Tragedy Assyrian Minority Iraq by Stafford

Author:Stafford [Stafford]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781136196195
Google: x83FBQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-10-28T05:53:27+00:00

Enclosure.

I, Mar Shimun, have perused your Excellency’s letter No. S/1104, dated May 28, 1933, and accept all that is contained therein.

I hereby undertake that I will do nothing to make the task of Major Thomson and the Iraqi Government in connection with the settlement scheme difficult, and that I will in all ways and at all times act as a loyal subject of His Majesty the King.

The Mar Shimun thereupon wrote the following letter to King Feisal, dated May 31st:

I humbly request leave to give Your Majesty my opinion in the following lines about the present policy of the Mosul authorities as I see it to settle the Assyrian question.

Knowing that a word from Your Majesty at this hour to Your Majesty’s Advisers could change this policy, and thus bring the affairs of the Assyrians to a successful issue.

I was ordered by the Mutaserrif of Mosul with great urgency to proceed to Baghdad immediately in response to an invitation from the Minister of Interior, to discuss with him and Major D. B. Thomson, the Foreign Expert for the new Assyrian Settlement Scheme of the Assyrian affairs.

On the sixth day after my arrival in Baghdad, and after many attempts, I was granted an interview with H.E. the Minister of Interior.

In the meantime I have word from Mosul that the authorities there are still continuing their old policy with regard to the Assyrian question. If this is the case it is inconsistent with the purpose of my invitation to Baghdad as explained to me.

I very much regret to have to bring it to Your Majesty’s notice that during my interview with H.E. the Interior Minister I was informed of the unfavourable attitude of the present Government towards me personally.

If I did not participate with the present policy adopted by Mosul authorities the reason has been that the policy was entirely unconstructive.

I do feel most confident that the present policy which has now for some time been carried on by the Mosul Liwa authorities only, as I presume, and which has already proved a failure, is not consistent with the noble spirit of Your Majesty, which has been more than once most graciously expressed to me by Your Majesty personally.

I take advantage of your noble spirit and fatherly kindness to assure myself that Your Majesty’s desire is to make the Assyrian people a contented, loyal, and helpful subject people within Your Majesty’s Dominion, and to attain this end I am ready as I always have been to offer my utmost services to Your Majesty.

Hoping at this later hour that some constructive scheme can be arranged, which will enable my people and myself to prove to Your Majesty’s person our loyalty and gratitude.

In his reply to the Minister the Mar Shimun declined to give his written undertaking. His letter is of some interest as in it he attempts to define the “temporal” authority of the Assyrian Patriarch, though, as noted in a previous chapter, his definition was by no means clear. In a later

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