Ali Askari

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Ali Askari (also: Elî Eskerî , Sorani عەلی عەسکەری; * 1936 Goptapa in Iraq ; † 1978 in Iraq ) was a Kurdish guerrilla leader and politician in Iraq .

Childhood and youth

Askari was born in Goptapa, Iraq, in 1936. His family originally came from Sergelu in the Jafati Valley, but his great-grandfather's father moved to Askar. His father founded the village of Goptapa in 1916. Askari was the youngest of ten siblings. Because there were no schools in his home village, he had to go to school in the neighboring villages of Askar and Aghjalal. After graduating from middle school, he moved to Kirkuk to live with his uncle, Sheikh Raza (or Mame Riza ), a former Naqschbandi cleric. Because his uncle was leading a split from the Naqschbandi order, the Haqqa movement, he was arrested in 1944, but released under pressure from his supporters.

Political career

Askari joined the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DKP) at the age of 17 . After finishing school, he wanted to attend a military academy or an engineering school. The DPK, however, sent him to Mosul as their representative , so he could no longer attend a higher school.

When the first Barzani revolt broke out on September 11, 1961, Askari led the DPK Peshmerga in the Badinan region. He became the youngest member of the DPK's leadership group. Its popularity grew during the last Barzani Revolt 1974-75. Because of his optimism, courage, energy and military prowess, he became very popular. After the suppression of this uprising, he and other PDK cadres founded the Socialist Movement in 1975 , which soon joined the PUK , which was also newly founded and continued the Kurdish guerrilla struggle. He became one of their main military commanders. In 1978 the PUK and the DPK, which had remained loyal to Barzani's sons, got into a serious military conflict, the Hekkarî War , in which both sides fought for hegemony in the Kurdish movement in Iraq. Askari was captured in the process and after the capture of DPK-Peshmerga was killed with a bazooka. The brutality of his execution is interpreted as revenge for having questioned the honor of this party as an apostate DPK member.

Web links

  • Biography on the website of PUK Leadership Council (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin van Bruinessen : Agha, Sheik and State - Politics and Society of Kurdistan . 2nd Edition. Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-88402-259-8 , p. 497
  2. ^ PUK Leadership Council , History of the PUK, Socialist Movement. ( Memento of the original from February 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pukpb.org
  3. ↑ Andrea Fischer-Tahir: "We gave many martyrs". Resistance and collective identity building in Iraqi Kurdistan . Münster 2003, ISBN 978-3-89771-015-3 , pp. 66, 72
personal data
SURNAME Askari, Ali
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eskerî, Elî
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kurdish politician and guerrilla leader in Iraq
DATE OF BIRTH 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Goptapa
DATE OF DEATH 1978
Place of death Iraq