Lu'ay al-Atassi

Lu'ay al-Atassi was a senior commander in the Syrian Army and later the President of Syria between 9 March and 27 July 1963. He was born in Homs in 1926 to the politically prominent al-Atassi clan. He entered the officer corps after graduating from the Homs Military Academy in the mid-1940s, and fought during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War in Palestine. In 1954, President Hashim al-Atassi appointed him Chief of Military Protocol. He was transferred to Egypt, where he served as the assistant military attache in Cairo's Syrian embassy in 1956. There, he became a supporter of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and his pan-Arabist policies. Atassi was among the Syrian officers who lobbied for unity with Egypt, which was realized in February 1958 with the formation of the United Arab Republic (UAR). Atassi criticized Syria's secession from the union in September 1961 after a military coup. In April 1962, he participated in a failed coup attempt against the secessionist government. He was arrested and jailed in Damascus's Mezzeh Prison. On 8 March 1963, a coalition of Arab nationalist officers organized by the Military Committee of the Ba'ath Party launched a military coup, toppling the secessionist government of Nazim al-Qudsi. The officers immediately freed Atassi and appointed him to the National Council for the Revolutionary Command, the effective interim government of the country, and made him president on 23 March. Atassi was a politically independent Arab nationalist and was made Chief-of Staff after the coup. From the Committee's standpoint, Atassi was ideal for the position because he lacked a support base and thus posed no threat to the junta's supremacy. However, he soon clashed with the Committee over the extent of its powers and the direction of the revolution. He opposed the Committee's decision to execute former Prime Minister Khalid al-Azm and other prominent politicians, and to dissolve the Syrian Communist Party. He also resisted the Committee's attempts to impose a Ba'athist ideology on the country, and advocated for a return to civilian rule and a restoration of the 1950 constitution. He resigned from his post on 27 July 1963, after a failed coup attempt by some of his loyalists. He was succeeded by his deputy, Amin al-Hafiz. Atassi lived in retirement and obscurity until his death in 2003. He was buried in Damascus with full military honors.