Abdel Hamid al-Sarraj

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Abdel Hamid Sarraj
عبد الحميد السراج
Chairman of the Executive Council of the Northern Region of the United Arab Republic
In office
20 September 1960 – 16 August 1961
Prime MinisterGamal Abdel Nasser
Preceded byNur al-Din Kahala
Succeeded byMaamun al-Kuzbari
Personal details
BornSeptember 1925
French Syria
Died23 September 2013 (aged 87–88)
Cairo, Egypt
OccupationMinister of Interior (1958–1961)
Vice-president (1961)
Military service
RankColonel

Abdel Hamid Sarraj (

Arabic: عبد الحميد السراج, September 1925 – 23 September 2013) was a Syrian Army officer and politician. When the union between Egypt and Syria was declared, Sarraj, a staunch Arab nationalist and supporter of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, played a key role in the leadership of the Syrian region of the UAR. Due to the repression of the UAR towards the Syrian communists he was nicknamed Sultan Abdel Hamid referring to the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II.[1]

Early life

Sarraj (centre) with army comrades, Mohammad Attura (left) and Abdel Salam al-Ujyali (right), at the battlefront in Palestine, 1948

Sarraj was born in

Safad.[7]

Political career

He played a role in the 1949 coup that removed

Ba'ath.[6] In September 1957, he helped negotiate the landing of 4,000 Egyptian troops in Latakia as part of defence pact made between the two countries.[9]

Role in the United Arab Republic

Sarraj (right) with UAR President Gamal Abdel Nasser in Latakia, March 1959

When the union between Egypt and Syria was declared, Sarraj, a staunch supporter of Egyptian president

Awqaf on 1 January 1960.[11]

On 20 September 1960, he was appointed President of the Syrian Executive Council (SEC). Sarraj, at age 35, became the most powerful Syrian official in the UAR.

Arab nationalist who could "get things done." Pressure was exerted on Nasser to remove Sarraj from power, but he refused, feeling that there was no one more fit to run Syria on his behalf. Eventually, in August 1961, Nasser decided to appoint him vice president, relocating him to Cairo and thus heralding his downfall as Syria's de facto leader.[12]

On 18 September, when Nasser merged the two branches of the National Union, therefore depriving Sarraj of his position as Secretary-General of the Syrian branch and when Egyptian vice president Abdel Hakim Amer dismissed one of his closest associates, Sarraj submitted his resignation. The UAR's state minister, Abdel Qadir Hatem, was sent to mediate between Sarraj and Amer, but failed and the former began mobilizing his forces on 19–20 September. Realizing an operation against Nasser was unlikely to succeed, he agreed to meet Nasser and Amer in Cairo. Although Nasser condemned Sarraj for his ambition to be sole ruler of Syria, he replaced Amer as Minister of Syrian Affairs with Mahmoud Riad. Resuming his post as Syria's vice president, Sarraj also headed a ministerial committee for UAR administrative reform. However, he suddenly submitted a second resignation on 26 September and Nasser accepted it, sending Amer to replace him.[13]

Later life and death

Sarraj in 1960

On 28 September 1961, a coup by disaffected officers occurred in Syria, dissolving the UAR. Sarraj was arrested and jailed in the

Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP) attempted to assassinate Sarraj, prompting his flight to Egypt where he made amends with Nasser.[15] Sarraj lived in Cairo as a private citizen,[16] serving as a director of social security. In 2004 he was reportedly still living in Cairo.[15] However, former defence minister Mustafa Tlass had been lobbying the Syrian government for the return of Sarraj to Syria. According to al-Ahram Weekly, he was expected to return in late 2005.[14]

Sarraj did not return to Syria and died in Cairo on 23 September 2013. He had requested to be buried in Syria, but due to the unstable security condition of the country amid the civil war, he was buried in Cairo.[5]

Further reading

  • Wilford, Hugh (2013). America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East. Basic Books. p. 255.
    ISBN 9780465069828
    . Sarraj Syria Kurd.

References

Citations

  1. S2CID 154295870
    .
  2. ISBN 9780815630937
    .
  3. ^ Wilford, p. 255.
  4. ^ "حكاية رجل الرعب عبد الحميد السراج". asharqalarabi.org.uk (in Arabic). 10 October 2013. Archived from the original on 24 November 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  5. ^ a b c The Death of Abdul Hamid Sarraj, Vice President of Gamal Abdel Nasser Archived 28 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Elbashayer. 2013-09-25.
  6. ^ a b c d Podeh 1999, p. 126.
  7. ^ Nazzal 1978, p. 40.
  8. ISBN 978-1-86064-467-2
    .
  9. ^ Podeh 1999, p. 35.
  10. ^ Podeh 1999, p. 54.
  11. ^ Podeh 1999, p. 110.
  12. ^ Podeh 1999, pp. 128–129.
  13. ^ Podeh 1999, p. 147.
  14. ^ a b Moubayed, Sami. Soft de-Baathification in Syria Archived 27 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Al-Ahram Weekly. 18 May 2005.
  15. ^ a b Moubayed, p. 326.
  16. ^ "Syria: The Roots of Tyranny". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 27 August 2023.

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abdul Hamid Sarraj.
  • Nazzal, Nafez (1978), The Palestinian exodus from Galilee, 1948, Institute for Palestine Studies
  • Podeh, Elie (1999), The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise And Fall of the United Arab Republic, Sussex Academic Press,
    ISBN 1-84519-146-3
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