Yusuf Malek

Yusuf Malek (; March 28, 1899 – 1959) was an Assyrian politician, author, and Allied interpreter. He initially served with the British Army as an interpreter during the Mesopotamian campaign of the First World War. Captured by the Ottomans after the disastrous Siege of Kut, he was eventually released and found his way back into the employ of the British. After the war, he became a politician in the Kingdom of Iraq and worked to support the cause of the Assyrians both domestically and globally.

During the early 1930s, when Iraq was granted independence by the British, Malek worked to petition the British government for a firmer response to Iraqi atrocities such as the Simele massacre of 1933. After he was forcefully expelled from his office after independence, he went into exile in Cyprus. He later published a book, The British Betrayal of the Assyrians, in which he criticized the British government for their betrayal of the Assyrians and abandoning them to the massacres of the Iraqis. Malek died in 1959, his vision of an independent Assyria unfulfilled.

Early life and career

Malek as a youth Yusuf Malek was born in Baghdad on March 28, 1899, to Assyrians from Tel Keif in the district of Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian capital. There, he attended the Latin college. He had also attended the American college in Basra before World War I broke out.

Discontent with the government

Betrayal

Nineveh was given to Iraq in the 1924 Conference of Constantinople. Hakkari though, also had a great many Assyrians 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 as part of Turkey. The Assyrian homeland was thus split in two. Although he was turned down for an audience in Switzerland, London, and France; Malek lectured many politicians on 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 1935, The British Betrayal of the Assyrians allowed for the "Assyrian Cause" to reach the eyes and ears of a global audience. Blaming the British government for supporting an incompetent ruler such as Faisal, he further expressed his anger at the British for their lackluster response to the Simele massacre of 1933. Although he stated that he "personally [knew] many English gentlemen who had done all in their power to make the Assyrian position tolerable and are now ashamed to find the Assyrians persecuted", the British government had erred in their support of the "cruel" Arabs and abandonment of their Assyrian allies. He also criticized the British suppression of the Kurdish revolt against the Iraqis, stating that the British should have supported the vision of an independent Kurdistan instead of supporting Faisal no matter the cost for the sole purpose of protecting their oil interests in Iraq. Malek expressed outrage that the British had neglected to fulfill their promise of an independent nation, leaving the Assyrians to be helplessly murdered by the Arabs.