One Common Trench or Two Opposite Sides?

The Arab Socialist Baath Party regards all Arabs as being part of one nation both in the cultural and spiritual sense. The different countries, in which they live, make up a politically and economically united fatherland. In the Party's documents, 'the Arab fatherland' means all the Arab countries. Each of these is a ‘qotr’, which, literally translated, means country; in the Baath context, it should be read as province or region. The adjective 'Qotri' (provincial, regional) is used when referring to an individual country. The adjective 'qawmi' (national), on the other hand, is used when referring to all the countries, which together make up the one fatherland. Thus, the National Leadership deals only with matters concerning the whole fatherland. Each Regional Leadership deals with matters within its own country.

As for example, the Lebanese or Jordanian Regional Leadership etc.

The word Baath can be translated as meaning revival, resurgence or renewal. Hitherto, resurgence seems to be the meaning, which is preferred by Arab intellectuals and foreign Arab experts.


 * Part 1


 * Part 2


 * Part 3


 * Part 4


 * Part 5