Oral Memories of Iraqi Officers and Commanders

After 2003, some research centers in America interviewed a number of high-ranking Iraqi officers and commanders, and some of their statements show facts from the Holy Defense period. In Iran also, this important event has been sporadically paid attention to during the past four decades. However, in the first half of the 1390s, two projects were approved by the Fath Narrative Foundation and the Holy Defense Information Institute to record the oral memories of former Iraqi Baath army officers and commanders. Salah Asgharpour conducted the aforementioned interviews. Understanding the importance of using the few remaining golden opportunities to record the narratives of the military leaders of the front against Iran during the holy defense period and entrusting the interviews to Salah Abdul Amir Najjar or Salah Asgarpour (known as Sheikh Salah) led to a decisive step towards recognizing and recording the historical facts of this great event. I have recorded and compiled his life memories for a long time and now I am waiting for its publication. Sheikh Salah met and talked with many former Iraqi commanders in this project for about six years and recorded about 360 hours of audio and video and brought them to Iran. The interviewer's accurate knowledge of the social, political, and military situation of this country, which is partly related to his personal and family records and another part to his professional records in managing the organization of the force, focusing on the recognition of the Iraqi army during the period of holy defense, and also his persistence and ability in creative unraveling provided a valuable source of information for the researchers of the history of Holy Defense as well as the contemporary military history of the Persian Gulf region and West Asia. These series of interviews are important because they have recorded the oral history of the other side of Iran. However, benefiting from this treasure in the second step requires a lot of effort in arranging and publishing the text of the interviews, which have remained on the ground after years. The purpose of this article is to inform and ultimately achieve this goal.