Fawzi Selu (1905–1972) (Arabic :فوزيالسلو, romanized: Fawzīal-Salū) was a Syrian military leader,politician and the President of Syria from December 3,1951,to July 11,1953.
He studied at the Homs Military Academy and joined the French-sponsored Troupe Speciales that was created when France imposed its League of Nations mandate on Syria in July 1920. He had a successful military career,and when Syria became fully independent in 1946,he became the director of the academy. He was given a command in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War where he became close to chief of staff Husni al-Za'im. When Za'im came to power in a coup in March 1949,he appointed Selu military attachéto the Syrian-Israeli armistice talks,and he became the principal architect of the cease-fire that was signed in July of that year. Selu,supported by Za'im,demonstrated a willingness to pursue a comprehensive peace settlement with Israel,including a final border agreement,Palestinian refugees,and the establishment of a Syrian embassy in Tel Aviv. However Za'im was overthrown and killed,and civilian rule was restored with the administration of the nationalist Hashim al-Atassi. Atassi upheld the armistice agreement,but refused to consider peace with Israel. Selu then allied himself with military strongman general Adib al-Shishakli,who contrived to have Selu appointed minister of defense in three cabinets under president Atassi. Shishakli finally launched a coup in November 1951,but could not persuade the popular Atassi to stay on as president,who resigned in protest. As a result,Shishakli appointed Selu as president,prime minister and chief of staff,while retaining real power for himself with the less public role of deputy chief of staff. The two men ran a police state and suppressed virtually all opposition. Under the direction of Shishakli,Selu improved relations with Jordan,opening the first Syrian embassy in Amman and befriending King Talal. He also sought better relations with Lebanon,Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
On July 11,1953,Shishakli finally dispensed Selu and appointed himself as president. When Shishakli was overthrown in February 1954,a military court in Damascus charged Selu with corruption,misuse of office,and unlawful amendment of the constitution. Selu fled to Saudi Arabia and became an advisor to King Saud and then his brother King Faisal. He was sentenced to death in absentia. After the overthrowing of the government that sentenced him to death,he was later pardoned by the new government and returned to Damascus. Retiring from politics,he later died in the Harasta Military Hospital at the age of 67 years old,on April 29,1972. [1]
Hashim al-Atassi was a Syrian politician and statesman who served as the President of Syria on three occasions from 1936 to 1939,1949 to 1951 and 1954 to 1955.
Shukri al-Quwatli was the first president of post-independence Syria,in 1943. He began his career as a dissident working towards the independence and unity of the Ottoman Empire's Arab territories and was consequently imprisoned and tortured for his activism. When the Kingdom of Syria was established,Quwatli became a government official,though he was disillusioned with monarchism and co-founded the republican Independence Party. Quwatli was immediately sentenced to death by the French who took control over Syria in 1920. Afterward,he based himself in Cairo where he served as the chief ambassador of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress,cultivating particularly strong ties with Saudi Arabia. He used these connections to help finance the Great Syrian Revolt (1925–1927). In 1930,the French authorities pardoned Quwatli and thereafter,he returned to Syria,where he gradually became a principal leader of the National Bloc. He was elected president of Syria in 1943 and oversaw the country's independence three years later.
Nazim al-Qudsi,was a Syrian politician who served as the 14th president of Syria from 14 December 1961 to 8 March 1963.
Adib al-Shishakli was a Syrian military officer who served as President of Syria briefly in 1951 and later from 1953 to 1954. He was overthrown and later assassinated.
Husni al-Za'im was a Syrian Kurdish military officer and who was head of state of Syria in 1949. He had been an officer in the Ottoman Army. After France instituted its colonial mandate over Syria after the First World War,he became an officer in the French Army. After Syria's independence in 1946 he was made Chief of Staff,and was ordered to lead the Syrian Army into war with the Israeli Army in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The defeat of the Arab league forces in that war shook Syria and undermined confidence in the country's chaotic parliamentary democracy,allowing him to seize power in 1949. However,his reign as head of state was brief,he was tried and executed in August 1949 by his former coup co-conspirators. Al-Za'im infamously executed Lebanese intellectual Antoun Saadeh in July 1949.
Khalid al-Azm was a Syrian politician and five-time interim Prime Minister,as well as Acting President from 4 April to 16 September 1941. He was a member of one of the most prominent political families in Syria,al-Azm,and the son of an Ottoman minister of religious affairs.
Lu'ay al-Atassi was a Syrian military officer who served as the president of Syria from 9 March to 27 July 1963.
Maamun al-Kuzbari was a Syrian literary personality,politician and acting head of state from a prominent Damascus family.
The 1963 Syrian coup d'état,labelled in Ba'athist historiography as the "March 8 Revolution",was the seizure of power in Syria by the military committee of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. The planning and the unfolding conspiracy of the Syrian Ba'athist operatives were prompted by the Ba'ath party's seizure of power in Iraq in February 1963.
Sabri al-Asali was a Syrian politician and a three-time prime minister of Syria. He also served as vice-president of the United Arab Republic in 1958.
The March 1949 Syrian coup d'état was a bloodless coup d'état that took place on 30 March. It was the first military coup in modern Syrian history and overthrew the country's democratically-elected government. It was led by the Syrian Army chief of staff,Husni al-Za'im,who became president of Syria on 11 April 1949. Among the officers who assisted al-Za'im's takeover were Sami al-Hinnawi and Adib al-Shishakli,both of whom in sequence would later also become military leaders of the country. Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli,was accused of purchasing inferior arms for the Syrian Army and poor leadership. He was briefly imprisoned,but then released into exile in Egypt. Syria's legislature,then called the House of Representatives,was dissolved. al-Za'im also imprisoned many political leaders,such as Munir al-Ajlani,whom he accused of conspiring to overthrow the republic.
The 1954 Syrian coup d'état took place in February of that year to overthrow the government of Adib Shishakli. Leading the anti-Shishakli movement were former President Atassi and the veteran Druze leader Sultan al-Atrash.
The Second Syrian Republic,officially the Syrian Republic from 1950 to 1958 and the Syrian Arab Republic from 1961 to 1963,succeeded the First Syrian Republic that had become de facto independent in April 1946 from the French Mandate. The Second Republic was founded on the Syrian Constitution of 1950,which was suspended from 1953 to 1954 under Adib Shishakli's strongmanship,and later when Syria joined with the Republic of Egypt in forming the United Arab Republic in 1958. The Second Republic resumed when Syria withdrew from the union in 1961. In 1963,the Syrian Ba'athist Party came to power in a bloodless military coup,which laid the foundations for the political structure in Ba'athist Syria.
Abdullah Atfeh was a Syrian career military officer who served as the first chief of staff of the Syrian Army after the country's independence.
The Arab Liberation Movement was a Syrian political party founded on 25 August 1952 by the President of Syria Adib Shishakli. It was the only legal party in Syria until from its inception until 1954.
Anwar Bannud (1908–1979) was a Syrian military officer who served as the chief-of-staff of the Syrian Army from 1950 to 1951.
Nasib al-Bakri was a Syrian politician and nationalist leader in the first half of the 20th century. He played a major role in establishing al-Fatat,an underground organization which sought the independence and unity of the Ottoman Empire's Arab territories. As the chief envoy between al-Fatat and the Hejaz-based Hashemites,al-Bakri became a close aide to Emir Faisal when the latter became King of Syria following the success of the 1916 Arab Revolt. Al-Bakri opposed the establishment of the French Mandate of Syria and became one of the chief commanders of the Great Syrian Revolt,leading the rebels' brief capture of Damascus. He escaped a death warrant in Syria in 1927,but returned the following year after being amnestied.
The Syrian coup d'état may refer to:
Sami Droubi was a Syrian politician,career diplomat,writer,translator,university professor and philosopher. He worked as a Syrian diplomat throughout the 1960s,serving,succession,as the Syrian ambassador to Brazil,Morocco,Yugoslavia,and Egypt and the Arab League,Spain and the Holy See. He briefly served as Education Minister in 1963. He also translated numerous literary works into Arabic.
Rashad Barmada was a Syrian politician between the 1940s and early 1960s. Barmada served as a deputy prime minister,minister of defense for three terms,minister of interior for two terms,and minister of education for three terms,and was elected as a member of the Syrian Parliament for three terms. He was the President of the Aleppo Lawyers Syndicate in 1949.