occured on April 17, 1967 in which anti-government factions of the military rose up and deposed the government of al-Hassan after successfully capturing the capital of Damascus and arresting most members of the national government. The coup was supported by much of the military, in particular the army and air force, though the navy remained neutral and so Razak was able to take power and proclaim himself president.
The coup itself was launched in response to the authoritarian and unpopular government of al-Hassan which by the end of the 1950s had been an unpopular and corrupt regime relying on brute force, martial law, and secret police to remain in power and support from other countries, mainly Hashemite Arabia and Iraq, due to his anti-communist and anti-Landonist stances. Viewing this as a sign that he was selling Syria's sovereignty to foreign powers, officers supportive of the DASU began plotting a coup to sieze power and chose April 17 in 1967 to launch the coup. The coup itself began at 7:23 am and caught security forces in the city by surprise with Damascus police being unable to mobilize a proper response and only the Presidential Guard and Military Police Division putting up any serious resistance. The 10th Motorized and 11th Infantry Divisions of the army captured the presidential palace and arrested al-Hassan and most government ministers before a counter-attack was launched. By 3:44 pm, Damascus was firmly in the military's hands and the rest of the armed forces had stood down allowing Razak to proclaim himself the new President of Syria.
Following the coup, the Syrian Arab Republic would be proclaimed and the First Republic was dissolved. The Democratic Arab Socialist Union replaced the National Bloc of Syria as the new governing party of the country and established a new Ba'athist regime. Over the next five years, a series of purges and show trials were carried out against former government officials and suspected supporters of the defunct First Republic and would have Syria fall into the Arab nationalist/Ba'athist side of the Arab Cold War as well, alienating its former allies.
Names of the coup
The coup was initially refered to as the 1967 Syrian coup d'etat in both Syria and other nations and the April Coup a month after the military takeover. Not long after the Ba'athist took over, they began refering to the takeover as the April Revolution and the Revolution of 1967 to frame the coup as a popular revolt and a revolution to the betterment of Syrian society and of the Syrian people. These terms were used in propaganda by the Ba'athist regime especially during events celebrating the anniversary of the coup.
In other Ba'athist states like Egypt and Libya, it was refered to as the Syrian Revolution and the 1967 Syrian Revolution in solidarity with the new government. Said terms are still used by the governments to these days despite acknowledging that said revolution was a coup and a hostile military takeover. After the end of the Ba'athist regime in 2004, the event is commonly refered to as the Coup of 67 and the Ba'athist coup or the Ba'athist takeover by the Second Syrian Republic, however Ba'athist-era propaganda terms remained in use by the Syrian opposition, mainly the Syrian Revolutionary Command Council and its allies. Following the Ba'athist takeover in 2022, the original terms remain the official way the coup is referred to as by the current regime.