Year 1960 - Part 14: President Nasser as Homad's Dinner Guest in Aleppo

Sunday the 18th

Vice President of the Republic's Decision No. 345, dated 18 December 1960, was issued, appointing Abdul Hadi Abbas Director General of the Agrarian Reform Authority, effective 1 January 1961.

I was truly delighted at this excellent choice. Abdul Hadi was one of our own brilliant students at the Faculty of Law, a distinguished Baathist, and a colleague of ours in the Chamber of Deputies for the Masyaf region.

He is known for his own integrity, the soundness of his national convictions, and his mastery of the law, which he practices as a lawyer of fine reputation.

His acceptance of this post is considered a confirmation of his own break with party allegiance, and a reflection of his genuinely national sentiments.

Saturday the 24th

Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer, Vice President of the Republic, issued Decision No. 349, dated 24 December 1960, providing for a new distribution of the development budget, made necessary by the region's own needs.

Its first article read as follows:

The previous distribution is repealed, and the following distribution of funds is adopted instead:

5 million lira for the Ministry of Education

7 million lira for the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs

3 million for the Ministry of Agrarian Reform, for housing

5 million for public services, to be spent by decision of the Executive Council.

This distribution was reached by agreement between the Ministry of the Treasury and the ministries concerned.

Saturday the 24th

I visited Abdul Hamid al-Sarraj at his office today, to congratulate him on taking up his new post as chairman of the Executive Council (the premiership).

We discussed the region's own general situation, and what needed to be done to advance it economically and socially.

But the formidable obstacle breaking our own backs remains the weak financial resources battering our public treasury, especially as merchants persist in smuggling their money abroad, fearing some harm might befall it.

I would like to praise al-Sarraj's own graciousness in receiving me and in our conversation. I found myself wondering, looking into his own gentle eyes, which rarely rise to meet the face of whoever he is speaking with except in fleeting glances, whether this was truly the "butcher" whose heart, they say, knows no path to mercy.[1]

My own sense is that he will clash with the military ministers, who dislike him and whom he dislikes in turn, ever since they stood as rival factions within the army.

We had, the evening before, attended a dinner at the home of the Indian ambassador, who had become the Republic of India's own consul general, once the embassies were moved to the capital, Cairo. After dinner, we sat in the drawing room for coffee, and Taama al-Awdallah, seated on the sofa beside me, rose to greet one of the guests, and his own service pistol fell from his back pocket. The ambassador saw it, and his face darkened, visibly displeased.

I once visited another military minister, who received me with his own pistol lying right in front of him on his desk, seeing no need to put it away in a drawer. When I remarked to him that this was hardly customary in civilian life, he said: I fear someone might take me by surprise, and I must always be ready to defend myself.

The First Session of the Executive Council Under al-Sarraj's Chairmanship

The Council of Ministers was summoned to a session, held for the first time under the chairmanship of the new council head, Abdul Hamid al-Sarraj, at the Government Palace.

The council's chairman opened the session with a gracious address, saying he wished to be nothing more than a mere secretary or messenger, his own role limited to conveying the council's decisions to the President of the Republic.

I took the floor, as the senior minister in protocol order, and extended congratulations to him on behalf of the council, expressing my own hope that sincere cooperation would guide us all. I added that we lived under a presidential system, and that each of us was responsible for the affairs of his own ministry, exactly as the President of the Republic had said at his very first meeting with the government, following the Union's establishment.

But al-Sarraj remarked that we were likewise responsible for the state's own general policy, and that it fell to us to help President Abdel Nasser bear the heavy burdens resting on his shoulders, since he placed his trust in us and in the soundness of our own convictions. He affirmed that he attached the greatest importance to our own region's progress, and that it fell to us to lend him our support, so that we might ease some of his ever-growing burdens, both at home and abroad.

Tuesday the 27th

This day is a "historic" one for the people of Aleppo.

For on this day, Republican Decision No. 1556 was issued, appointing Mr. Tawfiq al-Munajjed, deputy head of Damascus University, as director of Aleppo University, and with this, this long-awaited institution, whose birth we had watched for decades, had completed its own founding.

I am truly delighted at this decision, though I sense that Mr. al-Munajjed is not quite the strong figure capable of standing up to his own minister, Amjad al-Tarabulsi, in his effort to advance this fledgling university, since al-Tarabulsi was never in favor of establishing the university to begin with, and had it forced upon him. Even so, we will lend him our support, both in funding and in backing.

Wednesday, 5 October: The President's Return from America

The ministers were summoned to travel to Cairo, to be present for the President's reception on his return from the United States.

The reports were unanimous that the address he gave at the UN General Assembly caused a worldwide stir, for its own balance and moderation, and for the fine way it presented the Arab region's own situation, and explained the Republic's foreign policy.

Strangely enough, the Western powers insist on speaking only of a "Middle Eastern region," never an Arab world, so as to fold Israel into it. Stranger still, a number of Arab writers and journalists have swallowed this bait themselves, and taken to speaking of "the Middle East," which is, in truth, simply the Arab world.

In this respectful atmosphere, so favorable to the Arab nation's own reputation, one that had crystallized in the wake of Abdel Nasser's own address, King Hussein bin Talal found the moment right to remind people of his own presence, and to spoil the Republic's own joy and celebration, delivering an address attacking the Arab Republic and the Soviet Union alike, for no reasonable cause at all, unless it was to please America, which had built its own policy in our region around making it one link in a chain encircling the Soviet state.

The Republic confirmed that the Syrian pilot, Lieutenant Adnan al-Madani, had died while being "interrogated" by Jordanian "investigators."

May God have mercy on him, he had made a forced landing with his plane on Jordanian territory, and the Jordanians tried to exploit him against the Republic, wanting him to say, for instance, that he had fled the poor conditions there, or out of hatred for the Union. But he refused to betray his own conscience to save himself, and died under torture instead.

May God have mercy on him.

How ugly the state the Arab nation flounders in.

I was unable to travel to Cairo with the other ministers, held back by official commitments I could not postpone.

I asked al-Sarraj to convey my own greetings to President Abdel Nasser.

Thursday the 13th

Abdul Hamid al-Sarraj telephoned me, and told me that President Abdel Nasser would arrive at the port of Latakia tomorrow, at three in the afternoon, aboard the presidential yacht, and stressed that the matter be kept in the strictest confidence, since a Jewish submarine had trailed him on his previous voyages.

I told my wife I would be traveling on urgent business, and that I would call her to let her know where I would be spending the night, without telling her the reason.

Mr. Wajih al-Samman, Minister of Industry, rode with me in my own car.

Mr. al-Samman is passionate about Arabic poetry, and has a real gift for remembering and telling a good joke, despite being a graduate of the prestigious "École Centrale" in Paris.

We laughed a great deal along the way when we picked up a copy of the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram, and read in it that "President Nasser will make his way to Latakia tomorrow aboard the yacht al-Hurriya (Freedom)."

This very yacht had once belonged to King Farouk, and had carried him on his final voyage to Italy, the day he was cast out of Egypt, deposed, only to return again as "the Pasha's" own yacht.

In Farouk's own time, it had been forbidden for a foot to tread its own gangway, unless it belonged to one of the staff who worked to please him, alongside "Pulli the Greek," director of his own private affairs.

Friday the 14th

We went out to the port in the afternoon, to receive the President and his own party.

An hour later, "al-Hurriya" dropped anchor in the harbor.

The President was received with a twenty-one-gun salute. His three deputies came ashore with him, Abdel Latif Boghdadi, Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer, and Nour al-Din Kahhaleh, "as though he were the sun among planets."

Accompanying them were Kamal El-Din Hussein, chairman of the Egyptian Executive Council, Zakaria Mohieddine (central Minister of Interior), Ali Sabri (Minister of Presidential Affairs), and a number of aides. Zakaria Mohieddine is, in effect, Egypt's own Abdul Hamid al-Sarraj.

Calm, given to silence, a man of action rather than words, he is a cousin of Khaled Mohieddine, though the two disagree sharply on matters of government, Khaled belonging to the cavalry corps, a democrat with leanings close to communism, while Zakaria is an aristocrat, rightist in outlook and forceful in manner.

Khaled wrote of him:

"He is a balanced, calm, orderly man, whether in his private life or his public one. He is precisely the model of a successful security man. Zakaria takes no position and expresses no opinion until he has gathered information and data from every relevant quarter.

He is a competent and honest man, showing favoritism to no one, though he clashed with Abdel Nasser once he became chairman of the Council of Ministers, since he favors private enterprise (that is, stands against socialism) and holds the view that the middle class is the most important element in society, the one most capable of building it.

At first he was against democracy, but he later changed his mind and came to believe in it. He knows nothing of favoritism and will not tolerate it, and if he gives his word, he keeps it, whatever the cost."[2]

The President reviewed an honor guard made up of naval personnel, in their dazzling white uniforms, and we walked in his own procession to the Officers' Club, passing, on the way, through countless numbers of men and women crowding both sides of the road.

From the club's own balcony, the President greeted the packed crowds and delivered a fiery address, defending the principle of Arab nationalism, calling it the ultimate destiny and the lifeline of the Arab nation, attacking the colonialists and the Zionists, and singling out Hussein "the illegitimate" for a scathing attack, branding him a hired king, a scion of treachery, placing himself at the service of the Zionists so that they might, in their own generosity, allow him to keep his throne.

After the address, we returned to the hall.

There, he drew me aside, and told me he wished to freeze the hundred million lira we had borrowed from the Syrian Central Bank, which we were meant to repay in installments, folding it instead into the category of frozen public debt, until such time as our finances allowed.

It was clear he was not entirely familiar with this matter.

I extended an invitation to him and his own party to dine at my table in Aleppo, which he accepted with thanks.

Saturday the 15th: The President as My Guest

I telephoned my brother in Aleppo from Latakia, asking him to arrange with the Aleppo Club to hold a dinner for the President and his party, and for a hundred guests, that very evening.

In the morning, we left this splendid port, bride of the azure sea, by plane for Aleppo, my own city, the pasture of my own affections, my birthplace, and the resting place of my own fathers and forefathers.

At its airport, I caught sight, among the crowds gathered to receive us, of Rushdi al-Kikhya and Dr. Nazim al-Qudsi. I made my way to them and greeted them with warmth and respect. I told them I had arranged with the President to receive them in a private session. Al-Kikhya said: if the President wishes to meet us, we will await his invitation. I found this remark strange, and told him: the President receives only those who ask to meet him. Rushdi, with his own sharp wit, quickly realized he had spoken too hastily, and, wishing to cover his own slip of the tongue, said: since you have already spoken on our behalf in requesting the meeting, we would be delighted to make our way to his office whenever he sets a time for us.

I had wished the President to receive these two great Aleppan leaders, first for their own standing in the city, and to dispel the "chill" the Baathists had spread around them before their own resignation, slandering them with accusations of leaning toward the Baghdad Pact, second, and third, because I know them both to be honorable men, believers in the Union and in Arab nationalism, and it serves the new regime's own interest to count them among its supporters.

The meeting was set for eight that evening.

Both men were delighted with the meeting, for the President was most gracious with them, speaking with them at ease, and in this way we managed to dispel the coolness that had grown between them and the state, owing to the intelligence services' own reports.

Al-Sarraj was not entirely comfortable with this meeting, though he said nothing, finding himself presented with a fait accompli, since I had simply informed him of the meeting rather than consulting him on it.

The dinner was attended by the President, his two deputies, Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer and Nour al-Din Kahhaleh, Abdul Hamid al-Sarraj, chairman of the Executive Council, and the ministers, Lieutenant General Jamal al-Faisal, commander of the (Syrian) First Army, the governor of Aleppo, the President's own aide, General Rashad Hassan (Egyptian), and some senior officers, the commander of the Aleppo garrison, senior provincial officials, the city's own deputies, members of the National Union's Executive Council, and thirteen journalists, Egyptian and Syrian alike.

I had wished to invite men of the former political parties as well, to win their own hearts and turn the reception into what would look like a demonstration of support for the country's president. But al-Sarraj objected to widening the guest list, saying the President wished it kept small, limited to his own escort, the ministers, senior officials, members of the National Union, and the press.

Ninety-two guests attended the reception, none from outside the official "circle" except Hajj Sami Sayem al-Dahr, since he had placed his own palace at the President's disposal for his stay, and Mr. Pierre Mamarbachi, president of the club.

The dinner reception was a model of organization. The club's president brought in a musical ensemble, to play the Republic's own anthem and delight the guests' ears with gentle Arabic music, and prepared for us a delicious spread of Aleppan food, which I record here, so that people may remember what the people of this hospitable city serve their guests:

Kibbeh with yogurt.

Grilled meat, overseen by the President's own chef, who knew what "the Boss" liked to eat.

Mixed vegetables with lamb.

Rice with lamb and yogurt.

Sweets: "the lady's purse" pastry and cake made by the club itself.

Mixed fruit and bitter coffee.

The President was lavish in his own thanks for this lovely evening, and I received the guests' own praise in turn. I made my way to the club's own president, to express my sincerest gratitude to him.

Mr. Pierre is a loyal friend, known among merchants for his own honesty and integrity, and for keeping his word in his own business dealings.

He is considered one of the greatest farmers to have brought the lands of the Jazira back to life, digging its own canals, and establishing his famous farm "Umm al-Manajir," planting four million poplar trees along its own irrigation channels.

It all ended in nationalization, and corrupt hands played havoc with it, cutting down its poplars while still young, and leaving its land to waste.

Its own owner declared bankruptcy, and died in a state of misery he never deserved, for he had refused to back out of a business deal that hastened his own ruin. It is well known of the Aleppo merchant that he never goes back on his own word once given in a business deal, however damaging the consequences may prove for him, since he holds to no such proverb as others invoke: "a thousand reversals rather than one defeat."

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Endnotes:

[1] A Damascene journalist, a member of the Syrian Nationalist Party, published a book about al-Sarraj titled "The Red Sultan," printed in London in 1991 by Arados Publishing, attacking al-Sarraj and the Union, and sparing not even me from his own criticism either (p. 157).

[2] In his referenced book, "Now I Speak," p. 334.