Saadehism

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Saadehism, also referred to as Pan-Syrianism or Pan-Syrian Nationalism, is the ideology of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), which aims to unite the region of the Levant and Mesopotamia to create a unitary and centralized, Social Nationalist state within the geographical boundaries of the Fertile Crescent also referred to as Greater Syria. Saadeh is anti-Communist and anti-Capitalist, advocating for an economic third position (aftermentioned social nationalist economics). He is very philosophical and culturally right-wing, placing a large emphasis on hierarchy, authority and order. Historically it has been a revolutionary ideology opposing European colonialism and Zionism, going as far as using suicide bombers against Israeli military targets. Saadeh believes in equality and secularism and has no issue utilising women in military roles where half of their suicide bombers were women including the first female suicide bomber in the world; Sana Mehaidili. Economically, Saadeh believes that an economy based on production rather than services is more effective and calls for agrarian reform, and expansion of Industry. Generally, he supports private property, although he advocates for the nationalization of necessities. He is also against all forms of division within the nation as they divide the state. Thus, Saadeh believes in class, ethnic, religious, etc collaboration.

History

Etymology

The origin of the Hellenistic term Syria is linked to the etymology of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, so a "Greater Syria" in this sense corresponds to "Greater Assyria", which includes all of the Levant and Mesopotamia. This is completely unrelated to Assyrian nationalism or Assyrians but relies instead on the Saadehist interpretation of the ancient empire and its romanticisation.

Under the French Mandate

In November 1932, profiteering from local tensions caused by Zionism and resentment of European colonialism, Antoun Saadeh founded a secret political party in the French mandate of Lebanon and started to publish in the Al Majalla journal in 1933. As its popularity spread, the SSNP came into conflict with the French colonial authorities after coming into light in 1936. Saadeh was arrested for six months, but due to lack of proof and German interference, was released later. Saadeh spent six months in prison writing his manifesto "The Genesis of Nations", which would lay the foundations for the modern Pan-Syrian ideology based on the romanticisation of the ancient civilizations of the Levant. A short-lived alliance with the National Bloc broke down due to sectarian tensions and the militant nature of the SSNP. Saadeh left the country to promote his ideals abroad in 1938, finding supporters in Lebanese and Syrian expatriates in Latin America.

Post-Independence

As Lebanon got its nominal independence in 1943 and the mandate was abolished in 1946, Saadeh came back to Lebanon and started to reorganise his party as early as 1947. In 1948, after the defeat in the first Arab-Israeli war, the SSNP started clashing strongly with its rivals, especially the Lebanese Communist Party, and Kataeb, the Lebanese Falange. On 4 July 1949, the SSNP attempted to instigate a coup d'état, this lead to a government crackdown on the Pan-Syrianists, with Saadeh attempting to rally the Syrian government for help. Then dictator Husni Al Zaim captured him and after discussions with Prime Minister of Lebanon Riad Al Soloh, handed Saadeh over to Lebanese authorities. Antoun Saadeh was trialed in secret and executed for high treason less than 24 hours later on 8 July 1949 by firing squad.

From Saadeh's death to modern times

After the failed coup d'état, the SSNP remained in hiding, performing limited operations such as the assassination of Riad Al Soloh in 1951. During the 1958 crisis in Lebanon, the SSNP sided with the government forces against Arab nationalism, trying and failing to assassinate a number of Syrian Baath members. This lead to the government legalising the party again, and the SSNP resuming normal activities until it tried, and failed, again in 1961 to take over the government through force. Coerced into going underground once more until 1969, the SSNP would play a major role in the resistance to Israeli occupation allied to the Lebanese National Front in the Lebanese civil war. In 1966, the SSNP was banned in Jordan, forcing them to disband on an official level. They kept performing illicit political activities, gaining limited support amongst the Palestinian refugee population. Back in Lebanon, the SSNP continued fighting their old rivals Kataeb once more, managing to assassinate Falangist leader and disputed president of Lebanon, Bachir Gemayel. After the end of the civil war, the SSNP would start losing support rapidly despite participation in the 2008 conflict as a Syrian proxy. The SSNP became a fringe political party with very few supporters and Parliament seats. The 2022 elections in Lebanon buried the coffin permanently as the SSNP lost all their parliamentary representatives.


Government of Adib Shishakli (1953-1954)

Adib Shishakli was one of the first members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, in which some ideals were incorporated into his government, such as Nationalism, Limited Socialism, and the opposition and struggle against Israel. Considering himself the "Arab Caesar", Shishakli tried to contain Pan-Arabism by both adopting it as his own line, as opposed to the SSNP's normal Syrian Nationalism, and banning the more left-wing Baath and Nasserite parties, as well as the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Following his downfall and assassination, the party remained banned in Syria until 2005, though it kept accumulating support clandestinely. During the civil war, the SSNP gained in popularity thanks to their newly founded alliance with Baath. Fielding around 12000 fighters and winning 7 seats in the Syrian parliament in 2016. The SSNP is the second largest party Syria only behind the ruling Ba’ath party of Al Assad.


Beliefs

Ideology

Syrian social nationalism pertains to the idea of environmental determinism which posited a common Syrian history and nationality, grouping all the different religious sects and variations in the area, as well as the region's mixture of different peoples due to geography. Thus, while not per se anti-Arab it opposed the Arab nationalist ideology, preferring an all-encompassing Syrian nationality and natural borders of Syria.

It views the modern borders and the creation of Israel as an independent state, as artificial and illegitimate imperial divisions, imposed on the region by the Anglo-French Sykes–Picot Agreement, as of such, Saadehism rejects Lebanese identity and clashed strongly with Lebanese nationalist parties, just as they clashed with Pan-Arab partisans in 1958.

Syrian nationalism advocates for a "Greater Syria", based on ancient concepts of the boundaries of the region; the Zagros mountains and Persian Gulf in the east, to the Red and Mediterranean Seas in the west, also including Cyprus, and from the Arabian desert in the south until the Taurus mountains in the north.

It supports the rise in romantic nationalism, idealising the coming of a National Revival (Renaissance) to the Levant and Mesopotamia, that would shake off the Ottoman and Arab past and propel back what many started to see again as the cradle of civilization into the modern world's front stage. This sidelines the different identities of these ancient civilisations such as the distinct Assyrian, Moabite, Ugarite and the numerous Phoenician identities to name a few. In a quite ironically very similar way to how some Lebanese Phoenicianists revise history and claim that Phoenicians had a united identity. That is false, as Phoenicians identified with their respective cities first, and as Bn Canaan, sons of Canaan or Canaanites, second.

The 8 Basic Principles

  1. Syria is for the Syrians and the Syrians are a complete nation.
  2. The Syrian cause is an integral national cause completely distinct from any other cause.
  3. The Syrian cause is the cause of the Syrian nation and the Syrian homeland.
  4. The Syrian nation is the product of the ethnic unity of the Syrian people which developed throughout history.
  5. The Syrian homeland is that geographic environment in which the Syrian nation evolved. It has distinct natural boundaries and extends from the Taurus range in the northwest and the Zagros mountains in the northeast to the Suez Canal and the Red Sea in the south and includes the Sinai peninsula and the Gulf of Aqaba, and from the Syrian Sea in the west, including the island of Cyprus, to the arch of the Arabian desert and the Persian gulf in the east. (This region is also known as the Syrian Fertile Crescent).
  6. The Syrian nation is one society.
  7. The Syrian Social Nationalist movement derives its inspiration from the talents of the Syrian nation and its cultural political national history.
  8. Syria’s interest supersedes every other interest.

The 5 Reform Principles

  1. Separation of religion and state.
  2. Debarring the clergy from interference in political and judicial matters.
  3. Removal of the barriers between the various sects and confessions.
  4. The abolition of feudalism, the organization of national economy on the basis of production and the protection of the rights of labor and the interests of the nation and the state.
  5. Formation of strong armed forces which will be effective in determining the destiny of the country and the nation.

Economics

The SSNP believes that “the organization of the national economy on the basis of production is the only means for the attainment of a sound balance between the distribution of labour and the distribution of wealth… Moreover, production and producers must be classified in such a way to assure coordination, participation and cooperation in the widest extent possible and to regulate the just share of laborers in production and to insure their right to work and to receive just compensation for their labour. This principle will put an end to absolute individualism in production because every form of production in society in genuinely a collective or a cooperative one.” While this may sound like a unionist or socialist movement, the SSNP opposes the traditional idea of unionisation like Syndicalism and maintains a clear opposition to Communism. The party strongly supports the right of the people to own private property and believes that markets are vital to the prosperity of the nation. However, this does not mean that the party supports capitalism either as “grave injustices can be perpetrated against labor and laborers were individual capitalists to be given absolute control.” Saadehism is completely opposed to individualism, stressing that “the public wealth of the nation must be controlled in the national interest and under the superintendence of the national state. Progress and strength of the national state can not be achieved save with this policy.”

The party emphasizes building the national economy on production sectors and not on service sectors, because they are weak foundations and the participation of citizens in production is the basic condition in the proceeds of production and their rights in public wealth. Therefore, the Party believes that it is necessary for every person to be productive in some way.

Politics

Saadehism loves hierarchies and believes that the nation-state’s interest supersedes every other interest.

Philosophy

WIP

Society

Natural Syria does not have ethnic homogeneity, rather it is a mix of Syriacs, Arabs, Kurds, etc. Syrians are the ones who belong to the Syrian homeland either by birth or by ”participating in the unity of life over a sufficient period of time” to affiliate in the society’s fabric. Not a single non-Syrian person or organization has the right to speak in the name of Syrian interests in internal and external issues, and only Syrians may represent their cause and decide the fate of their interests and lives.

How To Draw

Saadeh's design is based on a combination of the Islamic crescent and the Christian cross, creating a hurricane called the "Zawba'a". The Zawba'a has also been found on Neolithic Mesopotamian art. Each arm of the emblem represents a principle: Freedom, Duty, Discipline, and Strength.

Flag of Saadehism
  1. Draw a ball.
  2. Fill it in with black.
  3. Draw a white circle and fill it in.
  4. Draw a red Zawba'a (curved shuriken shape) and fill it in.
  5. Add a deep red beret and add the emblem to it and a grey lining at the bottom of the beret.
  6. Add the eyes

...and You're done!

Color Name HEX RGB
Black #141414 20, 20, 20
White #FFFFFF 255, 255, 255
Red #DD0000 221, 0, 0


Relationships

Friends

  • Irredentism - I shall make Greater Syria into a reality! Never mind the fact it never existed in the first place...
  • Social Authoritarianism - We need a strong social state.
  • Mexican Fascism - Traditionalist, nationalist, irredentist, and economic third positionist? Based!
    • - You are secular, but I have little to do with secularism and prefer the civil religious system.
  • National Syndicalism - Great economic ideas, but class conflict is cringe.Why are you religious?
  • Bioregionalism - This guy gets it! It’s all about geography!
  • Falangism - Very similar but very different at the same time...Just tell your Lebanese branch to accept they're Syrian NOT PHOENICIAN!
  • Social Nationalism - Based.
  • National Feminism - MORE! 👏 FEMALE! 👏 SUICIDE! 👏 BOMBERS!

Frenemies

  • Ba'athism - We have to work together... for now.
  • Habashism - You also fight against Israel, but why do you want to "free" Palestine rather than absorb it into greater Syria? And communism is cringe.
  • Orthodox Theocracy - Saadeh was one of you but religion is not that important and should be kept separate from the state.
  • Left-Wing Nationalism - Yes I am an economically left nationalist fighting off imperialism but come on romantic nationalism is not that bad and you should embrace it, and pan-nationalism is a useful tool. Also, STOP SUPPORTING THESE TRAITORS!
  • Khomeinism - Although you're just as bad as Daesh i'll tolerate you just because of Assad. GIVE ME FUCKING KHUZESTAN!!

Enemies

  • Zionism - EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ON OUR LAND! We're already keeping an eye on you...
  • Neoconservatism - Look at what your "democracy" did to Iraq. No thanks!
  • Multiculturalism - The Syrian nation is for the Syrian people!
  • Jihadism - GTFO terrorist! But using suicide bombers is based, I do it all the time!
  • Kahanism - The Syrian nation will triumph! Your "Greater Israel" is nothing but a fever dream!
  • Neo-Ottomanism - You are just as bad as the Zionists and Europeans! We will never be part of the Ottoman Empire ever again!
  • Neoliberalism - No degeneracy in Greater Syria!
  • Islamic Theocracy - You're just like him but at least he does not hide his true intentions!
  • Democratic Confederalism - Opposes a United Syria. And you want what? Autonomy?? Don't make me laugh!
  • Fascism & Nazism - "The Syrian Social Nationalist Party is neither a Hitlerite nor a Fascist one, but a pure social nationalist one. It is not based on useless imitation, but is the result of an authentic invention."
  • Capitalism - Individual Capitalists are the greatest danger to the Syrian people’s labor rights. I support private property though.
  • Separatism - Intentionally weaken ourselves so that stronger powers can occupy us!? No way!
  • Feudalism - You are holding back the productive capacity of the nation!
  • Dawronoye - Fake Suryoye.

Further Information

Articles

Books

Official Websites

Wikipedia

Online Communities

Gallery

Portraits

  • Old portrait

    Old portrait

Artwork and Comics

  • "Assad stayed... if only the others could too." by u/fruitrollupgod, Source

    "Assad stayed... if only the others could too." by u/fruitrollupgod, Source

  • In "Greater Syria"

    In "Greater Syria"

Navigation

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