During 10 years after his political retirement he hesitated to write his memoirs in order to maintain the privacy of his political information, contacts and connection.  After many attempts by his friends, his friend Dr. Constantine Zoreik, Deputy President of The American University in Beirut finally managed to convince him to record his memoirs with the assistance of the AUB Library in early 1975 - this is what verily took place.  However, the recording came to a halt in the same year of the commencement of the Lebanese civil war.  Many years after the war and with the insistence and encouragement of his family, he continued recording his memoirs in more than 30 tapes between 1990 and 1995 in Amman.

The family deliberated the issue of publishing those memoirs after his demise in 1998. What made the family take the decision were his recorded words in his own voice in tape no six of the Arab Unity Group which was taped in Amman on 14/03/1993 whereby he permitted his memoirs to become public.  Another reason was the painful events that the country went through and the blood that was shed for the sake of the country he loved and served with all his intellectual, physical and financial abilities along with his connections with all political constituencies.  Hence, the family decided – after years of consistent work following his demise and especially after the Syrian revolution - to establish a website by the name of The Digital Presidential Library of Dr. Nazem al-Koudsi, President of the Syrian Arab Republic as he was the last elected president during the last free parliamentary election in Syria before the Baath Party seized power in cooperation with the Nasserite army officers through a coup d’état in Syria on 8th March 1963.

The primary objective for creating this library after 25 years since his demise is to make his own archives and documents accessible to researchers and to publish it to become part of the history of the country and to serve the academic and historical researchers in Syria and all over the world. Moreover, another reason for the library’s creation is to make available to the young generations in Syria and those across the Arab and Western world of this archive. 

The library includes more than 5000 documents, photos, minutes, newspapers and archives, etc. that were collected, classified, scanned, then uploaded, stored and linked. This work took more than 5 years intermittently by a team to complete.

One of the most important records on this site are the Parliament Minutes, which contain all the discussions, decisions and laws that have been enacted in full transparency. As soon as the readers review some of the sessions, they will realize how any democratic civil state in the world should be, and how it is to be managed, which the fathers of independence tried to establish for future generations.

We were keen to publish his archives and documents as we found them and we did not exclude any of his documents or correspondences. It is to be noted that all his official correspondences are not in this library but are kept in the Syrian State’s archives during the periods he held office. The family’s input in this library is limited to this statement.

One of his famous documented quotes: “The Syrian people with their cultural, ethnic, historical and geographical diversities are good and noble people; they love to work and consider it a part of their daily worship”.  We would always recall him working long hours and travelling at night, despite road difficulties back then, and the scarcity of cars, to perform his public work as a politician and his private work in the legal and agricultural fields.

Having completed his post graduate degree and obtained his Doctorate Degree from the University of Geneva in 1929, he was highly attached to and adored the democratic process and  the constitutional and institutional environment – and it was not the case for many Syrian politicians at the time. His post graduate studies and his practicing of law were the main factors in his total loyalty and respect to the law and spirit of the constitution. It was also the basis of most of his political decisions, his love and attachment to moderation and his rejection to all forms of politically inspired armed violence.

As an example to this: despite being a parliamentary opposition to President Shukri Al Quwatli in 1947, when the Coup leader Hosni Al Zaeem asked him to rule the country in 1949, he categorically refused and preferred to be imprisoned than to be a Prime Minister under  a coup d’état on the civilian political institution of the country.

He was detained in political prisons, military hospitals and was put under house arrest 7 times during his political career; 3 of which were during the French mandate while he was working as part of the leadership in the National bloc fighting for the country’s independence. The other 4 times were the result of the Coup d’états following the independence until his retirement from political life in 1964.

After 13 years of the first coup d’état and during his presidency, specifically in the second week of April 1962, the army asked him many times using a multitude of pretexts to dissolve the recently elected Parliament. He categorically rejected and preferred to relinquish the presidency as per his famous public resignation in 1962, rather than breaking the oath he swore before Parliament to protect the country’s constitution and its legitimate institutions. 

A few days after his resignation, the army divisions split and started to military clash with each other. During the second week of April 1962 a conference was held in the city of Homs by senior army officers whereby they agreed on several issues; of which, the most pressing issue was to ask the president to withdraw his resignation - this was the main condition for them to return to their barracks.  The army leaders swore not to interfere in politics in order to avoid a bloodbath both within the army as well as in the country. But the saying is one thing, and the executing is completely different matter. 

After resigning from the National bloc in 1939 and serving as independent deputies in Parliament in the 1940’s, Dr al-Koudsi and his political soul mate Mr. Rushdi Al Kikhya, established the people party in 1947.  In the 1950’s, and over a period of no more than 5 years, the party had many branches in all Syrian cities and had the majority of parliamentary seats.  He was the permanent candidate of the people’s party for all senior political positions in the country.  Dr Nazem al-Koudsi was a moderate person in his public and private life. Although he was the second man in the people’s party led by the idealistic statement Mr. Rushdi Al Kikhya who did not want seek any public office, Dr. Koudsi had a close rapport with all parties and political segments in the Syrian society.  This was proven with him being elected as speaker of the parliament for four consecutive terms from 1953 until 1957.            

He was very protective over public funds, which he considered to be under his fiduciary trust.  He achieved the full and total separation between his public and private life, even when the political decisions were financially detrimental to his family or to the social class to which he belonged to. For example he did not allow his family to purchase or sell any shares or to buy or sell real estate or agricultural land during his presidency. His family’s agricultural land was later expropriated and nationalised without compensation as per the agrarian reform which took place during the military and socialist governments in the 60’s and early 70’s.

Not surprisingly then, when the Iraqi Coup Leadership delegation asked the Syrian Coup Leadership council in 1963 to hang the president similarly to what occurred in Iraq, the military council rejected this request. They responded by stating that the Syrian people are not a bloodthirsty people and there was no justification to hang him as the man loyally served the country for more than 30 years.

One month after the coup of March 8th 1963 and by external instigation, President Koudsi was arrested. He was allowed to use his own car driven by his private chauffeur and accompanied by one of his sons to the military hospital attached to Maza prison in Damascus. He was detained there for 7 months until December 4th 1963 whereby he was permitted to leave the country for Lebanon.

In the beginning of 1964 in Lebanon, he announced his retirement from politics at the age of 58 years.  He never went back to his home land ever again.  He kept his word on retirement for 35 years until his demise in 1998.  Out of respect to the presidency seat to which he was elected to, he refused all offers to work as an advisor to a number of Arab countries or to go back into politics. He also refused propositions from Syrian communities abroad to establish a bank in Beirut under his chairmanship in protection of the dignity of presidency seat he was elected to, even though his family was not financially comfortable back then.

He was offered political asylum with allowances in some Arab countries, which he kindly turned down. Rather, he lived as a normal private person who was forced to live away from his country in Lebanon, Europe, the UAE and Jordan.  He proudly travelled using his diplomatic Syrian passport as the ex-President of the Syrian Arab Republic.

He was one of the first leaders of independence who was elected to the highest seat in Syria armed with his very high education and ethics. Having begun his political career in his twenties, he progressed on and became a Deputy, an Ambassador, a Minister, a Prime Minister, Speaker of the Parliament and finally the President of Syria. This is in addition to being very close to leader Ibrahim Hanano when he was in his twenties, until his demise in 1935.  It is worth mentioning that year, Dr Nazem al-Koudsi was one of the four people who carried the body of leader Hanano in his famous funeral. During 21 years, from 1936 to 1957 which was the period of parliamentary life in Syria, he was elected five consecutive times in parliamentary elections representing Aleppo’s Constituency.  He was the first Syrian Ambassador to the USA in 1945 where he founded the Embassy in Washington and was the youngest of all politicians in the world who signed the United Nation Charter in 1945 of which he was particularly proud.

He was always talking about his work as Chairman of the Parliamentary Constitutional Committee in the constituent assembly elected in 1949 which drafted and issued the Syrian constitution of 1950 that was implemented in the country until 1958 and then again in 1961-1963. He held the position as the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ during President Hashem Al Atassi’s government and was twice asked to form the government during the presidency of His Excellency President Hashim Al Atassi in 1949 and 1950. He presented the first Arab Federation proposal in 1951 to the Arab League in Cairo. During his premiership in 1950, his government submitted a draft law that was approved by parliament for the forced nationalisation with compensation of all foreign companies’ operating in Syria.  A fair market price was paid to the owners of these foreign companies.

He was then elected for 4 consecutive terms to the chair of the speaker of the parliament from 1951 till 1957. During this period and due to his efforts recorded as in his memoirs, the only peaceful transfer of power in Syria happened in 1955 when President Atassi’s term ended and President Shukri Al Quwatli was elected. From his position as the speaker of parliament, he assumed the role of the President of the Republic on numerous occasions when the President was travelling.  During his work as the speaker of parliament, he worked hard to document and publishes full minutes of parliamentary sessions until 1956, which we included in the digital library.

He answered the call of duty in December 1961 when he was near unanimously elected by parliament to be the President of the Republic during a tough time in the country after the cessation of the union between Syria and Egypt, the conflicts and confusion amongst the various blocks of the army officers.

‏In his recorded words, he was proud that he never sought after any political post during his lifetime rather he was the chosen person for the posts he held.

His friend and partner in their political careers was the idealist statesman His Excellency President Rushdi Al Kikhya, the leader and founder of the People’s party.  Mr. Al Kikhya was an example to follow in his honesty, integrity and the manner in which he separated between his private and public life to the extent of obsession. They were both keen not to make any public or secret contacts or communications with Arab or foreign countries. The various memoirs published later and the facts that took place historically indicates the involvement and contribution of the United States and other outside powers in the coups in Iraq and Syria, which brought the Baath Party to power and ended the democratic and political era in Syria.

He was at his happiest times when running his agriculture business and was very keen to send the kids of the families working in his farm to school, the cost of which he personally assumed.  He personally built a school in his village and was keen to send these youth to secondary schools and Universities in Aleppo.  He contributed to modernizing and developing agricultural methods and practices in his farm land at Al Bawabeya Village, 35 km South-West of Aleppo. He imported modern farming equipment which he saw during his work in the USA in 1945 - 1946.  He was the first farmer who dug an artesian well in 1953 to irrigate crops cultivated in the summer and provides water to the livestock of young farmers in his village as well and those nearby.  He always took personal interest in the wellbeing of the farmers in Al Bawabeya and those in nearby villages.  This relationship between him and the farmers lasted even after he went to Lebanon, then to Jordan and until his demise, upon which point a delegation from the village came to pass their condolences in Amman in February 1998.  He supported laws for farmers to expand the irrigated agricultural lands in the country.

‏During the Egypt-Syria Union he was the main power behind establishing and became Chairman of the Arab World Bank.  He worked hard in establishing a young managerial structure by hiring recently-graduated young Syrians. This led to the success and expansion of the bank across Syria in no more than two years. 

In summary, in creating this digital library, the family seeks to document a very important era in Syria’s political and democratic life and hopes that it carried out a small part of its duty towards the country, the Syrian people, and the country’s history of political diversity and peaceful transfer of civilian political power. The family welcomes contributions in the form of historical information additions, pictures or corrections to enrich this library.

The putschists who violated the constitution and forcefully obtained power by virtue of the utilization of the army and bloodshed in the 50’s & 60’s justified their actions by saying that those politicians who gained power as a natural consequence of them fighting for the independence of the country were tired and incapable post-independence and were in dispute with one another. They believe this was the main driver in allowing the army to enter the political sphere.  

However, we believe that political diversity is the basis of democracy, and if there were no differences between the politicians, there would not have been any need for them in the first place. Politicians of that era had a high sense of patriotism which overruled their sense of sectarianism or retain their social status and thus prohibited them to spill Syrian blood in order to retain political power or retain their social class benefits.  If it was to the contrary, the army would have never been able to take power in the country.

May he rest in peace, he always said that spilling blood of the people to retain power will be a chain that will be difficult to end and unfortunately this is what happened in the country 13 years after his demise.