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- Title
J. Laidoneri komisjoni raportite kriitikast ja retseptsioonist seoses kindrali tegevusega Iraagis.
- Authors
Tilgar, Tanno
- Abstract
Great Britain appealed to the League of Nations in August of 1924 in connection with its argument with Turkey concerning the placement of the Turkish-Iraqi border, in other words which side of the border the province of Mosul should be on. The League of Nations Council sent two commissions to the above-mentioned province. General Johan Laidoner served as head of the second of these commissions. It was assigned to investigate border incidents that had occurred along the temporary Turkish-Iraqi border, in other words the Brussels line. A main report and auxiliary report were submitted to the League of Nations Council in December of 1925, after which the Council decided to give Mosul Province to Iraq. Rather little attention has been paid to the work of the J. Laidoner Commission thus far. In terms of depth of treatment, we can categorise what has been written about the investigative portion of Laidoner's main report and of the auxiliary report written by Ortega-Nunez, Markuse and Charrere as general appraisals, the introduction and interpretation of assertions, and analysis on the basis of documents. Research of the work of the above-mentioned commission has since the early 1980's relied on archival data, primarily documents in the national archives of Great Britain. This article was written mainly due to the need to arrive at a clear understanding of whether criticism of the assertions of the mission's main and auxiliary reports is justified. Additionally, some assertions and assumptions made by the authors of the reports that have thus far gone unnoticed are commented on. The reception of these reports thus far is summarised, and clarification is sought regarding some aspects of Laidoner's work in Iraq. Materials from primarily the national archives of Great Britain and the League of Nations archives have been used in writing this article. This article is structured in three chapters. The first chapter provides an overview of the processes that led to the appointment of the representative of the League of Nations Council, the relations of the Chaldeans with other nationalities that lived in the vicinity of the Brussels line, and the work of the Laidoner Commission. As can be seen from the letter he sent on 17 September 1925, Secretary of State for the Colonies of the British Empire Leo Amery planned to bring the behaviour of the Turkish government towards the minority in its own country along the Brussels line to the attention of the Council. He hoped to thus influence the Council and public opinion at a time when the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague was responding to an enquiry from the League of Nations (concerning legal consultation). The League of Nations Minorities Section was supposed to begin investigating the complaint. In the Council, the British had to convince its Swedish member Undén. Amery later changed his mind and demanded in a note sent to the General Secretary of the League of Nations on 21 September 1925 that the border violation accusations of both sides must be investigated, and that this must be done by a representative of the League of Nations Council. On 24 September 1925, the Council decided to send its representative to the area (J. Laidoner was appointed as this representative on 28 September). Relations between Chaldeans and Turks began worsening in early 1925 after the Chaldeans had submitted a request to the first League of Nations commission that visited Iraq for their villages to be included in Iraqi territory. Thereafter the Turks began treating the Chaldeans with extreme brutality, presumably to punish the Chaldeans. Large numbers of Chaldeans fled south of the Brussels line from the treatment of the Turks from April to June. In September, the Turks deported the inhabitants of many Chaldean villages near the border northwards. It was evidently not an order from Ankara that was behind this operation but rather the spontaneous energy and brutality of a local general, Mursel Pasha. The leaders of the Kurds treated the deportation of the Chaldeans as an attack by the Turks on their property. The reader is enlightened in terms of the work of the Laidoner Commission on the basis of the main report, while its conclusions and those of the auxiliary report are introduced.
- Subjects
TURKEY; BRITISH foreign relations; LEAGUE of Nations; BOUNDARY disputes; HISTORY of Iraq; CHALDEAN Catholics; TURKISH Kurds; TWENTIETH century; HISTORY
- Publication
Tuna, 2011, Issue 3, p51
- ISSN
1406-4030
- Publication type
Article