Nureddin al-Atassi


Noureddin Mustafa Ali al-Atassi was President of Syria from February 1966 to November 1970.

Early life and education

Atassi was born in Homs in 1929 to the famous Al Atassi family.

Career

Atassi was a medical doctor by training, and in that capacity aided the Algerian forces against the French in the Algerian War of Independence. A longtime ideologue of the powerful Ba'ath Party Atassi became its General Secretary as well as President of the Republic in 1966. He was considered to be largely a ceremonial figurehead, with real power vested in the Deputy General Secretary, Salah Jadid. In 1970, he was deposed along with Salah Jadid in a coup by Hafez al-Assad, his defense minister.

Arrest and death

Along with other members of the governent, al-Atassi was put under arrest without trial following the coup of 1970. Then he was transferred to the Mezze military prison in Damascus where he lived from 1970 to 1992. After 22-year imprisonment, he was released and flown to Paris to receive medical treatment in France on 22 November 1992, and died at a hospital in December 1992.