85
on the verge of starvation. Members of the local police shared their plight,
so it would not have been difficult for an enemy agent with plenty of cash
to obtain all the assistance needed to operate in the region. However, it
seems that stories of SS atrocities perpetrated against Caucasians only
1000 km to the north had already reached Erbil. These narratives had a
sobering effect on the ethnically diverse population of Kurds, Assyrians,
Arabs, Armenians, Turkmens, and Yezidis with a very long collective his-
tory of invasion, massacre, occupation, and oppression. Even so, in Erbil,
Rowanduz, Koy Sanjaq, and the Makhmur district, there were groups of
notables and government officials who, while not necessarily pro-Nazi,
were nevertheless anti-British.^54
At midnight on 16–17 January 1943, Iraq formally declared war on the
Axis. In Baghdad at least, the declaration seemed to have little immediate
effect on the general public, which in a way constituted evidence that the
mood of the population had become more stable and more compliant than
ever during the intervening years since the Rashid Ali coup. Apparently,
most Baghdadis considered that the severing of diplomatic ties with the
Axis countries in 1941 had already been equivalent to a declaration of war.
They seemed fully aware that, if the Germans had ever had the opportu-
nity, they would have invaded Iraq without first indulging in diplomatic
formalities. Apart from expressing mild surprise at what in their opinion
was so much ado about nothing, Baghdadis had dismissed the formal dec-
laration and had occupied themselves with the more urgent question of
how to cope with the ever-rising cost of living. In some military circles,
there was an understandable amount of fear that Iraqi forces would now
be required to fight alongside their allies. The press was therefore instructed
by the government to publish denials that this would be the case. Only
among thinking Baghdadis was the declaration of war welcomed, for they
could foresee the benefits that might accrue to Iraq. The news took time
to reach the far northern and southern provinces. In Mosul, many seemed
to regard the war as being over, for them at least. However, despite the
massive setbacks the Germans were experiencing on the battlefields beyond
the Caucasus, Mosuli Arabs did not appear to have lost respect for German
military skill. This was perhaps because they were well within range of
Younis Bahri’s Arabic shortwave broadcasts from Berlin and were thus still
subject to the pernicious influence of the ex- Mufti’s propaganda. At
the other end of the country in the ‘noisy, busy, chaotic’ port of Basra,^55
people also seemed less interested in the war than in the high cost of living
and the increase in thefts. As in Persia, even in Soviet-occupied areas, the
RESTORING THE PEACE