4 WWW.
ARAMICA.
COM
ARAMICA NY 177
JUNE 1 - 15, 2011
COvER StORY
to Sin by Silence
While the Arab world watches silently, Syrian civilians
are being slaughtered like sheep
BY ARAMICA
Syria has been governed by the Ba’ath Party since
1963 and by Hafez...
More
4 WWW.
ARAMICA.
COM
ARAMICA NY 177
JUNE 1 - 15, 2011
COvER StORY
to Sin by Silence
While the Arab world watches silently, Syrian civilians
are being slaughtered like sheep
BY ARAMICA
Syria has been governed by the Ba’ath Party since
1963 and by Hafez al-Assad from 1970, when he,
as Minister of Defense, led a military overthrow
(known as the “Corrective Movement”) until his
death in 2000, when Parliament changed the mandatory minimum age of the President from 40 to
34 so that Hafez’s son Bashar could be eligible for
nomination.
He ran unopposed and “won” the election in July 2000.
Syria has been under
Emergency Law, which suspendedconstitutionalprotections
for its citizens, for as long as
the Ba’ath Party has been in
power, until April 2011 – the
beginning of the “Arab Spring”
movement - when revolutions
and uprisings began sweeping
through the Middle East.
Lifting the Emergency Law
seems to have been an empty
gesture, an act that looks good
on paper, when in actuality, the
current u
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