Arif Abd ar-Razzaq

Arif Abd ar-Razzaq , also Aref Abd er-Razzak ( Arabic عارف عبد الرزاق, English Arif Abdul Razzak , * 1914 or 1921 with Ramadi , Iraq ; † 2007 in Berkshire , UK ), was an Iraqi general and politician.

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Arif Abd ar-Razzaq

After school, ar-Razzaq attended the Baghdad Military Academy. The air force officer (brigadier general) trained in the then British Air Force in 1943 became commander of the important Habbaniya air force base and finally brigadier general after the revolution of 1958 . As an ardent supporter of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and as a representative of the Arab striving for unity , he was initially dismissed in 1959 for participating in an attempted coup in 1959, but rehabilitated again in 1962. He was the leader of the Nassist wing of the quarreling officer corps and had already participated in both the Ba'ath coup of February 8, 1963 and the military coup of November 18, 1963 against the Ba'ath government. He then became a member of the Arab Socialist Union of Iraq founded by the ex-Ba'athist Fuad ar-Rikabi and Brigadier General Abdul Karim Farhan .

As part of the unification plans agreed between Egypt and Iraq in 1964, ar-Razzaq was appointed Prime Minister of Iraq on September 6, 1965 by President Abd al-Sallam Arif . He replaced the ex-Ba'athist Tahir Yahya , who had led a government coalition with the Nasserists since 1964 and who had raised ar-Razzaq to the Revolutionary Council as the new commander of the Air Force . This coalition collapsed in July 1965 with the resignation of the Nassist ministers (ar-Rikabi, Farhan & Co.). Ar-Razzaq became Prime Minister and Defense Minister and thus also a member of the United Political Leadership with Egypt.

Dissatisfied with the slow unification process with Egypt, ar-Razzaq dared to attempt a coup against Arif on September 12, 1965 after only one week in office. While President Arif was on a state visit abroad, an Iraqi MiG fighter plane bombed the presidential palace and parts of the capital. After the coup failed, ar-Razzaq went into hiding and fled to Egypt. He was replaced as prime minister by Abd ar-Rahman al-Bazzaz . On October 29, 1965, an attempted coup by ASU General Secretary Abdul Karim Farhan also failed. Secretly returned from exile in Egypt, ar-Razzaq tried again barely ten months after the first coup on June 30, 1966. President Arif had already died in April 1966. His brother and successor Abd ar-Rahman Arif had Prime Minister Bazzaz start reconciliation negotiations with the Kurds, which ar-Razzaq saw at the expense of an All-Arab unity. He was again able to go into hiding and flee the country, but this time he was sentenced to death in absentia. Then he returned, was arrested, pardoned, and released and deported in 1967.

Once again secretly returned to Iraq, he, together with Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and Naji Talib, issued an ultimatum to Arif in July 1968 to use another coup. After the Ba'ath Party came to power, ar-Razzaq was first arrested and sentenced to death again in October 1968, but then released in January 1969 and exiled to Egypt, while ar-Rikabi perished in prison in 1971.

In exile in Britain, ar-Razzaq joined the Iraqi National Congress .

See also

• Arab Nationalists Movement
• Yassem Alwan

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• Lothar Rathmann (Ed.): History of the Arabs - From the beginnings to the present , Volume 6, page 207. Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1983
• Gustav Fochler-Hauke (Ed.): Der Fischer Weltalmanach 1967 , page 169. Frankfurt am Main 1966
• Dr. Werner Rosenberg : Die Welt - data, facts, information from 1964 . Dietz Verlag Berlin 1965
• Dr. Werner Rosenberg : Die Welt - data, facts, information from 1965 . Dietz Verlag Berlin 1966
• Dr. Werner Rosenberg : Die Welt - data, facts, information from 1966 . Dietz Verlag Berlin 1967
• Marion and Peter Sluglett: Iraq since 1958 - From Revolution to Dictatorship . Suhrkamp Frankfurt 1991
• Charles William Richard Long: Bygone heat: travels in the Middle East, Volume 2000, page 98f in the Google book search,