Following months of unity talks, in 1958, Quwatli merged Syria with Egypt to form the United Arab Republic and stepped down for Nasser to serve as president.

Following the Young Turk Revolution against Abdul Hamid II in 1908, parliamentary elections were called in all provinces, and liberal Arab intellectuals like Shukri al-Asali, Shafiq Muayyad al-Azm, and Rushdi al-Shama'a secured seats as deputies (members of the legislature) representing Damascus.

[11] Nevertheless, after the failed countercoup, the CUP accused Arab provinces of supporting Abdul Hamid II and initiated a policy of Turkification, whereby all local officials were substituted by Turkish ones.

[13] The growing hardships in the country during the early years of World War I pushed Quwatli to join the secret society of al-Fatat, which was facilitated by his childhood friend and co-founder, Nasib al-Bakri.

[15] The tremendous pressure of that experience, however, took its toll on the young Quwatli, and upon his release he retired to his country house in Saidnaya and stopped all contacts with members of al-Fatat and the opposition.

Well-known members, other than Quwatli, included Adil Arslan, Nabih al-Azmeh, Riad al-Sulh, Saadallah al-Jabiri, Ahmad Qadri, Izzat Darwaza and Awni Abd al-Hadi.

[7] In Europe, he particularly frequented Berlin where he worked with the prominent Arab nationalist intellectual Shakib Arslan to proliferate anti-French sentiment, leading the French Mandatory authorities to label Quwatli one of the "most dangerous" Syrian exiles.

[7] In the summer of 1925 tensions between the Druze chiefs of the Hauran led by Sultan Pasha al-Atrash and the French authorities culminated with the Great Syrian Revolt, which spread throughout Syria within months.

Between then and fall, Quwatli spearheaded efforts to unify nationalists ranks in Syria, convincing LNA leader Sabri al-Asali to join the Bloc's highest governing body.

[30] On 20 March 1941, during World War II, when the Vichy French were in control of Syria, Quwatli called for immediate Syrian independence amid a period of food shortages, high unemployment and widespread nationalist rioting in the country.

The Hashemites found support in the People's Party, which became an influential force in Aleppo, a major city and economic hub of Syria, particularly after the 1947 death of Jabiri, Quwatli's Aleppo-based ally.

Quwatli feared construction of the pipeline would threaten the mostly British-owned Iraq Petroleum Company and upset the UK, as well as the Syrian public, who he believed would view the project "as a new form of indirect foreign economic control", according to Moubayed.

When Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon signed armistice agreements with Israel between February and April 1949, Syria under Quwatli did not do so and refused to send a delegation to attend truce negotiations in Rhodes in March.

Despite his positive relationship with the ousted King Farouk, Quwatli developed a close friendship with the founder of the Free Officers, Gamal Abdel Nasser,[55] who became Egypt's leader in 1954.

Required to secure a two-thirds majority in the 142-member Syrian Parliament in order to win, Quwatli defeated his main opponent Khalid al-Azm 89 to 42 (a further six votes were cast as invalid) in the first round.

Afterward, Quwatli asked Rushdi al-Kikhiya to form a cabinet, but the latter refused, citing that influence from the Syrian Army would deprive his government of real power.

[62] Increasingly concerned at the growing leftist trend in the country, Quwatli called for a national unity government that would include parties from across the political spectrum on 15 February 1956.

Asali moved to further strengthen ties with Egypt, including a pledge to start unity talks, and appointed Ba'athists to the ministerial positions of economy and foreign affairs.

[63] Following the tripartite invasion of the Sinai Peninsula and the Suez Canal by British, French and Israeli forces in October 1956, Quwatli severed ties with Britain.

[64] Quwatli sent hundreds of army recruits to aid the Egyptian defense and made an emergency visit to Moscow to request Soviet backing for Nasser from Premier Nikita Khrushchev, telling the latter that the tripartite forces "want to destroy Egypt!"

In response to public pressure, in late December Prime Minister Asali reshuffled his cabinet, removing several fellow conservatives and strengthening leftist influence in the government.

However, the coup plot was foiled by the head of Syrian intelligence, Abdel Hamid al-Sarraj, on 12 August and Syria consequently expelled the US military attaché from Damascus.

On 13 October, Nasser, who had launched a radio campaign denouncing the Baghdad Pact countries, dispatched 1,500 Egyptian troops, a mostly symbolic force, to the port of Latakia in northern Syria in a show of Arab strength against Turkey, to the acclaim of the Syrian and pan-Arab public.

Quwatli further solidified his ties with the latter by appointing Akram al-Hawrani, the prominent Arab socialist leader, as speaker of parliament, and Salah al-Din Bitar, the co-founder of the pan-Arabist Ba'ath Party, as foreign affairs minister.

The Syrian political and military leadership continued to press Nasser out of both sincere commitment to Arab nationalism and a realization that only unification with Egypt could prevent impending strife in the country due to increasing communist influence.

According to historian Adeed Dawisha, "the communists ended up outmaneuvering themselves ... unprepared for the unfolding events spearheaded by a public driven to frenzy by all talk and promises of union.

Nasser, while still hesitant at the Syrian proposal and discouraged by members of his inner circle, became increasingly concerned with the communists' power in Syria as testified by Bizri's leadership and autonomy from Quwatli.

[75] He was further pressured by the Arab nationalist members of the delegation, including al-Bitar, who alluded to an impending communist takeover and urgently appealed to him not to "abandon" Syria.

Syria's political leaders, particularly the communists, the Ba'athists and the conservatives, viewed Nasser's terms unfavorably, but nonetheless accepted them in response to mounting popular pressure.

On 8 March 1963 a coalition of unionist officers consisting of Ba'athists, Nasserists and independent Arab nationalists overthrew the secessionist government of President Nazim al-Qudsi and Prime Minister Khalid al-Azm.