Mosul Rejects British Mandate

The people of Mosul are Turkish people that include Arabs, Turks and Kurds, who lived together under Turkish rule for 700 years. Breaking them apart from Turkish rule is tantamount to tearing them apart from their homeland. Fully aware of this, in order to 'convince' the public the British deep state resorted to its usual method: violence.

Ankara government, in an effort to balance the power shift against Britain with respect to Mosul, signed a deal with the US company Chester and gave it vast privileges in building railways and exploring mines, and when the Turkish Parliament endorsed the deal, the British got furious. No matter what it did, the British deep state just couldn't achieve the control it desired over Mosul. When the people rose against the British mandate and the British-appointed King Faisal of Iraq, the British violently clamped down on the protestors.³⁸⁷ British forces pressured Turkish-siding tribes and arrested tribal leaders. Especially the people of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah continued to reject a British mandate despite the violent suppression tactics of the British.³⁸⁸

In Mosul, Kurds started a riot against the British mandate and British jetfighters violently suppressed the protest. İhsan Şerif Kaymaz tells about this massacre with following words in his valuable book, based on the British archives:

To sum it up, Churchill scaled down the land forces to make savings in defense budget and reinforced the air forces stationed in Mosul. British decided to use the Iraqi army and Assyrian militia as the ground troops. The purpose was giving the message that even the slightest move by the Kurds in Mosul would be punished in the harshest manner possible. The method was cruel but successful. After a while, even hearing the approaching jetfighters was enough to 'tone down' the tribes…

Cities, towns and villages were relentlessly hit with airstrikes and then were burnt down to ground by Assyrian militia. The animals and crops of the tribes believed to support Turks were exterminated. Cities and towns like Köysancak, Raniye, Revanduz, Biraz, Kapra, Kale, Diza, Barzan, Derbet and Merga were largely destroyed… Barzan tribe was forced to choose between starvation and surrender. But the real horror started when they surrendered. Barzan town and villages were destroyed by Assyrian militia…³⁸⁹

On February 4, 1923, the Lausanne talks were suspended. Only two days later, Mustafa Kemal said in Izmir, "They are trying to take away by force Mosul and the region south of Mosul from us, from our mainland."³⁹⁰

This horrible massacre carried out in Mosul is a clear indication how savage the British deep state can get to obtain control of a region it targets. In fact, this strategy is not different than the genocide policies practiced in South Africa and India. The British deep state massacred the noble Kurdish people that it wrongly considered inferior. To the British deep state, these people could be used in a valuable geography through various pretenses. However, since it was the British deep state in question, no one could object to this 'illegality' and no one could call these massacres 'genocide' after WWI, just as had happened so many times before.