Tahir Yahya ( ar, طاهر يحيى; 1916 – 1986) was

Prime Minister of Iraq The prime minister of Iraq is the head of government of Iraq. On 27 October 2022, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani became the incumbent prime minister. History The prime minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, a ...

twice, from 1963 to 1965 and a short term in 1967–1968. He was educated at the Baghdad Military College and the Staff College. Born in Tikrit 1916. He was the 4th child to Mulla Yahya el-ogaily, a prominent tobacco merchant between North and Central Iraq. At the age of sixteen, he joined the Baghdad Teachers College, then became a teacher in Baghdad for one year after graduation. He then pursued further education in

military science Military science is the study of military processes, institutions, and behavior, along with the study of warfare, and the theory and application of organized coercive force. It is mainly focused on theory, method, and practice of producing mil ...

s. He was a

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...

officer and played

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

for the Iraqi army. He led the Iraqi armored company where he was wounded in the battle at the

Kfar Masaryk Kfar Masaryk (, he, כְּפַר מַסָּרִיק, ''lit.'' Masaryk Village) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in Western Galilee near the Belus River and south of Acre, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Asher Regional Council. In ...

, earning two medals bestowed by Crown Prince Abd al-Ilāh. In November 1963 he was appointed as Prime Minister by President

Abdul Salam Arif ʿAbd al-Salam Mohammed ʿArif al-Jumayli ( ar, عبد السلام محمد عارف الجميلي'; 21 March 1921 – 13 April 1966) was the second president of Iraq from 1963 until his death in a plane crash in 1966. He played a leading role ...

. At the end of his term, Yahya warned president Arif of the upcoming

Ba'ath Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation ...

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

and their plans to overthrow his government, but Arif did not take any action. This led to Yahya submitting his resignation on 8 July 1968, one week before the coup d'état took place. That same morning Yahya was arrested and Arif was deported to London. Yahya spent three years in prison, torture, and health neglect. In 1971 he was released, only to be put under house arrest until dying in his house in Mansur, Baghdad, in 1986.

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* 1916 births 1986 deaths Arab Socialist Union (Iraq) politicians Iraqi Muslims Iraqi people of Circassian descent Members of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region Prime Ministers of Iraq {{Iraq-politician-stub