Symbols and State Leaders of Syria (1) Shukri Al-Quwatli

President Shukri al-Quwatli (Abu al-Jalaa)

• Shukri al-Quwatli was born in the Shaghour neighborhood of Damascus in 1891 and died in 1967. The origin of their family name, “Quwatli,” is attributed to their physically robust stature.
• His father, Mahmoud al-Quwatli, was a notable figure in Damascus, and his mother, Najia Muhammad Atta al-Maqdisi, belonged to a well-established Damascus family tracing their lineage to the Prophet Muhammad. He married Ms. Bahira al-Dalati in 1928, with whom he had six children; their eldest, Haitham, died in childhood, while the others were Hassan, Mahmoud, Huda, Hanaa, and Hala.
• He studied the Holy Quran in Damascus and learned French at the “Lazarist Fathers” school in the Bab Tuma area, graduating from Anbar School located behind the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.
• In 1908, he traveled to Istanbul and graduated in 1913 with a higher degree in Political and Administrative Sciences from the prestigious “Royal Shahani Institute” of the Ottoman capital.
• Upon returning to Damascus, he initially worked for the Ottoman governor but soon joined the “Young Arab Society,” opposing the Unionist movement that had taken over the Ottoman Sultanate.
• He pledged allegiance to Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the leader of the Great Arab Revolt. Due to his activities, he was imprisoned by Jamal Pasha, the Ottoman military governor of Syria, until the fall of Ottoman rule at the end of September 1918 following World War I.
• He was appointed Director of Telegraphs and Post in the Damascus province under Prince Faisal bin Hussein’s government.
• He joined the “Arab Independence Party,” advocating for the liberation of the Arab nation from foreign occupation.
• After France’s occupation of Syria, al-Quwatli fled to Egypt as a political refugee at the invitation of King Ahmed Fouad I, due to a death sentence issued against him by the French High Commissioner.
• He helped establish the “Syrian-Palestinian Congress” in Geneva, the first political organization formed in exile to unite Arab nationalists against French mandate, split into a faction supporting the Saudis, led by al-Quwatli, and another supporting the Hashemites.
• Al-Quwatli supported the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, sending advisors, some of whom became foreign ministers in Saudi Arabia.
• In 1924, he returned to Damascus following a French amnesty.
• He participated in the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925, went to Sweida, and was involved in the meeting nominating Sultan Pasha al-Atrash as the general leader of the revolt.
• He sold his properties in Eastern Ghouta and used the proceeds to buy arms for the rebels and paid monthly salaries to Syrian revolutionaries (two gold liras each).
• After being captured by the French, he was exiled and left Syria following a death sentence and the destruction of his family home in the Shaghour neighborhood, only to return after a general amnesty in 1926 that included him and his nationalist comrades.
• Elected a member of the “National Bloc” after the failure of the Great Syrian Revolt, which dictated the political and legal, but not military, line of action.
• He co-founded a cannery in 1932 to fund the “National Bloc’s” activities, becoming a prominent Syrian national landmark until it was nationalized in 1965 at the beginning of the Ba’ath Party’s socialist era.
• He played an active role in the “Sixtieth Strike” following clashes between police and mourners at Ibrahim Hanano’s funeral, one of the “National Bloc’s” leaders in 1935, which led to the closure of the National Bloc’s office in Damascus and al-Quwatli’s house arrest.
• After the strike ended, the French signed a 25-year treaty, gradually granting Syria its independence. President Mohammad Ali al-Abid resigned and called for early parliamentary and presidential elections in 1936, in which al-Quwatli won a parliamentary seat representing Damascus and was appointed Minister of Defense and Finance in Jamil Mardam Bey’s government, after Hashim al-Atassi won the presidency.
• After a dispute with Prime Minister Khalil Mardam Bey, al-Quwatli resigned in 1938.
• After World War II and the Allied victory over Germany, the “National Bloc” won the 1943 parliamentary elections and nominated al-Quwatli for the presidency, where he won and took the presidential oath under the dome of the Syrian Parliament, becoming the fourth president in modern Syrian history.
• His presidency was marked by intense efforts to finalize independence from France, culminating in Syria’s invitation to join the United Nations in 1945, with Faris al-Khoury leading the Syrian founding delegation.
• In the same year, a Syrian-Lebanese summit in the Lebanese region of Chtaura agreed to freeze negotiations with France and demanded a clear timeline for the withdrawal of their forces, leading to a French military intervention and an attack on Damascus, including the parliament and Damascus Citadel, as well as burning several areas in Damascus. Al-Quwatli and his companions were branded enemies of the French Republic.
• Al-Quwatli’s national and historical stances and diplomatic movements led to British intervention to cease fire. On August 1, 1945, he declared a national holiday for the establishment of the Syrian Army, and on April 17, 1946, he celebrated Syria’s first Evacuation Day with wide Arab participation.
• In 1947, his presidential term was extended for a second time after obtaining a parliamentary majority that allowed for a constitutional amendment, previously limiting the presidency to one four-year term.
• On March 30, 1949, Husni al-Za’im’s coup occurred, resulting in al-Quwatli’s arrest along with his prime minister, leading to his resignation. He was subsequently released, with his and his sons’ properties confiscated, before being exiled to Switzerland and then staying as a guest of King Farouk I in Egypt.
• Al-Quwatli returned to Syria in 1954 after Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rise to power in Egypt and Hashim al-Atassi’s presidency in Syria, and the reactivation of the Syrian constitution.
• He was elected president of Syria again in 1955, shifting towards the socialist camp, which strained relations with the Americans and Turks who considered him a supporter of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
• In February 1958, al-Quwatli signed the “Syrian-Egyptian Unity Charter” following approval by the Syrian Parliament, and relinquished the presidency of the United Arab Republic in favor of “Gamal Abdel Nasser,” who described al-Quwatli as “the first Arab citizen.”
• Nasser’s policies, particularly on nationalization, led to expanding disagreements between him and al-Quwatli, prompting al-Quwatli to support the 1961 separation from Egypt from Switzerland, where he was receiving medical treatment, through a televised speech broadcast by Syrian television, continuing the rift between him and Nasser until the 1967 Six-Day War.
• Al-Quwatli declined an invitation to return to the Syrian presidency, choosing to retire from public life.
• On June 30, 1967, Shukri al-Quwatli passed away in Beirut at the age of 75, upon hearing the news of the Golan Heights falling into Israeli hands. His body was returned to Damascus draped in the Syrian flag by King Faisal bin Abdulaziz, with Damascus turning out for his funeral. He was prayed over in the Umayyad Mosque and buried in the family graves at the “Bab Saghir” cemetery in Damascus.

At the Syrian Future Current, as we recall the memory of Evacuation and Independence in April, we evoke one of the independence men and one of the first symbols of the Syrian state, President Shukri al-Quwatli, in a series we present to you encompassing the symbols and state leaders of Syria, aiming to connect our contemporary revolutionary present with a solid past and historic milestones, in the hope of reviving in our people the need to build and craft distinguished state men, to preserve the nation, safeguard achievements, and restore the glory and honor of the Syrian state after years of injustice, tyranny, and corruption.