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=> The Kirkuk "Incident"

The Kirkuk "Incident"
Posted by Tiglath (Guest) - Sunday, June 28 2009, 4:53:16 (CEST)
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The people at Mosul are always difficult, and there had always been feeling between Moslems and the Christians in the town. This feeling became more bitter as the result of this incident and it was most unfortunately followed in May 1924 by a serious affair at Kirkuk, where the 2nd Battalion of Assyrians was stationed and where there was an actual outbreak. As in Mosul, relations between the Assyrians and the townspeople of Kirkuk, mainly of Turkoman origin, were the reverse of friendly. A second battalion was under orders to proceed to Suleimaniyah to join the Iraqi army in operations against Sheikh Mahmud, the Kurdish National leader, who was engaged in one of his periodic revolts against the Iraqi Government. It was alleged that the townspeople taunted the Levy soldiers with what would happen to their wives and families when they left for the front. Tension ran high and a brawl in a coffee shop caused a riot. The news was carried back to the barracks that an Assyrian soldier had been killed, and this news set the match to the powder barrel. The Assyrians seized their rifles and ran amok throughout the Bazaars of the town, firing on everyone they saw. To start with, their own British officers were unable to check them and for some little time they were out of control, and it was only with some difficulty that their officers were able to reassert their authority. Fifty of the townspeople were killed in this affair, among them a much revered religious Sheikh. Four Assyrian soldiers lost their lives. No doubt the provocation was considerable, but, as has been stated in an earlier chapter, whatever the provocation may have been, such an outbreak on the part of disciplined troops was a serious blot on the good name of the Assyrians. Most serious was the effect it had in widening the gulf between the Assyrians and the Iraqis, who by 1933 seemed to be fully persuaded that the Assyrians were invincible - a psychological factor which will be appreciated in a later chapter. When a court-martial at Kirkuk was held only nine Levy soldiers were found guilty. This, too, caused considerable comment in the Iraqi Press, unaccustomed as it was to the justice of a British court-martial. They were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, but the Iraqi Government displayed a very creditable sense of moderation and only a portion of the sentences was actually served.

p. 62-63 Ronald Sempill Stafford, The Tragedy of the Assyrian (2006).

Source: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=LSzuzsRh37gC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=May+1924+Kirkuk+bazzar+Assyrian&source=bl&ots=SOrEeT5hGb&sig=JLX9tZ6iHMBixTso8m01w7SgiLw&hl=en&ei=l9FGSqylNpXONauvqZ8B&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1



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