Ali Askari

Ali Askari (1936 – 1978) was a Kurdish politician.^[1] His political party was Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Early life and family

He was born in 1936 in the village of Goptapa in Kurdistan. The family is originally from Sargalo, but his great-grandfather moved to Askar. In early 1916 Ali Askari's father built a village which today is called Goptapa. He was the youngest among seven brothers and three sisters. Since there were no schools in Goptapa, he had to move to Askar to study at the age of seven. He stayed in Askar until he was in the third grade, then moved to Agjalal to study in his fourth and fifth grade for his last year in middle school. At the same time, he moved to Kirkuk to his uncle Sheik Raza, who was leading the Naqshbandi branch. He was also a Kurdish politician.

Organizations

The family had started out as a Naqshbandi believers branch but created a new branch, Haqa, in the early 1900s. The English were opposed to the Haqa branch during the Iraq occupation. They also captured the branch's leaders twice. The first time they captured Sheik Abdul Karim (Ali Askari's uncle) in the 1930s. Haqa managed to release Sheik Abdul Karim in Kirkuk with the help of 20,000 of Haqa's followers. Ali Askari's other uncle Raza, based in Kalkasmag, was captured in the 1940s by the Iraqi Government under pressure of the British but again the Haqa branch succeeded in releasing another of their leaders with help by some 30,000 to 35,000 followers.

Political career

At the age of seventeen, Ali Askari became a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, also known as the KDP. After finishing high school, Ali Askari applied for military college, as well as a civil-engineering college, but the KDP asked him to move to Mosul and become the KDP’s representative, so he never went to college.

The Kurdish revolution started in 11 September 1961 and Ali Askari was asked to command the liberation of Zaxo, Duhok and the rest of the Bahdinan region. He was the youngest member of the KDP’s leading staff.

Military career

In the 1960s, Ali Askari led dozens of battles and had control of many different Peshmerga groups.

In 1975, Ali Askari asked Mustafa Barzani to continue the fighting with the Iraqi regime and stand up for the rights of the Kurds, however Mustafa Barzani disagreed. Ali Askari was one of the founders of a newly created party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, also known as the PUK, that would start a new revolution against Saddam Hussein and his regime.

These are stories that have been told about Ali Askari, but facts apparently do not exist.

Death

He was killed in an ambush, in 1978 during the battle of Hakkari.

References