Robert College, Istanbul 1958 - Iraqi Engineering Students

كلية روبرت الأمريكية في استنبول عام 1958

طلاب الهندسة المدنية العراقيين

من آرشيف فاروق سعد الدين زيادة

From the Archives of Faruq Ziada

 من اليمين الى اليسار : سمير يوسف زينل ، فاروق سعد الدين زيادة ، نوفل جميل البيك ، محمود سلمان سبتي ، عبد المجيد إسحاق المعتوق ، عبد الإله مكية

ملاحظة 1 : الشخص الجالس في آخر الصورة الى اليسار غير معروف . نأمل أن تزودونا باسمه إن عرفتم

 ملاحظة 2 : التقطت الصورة في مطعم نظمي على شارع الباسفور في منطقة بيبيك/ استانبول

From Right to Left: Sameer Yousif Zaynel, Faruq Ziada, Nowfel Jameel Al-beik, Mahmood Salman Sabti, A. Majeed Al-Matooq, Abdil Ilah Makkiya

Note 1: The person sitting to the extreme left of the picture is unknown.

Note 2: The picture was taken at Nathmy Restaurant in the Bebek area of Istanbul.

السيرة الذاتية للأشخاص الظاهرين في الصورة

سمير يوسف زينل :ا

 كان من الطلبة المتفوقين في كلية بغداد وكان يحب المغامرات . ترك روبرت كوليج بعد إكمال الصف الثاني في الهندسة المدنية عام 1958 وانضم الى القوة الجوية العراقية . وفي الحرب مع اسرائيل عام 1967 أسقط بطائرته هوكر هنتر طائرة اسرائيلية واصبح بطلا طيارا . استشهد في حرب تشرين بتاريخ 10/14/ 1973 في جبهة الجولان السورية عندما أصيبت طائرته بصاروخ اسرائيلي .ا

Sameer Yousif Zainel was a top student at Baghdad College and loved adventures. He left Robert College in 1958 after completing the second year (sophomore) in civil engineering and joined the Iraqi Air Force. In the 1967 war with Israel, while flying his Hawker Hunter airplane, he shot down an Israeli airplane and was awarded for his distinguished service. He was killed in the October Arab-Israeli war on 14/10/1973 at the Syrian Golan front-line when his plane was hit by an Israeli missile.

فاروق سعد الدين زيادة :ا

ترك روبرت كولِج عام 1959 وأكمل دراسته في الولايات الأمريكية . غيّر دراسته من الهندسة المدنية عام 1960 الى العلاقات الدولية . شارك في امتحان وزارة الخارجية في كانون الأول (ديسمبر) 1964 وكان الأول على العراق ثم عُيّن ملحقا دبلوماسيا في 14 آب 1965 وتدرج في السلك الخارجي حتى اصبح سفيرا عام 1993 . أحيل على التقاعد عام 2005 . يسكن في لندن .ا

Faruq S. Ziada: Left Robert College in 1959 and completed his studies in the United States. He changed his studies from civil engineering in 1960 to international relations. Faruq participated in the foreign ministry exam in December 1964, and received the highest honors in Iraq. Then he was appointed a diplomat on August 14, 1965, and worked in the Foreign Service until he became an ambassador in 1993. He retired in 2005. Currently lives in London. 

نوفل جميل البيك :ا

درس الثانوية في كلية بغداد وبعدها دخل مع فاروق زيادة وسمير زينل كلية روبرت عام 1956 وتخرج مهندسا مدنيا ثم أخذ الماستر من الولايات المتحدة واصبح مهندس مقاولات معروف . غادر بغداد في التسعينات الى الإمارات العربية ثم بعد تقاعده سكن في كندا .

Nowfel Jameel El-Baik: Studied high school at Baghdad College, and then he attended, with Faruq Ziada and Sameer Zainel, Robert College, in 1956. He graduated from civil engineering, then completed a master’s degree from the United States and became a well-known contracting engineer. He left Baghdad in the 1990s for the United Arab Emirates and after his retirement, he left for Canada where he currently lives.

محمود سلمان سبتي :

تخرج من كلية روبرت عام 1959 متخصصا في الهندسة المدنية ، وبعد اشتغاله في العديد من مشاريع الري والجسور والسدود في الكوت والناصرية والعمارة وبغداد توقف عن العمل الهندسي في عام 1980 ليشتغل مع زوجته في تأسيس معمل للحفاظات المتطورة . في السبعينات كان أحد مقاولي مشروع السدود في الكحلاء والمشرح بمدينة العمارة . ترك العراق الى لندن في عام 2000 وتوفي فيها بتاريخ  24 /7 /2006 .

Mahmood Salman Sabti:  Graduated from Robert College in 1959 specializing in civil engineering, and after working on several projects in irrigation, bridges and dams in Kut, Nasiriyah, Amara and Baghdad, he retired from engineering work in 1980 to work with his wife in establishing a factory for diapers. In the 1970s he was one of the contractors working on the dam project at Al-Kahla and Al-Msharrah in Amara city. He left Iraq for London in 2000 and died there on 24/7/2006

عبد المجيد إسحاق المعتوق : 

التحق بكلية روبرت عام 1955 وتخرج منها حاصلا على شهادة بكلوريوس الهندسة المدنية في حزيران 1959 . بعد التخرج عاد الى العراق حيث خدم ضابط احتياط في الجيش حوالي أربع سنوات ثم اشتغل في مشروع جسر الفلوجة (1964-1966) وبعدها اشتغل بمشاريع هندسية عديدة  في الحلة وبغداد والكويت . سكن في ألمانيا منذ عام 2007 وتوفي فيها بتاريخ 16 تشرين الثاني 2019 . 

A. Majeed Al-Matooq: Attended Robert College in 1955 and graduated with a degree in civil engineering in June 1959. After graduation, he returned to Iraq, where he served as a reserve officer in the army for about four years, then worked on the Fallujah Bridge Project (1964-1966) and then worked on several engineering projects in Hilla, Baghdad, and Kuwait. He's been living in Germany since 2007 until he died on November 16, 2019.

عبد الإله مكية : توفي قبل سنوات . نأمل تزويدنا بتاريخ وفاته ومختصر سيرته الذاتية

حوار مع عبد المجيد المعتوق بخصوص روبرت كولج وسيرته الذاتية

Abdul Majeed Al-Matooq Speaking about Robert College, Istanbul

 عبد المجيد المعتوق في حديث عن صديقه محمود سلمان

Abdul Majeed Al-Matooq Speaks about His Friend, Mahmood Salman

   ملاحظة : الرجاء الإنتباه الى المقالة المتواجدة في السيرة الذاتية لسمير يوسف

 زينل أعلاه والتي فيها ذكر لحربي حزيران وتشرين .ا

  نكون شاكرين لمن يبعث بنسخة من الكتب السنوية للمتخرجين من هذه الكلية التي

  درس فيها العديد من العراقيين . ماهو العدد الكلي للعراقيين الذين درسوا فيها طوال

الخمسينات والستينات؟

Documenting Those Who Served in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - Part 1

Crossing the Karun River

Written in Arabic by Nizar Assamarie

Translated to English by Kamal Al-Sabbagh

المقالة باللغة العربية

I moved my office to Basrah city, when its front-line became a combat zone, residing with a large number of foreign and Arab journalists at the Hamdan Hotel. In November 1980, I was contacted by lieutenant colonel Abdul-Munim As-samaraie, a political orientation officer in the 3rd brigade, who told me that his brigade achieved a huge victory and asked me to bring a limited number of journalists, no more than 12, to visit and witness the battle area.

In order to have a diverse press coverage be that news agencies, television and radio networks, I invited all journalists to an urgent meeting at the Hamdan hotel’s meeting room. Hundreds of them packed the room and inquired about the truth at the frontline. They wanted us to confirm our achievements, especially after Sadik Khilkhali, the representative of the Iranian Press, denied that the Iraqi forces have successfully managed to cross to the east bank of the Karun River.

There were around 300 non-Iraqi journalists, yet we were limited to take only twelve journalists to visit the front-line. I asked them to nominate twelve journalists. After prolonged discussions, they could not reach a conclusion, so I decided to select the journalists myself since only two Land Cruiser SUV's arrived to take us to the front-line.

I chose General Edward Furdson, the military correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph, reporters from the BBC, France Press, United Press and other correspondents.

After a journey amid war zones, we arrived at the mobile headquarters for the third armored brigade. The commander Brigadier General Kadoury Al-Douri was waiting for us. It seemed that he previously knew General Fredson and exchanged detailed analysis with him about the Basrah region. After quick refreshments, Major Sufian Al-Tikriti arrived.  He is the brigades’ intelligence officer, who accompanied us to the frontline. We began by crossing the Karun river using a military boat, because the mobile bridge used to be only assembled at night so it wouldn’t be targeted. After we crossed the river, we saw fires and smoke so high and severely hot that we felt from a distance.  Then Sufian Al-Tikiriti said, “This is a crude oil pipeline that discovered by chance during the bombing and as a result the flow of the crude oil was interrupted from reaching Abadan refinery”

We continued/progressed toward the other side of the Karun river passing through a zigzag road that is parallel to the main Ahwaz-Abadan main road, sometimes driving on paved roads and other times we avoided the road due to irrigation pipes/ channels. There were tens of trucks carrying various goods, as well as burnt trailers on both sides of the road.  In a journey filled with fear and danger, we arrived at Abadan Television Station, few hours after the battle end when the electricity plant was still working.

I neither remember the battle’s starting and ending dates nor its name, however, I learned from reading the book of Brigadier-General Nizar Al-Khazraji that the sixth armored brigade from the third armored division was the one “executed and completed the crossing of the Karun River, which had a width of 400m, then moving toward Abadan and blocking the main Abadan-Ahwaz highway”.  Outside the fence of Abadan Television Station, there were around 40 Iranian POWs, waiting to be transferred to a safe place.  We entered the main television building which was mostly destroyed due to the artillery shelling and military operation.

We were unable to stay long at the television station knowing it was a possible bombardment target, therefore Maj. Sufian Al-Tikreti ordered us to quickly evacuate the building.  From there, we headed to Abadan city, and after about 2.5km, we stopped so that the BBC reporter take footage for his documentary film and include the BBC news report in response the claim by Sadik Khilkhali that the Iraqi army did not cross the Karun river and that two Iraqi tanks attempted to approach the eastern bank of the river, but failed.

In a televised report about the region, The BBC correspondent summarized:

“We are now close to Abadan Television and Radio stations, standing about 1.5 km away from my location, where the Iraqi armed forces are, which surrounds Abadan from various sides and about 3Km away from it.”

After this tour, we returned back to Basrah.  Then the news was delivered through the British press networks, which confirmed that the Iraqi forces crossed the Karun River to Kuwait through Basrah.

__________________________________

Nizar As-samaraie, a graduate from Al-Mustansiriya University, specializing in International law. He was born in Baghdad 1943.  As-samarraei managed the internal press in the Ministry of Information and Cultural Affairs in the 1980s.  Became a prisoner of war (POW) on 24 March 1982 during the Al-Shush-Dezfol operations, and lingered in Iran’s prisons for 20 years at the Iranian side.  He was released on 22 Jan 2002 and arrived in his home the next day, 23 Jan 2002. Assamaraei published a book detailing his diaries in Iran prisons titled, “In the palaces of Ayatollahs”

Kamal Al-Sabbagh is an engineer who, as a teenager and young adult, witnessed the wars in Iraq (1980-2003). He now resides in New Zealand.

The Karun River is located in the Arab region of Ahwaz in Iran. It is estimated to be about 950-km long. The Karun River ends at Shatt al-Arab, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet, and together they come across the Arabian Gulf. The river forms the famous Abadan Delta, located in southwestern Iran in the Khuzestan Province.