1966 Syrian coup d'état

The 1966 Syrian coup d'état (also known as the 23 February Movement^[2]) refers to events between 21 and 23 February during which the government of the Syrian Arab Republic was overthrown and replaced. The ruling National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party were removed from power by a union of the party's Military Committee and the Syrian Regional Branch, under the leadership of Salah Jadid.^[3]

The coup was precipitated by a heightening in the power struggle between the party's old guard, represented by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and Munif al-Razzaz, and the radical leftist factions adhering to a Neo-Ba'athist position. On 21 February, supporters of the old guard in the army ordered the transfer of their rivals. Two days later, the Military Committee, backing the radical leftist factions, launched a coup that involved violent fighting in Aleppo, Damascus, Deir ez-Zor, and Latakia. As a result of the coup, the party's historical founders fled the country and spent the rest of their lives in exile.

The Ba'athist military committee's seizure of power and subsequent purges marked the total ideological transformation of the Syrian Ba'ath party into a militarist neo-Ba'athist organization, independent of the National Command of the original Ba'ath party. Salah Jadid established the most radical administration in modern Syrian history. The coup created a permanent schism between the Syrian and Iraqi regional branches of the Ba'ath Party and their respective National Commands, with many senior Syrian Ba'athists defecting to Iraq. Salah Jadid's government would subsequently be overthrown in the coup d'état of 1970, which brought his military rival Hafez al-Assad to power. Despite this, the Assad regime and Ba'athist Iraq continued its propaganda campaigns against each other and the Ba'athist schism persisted.