Word: damascus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...scheduled airliner from Cairo touched down at Damascus airport early last week in routine arrival. To the astonishment of Syrians at the field, out stepped Egypt's Strongman Gamal Abdel Nasser, new President of the United Arab Republic. Nasser had found it wise to come unexpected and in secret, lest the Israelis be tempted to have a shot at his plane as it crossed the Mediterranean from Egypt to Syria. Syria's ex-President Shukri el Kuwatly, awakened and told of the arrival, was so taken by surprise that he was still unshaven and in his dressing gown...
Nasser's precautions were symptomatic of the geographic shortcomings of the new union between Egypt and Syria. But there was no shortcoming in the massive welcome that Nasser got. Within an hour of the time the radio announced that Nasser was in Damascus, youth delegations, red-and-white turbaned religious leaders, poster-waving workers, ragged Palestinian refugees, and thousands of other citizens of the new republic swarmed under Nasser's guesthouse balcony to shout: "Long live our President...
...furious outburst from his Damascus balcony, Nasser abruptly ended his brief truce with the rival Arab Federation (Iraq and Jordan). Evidently Nasser was angered by the Iraqi and Jordanian foreign ministers' attempts to line up Saudi Arabia's King Saud for their union...
...Syria's salute to its extinction seemed more subdued. But citizens voted heavily-twice as many cast ballots as in any previous election. They also voted publicly, and one NBC cameraman photographed the same voter marking four different ballots before stuffing them in the ballot box in a Damascus mosque. By official count, only 386 of more than 7,400,000 who voted in the two countries cast ballots against union. Only 452 said no to Nasser as the United Arab Republic's chief of state. By this count Nasser won 99.994% of the vote. It was even...
...Cairo the Soviet Union led the parade of governments extending formal recognition to Nasser's new regime. At the U.S. Damascus embassy, due for downgrading to consulate general, an aggressive local enterprise tacked a notice on the bulletin board: "All sizes of packing trunks. Call Mrs. Kobbani." Under the solvent of Arab nationalism, the old lines were fading on the map of the Middle East; Cairo and Baghdad would resume struggles almost as old as the Euphrates and the Nile, but along new frontiers...