Qasim, Abd al-Karim

Abdel Karim Qassem was born into a poor carpenter family in Baghdad . His father, a Sunni by birth, died after the birth of his son, participating in the First World War as a soldier of the Ottoman Empire . The mother of the future prime minister was originally a Shiite and the daughter of a Kurdish farmer.

When Kasem was six years old, his family moved to Shuwaira, a small town near the Tigris , and then to Baghdad in 1926 . Kassem was an excellent student, and he went to high school for a state scholarship. After graduating in 1931, he taught at an elementary school (from October 22, 1931 to September 3, 1932 ). His dismissal was due to the fact that he entered the military college, which he graduated in 1934 with the rank of second lieutenant.

Abdel Kerim Qassem took an active part in the suppression of tribal unrest in the Euphrates region, as well as in the Anglo-Iraq war in May 1941 and military operations in Kurdistan in 1945 . Qassem also participated in the Arab-Israeli war from May 1948 to June 1949 . In 1955 he received the rank of brigadier general. He became the leader of the revolutionary movement in the army, which made plans to overthrow the monarchy, drawing on the experience of the seizure of power by Egyptian President Abdel Nasser . In 1956, a secret revolutionary organization called “ Free Officers ” was created in the Iraqi army, and a year later the Front of National Unity was created in the country, which included the National Democratic Party, the Ba'ath of the Arab Socialist Revival, Istiklal and the Iraqi Communist the consignment.

On July 14, 1958, Abdel Qassem led the coup. The Nineteenth and Twentieth Brigades of the 3rd Division of the Iraqi Army, located near Baghdad, in Baakub , led by Colonels Abdel Kerim Qassem and Abdel Salam Aref, were ordered to leave for Jordan . However, the officers of the brigades, led by Kassem and Aref, decided to take advantage of the convenient situation in order to occupy Baghdad and overthrow the pro-imperialist regime. At 3 a.m., revolutionary army units entered Baghdad, crossed the Faisal bridge, and then occupied the radio center, the central telegraph and surrounded the royal palace of Qasr ar-Rihab. The military was joined by the civilian population.

By five o'clock in the morning, a short skirmish ensued between the rebels and the troops guarding the royal palace. The security chiefs - Kurdish officers, Lt. Col. Taga Bamarni and Lieutenant Mustafa Abdalla showed no resistance and themselves joined the units of Aref and Kassem. At 6 a.m. the palace fell. The coupists offered to surrender to King Faisal II and his regent Abdel Ilah. The king and his whole family left the palace, each of them holding the Koran over his head. While they were leaving the palace, Lieutenant Abdel Sattar al-Abosi opened fire without orders and shot almost the entire royal family. Faisal II died later from his wounds in the hospital where he was taken. In the morning of a new day, the Baghdad radio broadcast:

After that, a reprisal began with the royal elite, whose victim was Prime Minister Nuri al-Saeed . The building of the English Embassy was burned down. The people demolished the monuments to King Faisal I and the British General Mod, then drowned them in the Tigris. On the same day, Qassem, having proclaimed Iraq a republic, headed the new government ^{[2] [3] [4]} .

After the overthrow of the monarchy, Kasem became prime minister and defense minister. The cabinet included both military and civilians. The new head of government went to cooperate with the Soviet Union . Qassem has decided to rearm the Iraqi army. In the spring of 1959, he concluded a series of agreements with the USSR on the supply of Soviet weapons and military equipment, as well as on the training of Iraqi officers and technical specialists in the USSR. He canceled the agreement on mutual security and bilateral relations with Great Britain. In addition, Iraq has withdrawn from a series of military agreements with the United States. On May 30, 1959, the last British soldier left the country.

On July 26, 1958, the interim constitution of the Republic of Iraq was adopted, proclaiming the equality of all Iraqi citizens before the law and giving them freedom regardless of race, nationality, language or religion. Already in the first days of the revolution, trade unions, peasant unions and many other progressive organizations arose or went underground. Political parties, including the ICP, although they were not formally legalized, also carried out their activities legally. The government freed political prisoners and amnestied the Kurds, who participated in 1943 in 1945 in Kurdish uprisings. Qassem lifted the ban on the activities of the Iraqi Communist Party ^[5] .

Under Kassem, schools and hospitals began to be built more and more. In Baghdad and Basra, the government allocated funds for the construction of social housing. An increasingly visible part of the growing oil revenues has gradually been transferred to poverty alleviation and social programs. But, despite the prime minister’s popularity, people were not satisfied with the authoritarian style of his rule. On September 30, 1958, the law on agrarian reform was promulgated. This law was half-hearted and did not completely abolish feudal land ownership, but nevertheless significantly limited it. The seizure of feudal lords of half of their land was planned in order to distribute the confiscated surplus among landless peasants. It provided for the payment of monetary compensation to the owners of latifundia for the land taken from them. The government introduced an 8-hour work day.

This kind of activity of the new government provoked fierce resistance from the feudal and bourgeois-comprador reaction. In the face of political tension, the head of state, Kasem, began to strengthen his personal power, which caused discontent even from political allies. Kassem firmly controlled the secret police and security services, preventing several attempts at assassination. Since mid-1959, the Kassem government began to pursue a policy of balancing between right and left forces, to restrict and even suppress the activities of left organizations.

Kurdish issue

After the overthrow of the monarchy, the regime of Abdel Kerim Qasem made wide concessions to the Kurds: an article was proclaimed in the interim constitution of Iraq, proclaiming Iraq a common state of Arabs and Kurds (article 3); Kurds were introduced into the government, and the KDP raised the issue of granting autonomy to Kurdistan. However, the Kassem government did not go for it, moreover, over time, it began to more and more openly support Arab nationalists. In the second half of 1960, the Iraqi media launched a campaign of attacks on the Kurds and their leaders, who were accused of separatism and relations with Moscow. It got to the point that the “Kurdish wheat” variety was renamed by special order into “northern wheat”. Inscriptions appeared on the walls of houses in Baghdad: “Iraq is the birthplace of Arabs and Muslims, not Kurds and Christians! ^[6] . " If earlier A.K. Kassem said that Arab-Kurdish unity is the cornerstone of Iraqi statehood, now the Kurds were invited to dissolve into the Iraqi nation. In December, fleeing repression, the leaders of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan leave the capital and find refuge in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.

In 1961, Kassem decides to end the “Kurdish issue” and concentrates troops in Kurdistan. In June, the prime minister does not accept representatives of Kurdish parties. The bombing of Kurdistan begins on September 7, and on September 11, Mustafa Barzani launched a new uprising and called on the Kurds to arms. Thus began a grandiose movement that went down in Kurdish history under the name of the September 11th Revolution. The Iraqi army, having multiple numerical and absolute technical superiority, hoped to quickly defeat the Kurds. However, using partisan methods of struggle, they began to inflict one defeat after another. In a short time, Barzani managed to oust government troops from the mountains and completely take control of Kurdistan ^[7] .

The struggle on the domestic front

The first issue on which the struggle unfolded as early as July 1958 was Iraq's accession to the United Arab Republic (UAR) , which had just been created by Egypt and Syria. The nationalists and leaders of the Ba'ath party, who believed in the Arab unification, advocated joining. Communists opposed. Qassem vehemently opposed such a union. His position was explained by the fact that he did not want to turn Iraq into another part of a large state under the leadership of Egypt, obeying Nasser, whom he did not like and was afraid of. In an effort to distance himself from the Communists, Kassem began repression against the left. Then, immediately after the revolution, a struggle began between Kassem and his associate Aref, who also advocated an alliance with Egypt. The latter lost the struggle for power in September 1958. He was removed from all posts and dismissed. Two months later, he tried to organize a coup with two dozen officers. The coup failed, 19 officers were executed. Aref was sentenced to death, but Kassem pardoned him and sent him as ambassador to Germany. Subsequently, his secret services uncovered another 29 conspiracies against him ^{[8] [9]}

But the struggle for power sharply escalated when on March 5-6, 1959, the Iraqi Communist Party (IKP) organized in the third largest city in Iraq - Mosul , the main bastion of Ba'athism, the Great Peace Festival. By the beginning of the festival, 250 thousand activists of the ICP arrived in the city. The day after the festival, when most of the participants left the city, the military command of the local garrison rebelled under pan-Arab slogans. On the streets of the city began an armed struggle between communists, pan-Arabists, Christians, Turkmens, Arabs and others. While there was a struggle in Mosul between the main rivals - the Communists and the pan-Arabists, Qassem did not intervene to put an end to the rebel officers, Arab nationalists and supporters of the Muslim brotherhood with the help of left-wing forces. On March 8, government troops launched an assault on Mosul, and by the next day, the army and armed Communist squads brutally crushed him. Rape, murder, robbery, group trials and executions in the presence of jubilant crowds followed. Hundreds of people lost their lives, most of them Arab nationalists. It is believed that the executions following the suppression of the rebellion were the cause of the attempted assassination attempt on Kassem ^[10] .

A month later, another bloodshed occurred. On the first anniversary of the Iraqi revolution in Kirkuk , a large demonstration of Kurds took place to express their support for Abdel Qassim. But instead of the rally, a mixed uprising of Kurds, Communists, Muslim factions and army forces in the Kirkuk region began. Only by July 20, the uprising was crushed by government troops with heavy losses.

Relations with neighbors

Despite numerous conspiracies and repeated assassination attempts, A.K. Kasem was able to strengthen his power, weakening both the Baathists and the Communists. This allowed him to intensify foreign policy, which, however, led to an aggravation of relations with neighbors.

Jordan

After the overthrow of the Hashemist dynasty in Iraq, the King of Jordan, Hussein, formally having that reason, proclaimed himself the head of the Arab Federation on July 14 and tried to organize an intervention in Iraq with the aim of overthrowing the regime of A.K. Qassem. British troops began to arrive in Jordan, and soon the British troops secured all strategically important objects of the country. July 15, Iraq announced the denunciation of the treaty on the Arab Federation ^[11] .

Iran

During his tenure as prime minister, Abdel Qassim began to set the stage for the Iran-Iraq war. At the end of 1959, a conflict broke out between Iraq and Iran over shipping along the Shatt al-Arab river. Baghdad accused Iran of violating the Iran-Iraq agreement of 1937. On December 18, he stated:

After that, Iraq began to support the separatists in Khuzistan and even declared its territorial claims at the next meeting of the League of Arab States ^[12]

Kuwait

On April 19, 1961, after lengthy negotiations between Great Britain and Kuwait, an interstate agreement was signed to cancel the Anglo-Kuwait Treaty of 1899, and the emirate gained political independence. Qassem became the first Iraqi leader to not recognize Kuwait as an independent state. On June 25, 1961, he declared Kuwait part of the territory of Iraq and encouraged him to reunite. The commander of the Iraqi armed forces, General A. Saleh al-Abdi, stated the readiness of the Iraqi army at any moment to carry out the annexation of Kuwait. In the face of a threat from Iraq, Britain sent troops to Kuwait. A month later, Kuwait requested the UN Security Council to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Council to discuss “Kuwait’s complaint regarding the situation caused by Iraq’s threats to Kuwait’s territorial independence that could undermine international peace and security.” Kuwait was supported by a number of Arab countries.

On August 13, parts of the Arab armies (Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia), led by Saudi Arabia, arrived in Kuwait and defended themselves to repel possible aggression from Iraq, after which Britain withdrew its troops from Kuwait. But the Iraqi government continued to aggravate the situation, and then at the end of December, the United Kingdom sent naval forces to the Persian Gulf in connection with the threats of Iraqi Prime Minister to annex Kuwait. Baghdad said in December that it would “review” diplomatic relations with all states that recognize Kuwait. As more and more countries recognized Kuwait, many Iraqi ambassadors from different countries returned home. The aggressive policies of the Iraqi government plunged the country into isolation among the Arab world. Threats to Kuwait from the northern neighbor, which is gaining strength, temporarily ceased only after the fall of the Kassem regime ^[13] .

The new Ba'ath party, which was just beginning to form and was then not numerous (in 1958, it had about three hundred members), decided to come to power and change the political regime. To begin with, however, General Kasem had to be removed. On October 7, a group of conspirators tried to kill the country's prime minister, among them was the young Saddam Hussein . Saddam did not enter the main group of the assassins, but stood in cover. But his nerves could not stand it, and when he put the whole operation under attack, he opened fire on the general’s car when it was just approaching. As a result, the driver of the prime minister was killed, but A.K. Kasem, seriously wounded, survived. Saddam himself, slightly injured, managed to escape through Syria to Egypt. Three weeks later, the prime minister was discharged from the hospital. Then all of Iraq heard about the Ba'ath party and its fighter Saddam Hussein, the future president of Iraq. After the assassination attempt, the Ba'ath party was banned, seventeen Ba'athists were sentenced to death and shot. Most others received different sentences. The court sentenced Saddam Hussein to death - in absentia. [one]

General Qassem was very popular among the people. In early 1963, he boasted that he had successfully survived 38 assassination attempts and conspiracies. However, former associates continued the fight against Kassem. Rapprochement with the Communists, as well as the Kurdish uprising in 1961 and student strikes in 1962 further weakened the Kasem regime. General Aref returned from exile. He entered into a secret alliance with the Ba'ath Party and on February 8, 1963, they made a military coup. On the morning of this day, parts of the Baghdad garrison opposed a self-discredited government. Upon learning of the start of the rebellion, Abdel Kerim Qassem barricaded himself in the Ministry of Defense with his guards reinforced by loyal soldiers and officers. The communists came to his aid. Together with Kassem’s supporters, they came out with sticks in their hands against tanks and machine guns, but the forces were unequal. At the same time, Iraqi air force fighters took off from the Habania military base and bombarded the ministry. Two days in the streets of Baghdad were bloody battles. Kassem got in touch with the putschists and offered to surrender in exchange for life, which he was promised. The next day, February 9, Abdel Kerim Qassem left his building with his generals and other supporters and surrendered to the putschists. After that, he and two other generals, Tahu al-Sheikh Ahmed and Fadil al-Mahdawi, were put in an armored personnel carrier and brought to the television and radio building, where the coup organizers Abdel Salam Aref and Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr were waiting for them. A quick trial was organized over them, lasting 40 minutes, which sentenced them to death.

Three people were brought to a nearby television studio and tied to chairs. Before being shot, they offered to blindfold, but they refused. They read the death sentence, after which the Prime Minister and two of his generals were shot. The corpse of Abdel Qasem was seated on a chair in front of a television camera and shown throughout the country. The bloodied corpse of the "sole leader" was broadcast on television for several days so that people could be convinced that General Kassem was really dead. Next to the corpse stood a soldier who took the dead head of government by the hair, threw his head back and spat on his face.

First, the ousted prime minister was buried in an anonymous grave somewhere south of Baghdad. But one of his supporters found the burial place and reburied elsewhere. As a result, the government dug up Kassem’s body and buried in a secret place that no one could find. On July 17, 2004, Minister of Human Rights Amin Bakhtiyar stated that they managed to find the secret burial of the former prime minister. The grave was discovered after a three-month search according to the testimony of one of the inhabitants of Baghdad. In addition to Abdel Kerim Qasem, the bodies of three generals executed with him were also discovered. Four corpses were dressed in military uniforms. Traces of torture were found on the remains, this suggests that all the victims were tortured before death. The grave was located in an agricultural area north of Baghdad, on the way to the city of Baakuba . The found bodies were sent for DNA analysis and after their confirmation, the corpses were finally buried. ^[14]

• Ala Bashir . The inner circle of Saddam Hussein . - St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2006.