The Second and Third Offensives in Iraq: 1963–65

Abstract

On 8 February 1963 the Baathist Party — in league with the Free Officers Movement in Iraq — mounted a coup, in which President Kassem was killed and replaced by a national council. Colonel Abdul Salem Aref soon became president. Kassem had initially been friendly towards Iraqi Kurds but had subsequently adopted a hard line against them, so they now hoped for more sympathetic treatment. They were to be disappointed. Talks between the Kurds and the new Baghdad government began on the 19th, with Jalal Talabani as the Kurdish negotiator. The Kurds asked the government to put its proposals in writing, but at once differences arose over the expression ‘decentralisation’, focusing on the control of foreign affairs and the armed forces. Barzani and Talabani remained adamant in their demands. The Lausanne-based CDKPR, without consulting Barzani, rejected the Baghdad demands, which did not please him.