Nazim Al-Kudsi - Exile

Exile

President Kudsi clashed with the officers that had brought him to power and tried to marginalize their role in political affairs. He appointed Maarouf al-Dawalibi, a veteran of the People’s Party with declared anti-officer views, as Prime Minister. Bitter from his experience with the officers since the Shishakli era, Dawalibi began curbing their influence in all state affairs and centralizing matters in the hands of Kudsi and the government. On 28 March 1962, a coup d’etat took place in Syria, launched by Colonel Abd al-Karim al-Nehlawi. He arrested Kudsi and Dawalibi, accusing them of misusing their powers and persecuting the officers of the Syrian Army. A counter coup broke out on 2 April, headed by Chief of Staff Abd al-Karim Zahr al-Din, who ordered all troops to stand by President Kudsi. The army complied, releasing Kudsi from prison and restoring the dissolved Parliament. Kudsi refused to arrest or kill Nehlawi, but rather, curbed his power by appointing him military attaché to Indonesia—a purely ceremonial post. He then tried to appease the officers and the socialists by calling on Bashir al-Azma, a doctor who had been close to Nasser and who held office as Minister of Health under the UAR, to become Prime Minister in April 1962. His cabinet included members of the socialist Baath Party that was pro-Nasser. Kudsi and Azma dispatched Foreign Minister Adnan al-Azhari to Cairo to mend relations with the Egyptian President. When that failed, however, they filed a complaint to the Arab League, accusing him of wanting to destabilize Syria through interfering in its domestic affairs and calling on the army to rebel against the government. On 8 March 1963, however, another coup d’etat took place in Syria, launched by the Military Committee of the Baath Party. The officers who came to power pledged to restore the UAR and had Kudsi arrested. He was released after a while. He moved to Lebanon, Europe, and Jordan, where he lived in exile until he died in Jordan in February 1998.