THE MOSUL QUESTION AND THE TURKISH REPUBLIC: BEFORE AND AFTER THE FRONTIER TREATY, 1926

Abstract

The Mosul Vilayet was part of the Ottoman Empire until the end of the First World War. Following the war it was occupied by Britain and the Vilayet became the bone of contention between the Ottoman Empire and Britain. After the War of Independence, the new Turkish Republic considered Mosul one of the crucial issues determined in the National Pact. Despite constant resistance, Britain managed to bring the issue into the international arena, scaling it down to a frontier problem betvveen Turkey and Iraq. In the Turkish historical literatüre, the Mosul Question has been studied until the Frontier Treaty 1926 . According to these studies, the Turkish government, in accordance with the exchange of letters annexed to the Frontier Treaty 1926 , agreed to receive a fixed cash settlement of 500,000 pounds, rather than calculating the amount on a ten percent basis. That is to say, the Turkish government received the 500 000 pounds and the folio of the Mosul Question was closed. But some findings proved that this was not the case. Some fıgures in the Turkish state budgets indicate that Turkey received payments on a ten percent basis instead of the fixed cash settlement. From 1931 to 1952 Turkey received royalty payments regularly. After 1952, two issues caused serious problems betvveen Turkey and Iıaq; namely, the unpaid years and insuffıcient payments. In latter period, Turkey chose to pursue a conciliatory policy and the issue was put aside for the purpose of establishing friendly relations with Iraq