The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Re-reading Longrigg

Re-reading Longrigg

Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Wednesday, October 8 2008, 21:57:33 (CEST)
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His book, “Iraq 1900 to 1950” is an excellent and detailed look at Iraq during those crucial years from his position as an official of the Mandate. Especially interesting is his assessment of the Assyrians. He gives them credit as good fighters but not much else. They come across as devious and untrustworthy...constantly bickering among themselves and often killing each other. The Levies he accuses of rioting, insubordination and wanton killings, though at other times dependable fighters.

Trying to forge a nation out of a territory filled with envious and hostile tribes in the countryside and factions in the cities was, and is, an almost hopeless task...as the Americans are finding out. Then too democracy was supposed to be the answer, with the added benefit of a strong central monarchy that failed due to Faisal’s early death.

The Assyrian “problem” derived from the fact that Assyrian refugees either poured into Iraq or were brought there for their own safety by the British. To the Iraqis both the British and the Assyrian and Armenian refugees were foreigners....mostly unwelcome. The Assyrians had it in mind that the British owed them a part of Iraq....you can imagine how Iraqis felt about that. Iraqis felt they had done nothing but be accommodating and welcoming to the Assyrians of Persia and Turkey....in return the Assyrians joined up with the British Levies, fought against their hosts and insisted a homeland be found from somewhere for all of them to live together.

This proved impossible and the Mar Shimun made things worse by threatening to excommunicate any Assyrian who accepted settlement among existing villages. When two of his followers lied to or misled his flock that Syria was offering them what they wanted, several hundred Assyrians went there only to find no such thing....about five hundred of them were interned in Syria to be later joined by their families...the rest tried to cross back into Iraq but fighting broke out which led to a reprisal at Semele...something the rest of Iraq felt was long overdue as they’d grown tired of this foreign and hostile element, Christians at that, who’d descended on their country...which was having enough troubles of its own.

When the British, and no one else, did nothing to “avenge” them, the Patriarch and his followers finally realized that no one was going to give them what they demanded and they finally settled down to live as Iraqis...or left. Agha Poutrous and the Patriarch were kicked out as dangerous to the peace. It was tragic but the situation wasn’t created by the Iraqis themselves...they may have over-reacted but only after repeated provocation...such as all governments have been guilty of. There’s no basis to label Iraqis as bloodthirsty or murderous or anti-Christian because of Semele...Christians have killed more Christians than anybody else so if you’re looking for people who “hate Christians”...look no further than the corner church. And if you want to find those who have been tolerant of all Christian sects, so long as they kept the peace...look to your neighborhood mosque. That’s history, not opinion.

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