The party was founded on 7 April 1947 as the Arab Ba'ath Party by Michel Aflaq (a Christian), Salah al-Din al-Bitar (a Sunni Muslim) and the followers of Zaki al-Arsuzi (an Alawite). The founding congress, the 1st National Congress, was held in Rasheed Coffee Shop, close to what is now the Russian Cultural Centre. While Arsuzi's followers attended the congress, he himself did not. He never forgave Aflaq and Bitar of stealing the name "Ba'ath" from him. While the party remained small during the 1940s, the party together with some recruited Ba'athist military officers participated in the March 1949 coup which toppled President Shukri al-Quwatli. When Husni al-Za'im's rule proved just as repressive as that of Quwatli, the Ba'ath participated in another coup to overthrow the former. While al-Za'im's overthrow led to the reestablishment of democracy, the 1949 elections saw the People's Party (PP) win a majority. The PP sought the establishment of an Iraqi–Syrian monarchical federal union, which Aflaq, strangely enough, supported. However, Akram al-Hawrani, the leader of the Arab Socialist Party, persuaded the Ba'ath Party leadership in supporting a coup led by Adib Shishakli.