Today the 22nd of February marks the 50th anniversary of the Union between Egypt and Syria , this short union that lasted only from 1958 to 1960 and produced : The United Arab Republic. Today both President Nasser of Egypt and President Shukri Al-Quwatli of Syria signed the union agreement to announce the union from 50 years ago
Short union , short experience ,Short dream , call it as you like . Strangely I thought there would be celebration more discussion about this important experience in our modern Arabic history from all fields : The political, the military,the cultural and the social, but there is none I could not find anything in the newspapers today Friday , may be tomorrow the Arab nationalist Nasserite theme newspapers will celebrate it. Officially as you know our relation with dear Sister Syria is not as before because we are with the Americans and they are with the Iranians.
The Union with Syria in one state is not a bad idea on the contrary it is a great one , In our golden time whether in Ancient Egypt or in modern Egypt ,Syria was under our control and here heaven forbids I do not mean invasion or occupation on the contrary if you check the Egyptian Ancient history you will find that several queens were from Syrian origins , here I am speaking about strategic importance, the great Egyptian warrior in Ancient history Ramses III knew that and Ibrahim Pasha knew that and of course we should not forget that the later had said that :
The Egyptian borders start from the mountains of Tartus
Syria is our strategic depth in the North in Asia just like Sudan is our strategic depth in the South , Libya in the west and Jordan in the East . This is a natural thing and can not be disputed.
If we spoke about the Union experience in 1950s , we must put in our minds a very important historical fact many countries did not and do not want this kind of union to be repeated above them Israel and countries in the west and the Mideast worked so hard to destroy this union and they were mainly Jordan of King Hussein and Israel.
Many people think that the union in 1958 was a political fiasco and it brought nothing except disasters on both countries just because it was during the Nasserite era and it was between Two Arab countries ..etc by the way these sorts of judgements exist in both countries , well things can't be measured simply like this again as I said concerning King Farouk mania , history can't be judged from one angel , in studying any historical event especially a political one with huge impact like the union decision you must study the international political scene , the internal political scenes very well in both countries , the persons who played roles in this union , what their motives were ,also you must know what happened after and before the union, you should look to the union from the eyes of those lived it before looking to it through your 2008 eyes .
The Union itself is great but who implemented from both countries were not responsible enough to understand how huge and big what they were doing . I will not overestimate to say that both the Free Officers in Egypt and the different parties in Syria that looked forward to the Union "I guess they were the conflicted communist and Baath parties" were looking for other gains concerning power and domination then gains concerning the huge strategic alliance and how great it would be for the two countries to be one strong country.
From a political point of view and from reading history I doubted that this union would have last than 3 years due to the huge political differences between both countries then ,if you want to make union between two countries at least try to make them parallel in the political systems before announcing the union. The union may have lasted for a while if Nasser accepted the federal option but he insisted on the complete union ,it is impossible to turn multi-parties system country in to one party system in a day and a night , Nasser had to put his hands in both the Communists and MB in Syria in the same time he was putting their brothers in jails in Egypt ,Nasser was suppressing freedom in Egypt where as in Syria press was still having freedom, of course I do not need to speak about the economic system in Egypt , yes we did not reach yet year 1960 with the nationalization and ownership laws that broke the last straw in the union still you must know that Syria was then a free economy with an elite class of traders that were looking forward to the markets of Egypt.
As you see it is so complicated , Egypt was one under the rule of a group of military guys who were against democracy and parties and said it frankly in 1954, the country began to become a totalitarian dictatorship , on the other hand Syria every couple of years had a coup ,faces changed so much since the independence on France from Civilians to military from military to Civilians , there were active parties who had nothing in their heads except how to reach to the rule whether from the communists or the Baath or from the MB.
Nasser popularity and the Pan Arabism he represented was the main factor that made not only the Syrian people but the whole Arab people fall in love with him especially after the Suez war , his speeches had the greatest echo in the Arabic street, so the Syrian people welcomed so much Nasser and Egypt , I remember that once I watched an interview with an Old Syrian journalist who described the Syrians feelings towards the Union as unbelievable ,union with Egypt , Egypt of Said Darwish , Ahmed Shakwy , it was like being married to the Sultan daughter , till now I remember the expression , till now Nasser is very popular in the Syrian street even more than the Egyptian.
Unfortnately Nasser did not bring only Darwish,OM Kalthoum and Shakwy with him to Syria , he brought his police state and the false idol worship ,some Syrians blame us that we brought to them dictatorship "as if we really love it " I am sorry for that but we suffered from the same disease for a long time till now.
But on the other hand Nasser was not the only villain , the Syrian parties in the scene were not that innocent I once heard Nasser in a televised speech that the Baath party had a hand in the separation due to their sectarian division policies in the army . I do not know about the accuracy of this , but it seems that the Baath Party and its sectarian division policies were there from a long time.
Again may be Nasser was a dictator seeking for more power , may be the Syrian parties were searching for a way to rule yet we should not forget the international scene and neighbour countries , already to be honest I found it very strange to have a complete union with Syria and between us three countries "Lebanon, Palestine/Israel and Jordan" may be a federation would have worked then , but a complete political union !!??
This is not the end of our talk , the jubilee of this union should not be that silent , we should discuss logically because now it is perfect time to do so as a young generation , in the same way we did with King Farouk . I have to go now because I am fighting another terrible flu and I want to get some sleep :)
A very intelligent analysis- much the same like most of your posts.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work. Just a simple question that is pressing me, how on earth you get manage to come up with those brilliant insights?
@anonymous,thanks so much for these wonderful words
ReplyDeleteabout your question well pardon because I do not have an answer I just write what is on my mind about any subject , so it depends may be what is on my mind is good , may be it is silly I just write it
And why do you suppose that it's better to be united with Syria?!!
ReplyDeleteI mean that maybe the union between Egypt and Syrian was a wrong decision from the beginning and as you said let's seek the goals of the leaders of both countries to take such decision ,which I think were not including forming a strong united arab country with a powerful army and economy !!
Their goals were just political and as you said there were a lot of contradiction between the two regimes and as you said also it's so difficult to have a complete union between two countries separated by other countries including Israel!!
But let's return back to the core of this discussion which is why do you think that the union was a good thing!!
We have all learnt at school that "Power is in union" and we all agree about that
But which union? a true one or a fake one?
Is the 1958 announcement was a real union or just another nasseri useless propaganda?
Nasser wanted to appear always as the hero of arabs and as Che Guivara of the East .. and his stupid policy towards Saudi Arabia ,Jordan or Yemen where he sent our men there to die were just proofs that he didn't seek union for supporting the Pan arabism .. but just to keep him the eternal arab leader!!
you answered the question in your wonderful post by saying that he exported his dictatorship there
May the union rest in peace , amen
very interesting site thank you.
ReplyDelete@le Chevalier,I think I made myself clear when I mentioned that the idea of the union is great but how it was implemented was wrong, how and who implemented were wrong
ReplyDeletehere I definitely mean the real union like the one in the days of Mohammed ALi "despite some consider it as invasion , I consider it as union because it brought fears to the west from a powerful Islamic Arabic nation"
Please read my post again and I will see what I think
about Nasser , well I am afraid neither him nor his enemies above them King HUssein of Jordan were that angelic
I do not think it was a propeganda move because it involves power for Nasser , a propeganda is false heroism status just like the Zafer and Kahar missile "I wonder if you read about them"
Nasser wanted this to succeeded because it meant success to his thoughts unfortunately he and his men were dump enough to believe the Baath party and also to be blind with greed for power and authority
they wanted this to work
@Ebal, thank you dear
Zeinobia, why the idea is great from the first place??
ReplyDeleteSyrians are Syrians, a proud nation that deserve their unique identity
Egyptians are Egyptians, a proud nation that deserve their unique identity
they have things in common, (people will never agree how much) but they [syria & egypt] are not single element...
the United Kingdom of British Islands since 1650 composed of England, Scotland, Wales & Ulster [& Ireland till 1919], each of them retain their local identity, Ireland chose to take independent course, nevertheless the Union of the united kingdom by far were mature & professional that Nasser-Quwatli 1958 circus
@loudlaughter , do you know that Scotland wants to be independent from the UK and that Sean Connery feels that it will be republic in his life !! What about the EU , every year Europe becomes closer and more and more and they are still having they keeping their national identities !!
ReplyDeleteWhat about the Union that happened between Egypt and Syria during the time of Mohammed Ali Pasha , did it affect the Syrian identity
What about the days of the Islamic empire when all those countries under one ruler , here I am not speaking about the Othman Empire but previous Empires in Syria and Iraq
Why do you think that we as Egyptian kill the Shami spirit and identity ??
and all you said perfectly support my point...
ReplyDelete[[Why do you think that we as Egyptian kill the Shami spirit and identity ??]]
the spirit & ID of Egypt already crushed by the blessed regime, and the Syrians had the very right to get the fuck out of that freaky marrage
You can't ignore the local identity & the history of political development
english & Scottish crowns been united in 17th century, nevertheless scotland retain its own legislative system [parliament]
The EU is a contemporary experiment with no predesessor in history in size & complexity, and no one in the EU is speaking about the United States of Europe
as for the relation between Syria & Egypt, Syria been dominated by egypt rulers again & again along 7000 years of middle east history, but never been politically incorporated the way Nasser brainlessly wanted.
As for the [650-1750AD] 11 century of Islamic Era
1/ 250 yeas of shaken central authority from Median, Damascus and finally Bagdad)
2/ 650 years of practical egypt independence, controling syria most of them
3/ 200 years of Ottoman Rule to both states
accordingly, egypt-syrian relationship been mostly as parts of larger commonwealth, where flow of people, commerce & wealth been freely granted till Ottoman empire become too weak to maintain internal administrative integrity
[[Call it the middle age European Union]]
but Full Incorporation [[The UK Model]] never been true, never been complete, never been long-lived
Mohammed Ali tried honestly and F.A.I.L.E.D
but he was smart enough to skip such disastrous experiment ASAP and focus somewhere else...
@Loudlaughter , just for your information Mohamed Ali did not give up Syria and Lebanon by his well , it was the well of the west in 1841 not to forget his terrible economic policies , by the way Mohammed ALi made the same mistake of Nasser , union without any consideration to differences , MOahmmed Ali wanted to use his version of Nationalizaion to own all lands there ...
ReplyDelete