Word: syria
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...four months the moderate government of President Nazem El-Koudsi and Premier Bashir El-Azmeh has been chasing the fellahin's imposing list of demons, all the while warily returning Syria to relative normalcy after seven coups d'état in 13 years. Koudsi himself is a product of Coup No. 6, when nationalistic army officers last fall shattered the abrasive union of Syria and Egypt-and the Pan-Arab dreams of Gamal Abdel Nasser-with a swift, bloodless revolt. Elected Syria's President in December, he was then deposed and jailed by the army officers...
From the outward look of Syria, reported TIME Correspondent George de Carvalho last week, the regime has managed well. As if in reply to the mullah's chant, the drought that lasted straight through the four years of the United Arab Republic was broken the day after its dissolution, and the rains are now bringing the best wheat and cotton crop in a decade. Says an embittered Nasser supporter: "Rain last year would have saved Nasser, and drought this year would have brought him back." Gone with the drought is the Nasser-era police state whose oppression created...
...doctrinaire economic rules of Nasser's "Arab socialism" that grated on the traditionally free-wheeling Syrians, who love nothing more than driving a good business bargain. The bazaars of Damascus are again bustling after a long stretch of relative austerity. Says Premier Azmeh: "By its very nature, Syria lives on commerce. The Egyptians tried, but you cannot fight nature. We favor free enterprise and private business; we are against feudalism and exploitation. We want economic freedom combined with social justice." A forward step is the Euphrates dam, being built with West German Marks, which will irrigate...
...Syria is still no model of stability. The regime rules with no real legal basis, since Koudsi was elected by a Parliament that has since been dissolved. The constitution that Nasser threw out has never been replaced. Although the government of Koudsi and Azmeh claims independence, it continues to rule by the leave of a quietly watchful six-man army committee. Still, political observers agree that the regime has won considerable popular support...
...still banned, along with all other political parties. But the Russians themselves are working hard to increase their influence. The main tool is a lavish foreign-aid program, an estimated $500 million Soviet investment split between military aid (MIGs, tanks, rifles) and such projects as the first railroad linking Syria's Mediterranean port of Latakia with the Jezire agriculture district of the northeast. The Soviet embassy, largest in Damascus, is headquarters for a community that includes a 200-man military mission and 300 technicians...