Nureddin al-Atassi

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Nureddin al-Atassi
نور الدين الأتاسي

In office
February 25. 1966 – November 18, 1970
Preceded by Amin al-Hafez
Succeeded by Ahmad al-Khatib

In office
October 29, 1968 – November 21, 1970
Preceded by Yusuf Zuaiyin
Succeeded by Hafez al-Assad

Born 1930
Died December 3, 1992 (Aged 62)
Political party Baath Party
Nureddin al-Atassi
Nureddin al-Atassi

Noureddin Mustafa al-Atassi (1930December 3, 1992) (Arabic: نور الدين مصطفى الأتاسي Nūr ad-Dīn Muṣṭafā al-'Atasī) was President of Syria from February 1966 to November 1970. Though a long-time ideologue of the powerful Baath Party who became its Secretary General as well as President of the Republic, he was considered to be largely a ceremonial figurehead, with real power vested in the Deputy Secretary General, Salah Jadid. He was a medical doctor by training, and in that capacity aided the Algerian forces against the French in the Algerian War of Independence. In 1970 he was deposed along with Salah Jadid in a coup by Hafez al Assad, his defense minister. He was imprisoned without trial from that time until just before his death in 1992, when he was released and flown to France to receive medical treatment at the expense of the French government.