Toma Tomas

Toma Sadiq Kakka, better known as Toma Tomas (Syriac: ܬܘ̇ܡܵܐ ܬܘ̇ܡܵܣ, Arabic: توما توماس; 1924 – 1996) 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.