The United Arab Republic was established in 1958 as part of Egypt and Syria and lasted until 1961, when the latter withdrew from it after a coup. Egypt continued to be officially known as the UAR until 1971.
Merge prerequisites
On February 1, 1958, a group of Syrian political and military leaders proposed to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser a merger of the two states as the first step towards a large pan-Arab state.
Moods for uniting all Arabs have traditionally been very strong in Syria, and Nasser was a popular leader throughout the Arab world after the 1956 Suez War. The Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (Baath) was the main proponent of such an alliance.
At that time in Syria, there were contradictions between the communists strengthening their positions and the Baath party in power, which was experiencing an internal crisis, from which its prominent members sought to find salvation in the form of an alliance with Egypt. Syria was democraticstate after the overthrow of the military regime in 1954, but the army continued to play a dominant role in the state at all levels. This did not suit the charismatic and authoritarian Nasser, who sought to fully include Syria in the "Egyptian" system of power that had developed under his leadership.
Start merging
Nasser's final terms for the union were decisive and non-negotiable:
- referendum on people's support for the unification of the two countries;
- dissolution of parties;
- withdrawing the army from politics.
While the referendum seemed like a reasonable move to most of the Syrian elite, the last two terms have left them extremely unsettled. Many believed that their adoption could destroy political life in Syria. Despite these concerns, the Syrian leaders knew it was too late to turn back. The elite in Syria sees a merger with Egypt as the lesser of two evils, as a means to counter the growing influence of the communists. They believed that Nasser's terms were unfair, but given the intense pressure from within their own country, they believed they had no other choice.
Egyptian President Nasser and Syrian leader Kouatli on February 1, 1958 signed a preliminary agreement on the unification of their countries. Although the signed declaration indicated that the United Arab Republic consisted of Egypt and Syria, it was emphasized that any of the Arab countries could enter the UAR. Referendums in both countries that same month confirmed support for their union.peoples.
Nasser became president of the UAR and very soon began repressions against the Syrian communists and opponents of the union, who were leaving their posts.
Real practice of building the UAR political system
Proponents of an alliance with Egypt believed that Nasser was using their Baath party to rule Syria (pictured below, he is shown in company with the founders of this party in 1958).
Unfortunately for the Ba'athists, it was not his intention to divide power evenly between the Egyptians and the Syrians. Nasser established a new interim constitution, under which the United Arab Republic received a National Assembly (parliament) of 600 members (400 from Egypt and 200 from Syria), and disbanded all Syrian political parties, including the Baath. The only legal party in the UAR is the pro-presidential National Union.
Syria and Egypt: two unequal parts of the UAR
Although Nasser allowed former members of the Ba'ath Party to take prominent positions in the power structures, they never reached the weight in governing their own country as Egyptian officials. In the winter and spring of 1959-60. Nasser was slowly "squeezing out" prominent Syrians from important positions. In the Syrian Ministry of Industry, for example, seven of the thirteen positions were filled by Egyptians. In the General Petroleum Administration, four of the top six leaders were Egyptians.
Economic transformation in UAR
In June 1960, Nasser attempted to introduce economic reforms that would bring the Syrian economy based on private property closer to that of Egypt, based on the dominance of the public sector. Nasser embarked on an unprecedented wave of nationalizations in both Syria and Egypt. At the same time, the opinion of the Syrian elite was ignored. The entire cotton trade was placed under government control, and all import-export firms were also nationalized. Nasser announced the nationalization of banks, insurance companies and all heavy industry. Land plots over 100 feddans (1 feddan=4200 m2) were subject to seizure from the owners (a kind of “dispossession” in Arabic). Taxes on peasants were drastically reduced to the point of being completely abolished in some cases. A ninety percent tax was imposed on all income above 10,000 Egyptian pounds. Workers and employees were admitted to the management of enterprises and were en titled to 25% of their profits. The average working day was also reduced to seven hours without a pay cut.
Rising anti-Egyptian sentiment
Not everyone in Syria liked such transformations in the spirit of "Arab socialism". Syrian army officers resented their subordination to Egyptian officers, and Syrian Bedouin tribes received money from Saudi Arabia to prevent them from becoming loyal to Nasser. In addition, Egyptian-style land reform led to the decline of the Syrianagriculture, the communists began to gain influence again, and the Ba'ath Party intellectuals, who had initially supported the union, changed their minds.
At the same time, in Egypt itself, the situation was more positive with a 4.5% increase in GDP and a rapid growth of industry due to its development of the Syrian market. It also contributed to growing discontent in Syria.
Relations with neighbors
The newly created United Arab Republic was perceived as a serious threat in the neighboring kingdoms (at the time) of Iraq and Jordan. Syria was seen by both monarchies as a source of incitement to revolution and a haven for conspirators acting against the Jordanian king Hussein and the Iraqi monarch Faisal II. Egypt, on the other hand, was generally regarded as a state hostile to the West, which supported both monarchical regimes. Therefore, the United Arab Republic was viewed by Iraq and Jordan as a direct adversary. Between the two countries, already in February 1958, an anti-Nasser military alliance was created with a single military command and a single military budget, 80% of which was supposed to be provided by Iraq, and the remaining 20% by Jordan. In fact, a federation of two countries arose, however, it quickly fell apart.
The creation of the UAR was also unfriendly in neighboring Lebanon, whose president, Camille Chamoun, was an opponent of Nasser. Clashes began in the country between supporters of joining the UAR and supporters of independence.
Revolution in Iraq
On July 14, 1958, Iraqi officers staged a military coup and overthrew the monarchy in the country. Nasserimmediately recognized the new government and declared that "any attack on Iraq would be tantamount to an attack on the UAR." The next day, US Marines and British troops landed in Lebanon and Jordan to defend the two countries from attack by pro-Nasser forces.
Nasser assumed that the United Arab Republic would soon be replenished with a new member - Iraq. However, the new Iraqi leadership, seeing the fate of their Syrian counterparts in the UAR, was in no hurry to give up power. And in 1959, Iraqi Prime Minister Qasem stopped negotiations on joining the UAR altogether.
In 1963, after representatives of the Ba'ath Party came to power in Syria and Iraq, a new attempt was made to unite these countries with Egypt. The leaders of the three countries even signed a joint communique on the creation of the Federation. But the cause of unification did not move further due to disagreements between the countries about the state structure of the new country.
The collapse of the UAR and its continuation
On September 28, 1961, a group of officers staged a coup and declared the independence of Syria from the UAR. Although the leaders of the coup were ready to continue the existence of the union on certain conditions, putting Syria on an equal footing with Egypt, but Nasser refused such a compromise. He initially intended to send troops to overthrow the new regime, but abandoned this intention as soon as he was informed that the last of his allies in Syria recognized the new power. In the speeches that followed the Syrian coup, Nasser declared that he would never give up his goal of an endpan-Arab union. However, he will never achieve another tangible success towards this goal.
Nasser's hopes for a revival of the union were reflected in the fact that under him Egypt continued to bear the name "UAR", which remained until 1971.
A new attempt to unite the Arab states was made in the 70s by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. As a result of his efforts, the Federation of Arab Republics (FAR) was formed in 1971, consisting of Libya, Egypt and Syria, which existed until 1977 (in the photo below, the leaders of the three countries sign the treaty on the Federation).
This formation was declarative, there were no common governing bodies of the FAR, and the participating countries constantly sought to conclude bilateral alliances (Libya-Egypt, Syria-Egypt) within the federation. Libya and Egypt even managed to fight a little in 1977, while remaining members of the FAR.
United Arab Republic: coat of arms and flag
The UAR adopted a flag based on the design of the Arab Liberation Flag raised during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, but with two stars representing the two parts of the UAR. Since 1980 it has been the official flag of Syria. In 1963, Iraq adopted a flag that was almost identical to that of the now defunct UAR, but with three stars, representing the hope that the united country would recover.
UAR had a coat of arms, the central figure of which was the so-called. eagle of Saladin - an image of an eagle, repeatingthe corresponding bas-relief on the western wall of the Cairo citadel built by Saladin. On the chest of the eagle is a shield with three vertical colored stripes - red, white and black, and two green stars in the central white stripe. These four colors are the so-called. "pan-Arab colours", which were the colors of the flags of the various Arab caliphates.
A green ribbon in the claws of an eagle is inscribed in Arabic letters: "United Arab Republic".
What kind of money was in circulation in such a state entity as the United Arab Republic? Coins in denominations of one Egyptian pound and one Syrian pound theoretically had equal circulation in the UAR, although in fact their use was localized in the respective parts of the country.
The photo above shows a one pound coin issued in the UAR (Egypt) in 1970 after the death of President Nasser.
