The British Betrayal of the Assyrians - atour.com

1 THE British Betrayal OF THE Assyrians i a i? fcfy , \ 4 by MALEK TO SECURE BOOKS APPLY TO THE ASSYRIAN NATIONAL LEAGUE OF AMERICA (Affiliated with the Assyrian National Federation) k l&i h * 'll' ' / 1758 NORTH PARK AVENUE. CHiCAGO, 1LU YUSUF Many books, pamphlets and articles have been wr itten on the Assyrian Ques tion in Iraq, but no one s understanding can be complete until he has read this most remarkable book written by an Assyro-Gialdean. He has thrown much light on numerous points which were so fa* unknown to the public. It should be >n The shelf of every student of his- * tory and politics.

2 Here is given the very essence of the m< of Great Britain. 4 $ Net V l m*: ' WWW w Lcxioi )<QJ ^OOi _Di 1 1=^ \n LlVl x llibns iBrtb jftlarbutljo Hibrarp The Malphono Ahrohom Nuro Collection THE British Betrayal OF THE Assyrians ISL 200? The British Betrayal OF THE Assyrians BY YUSUF MALEK Formerly of the Iraqi Civil Service June 1917 September 6, 1930 Author of Les Consequences Tragiques du Mandat en Iraq, 1932 With Introduction By W I L L I A M A. WIG R A M, Published by the Joint-Action OF The Assyrian National Federation AND The Assyrian National League of America 1758 North Park Avenue, Chicago, Ill.

3 (Books may be secured by application to this address only) First published in 1935 All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America THE KIMBALL PRESS Warren Point, N. J. His Beatitude the Late Mar Benyamin Stiimun Catholicos Patriarch of the East Cowardly assassinated by Simko in Persia in 1918 Thou wert as a lone star, whose light did shine. Shelley T ** V * -%. **& Sl *iL fi JF- - V': ..: ^ "ie lA \ ' W P^K^v3f\ ,v. ft ; > U^:ati i ylm M aiv Esn ai >.dvf;a X a f Cath fil'd Puii'aiCti rjf tltf Hast Jk*rf ^.. / JC ? r & ; 7 1 --V / V /' n'1 tiV< no bni>f to iVaruWn o?

4 Y pc</p/p . p. 121 -V - 1 \ : . ( ? ' Tfis Beatitude the LRtb Mak 5 rwwrv XIX Cnthohrjs I A/ -h " isi ( >w -r{j.'v- assassinated f v Sirnkn in IVrsfa in I9T& Thou wen -\ lorn* st ;r v h m* light did V* - Dedicated to the Assyrian People in commemoration of the Assyrians who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Iraqi Government Y. M. The Author I'hou shouldst never cease to he AUTHOR S PREFACE The atrocities deliberately perpetrated by the forces of Faisal, the puppet king on a shaky throne, led by their ill-bred officers against the Assyrians in Iraq during August, 1933, the month that should mark a black spot in British history, have necessarily accelerated the publication as an urgent necessity of a part of a comprehensive book on the Iraqi minorities which I have in view.))}

5 The British Government has betrayed, and has cer tainly proved herself unworthy of, the trust that other Eastern peoples have placed in her. She received many warnings as to the precarious position of the Iraq minori ties in an emancipated Iraq, but it continued to ignore the appeals made to it and set aside the apprehensions felt even by the members of the Permanent Mandates Com mission. Though unfortunately the Assyrian men, women, and children, who, in defence of their very honor, have been most brutally massacred with the usual Arab savagery, are lamentably and irretrievably lost, yet it is not too late to save the remnant if only as a monument to British perfidy and This is not impossible.

6 It is incumbent upon the leaders who, rightly or wrongly, placed their implicit trust in the British Government and British liberal, to mend their ways. I am not cognizant of the circumstances that led the Assyrian leaders at the time to be swayed by the British policy but the blood of our martyrs who have fallen victims to the implicit trust and that villainous policy, is loudly crying to save those who are in the lion s mouth. The Assyrian people who have been sorely tried for the last nineten years (1915-1933) and have encountered many 1 ii British Betrayal OF THE Assyrians bitter tribulations, want and need a stable and honest policy that can offer it a real, permanent peace and secur ity, which, in the last sixteen years (1918-1933) of trial, has been definitely proved impossible under the British domination.

7 In April, 1933, I attempted to return to Iraq and had to see Sir Harold Satow, the British Consul-General of Beyrouth. He was kind enough to advise me to do so, but, at the same time, he communicated with the Iraqi Consul- General of Beyrouth, Kamil al Gailani, to say that it would be in the interests of Iraq if I were allowed to return when the Iraq Government could place me under strict police surveillance. I subsequently approached the Iraqi Consul in writing on the 15th of April and he, after having com municated with Baghdad, sent me a letter No. 622/4/12 dated 22-5-33, the translation of which I append herewith: The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has, in letter No.

8 3711, dated 3rd May, 1933, informed me that the Iraq Government cannot accede to the requests embodied in your application, but it can confirm that no legal action will be taken against you for your past prejudicial activities against the interests of Iraq. This sounds very nice; but what about illegal actions" so common in Iraq? The requests embodied in my ap plication to which the Iraqi Consul makes reference, and to which the Iraqi Government could not accede, included a request for my personal safety and liberty while in Iraq. Upon further inquiry, the Consul on the 8th of June, 1933, informed me that he could give me no particulars other than those contained in his letter No.

9 622/4/12, dated the 22nd of May, 1933, which meant nothing to me because of its vagueness and ambiguity. Sir Satow s recommendation, presumably made bona fide, was that I be permitted to return to Iraq with the under standing that I was to be placed under strict police AUTHOR S PREFACE in surveillance. I discovered this from the Iraq Consul himself who was kind enough to furnish me with copies of his correspondence with Baghdad. I have quoted this minor case to illustrate the value of the League of Nations paper guarantees in Iraq for the full protection of life and property of the Iraq minorities , and to show how impossible it is for the members of the Iraq minorities, Chaldeans and others included, to approach the League of Nations and report the daily violations of the paper guarantees by the Iraq Government, however grave and acute such violations may be, without exposing themselves to reprisals.

10 The pronounced policy of the Iraq Government clearly aims at the destruction and extinction of the Assyrian race by merging it forcibly in the body politic of Iraq. In the face of the recent atrocities (and more are probably to follow) committed against the Assyrian men, women, and children, against all laws of civilization in Iraq, and particularly in the Mosul Liwa, by the armed forces of the Iraq Government for which preparations were being made some months previously, England re mained a mere observer, and her moral responsibility undertaken at Geneva through the medium of Sir Francis Humphrys, her accredited representative, proved, as we constantly maintained in writing and otherwise, not to be worth the paper upon which it was recorded.