Abd al-Karim al-Nahlawi

Abd al-Karim al-Nahlawi (Arabic: عبد الكريم النحلاوي) (born 1926) is a former Syrian military officer and head of the coup which ended the union of Syria and Egypt as the United Arab Republic on Sept. 28, 1961. Al-Nahlawi seized personal power in a second coup the following year, briefly ruling Syria (28 March - 2 April) before falling victim to another coup himself. After occupying several diplomatic posts, in Indonesia, Pakistan, Morocco and Turkey, he returned to Syria and attempted to seize power once again in a final and unsuccessful military coup attempt.^[1]

Al-Nahlawi was a lieutenant colonel in the combined Syrian-Egyptian army when he headed a coalition of moderate officers from Damascus who carried out a bloodless coup against Nasser and (more directly) his deputy 'Abd al-Hakim Amer, who was the Egyptian viceroy in Syria.^[2] The Syrian officers were to some degree operating at the behest of the Syrian middle and upper class who opposed Nasser's socialist policies and in particular land reform.

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