'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎225v] (449/501)

2
or his orders to evacuate till the 9th November, but Mosul had been occupied by the
British on the 3 rd November in precise accordance with the terms laid down at Mudros.
Lord Curzon also reminded Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. that annistice conditions have nothing to do
with the final peace settlement.
His Lordship was equally successful in dealing with the arguments based on racial
considerations. The statistics relating to the racial composition of the inhabitants of
the vilayet he demonstrated to be destitute of any real value. The Turkish estimate
of the population was proved to be too low, nor, it may be added, was there any basis
for the contention of Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. that the estimate made under British auspices was
purposely inflated. The divergence may be safely attributed to the fact that in the
Turkish times fear of conscription induced the people to resist official efforts to obtain
a correct estimate of their numbers. Ismet Pasha’s figures were, in detail, full of errors ;
nor is this surprising, when it is remembered that Turkish officials rarely moved about
their districts or checked the reports of their subordinates. The exact contrary is the
case with the British officials who compiled the statistics given by Lord Curzon. These
show that Arabs form one quarter of the population of the vilayet, Turkomans one-
twelfth, Kurds rather more than one half, while the remainder, rather less than a
quarter, is made up of Christians, largely Arab by race, with a small proportion of
Jews, amounting to about 2 per cent, of the whole.
The political contention that the inhabitants of the vilayet were desirous of
reinclusion in Turkey was disposed of by a reference to the two occasions since the
armistice on which their views had been sought, the first in 1919, which gave an
unanimous vote that the Mosul Vilayet should be united into one State with Bagdad
and Basra ; the second, when, with the exception of the Sulaimani division, which, as
a compact area of Kurds, desired separate treatment, and of the Kirkuk area, which
asked to be allowed to postpone decision, the population unanimously elected the Emir
Feisal as King. A point of great significance can now be added, namely, that in the
elections to the Irak Constituent Assembly the whole of the vilayet has taken part,
with the exception of a small area immediately around Sulaimani, the administrative
relations of which with the Central Irak Government have not yet been settled, and
that the Turkish, no less than the Kurdish, elements are preparing to send representa
tives to Bagdad ; whereas, in Angora, the so-called Mosul Deputies consist of a few
ex-Deputies of a Turkish Parliament elected before the war. It is manifest that
Moslem and Christian Arabs alike, as well as the Jewish community— and these
together form nearly one half of the whole—have every reason to wish for inclusion in
the Arab State. The Christians and Jews, indeed, would prefer any administration to
that of the Turks. The Kurds, whom Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. strangely described as Turkish by
race, have received and anticipate more sympathetic handling from an Arab than from
a Turkish Government, and they have recently had from the Irak Administration
pledges that they will be managed by Kurdish officials, and that no attempt will be
made to force any language but Kurdish upon them. As for the urban Turkomans, it
would be ludicrous to maintain that the destinies of the territory under dispute must
be settled in accordance with the wishes of a small fraction of the population, even if
it had definitely formulated a wish to remain Turkish, which, on the evidence of the
elections, can be categorically denied. The Kemalist resort to principles of self-
determination is, in any case, a double-edged tool, which might justly be used by the
Irak Government with regard to the large Arab populations of Nisibin, Mardin and
Diarbekr.
.So much for the first of Ismet Pasha’s political arguments. His assumption that
British engagements towards the Arabs on the one hand, and the League of Nations on
the other, might be treated as scraps of paper was refuted in eloquent terms by
Lord Curzon. ^
The historical claims which were advanced scarcely deserved consideration. It is
indubitable that the Ottoman Government regarded the three vilayets as a united
whole; the military command was never divided, and on occasions which called for
special administrative precautions, the civil government was placed under a single hand
as in the time of Midhat Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. cited by Lord Curzon, and of Nazim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. at a later
date. It remained for the Kemalist Government to differentiate between Mosul and the
other vilayets of Irak. The value of Ismet Pasha’s appeal to history can be gauged by
the plea that the Vilayet of Mosul was known as Tartaristan, as can, 1^ atleged
be proved by the existence on the maps of the name Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Tartar. The name is not
Tartar, but Tharthar, and it appears thus on some of the earliest Assyrian inscriptions
long before the Tartars, or to give them their correct name, the Tatars, had come into
existence.

'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎225v] (449/501)

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'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎225v] (449/501)

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