Husni al-Za'im
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Husni al-Za'im (1897 - 1949) (Arabic: حسني الزعيم) was a Syrian military man and politician. Husni al-Za'im, a member of Syria's Kurdish minority, had been an officer in the Turkish 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 he was made Chief of Staff, and led the Syrian Army into war with Zionist militias in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The defeat of the Arab forces in that war shook Syria and undermined confidence in the country's chaotic parliamentary democracy.
On April 11, 1949, al-Za'im seized power in a bloodless coup d'êtat. Syria's President, Shukri al-Kuwatli, was briefly imprisoned, but then released into exile in Egypt. The coup was carried out with discrete backing of the American embassy, and possibly assisted by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, although al-Za'im himself is not known to have been a member. Among the officers that assisted al-Za'ims takeover was Adib al-Shishakli and Sami al-Hinnawi, both of whom would later become military leaders of the country.
Al-Za'im's takeover, the first military coup in the history of Syria, and possibly in the Arab world, would have lasting effects, as it shattered the country's fragile and flawed democratic rule, and set off a series of increasingly violent military revolts. Two more would follow only in 1949.
While his rule was relatively mild, with no executions of political opponents and few arrests of dissenters, al-Za'im quickly made enemies. His secular policies and proposals for the emancipation of women through granting them the vote and suggesting they should give up the Islamic practice of veiling, created a stir among Muslim religious leaders (Women's suffrage was only achieved during the third civilian administration of Hashim al-Atassi, a staunch opponent of military rule). Raising taxes also aggrieved businessmen, and Arab nationalists were still smouldering over his signing of a cease-fire with Israel, as well as his deals with US oil companies for building the Trans-Arabian Pipeline.
Lacking popular support, al-Za'im was overthrown after just four and a half months by his colleagues, al-Shishakli and al-Hinnawi. As al-Hinnawi took power as leader of a military junta, Husni al-Za'im was swiftly spirited away to Mezze prison in Damascus, and executed along with Prime Minister Muhsen al-Barazi.
| Preceded by Shukri al-Kuwatli |
President of Syria 1949(3 months) |
Succeeded by Hashim al-Atassi (military rule) |
