Bakr Sidqi - Biography

Biography

Bakr Sidqi was born to Kurdish family in ‘Askar, a Kurdish village or in Baghdad. He had purposefully exploited his birthplace according to political necessities. Like many ambitious men who lived in the Ottoman Empire, Sidqi joined the Ottoman army as a young man. At a young age he was sympathetic to already an Arab nationalism favoring freeing the Arab lands from Ottoman domination, he nonetheless spent formative years in what was essentially the colonial army. Having studied at the Military College in Istanbul and graduated as a second lieutenant, he fought in the Balkan Wars and joined the Staff College in Istanbul, graduating in 1915.

During World War I with the outbreak of the Arab Revolt, Sidqi joined Faisal's army in Syria and served in Aleppo with a number of other Sharifian officers. From 1919 to 1920 he served as an intelligence agent of the British military forces and was later recommended by the British General Staff in 1921 to an officer rank in the Iraqi army after the collapse of Faisal's kingdom in Syria. His plan was to one day be the Chief of the General Staff but was met with opposition by some Iraqi’s who accused him of pushing for a “pro-Kurdish policy”. In response, Sidqi highlighted his half-Arab origins, linking himself with familial ties with Ja’far al-Askari. He later attended the British Staff College and was considered one of Iraq's most competent officers. He lectured in the military school and achieved the rank of colonel in 1928 and brigadier general in 1933.

In August 1933 Sidqi ordered the Iraqi Army to march to the north to crush so-called "militant Assyrian separatists", in the town of Simele, near Mosul, which led to 3,000 Assyrian civilians being killed throughout the region in the Simele massacre. As a result of his accomplishments, Sidqi received praise from the British in 1934 as being described as ‘the best commander in the Iraqi army and the most efficient one. In 1935, he cracked down on the Shia Arab tribal rebellions at al-Rumaitha and al-Diwaniya with unprecedented harshness.