After the world's super powers, Britain above all, decided to divide the Ottoman Empire and redesign the Middle East political and geographical map, one of their plans was to choose an obedient leader for Iraq. Clearly, at that time and even now, Iraq has always been one of the controversial regions in the area and the world. Among those controversial issues that Iraq has, Kurdistan and a part of Iraq's geography is one of the reasons. Kurdistan is still unsatisfied with this political contract and is forcibly attached to Iraq.
In order to clear out this discussion, first it is necessary to talk about Malik Faisal.
"Faisal son of Hossein", known as "Malik Faisal I", was originally from Hijaz, Saudi Arabia, and his father was one of the Arab Emirs in Mecca and Taef.
At first, the British appointed him as Syria's governor and later they made him Iraq's king to expedite their plans and to stop Turkey from claiming and invading Mosul province and Kirkuk City.
However, as "Chris Cochera" wrote, as soon as Malik Faisal became powerful, he intended to increase his power, which made him ignorant of the British commands, leading to British dissatisfaction. This is why Britain's Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, wrote; I am tired of all those telegraphs about Faisal that I receive. It has been for six months that we pay his restaurant bills in London and now I have to read eight-hundred-word telegraphs about him.
Faisal came to power with the support of the British and only a small group of Iraq's Sunni Muslims supported him, and the other two groups of Iraqi Muslims did not support him; one of them was the Shia Muslims in southern Iraq and the second one was the Kurds of that part of Kurdistan who were under Iraq's control or that part of Kurdistan that was located in the north of Iraq.
Malik Faisal wanted to create a nation out of all those nations, religions, and sub religious groups who were against each other to rule them all. Although, later it was discovered that he was not successful in changing all these enmities into friendship, and as "Adel Baxawan" wrote in his book, Malik Faisal says that Iraq is a country consisting of tens of opposition nations and people, and it is impossible to make a united country with them.
However, Malik Faisal who had come from Hijaz to another country to rule, had planned to make an independent Sunni Arabic country and he did not consider any other structure of that region, particularly the Kurds.
Faisal knew that the British might turn the Kurds against him and he also knew that he did not possess a strong position among the Iraqi people except for a small group of the Sunni Muslims of Iraq. Thus, clarifying and solving the Kurdish problem was important to him.
One of the British trusted figures at that time in the region was "Sir Percy Cox". Faisal attempted to comprehend this problem through Cox. Thus, he asked Cox: Do you really want to separate Kurdistan from Iraq and attach it to the northern part of Kurdistan? If not, then what is your plan for this region?
Sir Percy Cox - Britain's advisor in Iraq and the Middle East
Cox vaguely replied to him and said:
After the March 1921, conference held in Cairo, Egypt, Britain decided to create a Kurdish state but they did not want to separate the Kurdish region of Iraq from this country because the Kurds did not agree about this separation among themselves.
This answer increased Faisal's doubts and later he asked if he was the king of an Arabic country or the king of a country where Kurdistan is also a part of it.
After he was disappointed with the British replies, he began a new game with the British, making them doubtful this time.
He knew that at that time the British would take advantage of the region's peaceful situation and they did not want anything that would cause them trouble; so, he made the British suspicious that if Kurdistan were separated from Iraq, then a war would happen and they should support Kurdistan. Thus, he said firmly: Does Great Britain want to face a new war to support and defend Kurdistan from foreign invasions? If so, how long are they going to continue the war? In fact, this was both a threat and caused new doubts for the British authorities. These attempts of Faisal caused Kurdistan a complicated situation. In the next chapters of this article, we will write about the permanent political changes in Britain at that time.
