| Chapter 11: | Great Britain, the Ottomans, and the Assyrian Tragedy |
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The ambassador continued his efforts with the Turkish government, urging Rifaat Pasha to intervene to get the captives released as soon as possible and to remove the threat hanging over them. Once again, he informed the Foreign Office that there were reasons to believe that the pashas of Erzeroom and Mosul had secretly encouraged Bedr Khan Beg to attack the tribes. He reaffirmed that his interventions were secret and that Mar Shimun had authorised his proposal to Rifaat Pasha, which the missionary Badger had communicated to him.23
Turkish officials in the region were keen to deny any involvement in the invasion and claimed that the Porte had not authorised it. Kemal Pasha of Erzeroom was under suspicion of complicity, but he told Brant, the British consul in that city, that he denounced Bedr Khan’s action in the region, which was officially under his jurisdiction, denied any involvement, and asserted that Bedr Khan had acted without his approval. He added that Noor Allah Beg was the prime agitator and had told him that the Nestorians had committed many aggressions against his people. Thus he admitted that the Hakkari Kurdish leader had asked for his help and support to deal with the Assyrian tribes. Noor Allah had been so insistent that he had warned Bedr Khan that ‘if he does not respond, he would no longer consider him a pious Muslim’. Meanwhile the Turkish foreign minister referred to the report that Beirakdar and Abdul Samid of Berwar had procured on the subject of Dr. Grant’s ‘castle’, which was aimed at misleading the Porte by asserting that the ‘castle’ had been built for well-calculated military purposes.24 On the issue of the captives, Brant reported the pasha as telling him that Bedr Khan Beg had said that they numbered two hundred, but that all had been sent back to their homes.25
The Turkish involvement in imposing centralisation was evidenced throughout the region. Canning informed the Turkish foreign minister that Beirakdar Pasha of Mosul declined to implement his orders. He once again called for the liberation of the captives, evacuation of their homeland by the Kurdish occupation forces, and holding the participants with Bedr Khan Beg responsible for their actions.