The March 28, 1962 action by Lieutenant Colonel Abd al-Karim al-Nahlawi, the officer behind the 1961 secession coup, detained President Nazim al-Qudsi and government members and dissolved parliament, with an army General Command taking over executive and legislative functions. The takeover triggered demonstrations in major cities and revolts by Nasserist and Baathist officers in Aleppo, Homs, and Deir ez-Zor. Army commander in chief Major General Abdel Karim Zahreddine convened all army factions at Homs on April 1 and brokered a compromise: Nahlawi, Jassem Alwan, and their leading supporters were exiled in early April, and President Qudsi and the civilian government were reinstated, with Qudsi resuming his duties on April 13, 1962.
A technocratic government under Dr. Bashir al-Azma, with Zahreddine as defense minister, was sworn in on April 16 and renationalized large enterprises and restarted land reform.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: The General Command junta installed by Nahlawi's March 28 action was deposed; Nahlawi and his leading supporters were exiled and President Nazim al-Qudsi was reinstated, resuming duties on April 13, 1962. No one was reported physically harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Abdel Karim Zahreddine (army commander in chief, broker of the Homs compromise)
Abd al-Karim al-Nahlawi (deposed junta leader, exiled)
Nazim al-Qudsi (president, reinstated April 13)
Jassem Alwan (Nasserist rebel leader in Aleppo, exiled)
Bashir al-Azma (prime minister of the technocratic government sworn in April 16)
Sources
Between 28 March and 2 April 1962 Syria was racked by coups and countercoups: Nahlawi's forces arrested government members and dissolved parliament, President al-Qudsi resigned in protest, and on 1 April army chief Zahreddine held talks at Homs between all army factions where a compromise exiled Nahlawi, Alwan, and their leading supporters and reinstated the president and civilian government; on 13 April President al-Qudsi resumed his duties and on 16 April a technocratic government under Dr. Bashir al-Azma was sworn in.
After the March 28, 1962 coup, President Qudsi, the prime minister, and the cabinet resigned and the executive and legislative functions were taken over by the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces; demonstrations broke out in several major cities and on April 5 the seven officers who had organized the coup were sent into exile by other military leaders.
SOURCE REVIEWEDSyria: Coups and Countercoups, 1961-70, Library of Congress country studyopen source ↗
A State Department cable of April 5, 1962 authorized the US embassy to resume normal relations with the Syrian government provided and at such time as Qudsi was reinstated as president and reconstitution of the government was undertaken, and provided the General Command had de facto control of Syria.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Volume XVII, Document 236open source ↗
Nahlawi's March 28 order had the president detained and taken to the General Staff building and imprisoned at Mezze; the action followed Qudsi's rejection of Nahlawi's demands, including dismissal of the prime minister and removal of leading politicians from the political scene.
This record captures the resolution of the March 28 crisis rather than its start: the deposed party on April 13 is the Nahlawi General Command junta, with the outcome being Qudsi's reinstatement under army supervision. The counter unfolded across April 1 (Homs conference), April 3 to 5 (exile of the plotters, sources give both dates), and April 13 (Qudsi resuming duties, the dataset's date). Keep distinct from the 1961-09-28 secession coup already enriched and from the 1962-09-20 record that follows. Arc link: the whole arrangement was swept away by the Baathist coup of March 8, 1963.
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:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The General Command junta installed by Nahlawi's March 28 action was deposed; Nahlawi and his leading supporters were exiled and President Nazim al-Qudsi was reinstated, resuming duties on April 13, 1962. No one was reported physically harmed..
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
“Rebels in Syria Tighten Control; Friendly to Iraq,” by Dana Adams Schmidt, March 9, 1963
Washington Post
“Coudsi Is Reinstated As Syrian President,” April 14, 1962
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 →