Mosul Question

The Mosul Question was a territorial dispute in the early 20th century between Turkey and the United Kingdom (later Iraq) over the possession of the former Ottoman Mosul Vilayet.

The Mosul Vilayet was part of the Ottoman Empire until the end of World War I, when it was occupied by Britain. After the Turkish War of Independence, the new Turkish Republic considered Mosul one of the crucial issues determined in the National Pact. Despite constant resistance, Britain managed to bring the issue into the international arena, scaling it down to a frontier problem between Turkey and Iraq.

The League of Nations Council appointed an investigative commission that recommended that Iraq should retain Mosul, and Turkey reluctantly assented to the decision by signing the Frontier Treaty with the Iraqi government in 1926. Iraq agreed to give a 10 percent royalty on Mosul's oil deposits to Turkey for 25 years.

Near the end of World War I, the debilitated Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros, calling for a ceasefire with the United Kingdom, on October 30, 1918. Three days later, on November 2, Lt. Gen. Sir William Marshall invaded the Mosul Vilayet until November 15, 1918 when he was finally successful in defeating the Ottoman forces and causing them to surrender.

In August 1920, the Treaty of Sèvres was signed to end the war, however the Ottomans still contested the British right to Mosul and how it was taken illegally, post-Mudros. Even when the Lausanne Treaty was signed between Turkey and Britain in 1923, Turkey still maintained that Britain was controlling the Mosul Vilayet illegally. British officials in London and Baghdad continued to believe that Mosul was imperative to the survival of Iraq because of its resources and the security of its mountainous border. Turkish leaders were also afraid that Kurdish nationalism would thrive under British Mandate and start trouble with the Kurdish population in Turkey.

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