Abd al-Hamid al-Sarradsch

Abd al-Hamid al-Sarradsch, around 1960

Abd al-Hamid as-Sarradsch ( Arabic عبد الحميد السراج, DMG ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd as-Sarrāǧ ; * September 1925 in Hama , Syria ; † September 22, 2013 in Cairo , Egypt ), also Abdel Hamid al-Saraj , was a Syrian army officer and politician .

As Chairman of the Executive Council of the Northern Territory of the United Arab Republic , he was de facto Prime Minister of Syria. He held this office from September 20, 1960 to August 16, 1961.

After studying at the Military Academy of Homs, he continued his education in Paris. In 1948 the staunch nationalist took part in the Arab-Israeli war .

al-Sarradsch (center) during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948

In 1955 he was appointed head of the Syrian Republic's military intelligence service . During the unification of Syria with Egypt, Abd al-Hamid al-Sarradsch held high positions as a follower of President Gamal Abdel Nasser . He shared a mutual antipathy with Abd al-Hakim Amr , Minister of Defense of the UAR. When he fired one of his employees, al-Sarradsch submitted his resignation. Nasser managed to settle the dispute. However, Nasser accepted another resignation from September 26, 1961.

Two days later there was a coup in Damascus and the VAR fell apart. al-Sarradsch was arrested and thrown in al-Mazzah prison in Damascus . He managed to flee in 1962 and go to Egypt.

According to the newspaper al-Ahram Weekly , the former Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas campaigned for Sarradsch's return to Syria in 2005.

He died on September 22, 2013 in Egypt, where he had lived in exile since 1962 .

Web links

Commons : Abdul Hamid Sarraj  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Supply state . In: Der Spiegel . No. 32 , 1966 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ Elie Podeh: The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise And Fall of the United Arab Republic. Sussex Academic Press, 1999, p. 147
3. ↑ Al-Ahram Weekly ( Memento from July 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ عبد الحميد السراج .. مؤسس الحل الأمني… ورجل الرعب والأسيد (Arabic) ( Memento from September 24, 2013 in the archive.today web archive )