Shukri al-Quwatli (1891-30 June 1967) was President of Syria from 17 August 1943 to 30 May 1949, succeeding Ata al-Ayyubi and preceding Husni al-Za'im, and from 6 September 1955 to 22 February 1958, succeeding Hashim al-Atassi and preceding Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Biography[]
Shukri al-Quwatli was born in 1891 in Damascus, Syria to a family of Arab merchants. He was imprisoned and tortured by the Ottoman Empire for his activism in Arab nationalism, and he moved to Egypt after France sentenced him to death for his activism in Mandatory Syria. He helped in financing the Great Syrian Revolt in 1925, and in 1943 he became President of Syria. al-Quwatli's activism led to the country becoming independent three years later, and he was re-elected in 1948 due to his success; however, Syria's defeat in the Arab-Israeli War led to his overthrow in a 1949 coup by Husni al-Za'im. In 1955, he returned to Syria from Egypt and won the presidential elections, and when the United States refused to give him aid, he aligned towards the Eastern Bloc and made a defensive pact with Gamal Abdel Nasser. In 1958, the two countries united as the United Arab Republic with Nasser as the ruler. However, he became disillusioned with it due to it becoming a police state, and he supported the 1961 Syrian coup d'etat. al-Quwatli was not allowed to finish his presidential term, and he died in exile in Lebanon in 1967.