Ali Askari
| Ali Askari | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ali Abdullah Askari Autumn 1936 Goptapa, Kurdistan (Iraq) |
| Died | Summer 1978 Hakkari Province, Kurdistan (Turkey) |
| Nationality | Kurdish |
| Known for | Politics |
| Political party | Patriotic Union of Kurdistan |
Ali Askari (1936 – 1978) was a Kurdish politician. He was a prominent leader in Iraqi Kurdistan and his political party was the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
He was born in 1936 in the village of Goptapa in Kurdistan. The family is originally from the village of Sargalo, but Ali Askari's great-grandfather moved to Askar in order to settle down in this village. In early 1916 Ali Askari's father, Abdullah Askari, went on to build a village close to Askar which today is called Goptapa. His father was the head of the Qala Saywka tribe, one of the most famous and largest tribes in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ali Askari was the youngest among seven brothers and three sisters. Since there was nowhere to get an education in Goptapa, he had to move to Askar in order to start his studies, at the age of seven. He studied in Askar until he was in the third grade, then moved to the village of Aghjalar to continue his studies in the 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.
The family had started out as a Naqshbandi believers but created a new branch called the Haqqa movement, which was started by Ali Askari's uncle, Sheikh Abdul Kerim in the village of Shadala in the early 1900s. The Haqqa movement was a sect of the poor and oppressed and the movement grew rapidly by spreading to over 300 villages in northern Iraq in just under a few years. The religious movement could be joined by anyone including the wealthy and several powerful tribal leaders had done so from the Kurdish region of Iraq.
During the Iraq occupation, the British were opposed to the Haqqa movement due its growing power, its nonconformity, and the refusal of its followers to pay taxes. This led to the capture the branch's leaders twice. The first time they captured Sheikh Abdul Kerim in 1934 in Kirkuk. Haqqa's contingent managed to release Sheikh Abdul Kerim from Kirkuk with the help of 20,000 of its followers by peacefully marching on the city and demanding his release. Ali Askari's other uncle Raza who took over the Haqqa movement following the death of his older brother,Sheikh Abdul Kerim, was also captured in the 1940s by the Iraqi Government under pressure of the British but again the Haqqa branch succeeded in releasing another of their leaders with help by some 30,000 to 35,000 followers.
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