Page 592 - Mastermind: The Truth of the British Deep State Revealed

British Intrigues

İsmet Pasha, the head of the Turkish delegation in Lausanne, sent a
telegram to Turkey on December 28, 1922. He was convinced that the British
had absolutely no intention of leaving Mosul. Only a small border correction

in North Mosul would be made and the issue would be discussed amicably.

Shortly thereafter, British General Townshend made a surprising state-

ment to İsmet Pasha. He said that Britain would give up on Mosul, that they
would not be the cause of another war. He added that within a year British

forces would withdraw from Mosul and following that, the Arabs would ri-
ot against King Faisal and the Turks would be able to enter Mosul without a

problem. 377

Clearly, the British deep state had a secret agenda. The members of the
deep state would employ every tactic to gain the upper hand in the tense ne-

gotiations and resorted to all methods to bewilder and put the Turkish dele-
gates on the wrong track. Indeed, in another telegram, İsmet Pasha said the

British sought to remove the Mosul issue from the scope of Lausanne; it was
to be discussed later and turned into an issue between the two states. 378

Nevertheless, İsmet Pasha saw through their plans, didn't find their sug-
gestions convincing and resorted to the assistance of the French government

as a first step. However, France said that the Mosul issue should be resolved
between the Turks and the British.

At the same time, dissidents were getting louder in British parliament.

Although Curzon claimed that it was because of İsmet Pasha's obstinacy that
the Mosul issue was still a problem, it was viewed as a failure of Curzon at

the British Parliament and a campaign against him started. On December 8,
1922, former Prime Minister Bonar Law wrote a letter to Curzon and made

his stance on the issue very clear:

… There is a great campaign started here against you. Most recently, the let-

ter Gounaris wrote to you on February 15 was publicized. The claim that you
were the reason behind the Greek failure and not Lloyd George is being used
as a weapon against you. A parliamentary question was submitted to inves-

tigate whether the Cabinet was aware of those letters. And I said, yes. The is-

Mastermind: The Truth of the British Deep State Revealed