Salih Mahdi Ammash
{{Short description|Iraqi historian, writer, author, poet and politician (1924–1985)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| native_name = {{nobold|صالح مهدي عماش}}
| image =
| image_size = 200px
| caption =
| name = Salih Mahdi Ammash
| office = Vice President of Iraq
| term_start = April 1970
| term_end = December 1971
| alongside = Saddam Hussein and Hardan al-Tikriti
| predecessor = Hardan al-Tikriti
| successor = Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf
| president = Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
| office1 = Member of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch
| term_start1 = 11 November 1963
| term_end1 = September 1971
| birth_date = 1924
| birth_place = Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq
| death_date = {{death date and age|1985|1|30|1924|df=yes}}
| death_place = Helsinki, Finland
| alma_mater = Baghdad Military College and Baghdad Staff College
| party = Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
| native_name_lang = ar
}}
Salih Mahdi Ammash ({{langx|ar|صالح مهدي عماش}}; 1924 – 30 January 1985) was an Iraqi historian, writer, author, poet and Iraqi Regional Branch politician and Iraqi army officer who sat on the Regional Command from 1963 to 1971.
Life
He was born into a peasant family in Baghdad, 1924.{{sfn|Ghareeb|Dougherty|2004|p=12}} Ammash attended the Baghdad Military College and the Baghdad Staff College.{{sfn|Ghareeb|Dougherty|2004|p=12}} He joined the Ba'ath Party in 1952 and become one of the first military Ba'athists in the Iraqi Regional Branch.{{sfn|Ghareeb|Dougherty|2004|p=12}} Ammash was a member of the Free Officers Movement which toppled the Iraqi monarchy.{{sfn|Ghareeb|Dougherty|2004|p=12}}
Ammash was elected to the Regional Command for three separate terms.{{sfn|Devlin|1975|pp=338–339}} He also served as one of the vice presidents of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.
In 1975, Ammash became the first ambassador of Iraq to Finland. In January 1985, while still in Helsinki, he suddenly became ill and died of natural causes, there was a conspiracy that he was poisoned on the orders of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.{{Cite web|url=https://www.iltalehti.fi/helsinki/a/200711276898900|title=Räväkkä lähettiläs murhattiin myrkyllä}}
But this accusation is poorly backed-up, and there is no proof Saddam Hussein had ever ordered it, and the average life expectancy in Iraq in 1985 was 60 years old, which was the age Ammash passed at, so it is most likely he died of natural causes.[https://datacommons.org/place/country/IRQ?utm_medium=explore&mprop=lifeExpectancy&popt=Person&hl=en "Data Commons Iraq"]
His daughter Huda became the first and only female member of the Regional Command on 18 May 2001.{{sfn|Ghareeb|Dougherty|2004|p=12}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite book|author=Devlin, John|ref=CITEREFDevlin1975|title=The Baath Party: a History from its Origins to 1966|publisher=Hoover Institute Press|year=1975|isbn=978-0-8179-6561-7|edition=2nd}}
- {{cite book|last1=Ghareeb|first1=Edmund A.|last2=Dougherty|first2=Beth K.|title=Historical Dictionary of Iraq|url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000ghar|url-access=registration|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham, Md|year=2004|isbn=978-0-8108-4330-1}}
{{Ba'ath Party}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ammash, Salih Mahdi}}
Category:Vice presidents of Iraq
Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of Iraq
Category:Interior ministers of Iraq
Category:Ministers of defence of Iraq
Category:Members of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region
Category:Assassinated Iraqi politicians
Category:Iraqi military personnel
Category:Assassinations in Finland
Category:Iraqi Military Academy alumni
Category:Asian politicians assassinated in the 1980s