Agha Petros

Early years Petros Elia was born in 1 April 1880, in the village of Lower Baz, then part of the Ottoman Empire. He received his elementary education in his hometown before his father decided that he should attend a Christian European missionary school in Urmia, Qajar Persia, at 14 years old. Petros had a typical upbringing, living with his older brother Mirza, his father Eliya, and his mother Dolo or Daloo. Upon completing his studies, he returned to Baz, where he worked as a teacher. It was thanks to his fluency in numerous languages, including Syriac, Turkish, Arabic, French, Persian, Kurdish, English, and Russian, that he was first appointed by the Ottomans as a secretary at an embassy in Urmia, and later promoted to consul in May 1909 for his good work.

The embassy was called Shahbandar and was in charge of Turkish consular affairs at the time. A Christian Assyrian man by the name of Daoud Rassam, who was from Mosul, was in charge of the embassy. It was reported that during the Persian Constitutional Revolution, Petros had deposed and arrested the Persian governor of Urmia and took control of the city by himself, ruling it in the name of the Turkish Ottoman Government. The governor was later released from captivity after Petros had demanded a medal from the Shah in exchange.

After the Russians entered Urmia, Agha Petros was appointed as a general with a small Assyrian force under his command. He later engaged and defeated forces of Ottoman and Kurds in a series of battles.

In 1917, when the Bolsheviks had taken control of the Russian armies and abducted Tsar Nicholas II and his family, Agha Petros was so furious that he resigned from his commission with the Russian army, refusing to take orders from revolutionaries. He immediately took control of the Assyrian army and established his headquarters in Urmia.

By 1918, Agha Petros and his Assyrian forces managed to control vast territory of Iranian Azerbaijan, west of Lake Urmia, where they established self-governance.

His volunteers had quite a few successes over the Ottoman forces, notably at Suldouze where Petros’ 1,500 horsemen overcame the forces of Kheiri Bey's (8,000 men).

Petros not only led the Assyrian forces, but also had some limited control over Armenian troops that fought alongside them. There was disunion in the ranks, and instead of posting a force to contain the Turks, whom he had defeated previously, he moved his forces to Sain Qaleh as encouraged by the British officials, who had promised him military help. Nevertheless, the British did not fulfill their promises. He reached Sain Kala seven days after the British detachment retired.

After the invasion of Mosul by the Young Turks, the Assyrian army, led by General Agha Petros, fought intensively and successfully against the Ottoman army and their Kurdish allies, and pushed them out of Mosul and the whole area, leading to Britain's control of the region. The battles are described in detail by surviving letters of Petros and British officials.

Agha Petros also had some disagreements with Mar Shimun, the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, and was often mistrusted by his family. The Allied military advisors reported that he schemed against Mar Shimun, by trying to dissuade the Allies to trust the Patriarch. However, after the murder of Mar Shimun by the Iranian Kurdish leader Simko, Agha Petros joined forces with Malik Khoshaba and others in driving Simko from his stronghold at Kuhnashahir.

During his last years Petros moved near Toulouse, France, where he lived until his death of a cerebral attack at the railway station, on February 2, 1932. In France, Agha Petros was called the Young Napoleon, New Nebuchadnezzar due to his exceptional performance during the First World War.

Controversies In his book The Cradle of Mankind, life in Eastern Kurdistan W.A. Wigram mentions that Petros was involved in fraudulent acts in British Columbia (Canada), where he resorted to collecting money purportedly for the building of an orphanage in Macedonia. According to some historians he fled the country as the Canadian police was about to arrest him, He was later to be found in Rome where he passed himself off as an Assyrian tribal chief desirous to bring his tribe from the Assyrian Church of the East over to the fold of the Chaldean Catholic Church. Impressed and grateful for this decision, the Catholic authorities granted him an official decoration. Petros then returned to the Ottoman Empire and displayed his decoration from the Pope to local authorities to ask for a job at an Ottoman Consulate. A job that he did get, as a secretary, and as a Consul in Urmia in 1909. The Allied military advisors reported that he schemed against Mar Shimun, by trying to dissuade the Allies from trusting him. He was also reportedly mistrusted by the Allies.