Adib Shishakli

Who was Adib Shishakli?

Adib Bin Hassan Al-Shishakli was a Syrian military leader and President of Syria.

Adib Shishakli was Kurdish Syrian, born in the Hama region in 1909. Shishakli was commissioned as an officer in the French Syrian Army in 1930, during the mandate era. He studied at the Military Academy of Damascus and became an early member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party of Antun Saadeh, promoting the concept of a Greater Syria. His brother Salah was also a prominent member of the SSNP. After independence, Shishakli fought in a volunteer Arab army, known as the Arab Liberation Army, in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

They were a family living in the Hama province of Ottoman Syria, since during his early childhood, Syria was a part of Ottoman Empire. His family name, Shishakli, is a common Turkish surname, and written as "Çiçekli" in Turkish. "Çiçek" means flower in Turkish, and Çiçekli means someone or some place with flowers. Alternative latin transliterations from the Arabic are Chichakly, Chichakli and Jijakli.