BRITISH ACTIVITIES AGAINST TURKMEN IN KIRKUK WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF MOSUL QUESTION (1918-1926)
MUSUL SORUNU ÇERÇEVESİNDE İNGİLİZLERİN KERKÜK’TEKİ TÜRKMENLERE YÖNELİK FAALİYETLERİ (1918-1926)

Author : ABDULHALİK BAKIR -- FERRUH KAYALAN
Number of pages : 1-20

Abstract

According to the Treaty of Sykes Picot which was concluded between England and France in 1916 Iraq during the First World War remained under the French influence. However this agreement was subsequently regarded by the British as an unsuccessful deal especially after the oil regions were more clearly identified. At the 1920 San Remo Conference which determined the fate of the Middle East after the war the British compensated this situation. The British having gained the right to mandate on Iraq which consists of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul regions dominated the rich oil regions. However the Iraqi people opposed to the mandate of the British in their own countries and they reacted to the mandate with the 1920 rebellion. This situation put the British into a very difficult situation in the region. The British dealt with this issue at the 1921 Cairo Conference and abandoned the practice of rigid mandate. So the British wanted to remove the idea of mandate from the minds of the Iraqis by developing a softer sense of government in Iraq. Therefore they adopted a more moderate approach to management in Iraq, where local and influential elements have a say. This understanding of management was partly applied to Kirkuk which is a city of oil and a majority of which was composed of Turkmen. But at the end of the Lausanne Conference, the British changed their attitudes towards Kirkuk and Turkmen due to the Mosul issue that emerged between Turkey and Britain. In this article we will try to explain the activities of the British towards the Turkmen in Kirkuk before and after the Lausanne Conference within the framework of Mosul Question.

Keywords

Iraq, Mosul, Kirkuk, Turkmen, England, Turkey

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