Navigating the Kurdish-Iraqi Civil War: Barzani, Communists, Aghas & Qasim (1961-63)

Today's voicemail is taken from p.225 of Claire Hollingworth's article in 'World Today'.

The Iraqi and Kurdish saga continues! I begin with a quick recap of last episode's story and we get right into Barzani's return to Iraq, how the Kurdish Democratic Party and Iraqi Communist Party continued to affect Kurdish-Arab dynamics, and the different approaches Karim Qasim took to navigate the drama of Iraq's ever changing political scene.

We end by talking about Qasim's depressing downfall, the tentative position the Kurds find themselves in when the 'Arif brothers carry out the Ramadan Revolution in 1963, ushering in a new phase of Iraqi politics. The Kurdish-Iraqi war continues...

As ever, let me know what you think of the episode!

References:

Rubin, Avshalom H. "Abd al-Karim Qasim and the kurds of Iraq: Centralization, resistance and revolt, 1958–63." Middle Eastern Studies 43.3 (2007): 353-382.

Hollingworth, Clare. "The Ba'athist revolution in Iraq." The World Today 19.5 (1963): 225-230.

Degli Esposti, Nicola. "Land reform and Kurdish nationalism in postcolonial Iraq." Middle East Critique (2022): 1-17.