The Struggle for Kirkuk: The Rise of Hussein, Oil, and the Death of Tolerance in Iraq (Praeger Security International) [Hardcover]

Henry D. Astarjian M.D. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0275995895 | ISBN-13: 978-0275995898 | Publication Date: May 30, 2007

Seldom in history has a nation engaged in war without knowing the enemy, as the United States has in Iraq. This book explores, through real life stories, the social and political dynamics at play in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan before the rise of Saddam Hussein. Kirkuk is a hotly contested oil city—a time bomb with the potential to shatter the fragile hope for unity in Iraq. In this book-half memoir, half history—Iraqi-American physician Henry Astarjian reveals the turmoil of life under Communism then as a political prisoner in a death row cell in Iraq and a military prison in Baghdad. Told from an eyewitness perspective, his book gives the history of Iraq through the life of one of its most volatile towns, through the eyes of a citizen who witnessed death, kidnapping, corruption, political indoctrination, and open murder in the streets. Originally a Jewish enclave, Kirkuk was home to Jews, Kurds, Armenians, Turks, and Communists—diverse peoples whose uncommon experiences contributed to the broader political tensions of the 1958 Revolution that brought Saddam Hussein to power.

This book is the story of the demographic diversity of this city, its political currents leading to the demise of the Royal regime of Iraq. It is the story of colonial Britains, Kurds, Turkomans, Assyrians, pre-emigration Jews, and post-genocidal Armenians, all living together in peace but with deep-seated animosities. Directly or indirectly they all were involved in surreptitious battles for control over Baba Gurgur, the oil fields of Kirkuk. Henry Astarjian was both a witness to and a victim of most events of this period. The book also explores the influences that the British, through the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), had in shaping Iraqi society. This book goes beyond the obvious in detailing the Soviet attempts to gain access to Baba Gurgur through its surrogates, the Communists, and their efforts to recruit the budding youth. It also tells the story of the author's incarceration and torture in a death row cell, at the hands of his childhood friend Adnaan Al-Azzawi, an avowed Communist. The demise of the Hashimite Dynasty in Iraq in 1958, which led to Communist takeover of the country, touched Astarjian's life personally. His incarceration with the Ba'th leaders in Al-Rasheed Military Base, gave him a special look at their psyche and a negative sense for the future of Iraq; that, influenced his decision to leave the country. Finally, the book pursues the psychological effects the Iraqi defeat in Palestine (1948) had on the Iraqi person and the Armed forces. It details the on-the-spot formation of the Iraqi Free Officers movement (whose founders later became the author's prison mates) who, a decade later, waged a coup against the Hashimite regime.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Iraqi-American Astarjian combines memoir with history in describing the oil politics of Kirkuk in Northern Iraq from the 1940s through to the mid 1960s, when he left for America shortly after Saddam Hussein's assassination attempt on Prime Minister Abd-al-Karim Qasim. His description of the political life of Kirkuk during this era gives a small window into the complex forces at work Kurdish versus Arab, Arab versus Turkomen, Communist versus Baathist, etc. and Astarjian is not shy about letting his own anti-communist, anti-Baathist, and other views out into the open."

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Reference & Research Book News

"Among the plethora of recent books on Iraq, this is unique because it offers a provocative view into Iraq's tumultuous past through the eyes of an Iraqi American physician. This is a historical memoir about the struggle over Kirkuk's great oil fields and the crises besetting Iraqi society before the Baath party takeover and rise of Saddam Hussein. Astarjian, the son of Armenian genocide survivors, chronicles Kirkuk's ethnosectarian diversity as Jews, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Armenians, and Arabs lived together in peace, despite the power plays over the oil fields involving British officials, Soviet agents, and others representing national or ethnic interests. Included are fascinating accounts of the overthrow of the Royal Hashemite regime in 1958, the author's incarceration and torture at the hands of his childhood friend (who had become a communist), and his imprisonment in a Baghdad military prison with Baath party leaders….[t]his is a compelling story about the formative years of modern Iraq, intended to enlighten Americans about the immense challenges and perils facing them in a tragic land. Sadly, it may be too late to make it a must read for US policy makers. Recommended. General readers, lower-division undergraduates through practitioners."

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Choice

Book Description

An eyewitness account of mid-century Iraq that reveals the deep-seated tensions that existed before and after the reign of Saddam Hussein.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Praeger (May 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275995895
• ISBN-13: 978-0275995898
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,142,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wisdom From the Eye of the Storm- "The Struggle for Kirkuk Explains Iraq As Only an Armenian Can (Armenian Weekly, July 28, 07'), July 31, 2007

By 

Andrew Emil Turpin (The Twilight Zone) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Struggle for Kirkuk: The Rise of Hussein, Oil, and the Death of Tolerance in Iraq (Praeger Security International) (Hardcover)

Wisdom from the Eye of the Storm

`The Struggle for Kirkuk' Explains Iraq as Only an Armenian Can

By Andy Turpin


WATERTOWN, Mass. (A.W.)-- They say that if you can see a tidal wave coming at you on the horizon, you're already dead. That watery bit of sage may seem out of place when it comes to discussing a memoir of life in Iraq, but it seems somehow fitting for Dr. Henry D. Astarjian's The Struggle for Kirkuk.

Hindsight in foreign policy is 20/20, and Astarjian's insights into how the Iraqi quagmire came to fruition are about as hawkeyed as any author can get.

Kirkuk chronicles Astarjian's life in the city of the same name, from his childhood in the 1930's to his immigration to the United States in the early 1960s. It details in both artful anthropological prose and concise analysis everything from his own community politics to the sordid and backbiting Iraqi national devolution that led to his torture and imprisonment in the aftermath of the 1958 military coup.

Far from biased, Astarjian points out at every juncture the idiosyncrasies of loyalty and Realpolitik that hounds him still as an American citizen, an ethnic Armenian, and an Anglophile who knew then that British actions were responsible for even the chain of events that led to his own dungeon hell.

He remembers many in every political camp who showed him kindness; yet no group leaves Iraq's borders or Astarjian's pages with clean hands, although the British receive more rebuke than others. He recalls, "For Iraqis, Britain was the master of deception; `If two fish fight in the sea, be sure it is instigated by the British,' was a common saying in Iraq."

Even Armenians do not escape his cavalcade of accountability for opportunistic actions--not in the case of Iraq but regarding the genocide and WWII.

He writes, " Victoria [the author's Tashnag aunt who survived the genocide] also despised organized church, priests, and all God's deputies on earth. She used to tell me stories about how some deceptive clergy of the time collaborated with the Ottoman authorities and turned in Armenian Fedayees thinking that by doing so they might protect the church form the evil eye of the Muslim Turk. She used to tell me stories about the Fedayees, even before the ARF had `cleansed' the communities from these `Madnitch Houtahs' (Judases)."

Speaking of the sometimes varied and conflicting alliances Armenians forged with nations as safety valves in their quest to restore republicanism to Western and Eastern Armenia, Astarjian recounts of the WWII period: "General Tro, an Armenian military commander, had organized an Armenian battalion to fight on Hitler's side in the Caucasus. Communists and Leftists blamed him for waging a war against the fatherland, yet other Armenians were supportive. `We support the Allies all right, but how about if they lose, where will we be then? At least with Tro we will have some credit with Hitler."

Astarjian is particularly gracious in his descriptions of his Arab neighbors and hosts in those chapters that provide background to the Armenian community in Iraq. He writes: "Shereef Hussein admired Armenians who had planted a bomb to assassinate the Red Sultan in 1905. He sympathized with the Armenian cause, and considered them comrades in arms: On the eve of the Genocide and massive deportation of Armenians, he issued a directive to all Arabs asking them to help the Armenian refugees, settle them on their land, and treat them kindly, `as if they were one of your own.' That signed document still hangs in the rectory of the Armenian Church in Baghdad."

Armenians have always been a much-loved part of the Islamic mosaic, and such passages are valid for any Armenian-American reader that may be particularly flag waving or anti-Arab without thought to the real motivations behind the current war.

Astarjian also notes the trends that have always inflicted the region where he grew up. "Iraq has never had democracy in its glorious past," he writes. "Yes, millennia ago Babylonian Hammurabi's Codes governed society, but that never provided for plurality."

The conflict between the moral cost in human life and the financial cost in government ledgers is as much a running theme of Kirkuk as it is in everyday Iraqi life.

He writes about the Soviet Union's role in the Cold War, as well, saying its "backing of the Kurds was not motivated by admiration for the Kurds, rather it was an attempt to control the `Two Liquids,' which they had in abundance: Oil and Water. Oil in Kirkuk and Mosul, and the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates in Turkish Kurdistan."

As for the capitalist perspective, personified by the British ambassador who came to visit after Abd al-Karim Qasim took power in Iraq in 1958, it was said that "the Ambassador's first question was about union with [the president of Egypt] Nasser. The Ambassador said, `Britain objects to Iraq's union with the United Arab Republic, and if Nasser's hands reach the oil wells, Britain will have a different posture. The British forces are in Jordan and the American forces are in Lebanon. Oil must flow."

Perhaps the hardest brunts to bear from the The Struggle for Kirkuk are the bookends, which are dedicated to the follies the U.S. continues to make in Iraq, and to the false battle cries for freedom from a nation that for years was an overt backer of authoritarianism and repression--first via British economic policies, then under Saddam.

Astarjian harkens back to a time before the rise of U.S. hegemony and egg-faced rhetoric. "The world loved America for its ideals: freedom, justice, fairness, charity, and lawfulness. She was the antithesis of colonial Europe who had sucked the blood of its colonies. The world knew the difference, and that's why they loved America. America was good, America was great."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now I really know Iraq, feel like I lived there., July 13, 2007

By 

George Jacob "George Jacob" (Green Bay, Wisonsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Struggle for Kirkuk: The Rise of Hussein, Oil, and the Death of Tolerance in Iraq (Praeger Security International) (Hardcover)

Part history, part memoir, feel slike you read three books when you read one. The third book is the underlying message that unifies the first, obvious two.

You really have to read to book to understand what I am saying, and I do not want to ruin it for you.

This is readable by teenagers or the elderly. it is written with a style that is unique, and probably is a reflection of the multilingualism and powerful intelligence of the author--a neurologist.

If President George Bush (or Dick Cheney) or whoever is running this country had this book, and read it, they would know exactly what to say and do to succeed in iraq.

The underlying message, though, is that you cannot easily tame this nation. It takes some brains, and not just guns. The youtube video I saw advertsing the AMAZON.COM site link said only a little about the book. The book is so awesome, you cannot put it down. It is a reference resource, too. Every majotr library, university Library, will have this book for centuries!

Memoir, history....inelligent political analysis and no bee ess...
That is no the only message, actually, there are so many.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read - insightful, thought-provoking, July 17, 2007

By 

Timothy J. Defeo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Struggle for Kirkuk: The Rise of Hussein, Oil, and the Death of Tolerance in Iraq (Praeger Security International) (Hardcover)

Dr. Astarjian's book is a rare mix of a well-researched, academic history coupled with the personal reflection and emotional realism of an autobiography.
His retelling of the significant events and players in the creation of modern Iraq is a primer for anyone interested in the present day predicament of both Iraq, the region and international diplomacy. Dr. Astarjian's research, depth of knowledge and historical perspective is clearly outstanding.
The personal recollections, recounting his childhood in Kirkuk, medical career, imprisonment, and his decision to eventually leave the country, are filled with pathos, candor and humor.
But the real strength of the book is derived from something greater than its parts--the book is much more than just a retelling of a nation's history and one man's story. Dr. Astarjian details the complex motivations, biases and aspirations across cultural, ethnic and religious lines that drive the political events that formed Iraq, with an emphasis on the pivotal role determined by his hometown of Kirkuk. And it is precisely those underlying factors that are so crucial to understanding the true nature of political history, but so elusive for any "outside" author to capture. Dr. Astarjian provides that unique, analytical perspective that only one who was present at the creation of modern Iraq could provide, and he demonstrates the intellectual capacity and historical insight to bring the story to life.