Toma Tomas
Toma Sadiq Kakka, better known as Toma Tomas and also known by his nom de guerre Abu Joseph, was an Assyrian nationalist and Iraqi communist politician. He was also the leader of al-Ansar, a Marxist–Leninist militia in Iraq which fought on behalf of the Iraqi Communist Party against the Iraqi government from the 1960s until the 1980s. The roots of his activism trace back to the 1950s, where after dissatisfaction with working conditions at the Iraq Petroleum Company, he learned about communism and joined the ICP.
Tomas is considered one of the major figures of the ICP during the 1960s. After 1963, with surmounting campaigns by the Ba'athist government of Iraq against communists, Tomas emerged as a leader and lead a diverse force of different ethnic and religious groups. He continues to be memorialized by Assyrians in Iraq, especially from Alqosh, where a statue was dedicated to him in 2011.
Early life
Tomas was born in 1924 to the Chaldo-Assyrian Kaka family from Alqosh. He witnessed the Simele massacre first-hand when Assyrians escaped to Alqosh, and in his memoirs, he described his family's role in protecting twenty other families and refugees fleeing the massacre. The events of Simele were crucial in shaping his political ideas in the future, and in his memoirs, the massacre is a symbol of both injustice and of the struggle against it as an injustice.After completing primary education at the Mar Mikha School in Alqosh, Tomas moved to Mosul where in 1941 he was denied entrance to the city's only high school. He would later join the Iraq Levies at 17 years old in 1942, and would remain until 1948 when he joined a brigade scheduled to fight in the 1948 Palestine war. After being discharged from the war the following year, he found his way to Kirkuk to work at the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1950. Tomas noted the heightened political awareness of workers at the IPC due to several frustrations, including the labor movement in Kirkuk that heightened his activism.
It was during his time in Kirkuk where Tomas first learned about communism and joined the Iraqi Communist Party in the early 1950s.
Career and struggle
Around 1959, Tomas had presided over the Workers' Committee of the IPC and was vacationing in Alqosh. He permanently relocated to his home town after hearing news of arbitrary arrests against communist-affiliated IPC workers, including all the members of the Workers' Committee, which also resulted in his resignation from the company. A few years later, prime minister Abd al-Karim Qasim was executed in the 1963 Iraqi coup d'etat. During the coup, Tomas's paternal cousin Ilyas Hanna Guhari was killed after being tortured. Tomas continued to act towards his political aspirations and collaborated with Assyrian figures in the Kurdish resistance movement. The communists where summarily executed and some led by Tomas fled to the mountains of northern Iraq, where they formed the armed communist guerilla group known as "al-Ansar".Under Tomas' leadership, the village of Alqosh was a stronghold for the Iraqi Communist Party. Having emerged as a military leader within the ICP, his forces had begun stationing on top of the mountains of Alqosh to fight off government attacks from the Iraqi National Guard. Alqosh had been attacked three times by mid-July. The forces included collaboration with Hurmiz Malik Chikko as part of a diverse forced of Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Turkmen, and Yazidis. During this period, Tomas emerged as a leader, earning the respect of Mustafa Barzani.
He was among many individuals that formed opposition groups loyal to the Assyrian cause, protecting villages from Kurdish forces and the government of Baghdad. In 1976, Tomas became a member of the Central Committee of the ICP and served as the secretary of the Nineveh branch until 1978. After the establishment of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, relations began to form between it and Assyrian members of the ICP. Tomas frequently visited the ADM office daily, providing moral support and advice as a supporter of the party. In his later years, stressed with divisions in the diaspora along the Assyrian naming dispute, Tomas met with figures from ADM and other Assyrian organizations to attempt a solution.
Personal life
In 1946, Tomas married Al-Mas Hesqial Zulfa. He had seven children, including five sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Joseph, passed away in Michigan on 10 June, 2020.After his permanent relocation to Alqosh, Tomas went into business ventures with his brother-in-law and founded an ice-making farm. He also established a poultry farm in Sharafiya. Personal accounts of Tomas also describe him as a skilled chess player.
Death and legacy
Tomas died in Syria on 15 October, 1996. After initially being buried at a cemetery in Nohadra, his remains were reburied in Alqosh. A set of papers he wrote between 1990 and 1996 was published sometime after his passing.In July 2011, residents of Alqosh enacted a statue of Tomas in a park dedicated to him in an official ceremony, where eulogies and poems were delivered in his honor. The celebratory event was attended by Hamid Majid Mousa of the ICP and representatives of the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council, as well as townspeople and journalists.
Tomas is remembered for the concern that he had for his hometown of Alqosh and for the wider Assyrian community. He claimed that Alqosh had preserved its authenticity and traditions despite tribal invasions and influence from ruling states. At the same time, the closeness he felt to his people made him a popular figure across intracommunal and political boundaries. Tomas' legacy and heroism is remembered by Assyrians to this day, including singer Talal Graish, who dedicated a song to him on his 2008 album X Love.