Abdul Karim Qassim
Abdul Karim Qassim (
Arabic:
عبد الكريم قاسم ) (also various other spellings; including Kassem, Quasim; popularly known as
"az-Za‘īm" (
Arabic:
الزعيم ) "the leader") (
1914 –
February 9,
1963) was an
Iraqi military officer involved in the
1958 military
coup d'état. Named
Prime Minister of Iraq, Qassim associated himself with the ordinary Iraqi people. He was seen as humble and tolerant. His speeches were full of populist rhetoric, which he put into practice by confiscating the wealth of several rich pro-monarchy families.
He was born in
Baghdad and graduated from the Baghdad Military College. By
1955 he was a high-ranking military officer and by
1957 he was the paramount figure in an army faction opposed to the monarchy.
On
14 July 1958, Qassim and his followers used troop movements planned by the government as an opportunity to seize military control of
Baghdad and overthrew the monarchy. This resulted in the executions of several members of the royal family and their close associates, including the reviled
Nuri as-Said).
After the Military Uprising, Qassim assumed the post of
Prime Minister and Defence Minister, while Colonel
Abdul Salam Arif was selected Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister. They became the highest authority in Iraq with both executive and legislative powers.
Qassim soon withdrew Iraq from the pro-Western
Baghdad Pact and established friendly relations with the
Soviet Union. Iraq also abolished its Treaty of mutual security and bilateral relations with
Britain. Also, Iraq withdrew from the agreement with the
United States that was signed by the monarchy from 1954 to 1955 regarding military, arms, and equipment. On
May 30,
1959, the last of the British soldiers and military officers departed the al-Habbāniyya base in Iraq.
On
July 26,
1958, the Interim Constitution was adopted, proclaiming the equality of all Iraqi citizens under the law and granting them freedom without regard to race, nationality, language or religion. The government freed political prisoners and granted amnesty to the Kurds who participated in the 1943 to 1945 Kurdish uprisings. The exiled Kurds returned home and were welcomed by the republican regime.
He lifted a ban on the
Iraqi Communist Party, and demanded the annexation of
Kuwait. He was also involved in the 1958 Agrarian Reform, modeled after the
Egyptian experiment of 1952.
However, by 1959 Qassim moved against the Communist Party, removing its supporters from government and purging its activists from the Army. He also suppressed the party's mass organisations of students, workers and women and prevented the printing and distribution of its newspapers. The
Iraqi Communist Party championed Qassim throughout his rule, despite the steps he took against it. It later appeared that Qassim's suppression of Communist Party activity was his biggest mistake, since he was left with no means to mobilise ordinary people to defend his regime when the
Ba'ath Party launched a coup in 1963.
Qassim worked to improve the position of ordinary people in Iraq, after the long period of self-interested rule by a small elite under the monarchy which had resulted in widespread social unrest. Among his accomplishments was the large-scale construction of housing for the urban working classes. The most notable example, and indeed symbol, of this was the new suburb of Baghdad named
Madinat al-Thawra (revolution city), renamed Saddam City under the Baath regime and now widely referred to as Sadr City.
Iran and the Kurdish Revolts
During his term in office, he is also blamed to have paved the ground for the
Iran-Iraq war. On
December 18,
1959, Abdul Karim Qassim declared:
We do not wish to refer to the history of Arab tribes residing in Al-Ahwaz and Mohammareh [Khorramshahr]. The Ottomans handed over Mohammareh, which was part of Iraqi territory, to Iran.After this, Iraq started supporting secessionist movements in
Khuzestan, and even raised the issue of its territorial claims in the next meeting of the
Arab League, without any success
It was also during his rule as Prime Minister that confrontation with the Kurdish minority started. The new Government declared
Kurdistan "one of the two nations of Iraq." During his rule, the Kurdish groups selected
Mustafa Barzani to negotiate with the government, seeking a solution to the Kurdish issue.
After a period of relative calm, the issue of Kurdish autonomy (or self-rule) went unfulfilled, sparking discontent and eventual rebellion among the Kurds in 1961.
Beginning in 1963, the Syrian Army and Air Force units assisted the Iraqi military in fighting against the Kurds.
Pan-Arab revolts and overthrow
A
neutralist as well as a
nationalist, there was much debate during his tenure over whether Iraq should join the
United Arab Republic, led by
Gamal Abdel Nasser. Having dissolved the
Arab Union with the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Qassim refused entry into the federation, although his government recognized the republic and considered joining it later.
A major concern of the pan-Arabists was the repression of the Iraqi branch of the
Baath Party.
An
assassination attempt in
1959 by dedicated
pan-Arabists (including
Saddam Hussein) led to a harsh crackdown on domestic opposition and the development of a
personality cult. Qassim was a strong opponent of British military intervention in the Middle East, and repeatedly called for the removal of foreign troops.
Rebellions in
Mosul and
Iraqi Kurdistan, allegedly assisted by Nasser and the UAR, also complicated political matters. A second assassination attempt, motivated by suspected
Communist influence and state control over the
petroleum sector, was carried out with the backing of the British government and the American
CIA in
1963.[
1] [
2] On
9 February 1963.
Death
Qassim was executed at the age of 49 after another coup, this one receiving support from pan-Arabist elements who had received support from Egypt.
In
July 2004, Qassim's body was discovered by a news team associated with Radio Dijla in Baghdad.
* He is still praised for his unselfishness by the Iraqi people: It is said that he died without owning anything, that he slept in his office in the
Ministry of Defence and he used to give half his salary to his sister to cook lunches for him.
*
Institute for War and Peace Reporting article on discovery of Qassim's body
