Political/military Career
The Arab defeat in that war was a motivating factor for the military coup of Husni al-Za'im which had taken place soon after in 1949, shattering Syria's weak parliamentary system. Only months after al-Za'im's takeover, he was overthrown by a group of officers connected to the SSNP, including Shishakli and Zaim's old comrade Colonel Sami al-Hinnawi, who led the new military junta.
Za'im had previously delivered the SSNP leader Antun Saadeh to the Lebanese authorities who had him tried and executed for wanting to destroy the modern state of Lebanon. Reportedly, after Za'm was killed, Shishakli ripped off Za'im's bloodstained shirt and took it to Saadeh's widow, who was still in Syria, telling her, "We have avenged his murder!".
Shishakli worked with Sami al-Hinnawi, the new de facto ruler of Syria who refused to assume power on his own and restored Syria's parliamentary system. Hinnawi became chief-of-staff of the Syrian Army and a veteran nationalist, Hashem al-Atassi, who had been president in the 1930s, to become prime minister, and then president of Syria. Atassi wanted to create union with Hashemite Iraq, something which Shishakli greatly opposed, claiming that Hinnawi was the drive behind pro-Hashemite sentiment in Syria.
Read more about this topic: Adib Shishakli
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