Khalid al-Azm

Khalid al-Azm was a Syrian politician and five-time interim Prime Minister, as well as Acting President from 4 April to 16 September 1941. He was a member of one of the most prominent political families in Syria, al-Azm, and the son of an Ottoman minister of religious affairs. He graduated from the University of Damascus in 1923 with a degree in law, and joined the city government in 1925. At this time he also actively ran his family's estates throughout the country. In the 1930s, he became close associates with leading members of the anti-French National Bloc coalition such as future presidents Hashim al-Atassi and Shukri al-Kuwatli. He remained a longtime supporter of the former, but often quarreled with the latter, whom he accused of being too authoritarian. In 1941 the French appointed him Prime Minister and Acting President, having had no success in finding a viable candidate since the resignation of the nationalist Atassi in 1939. However he was replaced 5 months later with a French loyalist, Taj al-Din al-Hasani. Azm served repeatedly in parliament and in the cabinet from 1943 to 1947. He became a focus of opposition when he resigned from the cabinet in 1945 and lead the forces opposed to Kuwatli's drive to amend the constitution to allow himself a second term in office. Kuwatli prevailed, and Azm ran against him in 1947 and lost. However he accepted the position of envoy to France and served in that capacity for a year. He concluded successful arms purchases from France and later from the Soviet Union. In May 1948, Azm agreed to form a multi-party cabinet under Kuwatli which served until March 1949. He allied himself with France and the United States and attempted to obtain loans from them for domestic development. He traveled frequently to attend United Nations assemblies on the Palestinian problem. He also admitted in his memoirs that the Arab governments encouraged the Palestinian refugees to leave their homes in 1948. He served as Prime Minister again from 1949 to 1950 and from 1951 to 1951 under President Hashim al-Atassi. He was briefly arrested after the 1954 coup that restored Kuwatli to power, but was released and retired from politics. He returned to the political scene in 1962, when he was appointed Prime Minister by President Nazim al-Kudsi. He tried to implement a series of economic and administrative reforms, but faced strong opposition from the Ba'ath Party and the military. He resigned in March 1963, after the Ba'athist coup that ousted Kudsi. He fled to Lebanon, where he died of a heart attack in 1965. He left behind his memoirs, which are considered an important source of Syrian history.