children and armed conflict in the syrian arab republic

Syria had a democratic government since the overthrow of Adib al-Shishakli's military regime in 1954, and popular pressure for Arab unity was reflected in the composition of parliament.

The increasing strength of the Syrian Communist Party, under the leadership of Khalid Bakdash, worried the Syrian Ba'ath Party, which was suffering from an internal crisis from which prominent members were anxious to find an escape. However, Nasser was 'more afraid of a Communist takeover' and agreed on a total merger. According to Abdel Latif Boghdadi, Nasser initially resisted a total union with Syria, favoring instead a federal union. Nasser told a Syrian delegation, including President Shukri al-Quwatli and Prime Minister Khaled al-Azem, that they needed to rid their government of Communists, but the delegation countered and warned him that only total union with Egypt would end the 'Communist threat'. This caused the Syrian Crisis of 1957 after which Syrians intensified their efforts to unite with Egypt. In mid-1957, Western powers began to worry that Syria was close to a Communist takeover it had a highly organized Communist Party and the newly appointed army's chief of staff, Afif al-Bizri, was a Communist sympathizer. The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was the leading advocate of such a union. There was thus considerable popular support in Syria for union with Nasser's Egypt. Pan-Arab sentiment traditionally was very strong in Syria, and Nasser was a popular heroic figure throughout the Arab world following the Suez Crisis of 1956. The United Arab Republic was established on 1 February 1958 as the first step towards a larger pan-Arab state, originally being proposed to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser by a group of political and military leaders in Syria. Main articles: History of Egypt, History of Syria, and History of the Gaza Strip Universal Newsreel about the founding of the Republic

Children and armed conflict in the syrian arab republic