Bashir al-Azma

Bashir al-Azma (1910–1992) (Arabic: بشير العظَمة‎), was a Syrian doctor and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Syria from 16 April to 14 September 1962.

Bashir al-Azma بشير العظَمة
Prime Minister of Syria
In office April 16, 1962 – September 14, 1962
President	Nazim al-Kudsi
Vice PM	Rashad Barmada
Preceded by	Maaruf al-Dawalibi
Succeeded by	Khalid al-Azm
Personal details
Born	1910 Damascus, Syria
Died	1992 (aged 82) Damascus, Syria

He was born in and raised in the capital Damascus. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Medicine from Damascus University and his graduate in Paris. He became the Minister of Health under the United Arab Republic (UAR) but resigned due to a conflict with Gamal Abdel Nasser. Later, he became the Prime Minister of Syria after the dissolution of the UAR.

Bashir al-Azma was one of several Syrian Prime Ministers who intended to keep Syria out of the East-West conflict and demonstrate its passive approach to it. On 22 April 1962, al-Azma declared on Radio Damascus that Syria's foreign policy continued to be based on "the principles of positive neutrality and non-alignment with military blocs, non-participation in the Cold War, and respect for the principles of the UN Charter."[1]

Personal life

Bashir al-Azma was from the distinguished al-Azma family, who were of Turkish origin.[2]

Notes and references

1. Shalom, Zakai. Israel's Nuclear Option. Sussex, Sussex Academic Press. 2005.
2. Roded, Ruth (1986), "Social Patterns Among the Urban Elite of Syria During the Late Ottoman Period", in Kusher, David (ed.), Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period: Political, Social, and Economic Transformation, BRILL, p. 159, ISBN 9004077928, Yusuf Bey al-Azma, from a Turkoman family of merchants and landowners... His nephew Nabih Bey had a similar career and several other 'Azmas were Ottoman officers.