Kingdom of Iraq

Endnotes

Tripp, Charles. A History of Iraq: New Edition.

Allies Are Blamed for Assyrians' Fate

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60,000 Refugees Living Iraq Are Seen as Betrayed by Friends and Leaders Alike

To the Editor of The New York Times:

In The New York Times of March 22, 1933, is a note from London regarding 60,000 Assyrian refugees living in Iraq since 1918, to whom Persia now promises sanctuary within its borders.

We should not conceal the fact that most of those Assyrian refugees in Iraq are Persian citizens who, in 1918, were forced to leave their country and flee for their lives. They have a legal right to return to their homeland at anytime. Under the rule of Ahmad Shah Kajar in 1914 and 1918 Persia neglected to protect the integrity of its borders against the invasions of the Russian and Turkish Armies who made the western provinces of Persia their battlefield and turned them into a pile of ruins. At that time Assyrian towns and villages were raided and burned, property plundered, men massacred and women enslaved. Although the Assyrians always were peaceful and loyal citizens, occupying themselves as artisans and farmers, Persia refused to give them protection against Kurdish and Turkish atrocities, and in many instance in Urmia and Salman Persians joined the Kurds and Turks in those unjustified and indescribable massacres.

Between Two Fires.

At the beginning of the World War the Assyrians found themselves between two fires, Ottoman Turkey on one side and the Allies on the other. The Allies had a high regard for the Assyrian fighting capacity and tried to utilize it for their own benefit. There were many promises of a great Assyrian empire, and this false propaganda was diseminatd by self-appointed Assyrian leaders. Meanwhile the Assyrians were attacked by Turks and Kurds without any apparent reason. These circumstances forced the Assyrians to arm for self-protection and they joined the Allies in the World War. They won many major victories. They constituted one of the main obstacles in the path of the Turkish movement toward India. They lost more than 50 per cent of their number, the highest loss any nation sustained. For all that, what reward did they receive? Poverty, humiliation, massacres, migration, starvation, &c.

The note referred to states: These Assyrians, having failed to establish their rights before the League of Nations, found their position untenable in Iraq after that country left the British mandate, but they hope to prosper in tobacco growing in Persia.

Tobacco for Independence.

Is it not a wonderful idea to grow tobacco on the ruins of a promised independence? Apparently the Assyrians' generous friends think that prosperity on the tobacco plantations would mean more for the slaves than prosperity through the independence.

Since 1918 a part of the Assyrian men under the leadership of the Mar-Shimoon (Assyrian Patriarch) have carried British rifles and protected British concessions in Iraq. The other part was engaged in building roads and regulating transport. They endured any kind of humiliation with the hope for a bright future. Now their services are no longer required in Iraq because the latter, as a member of the League of Nations, must appreciate its international obligations. Now Assyrians are needed in tobacco plantations in Persia, which probably belong to some foreign concessionaires.

Forgotten Promises.

Consequently, it was not the Assyrians who failed to establish their rights before the League of Nations but the Allies who failed to carry out their generous promises. In the name of a visionary Assyrian independence they armed and sent to death this historic nation. They got the lion's share through the victory of the war, but for their partners are predicting prosperity on tobacco plantations! The responsibility for this rests on the League of Nations, which failed to protect the rights of national minorities who are not backed by their own armed forces.

From the very beginning of the World War the Assyrian nation was betrayed by its self-appointed leaders, exploited by the Allies and massacred by Kurds, Ottoman Turks under Persian Kajar rule.

Roughly estimated, the property loss of Assyrians during and after the war amounts to about $35,000,000. We Assyrians are entitled to demand from the Allies this damage. As to Assyrian independence, we will wait until it will grow on tobacco ruins.

Paul G. Edgar.

New York, March 29, 1933.

1933 Apr 02, NY Times

IRAQ ARMY BATTLES ASSYRIAN INVADERS

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Reports Them Repulsed, but They Are Said to Be in the Mountains Near Zakho.

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BAGDAD, Iraq, Aug. 6. – Open warfare has started between the Iraq army and a force of several hundred Arabs who recently crossed into Syria from Iraq Territory.

Today about three hundred Assyrians recrossed the Tigris River, according to an official announcement, on the pretext that they were going to surrender themselves and their arms.

Having crossed, they attacked the advance guard of the Iraq army, the official communiqué asserts. After an engagement lasting several hours the Assyrians were repulsed, leaving behind a number of dead. The advance guard of the Iraq army is still continuing the pursuit.

Unofficially it is understood these Assyrians are still in Iraq and have made their way into the mountains around Zakho, whence it will be difficult to dislodge them as they know every inch of the territory. The Iraq army is believed to have suffered casualties and the British chargé d'affaires here is doing his best to prevent any extension of the hostilities.

1933 Aug 07, NY Times

BRITAIN IS ANXIOUS OVER IRAQ FIGHTING

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Cabinet Said to Expect Sharp Criticism at Geneva if More Assyrians Are Killed.

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500 ARE REPORTED SLAIN

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London Times Asserts Soldiers and Police Have Killed 200 Not Involved in Rebellion.

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LONDON, Aug. 15. – The rebellion of part of the Assyrian minority in Iraq, according to The London Times, has had a tragic sequel, about 200 persons being killed who had no connection with the revolt.

King Feisal has fallen ill and Sir Francis Humphrys, British Ambassador to Iraq, is hurrying to Bagdad from Norway, where he had been spending his vacation.

The London Times says that after an armed band of 500 rebels, who had recrossed the Tigris Aug. 4 and broken through Iraq's cordon, had been dispersed by troops, the Iraq Government announced that military operations were virtually over and that rebels who had not surrendered were being tracked by the police.

News received in London does not correspond with this version of the events, says The Times. There is reason to believe 500 Assyrians have been killed, including those who fell actually fighting to the number of 90 and also includes 200 persons who seem to have had no connection whatever with the rebellion. A number of villages have been burned in the Dohuk district and elsewhere north of Mosul and the condition of Assyrian women and children, of whom 1,500 are at Dohuk, is described as pitiable.

There is reason to believe the excesses were committed less by Iraq troops than by irregular police raised by the commander of the Iraq forces in the northern district and operating under an officer of notoriously anti-Assyrian feelings.

The news of the events, which has been communicated to Prime Minister MacDonald, caused deep concern in British official circles. It is fully realized that misbehavior by Iraq irregularly and indiscriminate severity of the local military authorities are likely to provoke sharp criticism at Geneva, where there has been a marked tendency to regard the British belief in the capacity of the Arab Government to control its officers as dangerously optimistic.

1933 Aug 16, NY Times

Britain To Take Up Massacres in Iraq; Ruler Plans Flight

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MacDonald Hurries to London as Slaughter of 300 More Assyrians Is Reported

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CGW3R Books Plane Seat

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British Seek to Persuade Hi to Remain and Punish the Perpetrators of Excesses

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By Ferdinand Kuhn Jr.

LONDON, Aug. 16. – Prime Minister MacDonald is hurrying to London from Scotland tonight to deal personally with the ugly situation resulting from the massacres of hundreds of Assyrians in Northern Iraq. He intends to spend most of tomorrow at the Foreign Office fulfilling his promise of a few weeks ago that in cases of emergency he would become Acting Foreign Secretary during Sir John Simon's absence.

It was learned today that CGW3R had booked a seat in an Imperial Airways airliner leaving Bagdad Friday and would continue his cure in Switzerland.

News was also received that 300 more Assyrians had been slaughtered following the rebellion of part of the Assyrian minority. The London Times declared yesterday that there was reason to believe 500 had already been slain, 200 of whom had no connection with the revolt.

According to The London Times, a British official who visited the villages around Simel, forty miles north of Mosul, reported to London that he had found them fun of panic-stricken woman and children and had counted 315 Assyrian dead apparently killed by the so-called irregular police.

Assyrian Rebels Blamed.

Further news reaching London, says The London Times, leaves scarcely any doubt that the Assyrian rebels who crossed into Syrian territory in July were entirely to blame for the collisions of Aug. 4 and 5.

A group of 500 men recorded the Tigris into Iraq on UAg. 4 and gave out that they would surrender their arms. The small Iraqi detachment which they met does not seem to have attempted to disarm them by force. The Assyrians, however, attacked and destroyed it. They then broke through the force sent to intercept them.

These two encounters caused much bitterness, which was increased by the usual Oriental rumors that the Assyrians had militated the dead.

The first of the reprisals reported to the British Embassy inBagdad was the work of 4CP6K, the Iraqi commander in the north, whose Kurdish irregulars brought in a dozen Assyrian prisoners. These he ordered shot out of hand without trial or inquiry as to whether they were rebels. He afterward excused this order on the ground of his indignation at the alleged mutilation of the dead.

G. D. Ogilvie, the British Chargé d'Affaires in Bagdad, made earnest representations to CGW3R, whom he urged to prevent any repetition of these severities. CGW3R pledged his honor that an inquiry would be held into the executions. Since this pledge was given no news has been received of the opening of any inquiry.

The reports of the additional killings and the news that CGW3R was planning to fly from his kingdom Friday have disturbed the British Government profoundly.

Britain is no longer directly involved, of course, since Iraq has ceased to be a mandated territory and has become an independent member of the League of Nations. But morally the situation is highly embarrassing for London, for it was the British Government that sponsored Iraq's independence and assured the other members of the League hat he was ready to manage her own affairs.

It is humiliating now for the British to see their Arab allies in the East butchering a friendly Christian minority that threw first-class fighting men against the Turks during the World War.

The British are fully aware, too, that the excesses against the Assyrians tend to justify the suspicions of the French and others who contended that the Iraqis were not ready for nationhood.

CGW3R weakness is largely blamed here for the present crisis, although it is admitted that his troops in the north had great provocation. Only a few weeks ago CGW3R was the guest of King George and was greeted here with all the pomp and pageantry the British could display. Such a fuss had not been made over any monarch since Amanullah, the ill-fated King of Afghanistan, was here five years ago.

The British now think they are not having much luck with their protégés and wonder whether CGW3R will lose his throne as Amanullah did.

It is felt here that CGW3R could have stopped the slaughtering of the Assyrians if he had had the courage to overrule the pro-Turk element in his Cabinet. Even now the British believe the King could restore Iraq's good name by punishing the officers concerned, especially 4CP6K, the pro-Turk army commander in the north.

Certainly unless the Iraq Government does something to expiate the massacre Britain will not lift a finger to defend it when the inevitable reckoning comes at Geneva next month.

The British are doing their utmost at the moment to convince CGW3R through diplomatic channels that it would be highly inadvisable for him to leave the country now. His task, as the British see it, is to do the courageous thing and punish the perpetrators of the massacre. And the British know from what Colonel Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) told them during the World War that CGW3R can be a man of tremendous courage.

1933 Aug 17, NY Times

KING FEISUL AWAITS OUR AMBASSADOR

Trip to Europe Postponed

Retuer's Bagdad correspondent telegraphed yesterday: The Iraq Government announce [sic] officially that they consider that the Assyrian trouble is at an end.

A later telegram says: Following urgent representations by the British Chargé d'Affaires, King Feisul, who had booked his passage for Switzerland tomorrow with Imperial Airways, has postponed his departure for a week.

Reuter learns that while the Assyrian followers of Mar Shimun are considered to have been responsible in the first place for the outbreak of trouble, strong representations have been made by the British authorities to King Feisul that an investigation should be held into the conduct of the Iraqi troops and Kurdish irregulars under Bakir Sidki Beg, commanding the northern administration of the Arab kingdom. It is alleged that he ordered the shooting in cold blood of fourteen unarmed Assyrians, and that there are other similar incidents.

In one village alone 315 dead Assyrians were found lying in heaps not he ground within two miles of an Iraqi camp. It is understood that the excesses have been carried out mainly by the Kurdish irregulars, who have an age-old feud with the Assyrians and that they were enlisted recently especially to deal with the Assyrian rising.

It is learned that King Feisul has given an undertaking to the British that an inquiry will be held.

Jaafar Pasha el Askari, the Iraq Minister in London, informed Reuter that he considered the reports that there has been some hundreds of Assyrians killed were much exaggerated. He had received a telegram from the Iraq Government asking him to make a protest with regard to these alleged exaggerations. He said that according to the latest telegrams he had received from Bagdad there has been no fighting since August 11 and that the trouble was regarded as at an end.

RELIEF PROVISIONS

The Minister stated with regard to the Assyrian families which had taken refuge at Dohuk that a relief committee had been formed with Colonel Stafford, the officer commanding the Northern district around Mosul, in charge, and sufficient funds had ben allowed by the Government for relief purposes. Measures were also being taken enable families in Dohuk to return to their villages. He estimated that 1,300 armed Assyrians, followers of Mar Shimun, belonging to the Upper Tiari and Tukhum sects, had been concerned in the recent troubles. There were in all about 20,000 Assyrians in Iraq, anode these 8,000 were armed.

He said that he understood that the Turkish Government were hostile to any return of the Assyrians to their former districts in Turkey. According to reports in the Iraq press, the Turkish Government had sent military force to the frontier with orders to shoot any Assyrians who attempted to cross and enter the country.

1933 Aug 18, The Guardian

IRAQ DEPORTS ASSYRIAN PATRIARCH

Britain Offers Asylum in Cyprus

TAKEN TO PALESTINE BY R.A.F. 'PLANE

BAGDAD, AUGUST 18. The recent outbreak by a band of Assyrians has led to the deportation from Bagdad of their leader, the Mar Shimum, or hereditary Patriarch, who became leader of his people at the age of twelve. The Iraqi Government believes that he was responsible for the outbreak, and at an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers issued a deportation order against him.

A request was then made to the British Government to provide facilities for the removal of the Patriarch from Iraq to a place of safety. The British Chargé d'Affaires intimated that his Government was prepared to offer the Patriarch, together with his father and brother, an asylum in Cyprus.

All three, with two attendants, left Bagdad this morning in an R.A.F. plane from Palestine. They landed at Ramleh, about fifteen miles south of Jaffa, this afternoon, and will proceed to Cyprus.

The Mar Shimum, who was educated in England, was a supporter of the Allies during the Great War and thus earned the intense dislike of the Turks.

THE ASSYRIAN DEAD

A veil of secrecy has been drawn over operations against the Assyrians in Northern Iraq, where 315 bodies were found at the village of Simel and 300 others at different places in the vicinity of Dohuk following Kurdish raids on Assyrian villages. (It is alleged that from 500 to 700 Assyrians were massacred by Kurdish irregulars enlisted to deal with the Assyrian rising.) It is understood that the official contention is that these casualties should not be regarded as a massacre, but having been incurred in a pitched battle. The suggestion is also made that there were some Kurdish bodies among the slain. No children were killed, and it is understood that there were no cases of women having been violated.

Urgent representations were made to King Feisul to delay his departure for Switzerland, and he has agreed, notwithstanding his ill-health, to remain in Bagdad until the arrival of Sir Francis Humphrys, the British Ambassador to Iraq.

AMBASSADOR'S HURRIED RETURN

Sir Francis, who is leaving London tomorrow, is due to arrive in Bagdad on Wednesday. He will catch an Imperial Airways plane at Brindisi on Monday. He will be accompanied by General Robinson, Inspector General of the Iraq Army, and Captain Holt, Oriental secretary to the British Embassy. All three have had to interrupt their leave to return to Iraq. – Press Association Foreign Special.

KING FEISUL'S TELEGRAM

King Feisul has sent a telegram to the Iraq Legation in London in which he says:

Although everything is normal now in Iraq, and in spite of my broken health, I shall await the arrival of Sir Francis Humphrys in Bagdad, but there is no reason for further anxiety. Inform the British Government of the contents of my telegram.

QUESTION OF A LEAGUE INQUIRY

The Iraq Minister in London told Reuter yesterday the he expected that an inquiry into the Assyrian trouble would be held, and that he hoped the League of Nations would take the matter up. In his view there were two important points to be considered – the action of the Assyrian Patriarch, and the action of the French authorities in handing back arms to the Assyrians who crossed the frontier after they had disarmed them.

The Minister added that he had received information from Bagdad that three Iraqi officers and 25 Iraqi troops had been killed and 45 wounded when the armed Assyrians forced their way back over the frontier from Syria on August 5. He declared that the Assyrians had pretended that they would deliver up their arms, but instead they treacherously turned and killed the officers and men. No women or children had bee killed, he said, and the casualties were armed men only.

(Iraq alleges that the Assyrian Patriarch has fomented resistance by the Assyrian minority to settlement schemes and incited his compatriots to cross over the frontier into Syria. Over 1,000 armed Assyrians followed this course, and it was the return of armed bands into Iraq and their attack and their conflict with Iraq frontier guards, which have produced the present crisis.) [This last paragraph seemed to have had lines mixed up and duplicated, but has been edited for clarity here.]

1933 Aug 19, The Guardian (London)

Assyrians' Leader Deported By Iraq

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Patriarch, Who Refused Pledge of Loyalty to CGW3R, Also Loses His Citizenship

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BAGDAD, Aug. 18. – The Nestorian Patriarch Mar Shimun, Ethnarch of the Assyrians, who has been under detention for some time for having declined to sign a declaration of loyalty to CGW3R and agree not to thwart the scheme of the League of Nations for the settlement of the Assyrians, was deported by order of the government today and deprived of Iraqi nationality.

The British air officer commanding in Iraq was present at the Hinaidi airdrome when Mar Shimun left in a British machine for Jerusalem en route to Cyprus.

G.S. Ogilvie Forbes, the British Chargé d'Affaires, has been making urgent representations to the Iraqi Government to insure that adequate safeguards shall be provided against a renewal of the Kurdish attacks upon the Assyrian villages.

The deportations of the Nestorian patriarch caused no surprise here, as it was known that such action was being considered by the government, but it is thought that the cancellation his Iraqi nationality may raise a constitutional question.

1933 Aug 19, NY Times

IRAQ DENIES MASSACRE.

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Plans Big Reception for Troops Quelling Assyrian Trouble.

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BAGDAD, Aug. 22. – The Iraqi Government is leaving no stone unturned to combat allegations in the foreign press that there has been a massacre of Assyrians. The government admits nothing, and preparations are being made to give an enthusiastic reception to the gallant and victorious Iraqi troops who acted as honor and duty demanded.

The Iraqi press professes indignation at the aspersions cast abroad on the behavior of the army and denies the right of the British Ambassador, who is due to arrive here tomorrow by air, to interfere in a mater which it claims is entirely an Iraqi concern.

The British Royal Air Force is taking no part in the present activities, beyond transporting to Bagdad by air the wives and children of Assyrian levies engaged in guarding British airdromes.

1933 Aug 23, NY Times

Assyrians A Worry to Iraq Authorities

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They Have, It Is Held, Been Exploited By Foreign Interests to Their Own Detriment

To the Editor of The New York Times:

Having left Bagdad a little over a month ago when Assyrian matters were beginning to look disquieting, may I be permitted to supply some of the facts which would give your readers enough of a background to enable them to read between the lines of the news?

Up to the great war the home of the Assyrians was in Turkey and Persia. When the war came those living in Turkey fell out with both the Turks and the Kurds and had to migrate to Persia. After much hardship they were lured into Iraq by the British. Here their men, who are good fighters, were soon recruited into the Assyrian Levies. They were used to put down uprisings, defend the frontiers, guard the British air bases and in general to maintain British prestige in Iraq. This, of course, contributed to their unpopularity among Iraqis.

During the peace conference at Versailles the Assyrians, numbering hardly more than twenty-five or thirty thousand people, entertained the ambition of founding an independent State. The dream was, of course, impossible of realization, but has lingered in the mind many an Assyrian leader and has tended to create an unwillingness to be assimilated into the Iraqi body politic and, together with their foreign language, has prevented them settling down to become useful and peaceful citizens. This, naturally, has made the Iraqis suspicious of them.

When, before the entrance of Iraq into the League of Nations, and in spite of all attempts of the Iraq Government to come to an agreement with their Patriarch, Assyrians sent petitions to the League of Nations protesting against the withdrawal of the British mandate as endangering their situation, their action was deeply resented by the Iraqis.

Vacant Land Scarce.

The settlement of the Assyrians has proved to be a difficult problem. The Iraq Government tried its best in cooperation with the British Authorities and some charitable institutions to find suitable and vacant lands in the mountains where these Assyrian mountaineers could settle. Many thousands were settled between 1927 and 1932. A settlement scheme was agreed upon last year with the authorities of the League of Nations. But the Assyrians, headed by their Patriarch, Mar Shamun, balked at the scheme. Trouble started less than two months ago when I was still in Bagdad.

The main problem regarding settlement is whether the Assyrians are to be settled all together in groups adjoining one another or in separate groups on whatever lands are available. The first alternative which the Assyrians desire is out of the question, as no land can be found in the northern mountains large enough to hold thousands of people. Such a method would necessitate the eviction of thousands of Kurdish tribesmen from homes which they have occupied for ages, and would create future problems of a very troublesome nature.

Foreign Intrigue Seen.

Recently a band of disaffected Assyrians which had gone to Syria returned fully armed into Iraqi territory, met a small police force and exterminated it without provocation. This indicates that the Assyrian affair had not been going on without foreign intrigue. France, to whose administration in Syria the recent emancipation of Iraq and its admission into the League of Nations is a serious challenge, does not seem to like seeing affairs in Iraq moving smoothly.

In the meantime, for the British to see their protégés, the Assyrians, summarily punished for their acts by the Iraq Government seems to be a bitter pill to swallow. This, together with the possibility of pressing upon the Iraq Government certain points outstanding in last month's negotiations in London by capitalizing the Assyrian incident, sufficiently explains the new emanating from London about alleged excesses committed by the Iraqis. These excesses the Iraqi Prime Minister has emphatically denied.

Iraq Deals Firmly.

The young Iraq Government has the record of having reduced to exemplary security in the last twelve years a country of more than half of which is inhabited by tribes and which was the exasperation of the Turkish Government before the war. Even the traditional tribal raids have been banned and the country enjoys a security which it has not enjoyed for many centuries. To expect the Iraq Government to allow the Assyrian outrage to go unpunished is quite unreasonable.

What does not seem to be realized by Western public opinion is that the Assyrians are not a usual, peaceful minority. They count among them six to eight thousand strong and well-disciplined men fully armed with the most up-to-date British rifles. To this young, struggling, Iraqi nation, whose small army is none too strong, this compact mass of foreign and warlike men constitutes a real danger. What seems strange to the Iraqi is that this so-called minority, fully armed, should be encouraged by some foreign powers and be supported by the foreign press even when it commits avowedly reckless acts.

It is really unfortunate that during their fifteen years of stay in Iraq the Assyrians have permitted themselves to be used as the instruments of foreign exploitation. It is to be hoped that with the removal of the irreconcilable Mar Shamun from Iraq the Assyrians will be more willing to settle down. They are hard-working and industrious, and once relieved of the foreign, exploiting hand, there is no reason why they should not make useful and peaceful citizens.

Matta Akrawi.

New York, Aug. 22, 1933.

1933 Aug 27, NY Times

Turkish Soldiers Slay 50 Assyrians

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Border Guards Clash With Groups Trying to Flee From Iraq.

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REFUGEE CAMP IS SET UP

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Baghdad Reports Assyrians Are Being Cared For At Mosul – Atrocities Denied.

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ISTANBUL, Turkey, Aug. 28. – The newspaper Milliyet, Istanbul edition of the semi-official Hakimiyeti MIlliyet, published in Angora, announced today that two attempts were made by Assyrians recently to enter Turkey.

About 200 made the first attempt near the road from Zakho, Iraq, and Turkish frontier guards used machine guns to repel them. The Assyrians withdrew, leaving thirty dead.

On Aug. 11, about 100 Assyrians having crossed the frontier and refused to surrender their arms to frontier guards who barred their way, a seance skirmish took place, and twenty Assyrians were killed.

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Assyrians Carried Savings

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 28. – Assyrian refugees are now being taken to Mosul, where they are being fed and clothed at a concentration camp. In explanation of the long Assyrian death roll in the recent Iraqi rebellion, it is significantly reported that nearly every Assyrian rebel carried his life's savings, accounting on average to £50.

Iraqi spokesmen deny that their army committed any atrocities. They affirm hat there were no outrages against women, and they maintain that the treatment meted out to the insurgents was not outside the usual treatment by an armed force against rebels.

The only mutilations reported thus far, they say, were perpetrated by Assyrians, who allegedly burned the bodies of two Iraqi officers and mutilated the arms of several soldiers.

Sympathizers with the Iraqi action assert that if the Assyrian rebellion had been successful the whole of Northern Iraq would be in chaos now, as a Kurdish rising might have followed any success of the Assyrians at arms. It is understood the Ministry of Defense has granted one year's advancement of seniority to all officers who took part in operations against the Assyrians.

These officers include 4CP6K, commanding officer. It is rumored that further promotion awaits him. His present rank is equivalent to that of Colonel. He probably will be promoted to Brigadier, which rank carries the courtesy title of Pasha.

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Jews in Bagdad Alarmed

LONDON, Tuesday, Aug. 29. – The Daily Mail publishes a dispatch from Bagdad saying that Iraq Jews are alarmed over their safety and that < Many Jews have been sending money out of the country, the correspondent says he was informed.

1933 Aug 29, NY Times

Assyrians' Trouble Laid To Foreigners

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Their Difficulties with Iranians Not Of Their Own Seeking, It Is Declared

To the Editor of The New York Times:

Matta Akrawi, who wrote to The New York Times about the present situation in Mesopotamia, seems himself to be not thoroughly acquainted with he fundamental causes of the Assyrian problem.

The Arabs and the Assyrians are two ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia and are related to each other racially and culturally. They never bred any feelings of hostility toward each other and respected one another's rights and customs. The present hostility of the Arabs to the Assyrians is cultivated by outsiders. No doubt Assyrians as well as Arabs and Kurds are victims of poor leadership.

The present hostilities are mainly the result of deliberate aggravation by a third party of religious fanaticism and tribal prejudices for the purpose of weakening these nations and making of them suitable objects of exploitation. For instance, in 1874 Sultan Abdul Hamid are the Kurds to secure his own throne; meanwhile, they were directed against Assyrians and Armenians. In 1905 the Persian Government secretly organized the Kurds and the Assyrians and warned them against each other. During the World War Assyrians were lured into the ranks of the Allies by a vision of a new and great Assyria, although this vision was never given any documentary proof.

The Allies used the Assyrians for their own purposes. They never, however, showed any sincerity in the fulfillment of their promises to a people whom Mr. Wigram, an outstanding English authority on the Orient, called our smallest Ally.

On Jan. 31, 1914, during a furious battle on a dark night, the Russian forces deserted their smallest Ally in the trenches and fled from Urmia. At that time thousands of Assyrians were killed; about ten thousand escaped with the Russians, and the bulk of the nation was saved from slaughter by the intervention of the American Consul, Mr. Shade, and Dr. Packard, both of whom are now greatly honored by the Assyrians.

In 1915 Assyrian mountaineers were driven from their homes and found shelter in Persia. In 1915 the Russian troops withdrew entirely from the Turkish front to turn their attention to their own revolution and left the Assyrians to hold the lines alone. It was then that Great Britain sent her messenger, Captain Pennnington, with the suggestion that the Assyrians migrate to South Persia for safety. Accordingly, on July 18, 1918, the Assyrians left Urmia for Hamadan, traveling over primitive roads and high mountains, under cross-fire of the enemy; thousands died from bullets, thirst, starvation and exhaustion.

Assyrians Helpless.

After reaching Hamadan they were immediately transferred to Baqu-Bah (Mesopotamia). Britains' main purpose here was to organize the Assyrians in a strong unit to protect the territory taken over by Britain from the Turks. Assyrians were used to quell all rioting of dissatisfied tribes in this occupied territory. Naturally the Arabs regarded the Assyrians as their enemies. They failed to realize that the Assyrians were as helpless as they were in the grip of a strong hand.

Until 1921 the Arabs did not have their own regular army and the safety and security of the country was dependent upon the Assyrian forces. In the Summer of 1921 CGW3R was proclaimed King of Iraq. This proclamation aroused great opposition among the tribes that refused to recognize him. When, in 1921, the Sheik Rakib of Bataza fought the Arabs, who were apparently suffering defeat, the Assyrian battalions were sent to save the situation. Again in 1923, when Sheikh Salim of Barzani suddenly attacked and defeated the Iraq army, once more the Assyrian battalions came to the rescue of the Iraqis. In 1924-25, when Sheik Mahmud of Sulaymonia fought and defeated the Iranian and British armies, again the Assyrians hurriedly saved the country for order and peace.

The reported riot of a detachment of 500 exploited and dissatisfied Assyrians was an excuse for Arabs to massacre hundreds of helpless and defenseless men, women and children who were living peacefully and productively on their farms. Although Rashid Ali Beg, Iraq's Prime Minister, disclaimed all responsibility and shifted the onus to the Kurds, Bagdad gave a warm reception to the victorious Iraq army.

Several Interests Blamed.

The responsibility for these massacres rests not only upon the Iraq Government but also upon Great Britain, who removed her madnate, from Iraq's not settling the Assyrian question. [Sentence structure is confusing.] The third responsible organ for these unfortunate events is the League of Nations, which, during the past fifteen years, never took the Assyrian question seriously enough to achieve a solution for this grave problem. Meanwhile, it accepted Iraq into the circle of its family. Until now the League has not taken any necessary steps against its member to a halt to these outrages.

I do agree with Mr. Akrawi that the Assyrians are mismanaged by their leaders and exploited by foreign interests to their detriment. Another instance of this fact is found in the action of the French Government, whose High Commissioner in Syria, General Goro, sent a commission to Tiflis, then in the hands of the Mesheviki, to lure Assyrians into new conflict by promulgating the sloan, Syria for Assyrians. A small portion of Assyrians succumbed to this propaganda and went to Syria, where they were immediately armed and put against the Arabs.

The Assyrians are a peaceful and industrious people, but have been subject to exploitation and mismanagement because, lacking the security of a homeland of their ow, they also lacked stability and unity of purpose. Naturally they have no grievance against any of their neighbors.

Paul G. Edger.
New York, Aug. 30, 1933.

1933 Sep 03, NY Times

Irak Looms Again as Center of Trouble With Death of King Feisal, Massacre of Assyrians

One of the last statements attributed to King Feisal, whom Lawrence of Arabia made to stand before the world as the shrewd and resolute leader who would bring the Arab revolt to glory, was in denial of reports that his forces in Irak, joined by Kurdish tribesmen, have been massacring the Assyrians. It is disgraceful to talk about such a thing, said Feisal and within a few days he was dead.

The King of Irak, though but 48, was old in war and its councils. There was a time, according to the story, when the Arab chiefs came from far to sit at his feet and, before they departed, swore to wait when he waited, march when he marched, to yield obedience to no Turk, to deal kindly with all who spoke Arabic, and to put independence above life, family and goods.

Then there came freedom and Feisal, the leader in war, was without a cause. The man who Lawrence said would die of too much action became the administrator and probably an uneasy one. All that had been hoped for with Independence did not appear: disillusionment came to the camp. Within less than a year after the termination of the British mandate over Irak, Feisal is dead and a new king, only 21 years old, has the task of keeping together factions which his father held in loyalty.

The new king faces the charges of the world, particularly of England and France, that his men are mistreating the Christian Assyrians of whom it is said no more than forty thousand are left. The trouble is said to have started when the Assyrians protested because the Irak Government had not kept its word and placed them in compact homogeneous communities. They crossed, a thousand strong, into French Syria and voiced their complaints. The French press says that Britain and the League of Nations have definite responsibilities and must take steps to prevent new butchery. Much of the subject is made in Paris because, right now, there is talk of giving freedom to Syria, France's mandate, and it is being argued that such action would only court troubles of the kind which have come to Irak. London papers regret that in giving up the mandate no provision was made for the care of the Assyrians and suggest that the League is not blameless.

So there is talk, and what is going on back in the neighborhood of Baghdad and Dohuk remains somewhat obscure. With Feisal gone, Irak once more may swarm with trouble.

1933 Sep 18, Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA)

To Appeal For Assyrians

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Deported Patriarch Leaves Cyprus to Present Case to League

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NICOSIA, Cyprus, Sept. 23. – Mar Shimun, the young Patriarch of the Assyrians, left for Geneva yesterday to present the case of his people before the League of Nations. The British authorities granted him permission to leave his exile for the purpose.

The Patriarch was deported to Cyprus following the recent massacres of Assyrians by Iraqi troops. The Iraq government alleged hat he was responsible for a political rebellion that had to be quelled by the army.

1993 Sep 30, NY Times

20,000 Assyrians Find Havens.

GENEVA, Sept. 28 (AP). – Twenty thousand Assyrians, unhappy under Iraqi rule, will probably migrate to British Guiana and to Nigeria in French West Africa. The Council of the League of Nations was informed today that Great Britain and France had offered hospitality in those colonies. Resolutions of thanks were adopted.

1934 Sep 29, NY Times

ASYLUM FOR THE ASSYRIANS

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To the Editor of The New York Times:

The New York Times published recently a dispatch from Geneva referring to the Assyrian migration to new havens in which it was stated that Great Britain and France offered their hospitality to 20,000 Assyrians to whom life in Iraq had become intolerable. Great Britain and France are particularly responsible for the plight of the Assyrians today.

In 1914, when the World War was in full swing, both sides tried to utilize any single unit of human power. In order to bring the Assyrians into the Allies' camp, promises were made to them about restoration of the lost Assyrian glory. Thus the Assyrians joined the Allies.

They played a prominent role in the Orient. They lost about 50 percent of their number, together with all possessions, accumulated through the centuries. They were made the enemies of their own kinsmen, Arabs, Kurds and Turks. All these worthless sacrifices were made for the sake of that promised haven, Mesopotamia, the ancient fatherland of the Assyrians. After the war was over the Allies forgot their small friends.

Climate Is Unsuitable.

Now when no need remains for the Assyrians in the Orient, Great Britain and France are trying to utilize the remaining forces of this nation in their colonies. They are offering them another new haven, this time in British Guiana and French West Africa in the torrid zone, where the Assyrians, not being accustomed to these conditions, soon would perish.

The migration of 20,000 Assyrians to British Guiana and French West Africa would still further break this nation into small disorganized groups. Meanwhile, Assyrians as an intruding minority will suffer the usual fate of minorities. No doubt in both colonies they would be granted equal rights with natives, which happen to be hard labor, long hours and meager wages. Thus would an historic nation be invited, under guise of hospitality, to its own suicide.

But still there is hope, and a strong one. The entrance of Soviet Russia into the League of Nations opens a new chapter in Assyrian history.

In U. S. S. R. the question of national minorities is solved. More than one-third of the Assyrians are living in Soviet Russia. Their status is one of absolute social and political equality with all other nationalities.

Live in Peace in Russia.

In U. S. S. R. the Assyrians have built their own towns, opened schools, organized theatres, clubs, kindergartens, creches, &c., and have periodicals in their own tongue. They live in full peace and harmony with their neighbors and themselves. Their cultural achievements are far beyond expectations. In Iraq they are being betrayed by their selfish leaders and are forgotten by their friends. They are living under the constant shadow of death. The bloody events of August, 1933, are still fresh in our minds.

The League of Nations with Soviet Russia as a member has all facilities to execute justice in their behalf. The Assyrians are a persistent and industrious people, but while in the Orient they are made a tool for political and economical exploitation. There they belong to somebody else but not to themselves.

The Assyrians need a place where they can live in peace and tranquility. Weighing all facts, we can judge that Soviet Russia is the only country where they will survive and prosper. It is for the League to use its good offices and take up this important matter with Soviet representatives in order to settle Assyrians in U. S. S. R. in one community. We are sure this will present a final and practical solution to the problem of a new and suitable haven for this ancient nation.

PAUL G. EDGAR

New York, Oct. 31, 1934.

1934 Nov 04, NY Times

Favor Refuge for Assyrians.

GEORGETOWN, British Guiana, Dec. 22 (Canadian Press). The League of Nations Commission examining the Rupununi district as a possible settlement for 30,000 Assyrians from Iraq were favorably impressed and would recommend the area, dispatches from the interior intimated today. The members of the commission are expected to return to Georgetown early in January.

1934 Dec 23, NY Times

Rebellious Yezidis Are Subdued in Iraq

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Punitive Force Ends Resistance of Devil-Worshippers to Nationalistic Decrees

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BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 25. – The army has just completed successful operations against a section of Yezidis, or devil-worshippers, in the Jebel-Sinjar area, eighty miles west of Mosul.

After the Assyrians, the Yezidis are the next minority to suffer from the ultra-nationalist and centralizing policy of the Iraqi government. They are a strange, aloof people who worship the devil as the creative agent of a supreme god and seek to propitiate him as the author of evil. They avoid mentioning his name and represent him as a peacock.

Although at first suspicious and distant, these people eventually became on good terms with the British authorities under the mandatory regime. The Iraqi Government declared martial law following the refusal of these Yezidis to register their names with the army under the National Defense Law, which came into operation a few months go. A punitive column, including airplanes, quickly subdued the dissidents, whose casualties were heavy. Their leader, Daud Aldaud, was wounded but escaped to Syria with his songs. Iraq is now demanding their extradition.

Their operations finished, the troops are remaining in the disturbed area during he trial of the insurgents by court-martial. Many have already been sentenced to imprisonment and one to death.

1934 Oct 26, NY Times

COUNCIL OF LEAGUE WILL MEET JUNE 26

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GENEVA, June 13. – Anthony Eden, British Foreign Secretary, definitely announced to the League of Nations that the Council would meet June 26, instead of June 16, and there would be four points on the Agenda. These are the Ethiopian question, the Locarno problem, the slavery committee's report and the settlement of Assyrians in Iraq.

1935 Jun 14, NY Times; shortened to remove bits on non-Iraq issues

UPRISING BY ARMY IS FEARED IN IRAQ

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Assassination of the Defense Minister Causes Consternation in the Country

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PARLIAMENT IS DISSOLVED

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Companion of Lawrence in War Against the Turks and Germans Is Killed.

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BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 31. – Although there has been no actual revolution in Iraq as yet, the situation is extremely critical. The assassination of General Jafar Pasha al-Askari, Defense Minister in the fallen Cabinet of Yassin Pasha al-Hashimi, has aroused great consternation and may lead to far more serious consequences.

While driving in his car about fifteen miles north of Baghdad the Defense Minister was held up by six army officers, who fired thirty bullets into him. Yassin Pasha and Rashid Ali Bey Gailani, former Minister of the Interior, both fled to Syria.

General Bakir Sidky Pasha, the newly self-appointed dictator, who was responsible for Thuesday's coup d'etat, is a notorious figure in the country. He was almost entirely responsible for the massacre of thousands of Assyrians in 1933 and also for the killing of hundreds of Yezidis (devil worshipers), as well as many other tribes of Iraq. While fearless, he is at the same time ruthless. He originally was a Turkish staff officer, who, after the Assyrian massacre, received the title of Pasha and was appointed major general by the late King Feisal despite the British Ambassador's protests.

This coup d'etat was purely a political manoeuvre having the full approval of King Ghazi and prepared by one of his closest advisers.

Well-informed political circles expect a serious uprising within the army ranks, since it now transpires that General Bakir Sidky Pasha had not informed the majority of the army officers of his intention of overthrowing he government and establishing a dictatorship. It seems that most of the army offices were devoted to the fallen Premier, who is a former general.

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General Election Planned

BAGHDAD, Oct. 31. – Preliminary to a general election, King Ghazi dissolved the Iraq Parliament today shortly after the new government of Hkimat Bey Suleiman had exiled three members of the deposed cabinet of former Premier Yassin Pasha al-Hashimi.

The government desires the public interest to be the chief concern of all and to achieve this aim all personal interests must be eliminated, an official communiqué said.

Constitutional principles demand full cooperation between the Executive and the Legislature, such cooperation being particularly essential at the present time to enable the Cabinet to carry out contemplated reforms.

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Aide of Lawrence Killed

CAIRO, Egypt, Oct. 31 (AP). – The death of Ja'Far Pasha, former companion of Corporal T. E. Shaw, Lawrence of Arabia, during the Iraqi military coup was reported here today.

Ja'Far was twice Iraq minister to London and fought on both sides in the World War, first assisting Germany and Turkey. He leaned from a German submarine on the North Libyan Coast and led tribesmen against the allied troops in two successful battles.

Later he was captured and imprisoned in Cairo where he tried to escape from jail by sliding down knotted blankets. The opulent general's weight snapped the blanket rope and he fell into a moat and injured his ankle.

Officials agreed to his parole after the general agreed to pay for the blankets.

Infuriated by newspaper reports that the Turks had abused Arab Nationalists, Ja'Far joined the Allies and assisted Lawrence in the campaign against the Turks.

At the end of the war he was honored by a military parade in which British soldiers, his former jailers, marched past in review.

1936 Nov 01, NY Times

Two Iraq Natives Slay Missionary, Washington Told

WASHINGTON, June 13. – (INS) – The state department has been informed of the slaying of the Rev. Roger Craig Cumberland, American Presbyterian missionary, at Dohuk, Iraq, by two natives.

Cumberland, according to a brief dispatch, was shot twice by the natives yesterday, dying in the hospital at Mosul.

The wounded missionary was flown to Mosul in an effort to save his life in an airplane of the Iraq royal air force. He was born at LaVerne, Calif., and his legal residence was Los Angeles. He had lived in the near east for many years.

1938 Jun 13, The Journal Times (Racine, WI); other spices specify he had two bullet wounds

California Missionary Is Slain in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 15. – (AP) – Authorities hunted today the Kurdish slayer of Roger Craig Cumberland, young American missionary, who was shot Sunday in his home at Dohuk, Northern Iraq.

Cumberland, whose home was LaVerne, Calif., represented the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, with headquarters in New York.

1938 Jun 15, Oakland Tribune

Slayer of Missionary Hunted

BAGDAD, Irak, June 16. (AP). – Authorities are hunting the Kurdish slayer of Roger Craig Cumberland, young American missionary who was shot Sunday in his home at Dohuk, northern Iraq. Cumberland had been in Iraq ten years. He died in a hospital at Mosul.

1938 Jun 16, The Evening Sun (Hanover PA)

France to Limit Immigrants

PARIS, Jan. 14. – Presiding today in the Foreign Office at the first meeting of the Committee to Aid Refugees, Foreign Minister Georges Bonet said that while France was disposed to continue to aid Stateless fugitives the country had 3,400,000 immigrants, of whom 200,000 were recent political refugees, and could not be expected to go on to the detriment of French workers who were already suffering from the country's generous immigration policy.

The meeting was attended by Cardinal Verdier and by Red Cross, medical and charity officials.

The French Government, said M. Bonnet, greeted President Roosevelt's noble initiative last year with an ardent desire to help. Nevertheless, you must remember the repeated waves of immigrants that events from soon after the World War tor event tiles rolled up on our shores. Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Turks, Assyrians, Georgians, Italians, Spaniards, Rhineland Germans, 'non-Aryan' Germans and Austrians – we have extended hospitality to them all.

France, with 40,000,000 inhabitants within the homeland borders, today had 3,200,000 foreigners as well as a low estimate of 200,000 refugees. No other country has done as much. We have taken care of 75,000 Russians, 65,000 Armenians, 5,000 Saar Germans and several thousand Austrian Catholics. During recent months more than 100,000 'non-Aryan' Germans crossed the frontiers into our country and we have had to find lodging, food and work for al and our effort continues unabated.

1939 Jan 15, NY Times

When British forces decided to attack and take Syria before the Germans could gain a foothold there, war came again to Bible Land. And the names of the cities in the daily report of the progress of fighting are the familiar names of the Old Testament – Sidon and Tyre and Canaan and Lebanon.

It was in this part of the world that the civilizations of the ancient flourished. The battles being fought today roar over the ruins of buildings St. Paul may have visited. War planes circle over abandoned caravan routes along which the spices and fine fabrics of the east were once brought to Europe.

1941 Jun 15, The Minneapolis Star