'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎210r] (424/862)

MODERN IRAQ 307
Germany. The Gulf ports and the roads and railways of Iraq and
Persia became the main routes for the supply of the U.S.S.R., parti
cularly when the northern sea route was hazardous. Also the presence
of Allied forces in Syria and Iraq, and the existence of an open exit
from the Mediterranean, has done much to enable Turkey to present
a firm front to ‘Axis’ intrigues and to maintain a neutrality invaluable
to the Allies. It is worth noting that this immense strategic ad
vantage has been held by the Allies solely through their sea power,
and also that the historical and geographical connexions between
Basra and Bombay still hold good.
Minority Problems
Kurdistan and Mosul, igiS-ig^j
At the armistice of 1918 British troops were beyond Qaiyara and
had entered Kirkuk. Mosul town was freed from Turkish occupation
by the vigorous action of General Marshall a few days later despite
Turkish protests. The rest of the Mosul vilayet, including the Kurdish
mountain valleys, was gradually occupied by British forces or Poli
tical Officers. The complexity of the situation in this area soon dis
covered itself. Policy at London and Paris was even less certain for
Mosul than for the southern vilayets. It was not till January 1920
that the French claim to the general control of Mosul vilayet under
the Sykes-Picot agreement was waived in favour of England. The
Turks themselves, though reconciled to the loss of the Arab vilayets,
had no intention of losing Mosul with its Kurdish majority, its
Turkoman minority, and its oil. Abetted by certain American
business interests they contrived to delay a decision for nearly eight
years. They intrigued locally by supporting rebellious Kurds and
by minor military intervention, and in Europe by diplomatic repre
sentations. The success of the Turkish nationalists in driving the
Greeks out of western Anatolia Peninsula that forms most of modern-day Turkey. and frightening the French from
Cilicia encouraged the army commanders at Diyarbekir to hope for
similar success in Mosul.
Shaikh Mahmud. The crucial problem concerned not the Turkish
claims but the Kurds and their claim to autonomy, wild people in
a wild country whom no one had ever tamed outside the towns. The
abortive peace treaty of Sevres (1920) had proposed the creation of an
autonomous state of Kurdistan, including the Kurds of Turkey and
Iraq but excluding those of Persia. After the Turkish nationalists
had made it clear that they intended to retain as Turkish subjects