Tahir Yahya

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Tahir Yahya (1965)

Tahir Yahya ( Arabic طاهر يحيى, DMG Ṭāhir Yaḥyā ; * 1913 , Tikrit ; † 1986 ) was an Iraqi general and twice Prime Minister of Iraq between 1963 and 1968 under both Arif presidents. He belonged to the Shaya'ishah clan of Tikrit Province .

As an officer, Yahya was already involved in the revolution of July 14, 1958 , but fell out of favor in 1959 after an attempted coup against Abd al-Karim Qasim . On behalf of the conspirators, he contacted the KDP and Kurdish leader Molla Mustafa Barzani in order to ensure his neutrality in the fall of Qasim. After the Ba'athists seized power on February 8, 1963 and Qasim was assassinated, Yahya joined the Ba'ath Party , was promoted to chief of staff and, ultimately in vain, negotiated with Barzani for Prime Minister Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr to end the Kurdish uprising.

During the power struggles in November 1963 , Yahya was excluded from the Ba'ath Party, on November 20, 1963, by President Abd al-Salam Arif, instead of the deposed al-Bakr, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense and on May 8, 1964, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense . He ordered the dissolution of the Ba'ath National Guard and joined the Arab Socialist Union created by Arif based on the Nassist model . Yahya campaigned for a return to parliamentarianism , the abolition of martial law and the dissolution of the Revolutionary Command Council . The Kurdish leaders were released as well as imprisoned Baathists ( Saddam Hussein ), but the war in Kurdistan broke out again on April 4, 1965, and Yahya's forces failed to defeat the rebels.

Yahya nationalized some insurance companies, banks and large companies in the steel industry, Arif proclaimed the "Socialist and Democratic Republic of Iraq" and proclaimed the construction of an Arab socialism based on the Egyptian model. For this purpose, a joint Presidential Council and a United Political Leadership with Egypt were formed and the Egyptian national anthem and the Egyptian heraldic eagle were adopted.

For Germany, the most important highlight in Yahya's first term in office was the breaking off of diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany on May 12, 1965 as a reaction to the German recognition of Israel . Nasser's Egypt and all Arab states followed the Iraqi model one day later, after Nasser had already received GDR state and party leader Walter Ulbricht on a state visit in the spring . (Incidentally, in 1969 Iraq will also be the first Arab country to diplomatically recognize the GDR.) After Yahya's government alliance with the Arab nationalists (Nasserists) was broken in July 1965, President Arif also initially dropped him and replaced Yahya on September 6, 1965 by the Nassist Air Force General Arif Abd ar-Razzaq .

After two coup attempts by ar-Razzaq, the change of president under Prime Minister Abd ar-Rahman al-Bazzaz , the failure of the government of General Naji Talib (Yahya's Foreign Minister 1964-65) and the Arab defeat in the Six Day War , he was appointed by the new President Abd ar-Rahman Arif on July 10, 1967 again to head the cabinet. Yahya's "government of military rescue" continued its anti-imperialist course and also broke off relations with the US and Great Britain. With Soviet help, Yahya pursued a more independent oil policy, opened up the North Rumaila oil field and pushed back the Iraqi Petroleum Company .

However, he was unable to cope with the economic corruption and discontent of the military. After an ultimatum from Baathist and nationalist officers to Arif, Yahya resigned on July 15, 1968 to clear the way for al-Bakr. Arif did not react, however, and on July 17 al-Bakr finally seized power in a bloodless coup. Yahya allegedly went into exile with Arif, where he is believed to have died in 1986. Most likely, however, Yahya ended his life in an Iraqi prison.