In October 6, 1973, Syria, along with Egypt (led by Anwar Sadat), went to war against Israel. Initially, the two Arab armies made significant gains on both fronts, but later, in the face of
vastly superior Israeli forces, lack of coordination, and severe misunderstandings with Egypt, Syria lost its military gains, while Israel advanced deeper into Syria, to the Bashan salient.
The main reason for the reversal of fortune was Egypt's operational pause from 7 to 14 October.[8] After capturing parts of the Sinai, the Egyptian campaign halted and the Syrians were left fighting the Israelis alone.[9] The Egyptian leaders, believing their war aims accomplished, dug in.[10] While their early successes in the war had surprised them, War Minister General Ahmad Ismail Ali advised caution.[10] In Syria, Assad and his generals waited for the Egyptians to move.[10] When the Israeli government learned of Egypt's modest war strategy, it ordered an "immediate continuous action" against the Syrian military.[10] According to Patrick Seale, "For three days, 7, 8, and 9 October, Syrian troops on the Golan faced the full fury of the Israeli air force as, from first light to nightfall, wave after wave of aircraft swooped down to bomb, strafe and napalm their tank concentration and their fuel and ammunition carriers right back to the Purple Line."[11]
However, unlike in the Six-Day War, the Syrian Arab Army was not routed. While Egypt withdrew from the war by signing unilateral agreements with Israel, Assad continued a war of attrition against Israel, inflicting losses on it and blocking the possibility of increasing Israeli gains. Assad's skill as a cool, proud, tough, and shrewd negotiator in the post war period enabled him to gain the town of Kuneitra and the respect and admiration of many Arabs. Assad signed a disengagement agreement with Israel only in May 1974, emerging from the war as a resilient and strong player. Propaganda and cult of personality portrayed this war as a clear victory for Assad. Many of his followers now regarded Assad as the new pan-Arab leader, and a worthy successor of Gamal Abdel Nasser.[12]
Events
The flag raising took place shortly after the handover of Quneitra to Syria on June 26, 1974.[1] When President Hafez al-Assad traveled to Quneitra, he also promised to return the rest of the occupied territories to Syrian control.[13] As TIME magazine declared, "The recovery of the ruined city—a symbol of Damascus’ determination to win back all the land it lost to Israel in the Six-Day War—touched off a day of emotional national celebration."[14] This is how correspondent Karsten Prager described that event:
"As the Israelis withdrew from their salient inside Syria, thousands of refugees flocked south on the Damascus-Quneitra road to return to their land. When the day finally arrived for the takeover of the capital itself, thousands were packed along the dusty highway, waiting for the barriers to open. Damascus' understandable determination to celebrate "the liberation of Quneitra" added more confusion to an already massive logistical problem. Thousands of Ba'ath party faithful, as well as plain sightseers, trucked and bused toward Quneitra, their vehicles festooned with Syrian flags and homemade banners. A traffic jam several miles long stalled hundreds of official limousines, military vehicles, donkey carts and trucks piled with returning refugees, stoves, bedrolls and furniture. Red-bereted military police struggled to bring order out of chaos, occasionally shooting their AK-47 automatic rifles into the air to get attention. Reminders of the October fighting were plentiful. Occasionally across the fertile plain came the echoing thump of detonating mines. A prairie fire, ignited by exploding ordnance, cast a gray pall over the land."[14]
Another photo of raising flag
However, the city of Quneitra was heavily damaged during the war. Western reporters accompanied Syrian refugees returning to the city in early July 1974 and described what they saw on the ground. A TIME correspondent reported that “Most of its buildings are knocked flat, as though by dynamite, or pockmarked by shellfire.” But president Hafez al-Assad soon arrived, dressed in military uniform and surrounded by army officers. His arrival greatly excited the assembled crowd, whose joy had cooled when they saw the devastated city - they applauded him, threw flowers at him and chanted slogans in his support ("Welcome Assad, the liberator!").[14] In front of his citizens and television cameras, Assad kissed the Syrian flag and raised it on a flagpole.[14] After raising the flag, he told the cheering crowd: “No force on earth can prevent us from recovering our rights. We must continue to prepare to oust the enemy from our occupied Arab territory and I am optimistic over victory and the future.”[1]
Due to the level of destruction, the city's recapture became a purely symbolic event. Since then the city has never been rebuilt.
Use in propaganda
Propaganda fresco, showing the moment of raising the flag
The moment of raising the flag and the citizens' celebration around the president was actively used by state propaganda: this event also contributed to the personality cult of President Assad. This day - June 26 - was regularly (almost annually) celebrated and remembered in Ba'athist propaganda and became a symbol of Syria's "victory" in the war (according to the propaganda):[4][5][6][7][15] video clips of the raising of the flag regularly appeared on state television accompanied by patriotic music. This event was compared in its symbolism to the raising of the flag over the Reichstag (even if it was much lower in significance), and symbolized Syria's readiness and determination to liberate all of the Golan Heights.[7] After the war, a museum dedicated to it was opened in Damascus:[16] a fresco was even painted in honor of this event, showing the moment of raising the flag.
↑ Seale 1990, p.209. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSeale1990 (help)
↑ Reich, Bernard, ed. (1990). Political leaders of the contemporary Middle East and North Africa: a biographical dictionary. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN978-0-313-26213-5.
↑ ""Egypt offers air force to defend Lebanon". p. 6". The Times. 1974-06-26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
