On the night of November 28 into November 29, 1951, Syrian strongman Colonel Adib al-Shishakli carried out his second coup, arresting Prime Minister Maarouf al-Dawalibi and his entire cabinet after Dawalibi refused to appoint Shishakli's confidant Fawzi Selu as defense minister. Army units occupied key sites in Damascus, and Shishakli also detained pro-Iraqi People's Party leaders. President Hashim al-Atassi, unwilling to bow to the military, resigned in protest in late December rather than submit his resignation to Shishakli.
The military Command Council then took power, dissolved parliament, and installed Fawzi Selu as a figurehead head of state, prime minister, and chief of staff while Shishakli held real power behind the scenes. This coup ended Syria's fragile parliamentary order and opened Shishakli's open dictatorship, which lasted until he was overthrown in February 1954.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Hashim al-Atassi, President of Syria (resigned in protest) and Maarouf al-Dawalibi, Prime Minister (arrested)
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Adib al-Shishakli (coup leader)
Maarouf al-Dawalibi (prime minister, arrested)
Hashim al-Atassi (president, resigned in protest)
Fawzi Selu (installed as figurehead head of state)
Sources
On 29 November 1951 Shishakli ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Maarouf al-Dawalibi over his refusal to appoint Fawzi Selu as defense secretary; other officials resigned, President Atassi also resigned, and the military Command Council took power, dissolved parliament, and appointed Selu with all executive and legislative powers.
When Prime Minister Maarouf al-Dawalibi refused to give the defense portfolio to Fawzi Selu, Shishakli responded on 28 November 1951 by arresting Dawalibi and his entire cabinet, along with pro-Iraq People's Party leaders.
In November 1951 Shishakli abolished the anti-Western Dawalibi government, made Fawzi Selu his puppet chief of state, and began to rule without a cabinet and later without a parliament.
SOURCE REVIEWEDU.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955-1957, Vol. XIII, Document 329 (biographic note on Shishakli)open source ↗
Shishakli launched the coup because Atassi's government pursued union with Hashemite Iraq; unable to persuade the popular Atassi to stay on as president, who resigned in protest, Shishakli appointed Selu as president, prime minister and chief of staff while retaining real power himself.
Sources agree the coup unfolded on the night of 28/29 November 1951 (the Cline dataset codes 29 November), with Dawalibi's cabinet arrested and Atassi resigning in protest (his formal resignation dated 24 December). Three Wikipedia articles and a primary FRUS biographic note were read directly. The dataset's leader fate 'not physically harmed' matches Atassi's protest resignation. This is Shishakli's second coup, following the December 1949 record.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Hashim al-Atassi, President of Syria (resigned in protest) and Maarouf al-Dawalibi, Prime Minister (arrested).
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“RECOGNITION BY U.S. EXPECTED IN SYRIA Action on New Regime, Set for Today, Likely to Be Emulated by Britain and France,” December 15, 1951
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →