Hasan Ali Turkmani ( ar, حسن توركماني; 27 January 1935 – 18 July 2012) was a prominent Syrian military commander and Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party member. He served as the

minister of defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

from 2004 to 2009. He and three other top Syrian government officials were killed on 18 July 2012 in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

during a bomb attack.

Early life and education

Hasan Turkmani was born in

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

in 1935 into a Syrian Sunni Muslim family of Turkmen origin. He attended different courses and a higher military education, including bachelor in military sciences : * Bachelor in Military Sciences, Infantry Officer, Military Academy of Homs, graduate in 1955, * Mechanized Troop and Battalion Command Course, 1963 * Combined Arms (Infantry and Armour) field command and staff course, 1965 * Higher Field Command and Staff Course, Masters in Military Sciences, 1969 * Higher Staff Course (War College), Doctor of Military Sciences, 1972

Career

Turkmani joined the

Syrian Arab Army The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) ( ar, الْجَيْشُ الْعَرَبيُّ السُّورِيُّ, al-Jayš al-ʿArabī as-Sūrī), is the army, land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military ...

in 1955 as an infantry officer. He was one of the first officers to graduate on the new mechanized units of the

BMP-1 The BMP-1 is a Soviet amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle, in service 1966–present. BMP stands for ''Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhoty 1'' (russian: link=no, Боевая Машина Пехоты 1; БМП-1), meaning "infantry fighting ...

and

BTR-60 The BTR-60 is the first vehicle in a series of Soviet eight-wheeled armoured personnel carriers (APCs). It was developed in the late 1950s as a replacement for the BTR-152 and was seen in public for the first time in 1961. BTR stands for ''Bronet ...

armoured vehicles. He completed a staff course for combined arms operations from East Germany in 1965, and a Command and Staff Course from Egypt in 1969. He commanded the 9th Mechanized Infantry Brigade which fought a crucial rearguard action around Damascus in 1973. He was promoted to the rank of major general in 1975. Turkmani also began to serve as a member of the central committee of the Baath Party beginning in 2000. He was the deputy chief of staff in the Syrian army until 2002. He was appointed chief of staff on 23 January 2002, replacing

Ali Aslan Ali Aslan ( ar, علي أصلان) (born 1932) is a former chief of staff of the Syrian Army, a member of the Central Committee of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and a close confidant of the late Syrian president ...

. Since he is a Sunni Muslim, his appointment was considered as a move to restore a touch of sectarian diversity to Syria's military-intelligence establishment, which had been dominated by Alawite Muslims. On 12 May 2004, he became defense minister, replacing

Mustafa Tlass Mustafa Abdul Qadir Tlass ( ar, مُصْطَفَى عَبْد الْقَادِر طَلَاس, Musṭafā ʿAbd al-Qādir Ṭalās; 11 May 1932 – 27 June 2017) was a Syrian senior military officer and politician who was Syria's minister of defe ...

. On the other hand, Ali Habib Mahmoud succeeded Turkmani as chief of staff. In June 2006, Turkmani visited

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

and signed a strategic alliance agreement with his Iranian counterpart Mustafa Mohammad Najjar to form a joint defense committee. Turkmani was replaced in June 2009 by the former army chief

Ali Habib Mahmud Ali Habib Mahmud ( ar, علي حبيب محمود‎; 1 January 1939 – 20 March 2020) was a Syrian military officer who served as Syria's minister of defense from June 2009 to August 2011. As one of Syria's most celebrated generals, he was pa ...

as defense minister. On 3 June 2009, President Bashar Assad appointed Turkmani as assistant vice president with the rank of minister. He was also appointed chief of crisis operations and was widely blamed for the campaign of torture in Syria. In addition, Turkmani was a military advisor to vice president Farouk Sharaa.

Rumoured death

On 19 May 2012, the

Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...

's (FSA) Damascus council announced that one of their operatives from the FSA's Al Sahabeh battalion had successfully poisoned all eight members of Bashar Assad's Central Crisis Management Cell (CCMC), a group of top military officials who currently run the Syrian army's daily operations. The Free Syrian Army's Damascus council said they believed at least six out of the eight members, including Turkmani,

Assef Shawkat Assef Shawkat ( ar, آصِفُ شَوْكَتْ, ʾĀṣif Šawkat‎; 15 January 1950 – 18 July 2012) was the deputy Minister of Defense of Syria from September 2011 until his death in July 2012. He was the brother-in-law of Syrian Preside ...

, Mohammad al-Shaar,

Daoud Rajha Dawoud Abdallah Rajiha ( ar, داود راجحة‎; 1947 – 18 July 2012), forename sometimes transliterated Dawood or Daoud, surname sometimes transliterated Rajha, was the Syrian minister of defense from 2011 to July 2012 when he was assas ...

Hisham Ikhtiyar Major General Hisham Ikhtiyar ( ar, هشام اختيار); 1941 – 20 July 2012) (family name also transliterated as Ikhtiar, Bakhtiar, Bekhityar, Bekhtyar and other variants) was a Syrian military official, and a national security adviser to p ...

and Mohammad Said Bakhtian, to have been killed. Mohammad al-Shaar, then interior minister, and Hasan Turkmani, then assistant vice president, denied their own deaths to State TV, calling it "categorically baseless".

Personal life

Hasan Turkmani's son Muhammad Bilal owned the weekly political magazine '' Abyad wa Aswad'' ("Black and White" in English).

Death and funeral

Hasan Turkmani was assassinated on 18 July 2012 in a bombing by opposition militants on a meeting of the Central Crisis Management Cell (CCMC) at the national security building in

Rawda Square Al-Rawda Square ( ar, ساحة الروضة / ALA-LC: ''sāḥat ar-Rawḍah'') is a square in north-west Damascus. The square is the location of the National Security Building, where the Ministry of Defense (Syria), Defence Minister as well as P ...

, north-west Damascus, where the minister of defense

Dawoud Rajiha Dawoud Abdallah Rajiha ( ar, داود راجحة‎; 1947 – 18 July 2012), forename sometimes transliterated Dawood or Daoud, surname sometimes transliterated Rajha, was the Syrian minister of defense from 2011 to July 2012 when he was assas ...

, his deputy

and other top officials were also killed. Turkmani died of his wounds after the attack. Dozens of civiliants were injured. A state funeral was held for him, Dawoud Rajiha and Assef Shawkat in Damascus on 20 July 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turkmani 1935 births 2012 deaths People from Aleppo Syrian Sunni Muslims Syrian ministers of defense Members of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region Chiefs of Staff of the Syrian Army Military personnel killed in the Syrian civil war Assassinated Syrian politicians Deaths by explosive device Terrorism deaths in Syria Assassinated military personnel 2012 murders in Syria Homs Military Academy alumni