Remembering the 29th of May

The month of May has its historical importance in Syria, because it celebrates two events in modern history. One is the May 6, 1916 hanging of Syrian nationalists in the Marjeh Square during World War I, and the other being the French onslaught of May 29, 1945. On this day, 62-years ago, France bombed Damascus and tried to arrest its democratically elected leaders: Acting Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey, Speaker of Par-liament Saadallah al-Jabiri, and President Shukri al-Quwatli. While French planes were bombing Damascus, Prime Minister Faris al-Khury was at the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco, presenting Syria’s claim for independence from the French Mandate.

On this day at the UN, Khury quietly walked into the General Assembly and purposely sat in the place reserved for the French ambassador to the UN, then pretended to fall asleep. The French official walked in, tried to wake him up, with no avail. The session was opened but the French delegate angrily interrupted the General Assembly saying: “How can you start the session when the Ambassador of Syria is sleeping in my seat?” As commotion and laughter took over the Assembly, Faris al-Khury opened his eyes, approached the microphone, and said in a loud booming voice: “I was not sleeping!” He added, “I was sitting in a place that was not mine.

You (addressing the Frenchman) have been in a country that is not yours for 25-long years. How in the name of God do you expect us to tolerate you?”

In the later afternoon of May 29, 1945, Acting Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey went to Parliament for a meeting called for by the speaker, Saadallah al-Jabiri. Most deputies, however, did not show up and the meeting was adjourned for lack of quorum. As he left the Chamber, Mardam Bey noticed an unusual number of French troops surrounding Parliament. He hurried to government headquarters in the Marjeh Square and telephoned Jabiri, asking him to leave parliament immediately, fearing a French onslaught.

He was correct, because minutes after Jabiri had left, the French troops lowered the Syrian Flag and replaced it with the French one, asking the guards on duty to salute it instead. When they refused, they were slaughtered on the spot. After removing all security, the French broke in, burning and destroying everything in their path. This was a direct order from Olivia-Roget, the French general in-charge of Syria.

Their primary objective was to arrest Saadallah al-Jabiri, echoing a similar move in November 1943 when they had arrested President Bshara al-Khury of Lebanon, and his Prime Minister Riyad al-Sulh. The French entered Jabiri’s ofice, confiscated all papers, and took his private safe. Before leaving, they set Parliament ablaze then hit it with cannon ire.

A few minutes later, French planes flew over Damascus, air raiding the capital with bombs, striking Parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Citadel of Damascus (the state prison), wounding a total of 2,083 and killing another 616 Syrians. A paramilitary force was immediately created by the youth leader and parliamentarian Fakhri al-Barudi, to protect the inhabitants of Damascus.

His men wandered through the burning capital, collecting the injured and taking them to the Christian neighborhood of al-Qasaa, where there was no French bomb-ing. They were placed in the hospitals of al-Qasaa, and Barudi called a team of Christian doctors for their treatment. France had cut off electricity in Damascus, forcing the med-ics to bring candles from churches to light the amateur operation rooms that were created in al-Qasaa.

Meanwhile, the French troops had begun to ire at ambulances and firemen attempting to put out the blaze. Meanwhile, having missed Jabiri at the Chamber, the French opened ire on the Orient Palace Hotel, where he usually stayed when in Damascus (Jabiri was from Aleppo). The foolish move cost them the lives of some foreigners who were staying there, including two British officers. The French’s attention then shifted to Jamil Mardam Bey, whom they hoped to find at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After breaking into the building and confiscating documents, they stole the Minis-try’s official seal, and set his office ablaze. As the siege continued, French troops broke into the Telecommunications Center and Electricity Station in downtown Damascus, cutting off telephone lines and electricity. For the remainder of the day, the capital was in complete blackout, cut off from the outside world.

For the next 48 hours, fear and terror reigned in Damascus. Mardam Bey had escaped from government headquarters, along with some of his ministers, through the back-alleys of Marjeh Square where no bombing was taking place. He ordered them to take refugee wherever they could find it. In the pitch of dark, the government ministers ran through the streets like bandits until they reached the home of former Prime Minister Khalid al-Azm, a mansion in the Suq Saruja neighborhood of Damascus.

Azm welcomed all those seeking refugee on May 29, a total of 100 people, including Jamil Mardam Bey. At 10:00 p.m. French aircraft had gone into action and bombs began falling on the Saruja district. The French assumed that deprived of electricity, food, and communications, the government would soon surrender. Fakhri al-Barudi came to Azm’s residence at midnight, bleed-ing from a wound in combat with the French, and informed Mardam Bey that Damascus lay in ruins.

The French had taken advantage of the situation and spread rumors that Shukri al-Quwatli had been killed, that Mardam Bey had led the country, and that a Kurdish rebel-lion had broken out in the capital. A caretaker cabinet, he said, was rumored to have gone into place with the dreaded Bahij al-Khatib (a pro-French autocrat who had ruled Syria during the early years of WWII) as Prime Minister.

Mardam Bey left his refugee and dangerously went to Quwatli’s residence in the Aif district with no bodyguards, to see the truth behind Barudi’s claim. The President was in bad health, and his palace was surrounded by British tanks to secure his safety. The British Ambassador Terrance Shone, who was visiting Quwatli, expressed his surprise at seeing Mardam Bey, claiming that French reports had confirmed that he had led to Jordan hours ago, along with all of his ministers.

Shone suggested that Mardam Bey and Quwatli be provided with British protection. Barely able to speak, Quwatli groaned back, “Are you saying this to someone like me? The day I will need foreign protection to walk around Damascus is the day I relinquish all my responsibilities to Syria. « Shone then advised that the least Quwatli could do was escape while alive, and take refugee in another city, preferably Amman, and wait for the storm to pass.

Rising from bed, the President barked back saying: “When King Faysal left this country twenty five years ago, he had nothing to lose here— nothing to look back upon but a throne. In other words, it was not even a throne, but a chair with four legs that we created for him. I have roots in this city that go back 600 years, so go tell your government, and that of France and the United States, that I will not leave Syria no matter what happens.

I would rather die in bed than escape while my people are being massacred. Or take me to Parliament so I can die with the brave soldiers who were slaughtered there.” He then demanded that Shone arrest General Olivia-Roget and bring him to trial as a war criminal for committing a massacre against the Syrians. Quwatli then issued several or-ders to his men, to arrest anyone working for the French Government and to force all Syrian troops still serving in the Army of the Levant to leave their positions.

Those who refused would be deprived their nationality, property,

and would face trial for treason. Syria would no longer be responsible for the safety of any Frenchman on its territory. Shone excused himself and went to Beirut where he met General Beynet, the French officer controlling Syria and Lebanon, to demand and explanation for the war in Damascus. Beynet was «in a cheerful and good mood,” explaining to him that several French posts had been attacked, and all the French were doing was “self-defense.”

Beynet pointed out that; “the situation in Damascus is not tragic” and added that the «abscess of Damascus had to be laced.» He frankly said that the atmosphere of battle suited him and that «now that the barrel had been breached, wine must be drunk.” Quwatli and Mardam Bey spent the night writing letters of protest to Washington, London, and Moscow.

At dawn, they sent out foot messengers to the consuls of Riyadh, Cairo, and Amman with orders to return to their countries immediately and inform their governments of the latest in Damascus. The Egyptian consul, Fathi Ridwan, managed to reach Beirut where he contacted King Farouk, who in turn telephoned Churchill to complain.

The Jordanian consul Abd al-Mon’em al-Rifaii was shot and badly injured while en route to Amman via Daraa. Saadallah al-Jabiri, who had returned to the Orient Palace Hotel once the shelling had stopped, was asked to carry a similar mes-sage to the Arab League in Cairo via Beirut. However, French troops surrounded his hotel and prevented his exodus. By coincidence, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch was on a visit to Syria and staying at the same hotel.

He had plans to travel to Lebanon and offered to take Jabiri along. Naturally, the Russian Embassy asked the French to cease their ire while the Patriarch was making his way through Damascus to the Lebanese border. Jabiri took the opportunity and left with him. On the Damascus-Beirut highway, he thanked the Patriarch and got into a presidential car sent to him by Quwatli, who did not want the Master Speaker to appear before a neighboring Arab country under foreign protection.

Jabiri held an urgent press conference in Beirut, and gave a press release of what had taken place in Damascus over the past 48 hours. All around Syria, citizens were beginning to arm themselves in anticipation of another attack. In Aleppo, barricades had been erected all over the city, and armed Alpines roamed the streets, preparing to ward off French reinforcements. Similar action was taken in Latakia and Homs, while matters had reached a climax in the Arab Mountain.

Sultan al-Atrash had called for an urgent meeting of his tribe, and began recruiting troops to lead an offensive against the French in Damascus. By May 30, twenty-four hours after the shelling had began, hundreds of Druze soldiers had defected from the Troupe Special and joined Atrash in the Mountain. In Hama, fierce resistance had taken place where two French warplanes had been downed and the Commander of the French Forces had been killed.

In Hawran, French troupes had been rounded up, disarmed and taken prisoner. Their weapons where distributed among volunteer fighters who were preparing to embark to Damascus. Large demonstrations were held in Beirut, Tripoli, and Sidon, and busloads of Syrian students from the American University of Beirut (AUB) arrived in Damascus to join in student demonstrations. President Quwatli and Mardam Bey received the AUB delegation and assured them that by bombarding Damascus, «the French had waved their final good-bye.»

With such a glorious history to be proud of, it is madness for any Syrian not to arrogantly display a “chins-up” on May 29, 2007.