Faris al-Churi

Faris al-Churi

Faris al-Churi ( Arabic فارس الخوري, DMG Fāris al-Ḫūrī , also Farès al-Khoury ; * 1877 in al-Kufair, Hasbaya district ; † January 2, 1962 in Damascus , Syrian Republic ) was a Syrian - Christian statesman, minister, prime minister and speaker of parliament. He is considered to be the founding father of Syria.

Early years

Faris al-Churi was born in the village of al-Kufair in what was then Ottoman Lebanon into a Greek Orthodox family who later converted to Presbyterianism . Faris studied at the American University of Beirut , then called the Syrian Protestant College . Syrian Protestant College. He began his career as an instructor at the AUB and became involved in the anti-Ottoman al-Fatat movement after it was founded in Paris in 1911 . Churi became a MP in 1908, representing the Christian population of Damascus in the Ottoman Parliament. In 1916, Churi joined the Arab resistance and promised to support the Arab revolt initiated by Sherif Hussein in Mecca . His ties with Hussein led to his arrest and trial by a military tribunal in Aley . After King Faisal's arrival and the liberation of Syria as a kingdom , Churi swore allegiance to him on behalf of the Syrian people. On September 18, 1918, Churi formed a Provisional Government from a group of nobles in Damascus, headed by Prince Sa'id al-Jaza'iri.

Churi then became finance minister in Prime Minister Ali Rida ar-Rikabi's new cabinet . His post was established by Prime Minister Hashim al-Atassi in May 1920. He held this post until King Faisal was dethroned and French colonial forces established their mandate over Syria in July 1920 . Churi formed the basis of the Syrian Ministry of Finance, created its infrastructure, distributed its administrative duties, formulated its laws and enacted its personnel. In 1923, along with a group of educational veterans, he helped found the University of Damascus State and translated its entire curriculum from Ottoman Turkish into Arabic.

Political career

In 1925, Churi founded the People's Party in Syria together with Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar , of which he became deputy chairman. In the same year he was arrested by the French mandate for proclaiming the Great Syrian Revolution and transferred to the fortress on the island of Aruad , which France had converted into a prison. As Minister of Education from April to July 1926 he was elected to the Syrian Constituent Assembly in 1928, and re-elected to the Syrian Parliament in 1932 in 1936; until 1939 he was speaker of parliament. In 1936 he was a member of the Syrian delegation that negotiated the Franco-Syrian Treaty in Paris. He was re-elected to parliament in 1943 and remained President of Parliament until 1944.

Churi became Prime Minister on October 14, 1944, which he remained until October 1, 1945. After that he was again president of parliament in 1947 until the military coup of Husni az-Za'im in August 1949. After free elections in 1954 , Churi was again prime minister from October 25, 1954 to February 13, 1955, and his pro-Western government was overthrown by parliament because she is against the union with Egypt .

As a founding member of the UN

Faris Churi was the first Syrian statesman to visit the United States . He represented his country as one of the 53 founding members in 1945 at the inauguration of the United Nations . As the head of the Syrian delegation in San Francisco , Churi's exuberant rhetoric and acumen made a strong impression on world leaders. After Churi's eloquent speech, a US diplomat commented, "It is impossible for a country with men like this to be conquered!" A crucial story here was when Churi took France's seat instead of Syria's seat at the UN assembly . After a few minutes, the French representative to the United Nations approached Faris and asked him to leave his seat. Faris ignored the Frenchman and checked his watch. Several minutes later, the Frenchman furiously asked Faris to step aside immediately, but Faris only looked at his watch. After 25 minutes in the French seat, Faris left the chair and told the French representative, “You couldn't stand watching me sit in your chair for just 25 minutes, your country has occupied mine for more than 25 years, the time is for the withdrawal of your troops did not come? ”It should be noted that the process for Syria's independence began at this UN meeting.

death

In old age, Faris Churi spent time with his wife, child and three grandchildren. He continued his travels and participated in annual legal conventions in Switzerland until he broke his leg, forcing him to stay at home for the last two years of his life. On January 2, 1962, the former Prime Minister died in Damascus at the age of 85 and ended a career spanning more than 50 years in Syria's political sphere. He received presidential honors at his funeral as one of the "forefathers" of the Syrian republic, unlike any prime minister before or after him. As a symbol of his own death, Muslim community leaders were allowed to recite the Koran at his funeral ceremony . Suheil al-Churi accepted this rare act to emphasize his father's secularity and to show how close he was to both Muslims and Christians .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar. In: answers.com. Retrieved March 11, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from December 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Samy Moubayed: Good Christians, and Orientalists to the Bone. In: The Washington Post. December 24, 2007, accessed March 11, 2013 . 
4. ^ The story of Asma and Faris. (No longer available online.) In: Forward Magazine. February 2009, archived from the original on February 19, 2012 ; Retrieved March 11, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.