Syria, 1962 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Syria on 31 March 1962, during the chaotic period that followed Syria's September 1961 secession from the United Arab Republic union with Egypt. The 1961 breakaway had restored a Syrian government under conservative civilian politicians, with Nazim al-Qudsi as president and Maruf al-Dawalibi as prime minister, but the army remained deeply factionalized between pro-Nasser officers who wanted to restore the union, Baathists, and the officers who had engineered the secession. This instability produced a rapid succession of military moves in early 1962, including a coup by Abd al-Karim al-Nahlawi and associated officers around late March that briefly detained civilian leaders before other officers reversed it and restored a civilian facade.
The turbulence did not durably resolve, and Syria's revolving door of coups continued until the Baathist seizure of power in March 1963.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
65203311962
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The post secession Syrian civilian government was buffeted by the March 1962 military moves but a civilian facade was restored; the instability continued to the 1963 Baath coup.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
The Washington Post
The Los Angeles Times
New York Times
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 →