Iraq Has Always Been Grappling With Coup d’etat

Ottoman Empire suffered defeat in August 1921, in other words during the World War I and even before the war ended, and the guardianship of the League of Nations was handed over to Britain in 1920 and event at that time Iraqi people did not come to terms with it and they staged public uprisings and they somewhat affected the British political strategy and ultimately, Britain retreated archly and declared Iraq as a semi-independent Hashemite Kingdom. So the British, by signing an accord with Iraq, handed over this British-backed monarchy to the Hashemite family.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

After signing the accord in 1932, it seemed that the Kingdom of Iraq had become independent. Iraq under semi-independent monarchy, ruled by Hashemite family, faced heavy domestic violence and chaos with penetration and dominance of Sunni community in the country which was encountered by the Yazidis, Assyrian and Shiites but all of those protests were responded with violent and harsh measures from the cruel and merciless rulers.

The first coup d’etat in Iraq occurred in 1936 when General Bakr Sidqi, who was in charge of military forces , decided to overthrow Prime Minister Yasin al-Hashim to bring his own Prime Minister into power. This coup in Iraq turned the condition into a culture and habit which increased the root of instability of the country in ethnics and owners of wealth who were reliant on Britain and the U.S. and later Saudi Arabia.

Aftermath of the first coup and due to political instability, several coups occurred in Iraq and the major coup happened in 1941 when Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani coup or the Golden Square coup, a nationalist and pro-Nazi Coup d’état in Iraq, overthrew the pro-British regime of Regent Abdullah and his Prime Minister Nuri al-Said and installed Rashid Ali al-Gaylani as Prime Minister. The change in government did not last too long and in less than one month the Allied Forces invaded the country and he suffered defeat in war against British forces.

After re-occupation of Iraq by British forces, the country was used as a base for attack on Syria which was run by a government under guardianship of Vichy France. By the way, Iraq was used as a base for launching attacks on Iran, supported by the Bolshevik Soviet Union government. It was then that leader of Iraqi Kurds Mostafa Barzani revolted against the central government in Baghdad but after suffering defeat he fled to the Soviet Unions in order to escape from being executed.

While the World War II was reaching its end in 1945 and days after Iraq joined the Unite Nations and became one of the founders of Arab League, a massive and violent protest erupted in the country, named “Vasbeh Intifada” (Jump Intifada), and it helped the Communists to take power in Baghdad and it was actually the victory of the Soviet Unions over Britain which influenced the elements in the monarchy and brought its Pro-Soviet men into power.

Iraq was experiencing tranquility and peace till King Hussein of Jordan along with Prince of Iraq Abdullah in February 1958 decided to unite the Hashemite Families in both countries in order to confront with the newly-established league between Egypt and Syria. This league had been formed since February 14, 1958 but in the same year and on July 14, 1958, the leftist Iraqi General Abd al-Karim Qasim carried out a coup against Faisal II, son of the then Hashemite king, and he killed Faisal II family members and Iraqi Prime Minister Pasha Nuri al-Said and according to some reports he dismembered their bodies and hanged them over the walls of Iraq Defense Ministry. Abd al-Karim Qasim was 44 at the time of coup.

During 1940-1946, Qasim progressed from a simple military man to the commander of the Iraqi army. He had managed to hide his leftist opinions from the pro-West and Britain Prime Minister Nuri al-Said for almost two decades of eventful Iraq, and with this leftist mindset he had been in charge of one of the most sensitive posts, namely Head of Iraq’s Armed Forces Headquarters, for years. Qasim’s coup made Moscow and Cairo happy and caused concerns for Tehran, Washington and London.

In February 1963, Baath Party in collaboration with some Iraq Army officers carried out the Abdul Salam Arif and Abdulrahman Arif coup against Qasim. The coup helped Saddam Hussein to return to Baghdad and to take the helm of secret security network of Baath Party (Special Devices). This happened concurrent with coming of Abdul Salam Arif to the power. In November 1963, Arif decided to prosecute Baath Party for its attempt for coup. So Baath Party was thrown out of the power by the end of 1963 but this party clandestinely began its efforts for attempting another coup and finally they carried out their coup attempt in 1968 and took the reins of the power in Iraq.

At first and after the coup, General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr took the power in the country and later after an internal coup, Saddam Hussein came to the power and the latter was killed by the U.S. forces attack. After Saddam collapse, a new Constitutions was prepared for Iraq where Shiites gained political power.

Now after Barham Salih from Kurdistan and Adil Abdul-Mahdi were named as Iraq President and Prime Minister, seemingly a new street violence and protest has forced Al-Mahdi to resign.

What is seen in Iraq under the name of public protests is a coup that the U.S., the UAE, Saudi Arabia and some groups in Kurdistan have hands in it. This coup has been planned in the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the UAE and the UAE was the center for masterminding the scheme. A number of officials like UAE’s Tahnoun bin Zayed as National Security Advisor and his Palestinian advisor Mohammad Dahlan (accused of having ties with Israel) have been responsible for planning the coup. The plot for the coup costs $150m and Iraq’s civil society which receives the financial support of the U.S. embassy is in charge of implementing the project. The most important issue is that the number of this civil society is over 50,000 in Iraq and they have received over $701m of aids just in 2019.

On Thursday and after recent riots in Iraq, some Iraqis poured into the streets of Baghdad in support of Shiite clerics and distanced their path from rioters and they hope Iraq President Salih, like before, would introduce a prime minister to the parliament and pave the ground for national unity and restoration of peace and order in the country.

 By: Hamid Reza Naghashian