Hamdi al-Pachachi

Hamdi al-Patschachi ( Arabic حمدي الباجه جي Hamdi al-Badschaji ; * 1886 in Baghdad ; † March 28, 1948 ) was a landowner and politician of the Kingdom of Iraq , who was considered pro-British and anti-French .

Life

Pachachi was born into a wealthy family in Baghdad who, like Muzahim el Patchachi, belonged to the Abdah branch of the Shammar tribe. Hamdi al-Patschatschi studied law at the Mekteb-i Mülkiye in Constantinople until 1909 . He then taught at the College of Law in Baghdad from 1913 to 1916. In Constantinople (since 1930 Istanbul ) he joined the Arab nationalist Covenant Society.

On his return to Baghdad, he called for the decentralization of the Ottoman Empire . Because of his involvement in the anti-British uprising in 1920 Pachachi was arrested and exiled to Handscha, an island in the Persian Gulf . After the British released him, he worked with them from 1925 onwards under the British “Mesopotamia” mandate . In the cabinet of Abd al-Muhsin al-Sa'dun Pachachi became Minister for waqf in 1925 , which he remained until 1926. Then he devoted himself to agriculture.

In 1935 he was elected a member of the Iraqi parliament . In 1941 he became Minister of Social Welfare, and in 1943 he was elected President of the Chamber of Commerce. On June 4, 1944, the conservative politician was appointed Prime Minister of Iraq by the regent Abd ul-Ilah . He succeeded Nuri as-Said in this office , who had resigned because of a dispute with the regent over domestic political reforms. Pachachi's first cabinet failed in August of this year due to a dispute between his foreign and defense ministers and the British, who were in control of the country's external relations, over the reorganization of the army. Immediately afterwards, however, he was appointed prime minister a second time. The cabinet under his leadership decided on a minor land reform at Dujaila near Kut , in which land was divided by large landowners among small farmers. This remained the only such reform of the Iraqi monarchy. Pachachi, himself a large landowner, acted mostly conservatively and tried to delay social and economic changes. In essence, however, Iraq's policy was determined by the regent during his reign.

After the end of the Second World War it became clear that the British troops would soon withdraw from the quasi-occupied country. The overwhelming role of Great Britain in the country was now increasingly called into question. Abd-ul-Ilah responded by promising major reforms over the head of his prime minister. Hamdi al-Pachachi, with no support from the press or parliament, then chose to resign in January 1946.

Hamdi al-Patschatschi campaigned against Nuri al-Said to strengthen the Arab League, which was founded in 1945 . In a letter to US President Harry S. Truman on October 4, 1945 sentenced Pachachi to Zionism and declined to immigration of Jews to Palestine from. At the same time he emphasized the friendship of the Iraqi people with the Americans.

In 1948, Pachachi was reappointed Foreign Minister by Prime Minister Muhammad al-Sadr, blaming US President Truman for the Palestinian War . After a few months in office, he died of a heart attack while still serving as foreign minister.

His nephew Adnan Pachachi also became Iraq's foreign minister in 2003 after the overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein and his prime minister Ahmad Hussein Chudair .

swell

• Ghareeb, Edmund A. Historical Dictionary of Iraq , p. 179.Scarecrow Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8108-4330-7 .
• Matthew Elliot: Independent Iraq: British Influence from 1941-1958. IB Tauris Publishers, London 1996. ISBN 978-1-85043-729-1 .
• Michael Eppel: Iraqi Politics and Regional Policies, 1945–1949. Middle Eastern Studies 28 (1), 1992): 108-119.

Individual evidence

1. ^ International Forum should tackle problems , Glasgow Herald, October 4, 1945.