EARLY YEARS
The new king of Iraq had been born in 1912 in Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia the only son of Faisal I after three daughters. He spent his childhood under the care of his grand father, Hussein ibn Ali, while his father was at war. Ghazi was a shy, introverted lad unlike his worldly father. In 1924 he left the Hejaz and immigrated to Jordan with the rest of the Hashimites. The same year found him in Baghdad where he was acknowledged as crown prince.
When his father died in of Cancer in Berne, Switzerland in 1933, Ghazi was crowned king and appointed Admiral of the Fleet, Field Marshal of the Iraqi Army and Air Marshal of the Royal Iraqi Air Force. Unfortunately, Ghazi did not possess the statesmanship or experience of his father and he failed to garner the support of all the diverse groups within his realm.
ARMS AND OIL
It did not take long before the support given Ghazi by the army waned as the military leaders looked around and saw the great strides being made in the Turkish military under Kemal Ataturk. The army decided that the lack of progress in Iraq’s army was due to Ghazi’s weak leadership.
The Iraqi government and the Iraq Petroleum Company, which had sole right to development in the Mosul region, exploited the country’s oil reserves and in 1934 an oil pipeline connected Mosul to Tripoli. Two years later a second pipeline was completed to Haifa.
Ghazi and his government began moving towards a general alliance of Arab countries by forming a Pan-Arab movement. Treaties to settle boundary disputes and non-aggression pacts with Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey were successfully concluded.
UNSETTLED TIMES
In 1936, General Bakr Sidqi instigated the bombing of Baghdad and the assassination of the prime minister. With the support of Ghazi he forced the cabinet to resign and appointed Hikmat Sulaiman as prime minister. Within a year Bakr Sidqi was himself assassinated by one of his soldiers and Jamil al-Midfai took office.
Still not satisfied, army officers staged a bloodless coup in 1938 and put Nuri as-Said in the prime minister’s chair. A further coup in 1939 was successfully suppressed by Nuri as-Said.
Despite the unsettled conditions, Ghazi’s reign was marked by some notable improvements. Irrigation and development programs were instituted and carried out, pipelines laid to the Mediterranean Sea, railroads expanded and schools built.
Ghazi was suspected of harbouring pro-Nazi sympathies and exhibited his own territorial ambitions when he encouraged the annexation of Kuwait by Iraq. The claim was reinforced by his al-Zuhoor Palace radio station.
Suddenly, on April 4, 1939, Ghazi was killed in a suspicious car accident in Baghdad. In the chaos that ensued, some Iraqis accused the British consul of plotting the death of the king and stoned him to death. Others blamed the prime minister, Nuri as-Said. Ghazi was succeeded by his son, Faisal II, born by his wife ‘Aliyah in 1935.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
De Gaury,Gerald - Three Kings in Baghdad - Hutchinson 1961
Encyclopedia Brittanica
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
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