Iraq and the Persian Gulf / [prepared under the direction of K. Mason].

  • Great Britain. Naval Intelligence Division.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Iraq and the Persian Gulf / [prepared under the direction of K. Mason]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    420/860 (page 308)
    at least those Kurds who lived outside Mosul vilayet, British policy still toyed with the notion of creating a small state of southern Kurdistan out of the Mosul Kurds, and from the beginning the administration was committed to a policy of special treatment for Kurdish areas in accordance with the Anglo-French Declaration of 1918. Such doctrines naturally excited the wild Kurds and wilder chiefs, particularly in the remote regions and traditional centres of Kurdish independence such as Amadia, Ruwandiz, and Sulaimantya, the main centre of the autonomists. For twelve years (1919-1931) intrigues and outbreaks centred on Shaikh Mahmud of Sulaimaniya, the most notable of a number of Kurdish shaikhs and aghas who were all impatient of any government save their own. ‘The strength of these chiefs lay in their ability to raise revenues by terrorizing their villagers and to maintain armed bands with the funds raised. The tribesmen themselves, whether shepherds or cultivators, though easily excited by political or religious talk to acts of violence, were worn out by the destitution and poverty brought by the war and anxious for settled government and freedom from the excessive tyranny of their chiefs. If the Turkish claim to Mosul had not been left open for so many years the history of Iraqi Kurdistan would have been less troubled by local rebellion. Mahmud, who had invited the British to Sulaimaniya before the armistice, was for a time recognized not only as governor of his district but as leader of any Kurdish tribe between the Great Zab and the Diyala which freely accepted him. ‘Temporarily he had a great following, but his misgovernment soon made it necessary to curb his authority by providing Sulaimaniya and other centres with forceful Political Officers. Mahmud retaliated by collecting a troop of Kurds from Persia, seizing Sulaimaniya, and declaring himself ruler of all Kurdistan (May 1919). Military action soon put an end to this kingdom. Mahmud was tried and sentenced to death, the sentence being changed to banishment. Similar rebellions, usually more local in scope, continued to trouble the remoter districts. In 1921 Sulaimaniya province rejected union with the new man- datory state of Iraq and refused to vote in the referendum for Faisal, while the Kurds of Erbil and Ruwandiz voted against Faisal, though accepting union with Iraq. A special provisional administration was devised for these areas, but British authority was weakened by the great reduction of military forces, and the substitution of R.A.F. squadrons, some armoured car companies and Levies raised in Iraq, for the regular army of occupation. It was the opportunity of the Turks, who