Hardan at-Tikriti

Hardan ʿAbd al-Ghaffar at-Tikriti ( Arabic حردان عبدالغفار التكريتي; born 1925 in Tikrit , Iraq ; died March 30, 1971 in Kuwait ) was a senior commander in the rank of lieutenant general of the Iraqi Air Force , Iraqi politician of the Ba'ath party and ambassador, who was murdered on the orders of Saddam Hussein . He was Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and Vice President of Iraq.

Hardan at-Tikriti

Life

Hardan at-Tikriti was born in 1925 to a police officer. Like many men from simple backgrounds in Tikrit , he became a soldier in the Iraqi army. He completed his military pilot training in Baghdad and officially joined the Ba'ath Party in 1961. He played a key role in the coups in 1963 and 1968. After the military coup on November 18, 1963 , he took command of the Iraqi Air Force. When Abd al-Salam Arif became President of Iraq, Hardan sided with moderate Baathists such as Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and received the post of Defense Minister, which he held until March 1964, when Arif left office was pushed.

In a bloodless coup in July 1968, Hardan was tasked with informing President Abd ar-Rahman Arif of his removal. Hardan persuaded Arif to retire to London and personally escorted him to the airport. After the coup he regained his old positions as defense minister and head of the air force, and in this position he obtained generous military aid from the Soviet Union . At the same time he became deputy prime minister and deputy supreme commander, making him one of the three most powerful men in Iraq. All three came from Tikrit, the other two were Saddam Hussein and Bakr, who in turn began to intrigue against Hardan because he enjoyed the most support in the army. Subsequently, Hardan's conflicts with the then Interior Minister Salih Adhi Ammash (1924–1985), supported by Saddam Hussein, led to the dismissal of the two, who received posts as vice-presidents.

In 1969, Hardan tried to exploit his position of power by convincing Bakr to send Saddam into exile after he had humiliated him in front of the Command Council . Saddam got on a plane but returned after a week planning revenge. First, he took over the title of Vice President in his own office as President. Hardan was reappointed vice-president, but was powerless because he could no longer control the cabinet meetings. On October 15, 1970, Hardan was finally disempowered: he was dismissed from his positions as Minister of Defense, Vice President and member of the Command Council. The reason was the accusation that he was neglecting the efforts of the Baath party in favor of the Arabs. H. he disregards the Baathist oath to protect the Palestinians . This was based on his refusal to carry out Saddam Hussein's order to deploy an Iraqi brigade in Black September to protect the Palestinians from the Jordanian government. He was put on a plane and first sent to Madrid . After an unsuccessful return a few weeks later, he was sent to Algeria as the Iraqi ambassador . After he was not accepted there, he was appointed ambassador to Sweden . Dissatisfied with this deportation, he flew to Kuwait , where he tried to initiate a coup d'état against al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein. On March 30, 1971, Hardan at-Tikriti was murdered in Kuwait on the orders of Saddam Hussein.

He was buried in Tikrit. His grave was destroyed by an ISIS explosive device in November 2014 .

literature

• Tareq Y. Ismael, Jacqueline S. Ismael: Politics and Government in the Middle East and North Africa . Florida International University Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0-813-01062-5 .
• Spencer C. Tucker (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars . (Online: Michael K. Beauchamp, pp. 1240–1241 )