Shukri al-Quwatli
Shukri al-Quwatli was president of Syria twice, and signed away his country's independence the second time. Born in Damascus in 1891 to a landowning family, he was educated in Istanbul for the Ottoman civil service and joined the Arab nationalist secret societies before the First World War. He was arrested and tortured by the Ottoman authorities and attempted suicide rather than name his associates. He served in Faisal's short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria, went into exile when France took the mandate in 1920, and was condemned to death in absentia for his part in the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925. He returned under an amnesty and led the National Bloc, the coalition of notables that negotiated with France, and was elected president in 1943. Independence came in 1946 after French artillery had shelled Damascus the previous year and British troops had intervened to stop it, and the last French soldier left on 17 April — the date Syria still marks. He committed Syria to the war in Palestine in 1948, and the defeat brought the army into politics: he was overthrown in March 1949 in the first of the coups that defined Syrian politics for two decades. He returned to the presidency in 1955. His last act was the one he is judged on. Facing communist influence and pressure from the army, he flew to Cairo in 1958 and handed the country to Nasser as the United Arab Republic, resigning his own office. It lasted three years. He died in Beirut in 1967.
- Lived: 1891 CE – 1967 CE
- Nationality: Syrian
- Roles: President of Syria (1943-1949, 1955-1958)
