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Reviewer: Magicpiano ( talk • contribs • count) 21:01, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
This has been an interesting project. I have no particular interest in any side of this incident; my interests tend to North American colonial history (which has its own sad history of unfortunate incidents involving attacks on civilians, albeit with less firepower). I chose to review this article because much of its source material is available to me, so that I could investigate allegations of POV (expressed, sometimes vaguely, on the talk page). I believe the article is somewhat biased, but this can be fixed, given the available sources (and possibly the use of some general books on the history of Iraq in this time).
I was also able to locate Khaldun Husry's paper part 1 on JSTOR, part 2 also available. If you do not have JSTOR access (e.g. through a public or university library), I can email PDFs. He is perhaps sympathetic to the Iraqi view (he claims to have met Bakr Sidqi as a boy in the Baghdad celebrations after the massacre), but he does not whitewash what happened. He does bring up facts (including excerts from British reports on the affair) that are not well accounted for in other sources. For example, he quotes a British report (not by Stafford, by a military officer) that explicitly claims that Yaqu made a premeditated attack on Dirabun. He also cites a letter in which Stafford (the letter's author) says that the Assyrians initiated the hostilities there. Husry also claims that atrocities committed by Assyrians in the Dirabun incident were cited by the British as an instigating reason for the subsequent mass killings and massacres. (None of this, of course, excuses what happened afterward; it is intended to provide a more rounded description of the environment in which the massacre took place.) He makes other claims (some pro-Iraq, some anti-) that are worth exploring.
The principal difficulty here is in the background and aftermath of the event. From my checking of sources, it seems clear that tensions were on the rise before the event, and both the Assyrians and the Iraqi government played a role in this. This is presently not communicated well. The background is too short: your average 12-year-old from the far side of the planet (my preferred target audience) will have no idea what the "crisis" is at the start of the article. (I didn't either until I researched it.) The Assyrian resistance appears to be rooted in the diplomacy at that ended the British Mandate; you need to start there.
There are many political/diplomatic positions that need to be described, because many stakeholders contributed to events leading up to the killings: the British position (and to a lesser extent the French position in Syria), the Iraqi government (in particular the impact of its goal of creating a national identity on the Assyrians and other internal groups) and its opposition, Mar Shimun and his opposition, the southern Iraqi situation, and the Kurdish situation. Some of these are now mentioned, others are not, but they do all show up in sources. To give one example, Joseph (p. 192) notes that a major rival to Mar Shimun's power was appointed to head Iraqi activities related to settlement of the Assyrians. This might explan in part his relative intransigence in dealing with the Iraqi government.
The aftermath, especially with respect to non-Assyrian parties, is too brief; more on that in the questions below.
Questions on breadth:
Issues on POV:
Article is well referenced and cited to mostly sufficiently reliable sources. However:
Regarding the paragraph: "The Iraqi Army later paraded in the streets of Baghdad in celebration of its victories.[53]" I actually have an official photo of this event, how can I submit it to be reviewed and perhaps attached to this article? Thanks
I believe it is possible to address these issues given the available sources, but it may take some time. I'm willing to hold the review if the work will be done in a timely manner; if editors feel they cannot do so, please say so and I will close the review. (I will be happy to re-review later if desired.) Magic ♪piano 18:47, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for your thorough review. I was actually able to find both of Husry's articles at my university's library and will add new sections and modify others the next few weeks.-- Rafy talk 10:12, 23 September 2011 (UTC)
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Reviewer: Magicpiano ( talk • contribs • count) 21:01, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
This has been an interesting project. I have no particular interest in any side of this incident; my interests tend to North American colonial history (which has its own sad history of unfortunate incidents involving attacks on civilians, albeit with less firepower). I chose to review this article because much of its source material is available to me, so that I could investigate allegations of POV (expressed, sometimes vaguely, on the talk page). I believe the article is somewhat biased, but this can be fixed, given the available sources (and possibly the use of some general books on the history of Iraq in this time).
I was also able to locate Khaldun Husry's paper part 1 on JSTOR, part 2 also available. If you do not have JSTOR access (e.g. through a public or university library), I can email PDFs. He is perhaps sympathetic to the Iraqi view (he claims to have met Bakr Sidqi as a boy in the Baghdad celebrations after the massacre), but he does not whitewash what happened. He does bring up facts (including excerts from British reports on the affair) that are not well accounted for in other sources. For example, he quotes a British report (not by Stafford, by a military officer) that explicitly claims that Yaqu made a premeditated attack on Dirabun. He also cites a letter in which Stafford (the letter's author) says that the Assyrians initiated the hostilities there. Husry also claims that atrocities committed by Assyrians in the Dirabun incident were cited by the British as an instigating reason for the subsequent mass killings and massacres. (None of this, of course, excuses what happened afterward; it is intended to provide a more rounded description of the environment in which the massacre took place.) He makes other claims (some pro-Iraq, some anti-) that are worth exploring.
The principal difficulty here is in the background and aftermath of the event. From my checking of sources, it seems clear that tensions were on the rise before the event, and both the Assyrians and the Iraqi government played a role in this. This is presently not communicated well. The background is too short: your average 12-year-old from the far side of the planet (my preferred target audience) will have no idea what the "crisis" is at the start of the article. (I didn't either until I researched it.) The Assyrian resistance appears to be rooted in the diplomacy at that ended the British Mandate; you need to start there.
There are many political/diplomatic positions that need to be described, because many stakeholders contributed to events leading up to the killings: the British position (and to a lesser extent the French position in Syria), the Iraqi government (in particular the impact of its goal of creating a national identity on the Assyrians and other internal groups) and its opposition, Mar Shimun and his opposition, the southern Iraqi situation, and the Kurdish situation. Some of these are now mentioned, others are not, but they do all show up in sources. To give one example, Joseph (p. 192) notes that a major rival to Mar Shimun's power was appointed to head Iraqi activities related to settlement of the Assyrians. This might explan in part his relative intransigence in dealing with the Iraqi government.
The aftermath, especially with respect to non-Assyrian parties, is too brief; more on that in the questions below.
Questions on breadth:
Issues on POV:
Article is well referenced and cited to mostly sufficiently reliable sources. However:
Regarding the paragraph: "The Iraqi Army later paraded in the streets of Baghdad in celebration of its victories.[53]" I actually have an official photo of this event, how can I submit it to be reviewed and perhaps attached to this article? Thanks
I believe it is possible to address these issues given the available sources, but it may take some time. I'm willing to hold the review if the work will be done in a timely manner; if editors feel they cannot do so, please say so and I will close the review. (I will be happy to re-review later if desired.) Magic ♪piano 18:47, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for your thorough review. I was actually able to find both of Husry's articles at my university's library and will add new sections and modify others the next few weeks.-- Rafy talk 10:12, 23 September 2011 (UTC)