The bloody power of darkness: Who is Saddam Hussein?

One of the first to dream of the ideal of bringing the Arabs together and bringing them back to the stage of history as a single nation was Michel Aflaq.

The thought put forward by Wallachia that shook the hearts of the Arab youth was summed up in one word; 'Baath!'

The word 'Baath' meant 'Resurrection'.

After the expulsion of the French from Syria, the "Arab Revival Party", on which Wallachia built its intellectual ground, set out to export the "Baathist" idea to other Arab geographies.

According to the basic motivation of Baath thought, which dreams of pan-Arab geography; The only salvation of the Arab peoples, who were turned into colonies by the imperialist powers, was possible with the establishment of a socialist, secular, and nationalist administration.

Even though the socialist idea of the Baath regime was seen as a big handicap, the Syrian Baath Regime would not hesitate to include the following article in the Constitution;

The Arab Baath Party is a socialist party and believes that socialism is a necessity stemming from the depth of Arab nationalism. Socialism actually constitutes an ideal social order that allows the Arab people to realize their possibilities and develop their genius, and make continuous progress in the material and moral output of the nation.

According to Baathist thought the most concrete example of the imperialists' treatment of Arabs was the occupation of Palestine.

Despite being a Christian, Wallachia claimed that Islam was the basic idea that kneaded the Arabs, but that he owed this to his revolutionary stance in the early stages of Islam.

Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006), known mononymously as Saddam, was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who was the fifth president of Iraq, from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq, first from 16 July 1979 until 23 March 1991, and later from 29 May 1994 to 9 April 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.

Wallachia, who claimed that the later rulers, whom he described as 'Turkish puppets', destroyed the Arab consciousness, argued that the Baathist thought would gather the Arabs under a single flag as a single nation.

While these intellectual currents that shaped the Arab future were taking place, a child was born in the village of al-Avja, miles outside of the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

His father and brothers died before he was born, and his mother was left alone in poverty.

His mother named him 'Saddam', which means 'Resisting', in response to his enthusiasm for surviving this child, whom he never wanted to be born.

The full name of this boy, whom the whole world would know as Saddam Hussein, was Saddam Hussein Abdulmecid et-Tikriti.

When Saddam's mother realized that she could not take care of her child, she sent him to his uncle Hayrullah.

The first person to influence Saddam's world of thought would be his uncle, Hayrullah, who was serving in the Iraqi Army.

Hayrullah was among the Arab nationalist soldiers who tried to drive the British out of Iraq after the war that broke out in Europe.

The 'resistance against the Anglo-Saxons movement, which started in 1941, did not get the expected result. Hayrullah was also dismissed from his military service after this attempt.

Although the Arab nationalists could not achieve the results they wanted militarily, the idea of 'Baath' had already crossed the borders of Iraq and started to take root.

In 1951, under the leadership of Fuad al-Rikabi, the idea of 'Baath' began to find a response among Iraqi youth. In 1956, the young Saddam Hussein joined the party and began to assume important positions.

Saddam's first assassination attempt: Abdul Karim Qasim

Saddam Hussein took his first serious assignment nearly three years after joining the Baath movement. Accordingly, Iraqi leader Abdul Karim would try to kill Qasim with an ambush.

This assassination attempt failed, and Saddam Hussein, who was accidentally shot by his friend during the conflict, fled the country and went to Egypt.

Egypt, which he admired greatly, provided a great opportunity for Saddam to improve himself during his exile years.

In 1963, the Baath Party succeeded in killing Kasım by completing the work left unfinished by Saddam. Taking advantage of the political change in the country, Saddam returned to his country.

But after the assassination, the Baath Movement experienced an intellectual split in Iraq; Saddam, who prevented this division and crushed the heads of the opposition figures, presented the power to Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr on a golden platter in 1968.

Bekr would reward him by connecting Iraqi intelligence to Saddam.

Equipped with superpowers as Deputy Secretary General, Saddam first started by nationalizing Iraq's resources.

Initiating structural reforms in many parts of Iraq, Saddam soon became the de facto leader of the country.

Upon Bekr's resignation on 16 July 1979 on health grounds, Saddam came to power as the president of Iraq.

In addition to this duty, Saddam also declared his 'one-manship' by attaching the military council, the party general secretariat, and the prime minister's offices to him.

The fact that Saddam became the head of Iraq with superpowers made many Arab states nervous. However, Saddam, unexpectedly, softened the idea of gathering Arab nations, one of the most important ideals of Baathism, under one roof, and used the following expressions;

I believe that Arab unity should not be achieved through the elimination of the local and national characteristics of any Arab country, but should be achieved through a common fraternal vision.

The reason for Saddam's statements would soon be understood. Saddam, who was about to start one of the most meaningless wars in the history of the Middle East, turned his eyes not to the Arab states, but to Iran, which was shaken by an internal revolution.

1979 was an extremely interesting date in the history of Iraq and Iran. That year, while Saddam Hussein was at the head of Iraq, Khomeini in Iran returned to his country and made a great revolution and ended the Shah's rule.

Before Saddam came to power, the main issues he was interested in were the separatist movements of the Kurds in the country, the Shatt al-Arab issue, the allegations of genocide against the Arab minority in Khuzestan, and the threat posed by the Shiite population in his country.

According to him, the center where all these problems were managed was Iran, and when the internal turmoil in Iran, which was shaken by the revolution, was over, these problems could bring the end of his power in Iraq.

In addition, an advantage over Iran would present the leadership position Egypt lost in the Arab world after the Camp David Agreement to 'Iranian Conqueror Saddam Hussein'.

After two developments that would set Saddam in motion, war became inevitable. The first of these was the 'Hostage Crisis' problem between the USA and Iran and Khomeini's declaration that he refused all military-economic aid from the USSR.

Deciding that Iran, which was outside of both blocs, was now completely defenseless, Saddam acted without delay.

The war had started suddenly without warning and things were going well for Saddam; because right after the first bullet was fired, US President Reagan wrote a letter to Saddam Hussein, announcing that they were ready to restore relations with Iraq.

Saddam responded positively to this offer and the USA removed the embargoes by removing Iraq from the list of countries that finance terrorism. The USSR, on the other hand, followed the situation and followed a policy of neutrality.

Saddam Hussein's plans to invade Tehran in a short time failed with the fierce defense of the Iranians. This unexpected war soon stalled and turned into a struggle that would wear out in both countries for years.

Saddam Hussein's brutality

Saddam Hussein's rule was built on an empire of fear. There were numerous incidents, some of which were made up and some of which were based on harsh facts.

For example, when the Iraq-Iran War was a stalemate, Saddam offered a ceasefire; but the Iranian administration said that such a ceasefire would not take place until Saddam was overthrown.

The Daily Telegraph claimed that during the Council of Ministers chaired by Saddam, the Minister of Information told Saddam Hussein that his exile from the country for a while would be effective in stopping the war.

After Saddam thanked the Minister, he took him out of the room and killed him.

Putting such claims aside, the most concrete example of Saddam Hussein's brutality was the Halabja Massacre.

Saddam dropped chemical weapons on Halabja, which has a population of over forty thousand, to intimidate the Kurds, whom he considers to have separatist tendencies.

Tens of thousands of Kurds lost their lives as a result of this terrible act.

Seeing that there was no limit to Saddam Hussein's cruelty, the Kurds migrated to the Turkish border. Türkiye opened its doors and hosted hundreds of thousands of Kurds until the end of the war.

The senseless war that Saddam started with Iran came to an end with the ceasefire in 1988, and both sides retreated to their pre-war borders. The last prisoner exchange between the two countries took place in 2002.

Losing in Iran, Saddam invaded Kuwait, a small country this time, in order to revive the financially devastated Iraqi economy.

The coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia and the USA would succeed in liberating Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation with the Gulf War they started about six months later.

After the terrorist attack in the USA on September 11, 2001, all eyes were turned to Saddam. Saddam Hussein, who was thought to have produced weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, was put on the target board by Western public opinion.

Although there was no concrete evidence, Saddam's demonstrations and rhetoric were among the elements that strengthened President George Bush's hand in an intervention in Iraq.

Saddam, on the other hand, thought that the USA would not make a major military intervention in Iraq and would complete the process with a small operation, as it always does.

Self-assured, Saddam was busy writing the novel "Get Out Cursed" when his country was about to be invaded.

The Iraq War, which started on March 20, 2003, ended in less than a month. Although the Saddam Regime was overthrown, Saddam Hussein had not been caught yet.

After hiding for about six months, Saddam was caught and arrested in his native land, Tikrit.

The 'Halebja Massacre' against the Kurds was at the forefront of the charges against Saddam Hussein, who was brought before the court.

Denying all charges, Saddam was found guilty and executed by hanging on the first day of Eid al-Adha on 30 December 2006.

The execution of Saddam Hussein, which the whole world watched on TV, did not relieve the pain of thousands of innocent people killed in Iraq, and peace and tranquility in Iraq could not be fully achieved after the death of the bloody dictator.

The politics of hatred instilled during Saddam Hussein's policies was at the root of the disagreements between many ethnic and religious groups in the country.

Saddam's overthrow

After the terrorist acts in the United States of America on September 11, 2001, Saddam Hussein became the target of Europe again. Then, US President George Bush declared in a speech that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea would be the axis of evil and they would take action to overthrow their current governments. As a result of the operation launched on March 20, 2003, Saddam and his government collapsed within three weeks.

Execution

Saddam Hussein, who was caught in a farmhouse near Tikrit on 13 December 2003, was hanged on the first day of Eid al-Adha on 30 December 2006, after the trial.

Echoes of the execution

The execution was met with different reactions in the world's public opinion. While Kuwait, the United States of America, Israel, and the United Kingdom welcomed Saddam's death, three days of mourning were declared in Libya. In addition, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Russia administrations expressed their concerns that the implementation of the penalty would lead the country to civil war. On the other hand, the European Union described this event as barbarism, while Hamas stated that they saw it as a political murder.