Golden square
As a golden square ( Arabic المربع الذهبي, DMG al-Murabbaʿ aḏ-ḏahabī ) was designated a group of conspirators around four senior officers in the Kingdom of Iraq . The group occupied central command posts in the Iraqi army and formed an independent center of power apart from the pro-British politicians of the Hashemite kingdom. During the Second World War , the group supported the pro-German military coup in Iraq in 1941 under Prime Minister Rashid Ali al-Gailani . The group was crushed after the defeat of the putschists in 1942.
background
The Kingdom of Iraq was a client state of Great Britain . Arab nationalist views became popular in the kingdom's officer corps during the 1930s. Their political ideas were oriented more and more towards National Socialism , for which the German ambassador to Iraq Fritz Grobba advertised in military circles. The army's ruling elite had a power structure outside of the official ranks. This was accepted as a fact by civil politicians like Prime Minister Nuri al-Said . During the 1930s, the monarchist prime minister supported the officers' position of power with the aim of politically pacifying the army. The most powerful clique in the army was the Golden Square around Colonels Salah ad-Din as-Sabbagh , Fahmi Sa'id , Mahmud Salman and Kamil Schahib . Before the outbreak of World War II, the clique rose to a central position in Iraqi politics.
Second World War
After the outbreak of World War II, the British government tried to persuade the Iraqi government to enter the war. The neutrality policy pursued by the government rekindled nationalist and pro-German ambitions. The officers of the Golden Square allied themselves with the pro-German nationalist politician and carried out a military coup in 1941. This was put down by British troops. In 1942 Prime Minister Nuri al-Said declared war on the Axis powers. Three out of four members of the Golden Square were charged with high treason and executed. The decisive factor in participating in the coup was a failed attempt by Prime Minister Taha al-Haschimi Sabbagh to transfer to another post. The officers were able to bring down al-Hashimi's government, clearing the way for al-Gailani's government.
The four officers of the Golden Square fled abroad, but were expelled from Iran, or in one case Turkey , and transferred to the British.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Charles Tripp: Iraq - A History. 2nd edition, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 98f
- ↑ Adeed Daweesha: Iraq: A Political History from Independence to Occupation. Princeton, 2009, p. 159
- ↑ Hala Mundhir Fattah, Frank Caso: A Brief History of Iraq. New York, 2009, p. 177
- ^ Daniel Silverfarb: Britain's Informal Empire in the Middle East: A Case Study of Iraq 1929-1941. Oxford, 1986, pp. 121-123
- ^ Michael Eppel: The Palestine Conflict in the History of Modern Iraq: The Dynamics of Involvement 1928-1948. Chapter 6: Excursus: Iraq and the Second World War. Abingdon, 1994, unpaged e-book