Yusuf Malek

Yusuf Malek (1899–1959) was a notable Assyrian who was credited with saving his kinsmen from subjugation by the British and newly formed Iraqi government after the Ottoman Empire massacre of more than 300,000 Assyrians during World War 1 in the Assyrian Genocide. He was also known as "Tel Kef's son," and ^[1] he had saved many communities including the village where his parents were from through vocal action and the petitioning of the British government. His cause had become well known after his book "The British Betrayal of The Assyrians" was published, letting people know of the corruption of the British government.

Early life and career

Malek as a youth

Yusuf Malek was born in Baghdad on the 8th of March, 1899 to Assyrians from Tel Keif in the district of Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian capital.^[2] There, he attended the Latin college. He had also attended the American college in Basra before World War I broke out.^[3] During the British occupation of Basra in 1914, Yusuf was working as a Wartime Interpreter. This service ended on November 25, 1915 when British troops, Yusuf among them, attempted to attack Ctesiphon, a city 26 miles southeast of Baghdad. This was the first attempt to capture Baghdad from the Ottoman Empire and it had failed. After the Ottomans have routed the British, they besieged them for 5 months at Kut el-Amara, ending in 10,000 British casualties. The survivors, including Yusuf, were sent on a death march to Turkey to work in railroad chain gangs.^[4] Remarkably, Yusuf was able to escape Turkey two months later and was re-employed by the British in 1917.

Political beginnings

After the war ended, Yusuf was appointed as an assistant to a governor of Samara. But since Yusuf's belief that a future Assyria depended on the sale of oil to Western nations from Bet-Nahrein, his homeland, coincided with French and British interests in that region, he was able to get promotion to Secretary Inspector for the State of Nineveh. Because this sale would also benefit the newly established Turkey, a perpetrator of the Assyrian genocide during World War 1, Yusuf worked with other Assyrian leaders to establish an autonomous Assyrian country. Equally pressing was the formation of the new country, Iraq, in 1921 that could mean the end of any hope to establish an Assyrian country. Placed as the ruler of Iraq by the British was Faisal Al Husain, whom Yusuf would come to hate in later years.^[5]

Discontent with the government

Betrayal

Nineveh(Mosul) was given to Iraq in the 1924 Conference of Constantinople. Hakkari though, also had a great many Assryians living there. Being in Turkish territory, the Turks have decided to drive them out of Hakkari and into Northern Iraq. Trying to resolve the issue, the League of Nations mandated that the Mosul Vilayet was to be ceded to the British and that hakkari was to stay in Turkish rule. The Assyrian homeland was thus split in two.^[6] This had surely angered Yusuf, but greater outrages were yet to come. On October 15, 1927 a huge amount of oil was found in the Assyrian homeland. This had brought prospectors from many parts of the world to invest in the new discovery. Deciding that oil rich Bet-Nahrein was too precious to be given to the Assyrians, Great Britain sought to silence political activists such as Yusuf. On August 16, 1930 Yusuf was promoted to mayor of Sheehan in Northern Iraq. Two days later, the Minister of the Interior ordered Yusuf to be transferred to Nassiriya, at least 400 miles southeast of Yusuf's current station. Because there was really no reason as to why he must do this, Yusuf refused, thus angering the officials in the Iraqi government. Yusuf was not able to hold his position for long. 3 months later in November, Great Britain decided to give control of Iraq to the Arab majority, not the Christian-Assyrian minority. This resulted in many high ranking Assyrian officials to be removed from office, Yusuf included.

Fighting back

Much embittered by how much the British considered the Assyrians, Yusuf left Sheehan and went to Beirut, a city under French rule, where he wrote publications attacking the British and Iraqi governments.^[7] Just a couple days after the Semel massacre(what made Yusuf's book famous), where Assyrians in Northern Iraq were killed under the orders of Faisal, Yusuf was sent to exile in Cyprus in 1933.^[8] There, he met with the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Ishai Shimun, and went to Europe to speak for the "Assyrian Cause".^[9] Although he was turned down for an audience in Switzerland, London, and France; Yusuf let many politicians know of what was happening in the Middle East. The "Assyrian Cause", though, would only become international with the release of his book.

"The British betrayal of the Assyrians"

Published in 1936, "The British Betrayal of The Assyrians" shocked the World of the British and Iraqi practices concerning the Assyrians. Blaming the British government for putting a puppet like Faisal in charge, he stated that it had a lot to do with the Semel Massacre of 1933, although Iraq was given Independence in 1932. He had also expressed the outrage at Britain's takeover of Bet-Nahrain, showing a common trend in what happens when a people's land conflicts with interests in oil. Although unsuccessful in making a country for his kinsmen, Yusuf had laid the foundations for many speeches in the years to come.

References