BAGHDAD - The

Iraqi-Kurdish politician Taha Mohieddin Marouf served as Vice President of the Republic during the eras of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein from 1975 until the US invasion of the country in 2003, and was a member of the Revolutionary Command Council.

Maarouf is one of the few Kurdish leaders who held high positions in the former regime, although his position is nothing more than an honorary one, limited to representing the President of the Republic on a number of occasions and in protocol visits.

After a political career that lasted more than half a century, Maarouf passed away on August 7, 2009 in a hospital in the Jordanian capital, Amman, at the age of 85, after a struggle with throat cancer.

Kurdish history researcher Zilwan Abdullah: Well-known from a wealthy family, he worked as a lawyer and then entered politics (Al-Jazeera)

its beginnings

Marouf was born in 1924 from an ancient and wealthy family in the city of Sulaymaniyah, then completed his secondary education and graduated from the Faculty of Law in Baghdad in 1948, after which he worked as a lawyer and then entered politics, according to university professor and researcher in Kurdish history Zilwan Abdullah.

Abdullah adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the Maarouf family traces its origins to the regions of eastern Kurdistan in Iran, and among the most prominent of his brothers is Qadir Agha, who took the position of mayor of Sulaymaniyah for the period 1944-1950, and again 1951-1954, during the royal era, until he died in 1956 of a heart attack .

He points out that Maarouf began his political life with the Kurdish "liberation" party in 1945, where he contributed to its founding at that time with a group of his friends, and after the party's dismantling, he participated in the conference of the founding of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in Baghdad in 1946, and became a member of the Central Committee.

After that, he resigned from the Democratic Party, and entered the diplomatic corps in the sixties of the last century and became an ambassador to Iraq, traveling among several countries, until the Arab Socialist Baath Party took power after the overthrow of President Abdul Rahman Aref in 1968, according to Abdullah.

He added that after the split of the Democratic Party in 1964, he joined the wing of Ibrahim Ahmed and Jalal Talabani, known as the Party's Political Bureau wing, and after that he held several governmental positions, including Minister of State, Acting Minister of Works and others.

It shows that after the failure of the Kurdish rebellion in 1975 following the conclusion of the Algiers Agreement between Iraq and Iran, Maarouf took the position of Vice President at the time, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr until 1979, and when Saddam Hussein assumed the presidency, Maarouf continued in his position until the regime was overthrown after the US invasion of the country in 2003.

vice president

The Iraqis and the regional environment are known for their closeness to Saddam, and he was a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, and he played various other roles for the former political regime until the entry of US forces, says political science professor Dr. Asaad Kazem Shabib.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Shabib attributes the reasons for Maarouf's stay in the position of the former Vice President, that it lies in his being a pragmatic figure who is fluent in the art of management and knowledge of the demographic terrain and the components of Iraqi society.

He notes that the Baathists wanted - through a well-known presence in a prominent position in the state - to win the favor of the Kurds, and end the Arab-Kurdish conflict on the security and political levels, and this comes after giving the Kurds the right to self-governance in the administration of the Kurdistan region.

This is in addition to the fact that the party to which Maarouf belongs is the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by the Barzani family, and here lies the relationship that developed between the political system and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and this was exemplified by the mutual visits between the party’s leaders and the hierarchy of power in Baghdad at the time.

And about the roles of Maarouf, the Iraqi academic says, "Maarouf represented the presidency during the Baath era in a number of internal areas, as he was entrusted with real but specific powers according to what the head of the regime wanted at the time, and externally he was a representative of the regime in a number of forums because of his acceptance by Arab and regional parties, In addition to its relationship with the countries of the European Union and the United States, the regime was in need of such personalities after the sanctions it was subjected to after the invasion of Kuwait.

As for the Kurdish component’s view of Maarouf, Shabib believes that the Democratic Party led by Barzani viewed his presence in a highly positive manner according to the understandings he led between Baghdad and Erbil at the time, while the view of other Kurdish parties - such as the Kurdistan Union led by Talabani - was negative, and they saw his presence in power. In Baghdad, the ambitions of the Kurds and their position on political power were destroyed.

Chalabi: He was known as a brilliant politician and diplomat and committed to the policies of the Baath (Al-Jazeera)

pragmatic politician

For his part, political writer Rebwar Ali Chalabi considered a position known as "formal and formal, stripped of all powers, until it became a joke in the Kurdish street."

Chalabi tells Al Jazeera Net a story that reflects the extent of the weakness of Maarouf's powers, "where a Kurdish person went to mediate with him in a simple matter, and he apologized to him because he needed to mediate someone higher than him, even though he is the vice president."

The writer describes the late Vice President as a politician and diplomat par excellence, but he is silent and committed to the policies of his party, regardless of whether his party is the Democratic or the Baathist. "The silent, pragmatic (utilitarian) politician who holds the stick from the middle."

Yunus believes that the presence of Maarouf was to confirm the presence of a role for the Kurds in the Iraqi government at the time (Iraqi Press)

The opinion is shared by Major General Muhyi al-Din Muhammad Yunus, who considered that the Iraqi government at the time involved Maarouf in symbolic positions and brought him closer to just proving the existence of a role for the Kurds in the government and that they are participants in the government.

He assures Al Jazeera Net that there is no role for a well-known person in the government except that he was, as he is called, a decoration that appears from time to time next to the president in formal matters, which made him vulnerable to joking among the Kurdish citizens.

Yunus mentions that in one of his books he mentioned his surprise at including a well-known name among the 55 wanted list, suggesting that the US forces had mentioned his name in order for him to be on this list a Kurd.

Arrest and then pardon

After the fall of Saddam's regime, the American forces arrested Maarouf in early May 2003, before he was released through the mediation of the late President Talabani, because no conviction was proven against him, according to researcher Abdullah.

In turn, Chalabi explains how Maarouf surrendered himself to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by Talabani, where he was transferred to his hometown in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, and was housed away from people's sight, in a house in the Dokan tourist qasbah, and no person or any journalist was allowed to visit him during his stay there since the spring of the year 2003 until the spring of 2009, when he was transferred by a private plane to the Jordanian capital for treatment.

Abdullah concludes his talk about Maarouf that he was secretly buried in the city of Sulaymaniyah in the cemetery (Gardi Seyuan), where a simple funeral was held for him without any ceremony.