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Lost Peoples of the Middle East

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Lost Peoples of the Middle East The Lost Peoples Of The Middle East The Lost Peoples Of The Middle East Documents of the Struggle for Survival and Independence of the Kurds, Assyrians, and other Minority Races in the Middle East. Edited & Introduced by F. David Andrews DOCUMENTARY PUBLICATIONS Salisbury, N.C., U.S.A. 1982 Assyrian International News Agency Books Online www.aina.org 1 The Lost Peoples Of The Middle East CONTENT Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................3 Kurdish Nationalists Protest Ill-treatment at Hands of Iraqi Government..............................................................5 Letter from Kurdish Leaders...............................................................................................................................7 Memorandum on the Kurdish Question..............................................................................................................8 Assyrian Leaders Plea Case for an Independent Nation.......................................................................................12 The Assyrian Problem...................................................................................................................................... 15 Documents on the Kurdish Situation.................................................................................................................... 18 The Kurdish Massacre on the Day of Allied Victory....................................................................................... 19 Petition of Kurdish Tribes of Iran.....................................................................................................................20 Program of the Kurdish Hope Society..............................................................................................................22 Campaign in Iraq Against the Kurds.................................................................................................................... 24 British Advisor's View of the Kurdish Question.................................................................................................. 25 British Role in Iraqi Attempts to Resolve the Kurdish Problem.......................................................................... 30 Communist Propaganda in the Kurdish Language................................................................................................33 The Jewish Anti-Zionist League in Iraq............................................................................................................... 36 Kurds Protest Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish Efforts at Suppression of Kurdish Independence Aims......................38 Proclamation of the Kurdish Rizgari Party.......................................................................................................40 Proclamation of the Kurdish Rizgari Party...........................................................................................................42 Disturbances in Kurdistan.....................................................................................................................................47 The Dahngi Rasti Kurdish Society....................................................................................................................... 49 Document on the Aims & Program of the Party...............................................................................................51 Manifesto of the Rizgari Kurdish Party................................................................................................................54 Racial Disturbances in Khuzistan......................................................................................................................... 57 Abadan Strike News......................................................................................................................................... 61 Tribal War in Iraq.................................................................................................................................................63 The Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP)................................................................................................................. 64 Appeal from the Party against imperialism.......................................................................................................66 Provisions of the National Charter of the Kurdish Democratic Party.............................................................. 66 Program of the Kurdish Democratic Party....................................................................................................... 68 National Charter of the KDP (Iraq).................................................................................................................. 70 Declaration of the Congress of the KDP.......................................................................................................... 71 Appeal of the Congress of the KDP..................................................................................................................73 Manifesto of the Kurdish Democratic Army........................................................................................................ 74 Protest of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan.......................................................................................................79 2 The Lost Peoples Of The Middle East Introduction A widely held view is that the Middle East consists of a vast arid region populated by Moslem Arabs which fronts on a small, isolated enclave of Jews known as Israel. Few realize that the Middle East is not a racially homogenous region, but rather a hodgepodge of cultural and racial diversity. This region includes Assyrians, Caucasian Christians, Mennonites, Turks, Armenians, Druze, Oriental Jews, Kurds and a host of lesser minorities. Instead of one race, one language, one religion, the Middle East embraces a vast patchwork of diverse peoples and cultures. And these pockets of ethnic groups are fragmented and ever-changing, frequently divided by artificially-created national boundaries. As this book is being written, the most widely heard Middle Eastern issue centers on the plight of the Palestinians. Everywhere one reads of their demands for freedom and an independent homeland. Their cause is debated regularly at the United Nations, and Palestinian diplomats are welcomed on par with the diplomats of established nations in many of the governments of the world. Yet, the Palestinians are really but one of many minorities in this region who have been struggling for essentially the same goal for centuries. But what do we hear or read of the sufferings and hopes of the others? Who stands of the world stage, pleading the human rights of these peoples? Essentially no one. Not only have their sufferings and goals been largely ignored by the world press, but their delegates have been regularly ignored in such seemingly liberal institutions as the League of Nations, the United Nations and the World Court. It is not the intent of this writer to deny the rights and asporations of the Palestinians. The right of an ethnic or national homeland is one of the great promises of modern civilized man. Still one wonders whether there would be a Palestinian issue without the long-standing hatred between Moslem and Jew. Should the Palestinians have been forced from their land of birth by a Moslem rather than a Jewish state, it is doubtful that the issue would have mushroomed into the crisis proportions that exist today. Indeed, there would probably be no more of a "Palestinian Question," than there is now a Druze Question, a Kurd Question or an Armenian Question. The plight of minorities in the Middle East, as elsewhere, then fixes not so much on world humanitarian values and the issue of human rights as it does on power, hatred, fear, ignorance and greed. The minorities exist solely as a means of achieving another end. They serve as a tool, to be used, then discarded. Such minorities are exploited by world powers, by their own host nations, by political forces of both left and right, and by those religious groups whose purposes are clouded by their own deep fears and hatred. So it is in the Middle East, where the minorities serve only as pawns to be used by the larger and more powerful groups. This has been their fate in the past, and it promises to be so in the future. The purpose of this collection of documents on Middle Eastern minority groups is to shed some light on the trials, sufferings, and seemingly hopeless aspirations of these peoples. The work is necessarily incomplete and uneven. Since the research was limited to the post World War 11 period, many informative materials from earlier years were excluded. And since all materials were taken from previously classified materials in the U.S. National Archives, nothing after 1950 is available, inasmuch as those documents have not as yet been declassified. Admittedly there is a wealth of data wanting which would have proved of value lo scholars interested in the more recent years. The largest body of information in this collection treats with the struggle of the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Iran, but particularly in Iraq. And we see largely only one view - that imparted to us in writings of United States diplomatic and intelligence agents. In spite of these limitations, a number of truths surface. Most paramount is the cruel history fate and geography has laid upon these peoples.
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