Today's voicemail is taken from page 176 of "Pride and Power: A Modern History of Iraq" by Johan Franzén In 1963, 'Aref and the Ba'thists instigated the Ramadan Revolution which toppled Karim Qasim from power, a mere 5 years after the first revolution. What followed after was a brief period in which different factions across the Ba'athist and nationalist factions fought for control in Iraq. Eventually, the Ba'this secured their rise to power and would remain as Iraq's single party until Saddam H...
Oct 16, 2022•30 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Today's voicemail is taken from p.225 of Claire Hollingworth's article in 'World Today'. The Iraqi and Kurdish saga continues! I begin with a quick recap of last episode's story and we get right into Barzani's return to Iraq, how the Kurdish Democratic Party and Iraqi Communist Party continued to affect Kurdish-Arab dynamics, and the different approaches Karim Qasim took to navigate the drama of Iraq's ever changing political scene. We end by talking about Qasim's depressing downfall, the tentat...
May 08, 2022•40 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Today's voicemail is taken from page 1-2 of Quil Lawrence's book, Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' quest for state-hood is shaping Iraq. In this episode, I turn to look at the Kurdish situation in Iraq, beginning in 1920 with its establishment under a British mandate and the new monarchy. I begin by recounting the Barzani rebellions from 1931-1945, which began primarily due to economic grievances and then evolved to take a more political outlook. There is also discussion on the broader political...
Feb 22, 2022•54 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Today's voicemail is taken from the poem "2+2=1" penned by Qazi Muhammad, 1946. During the wartime occupation of Iran, the Kurds of Iran led by the revolutionary figure of Qazi Muhammad, set up the Republic of Kurdistan, with its centre as Mahabad. For the Kurds, this was the first implemented Kurdish nationalist aspiration - they set up an autonomous zone with the aim to bring in the Kurds of Iran under a regional Kurdish government. It is both a remarkable and tragic chapter of 20th century Ku...
Feb 06, 2022•32 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Today's voicemail is taken from the Kurdish epic, Mem û Zîn , written in 1692 by the Kurdish intellectual, author and poet, Ahmed Khani . Persia was (and is) at the crossroads of Asia. From the 1850s, Persia became everything on the spectrum from a chessboard to a battlefield, fought mainly between the Brits and the Russians, vying for control of its strategic location and its famed oil wells. Caught in the maelstrom of Persian and global politics between 1850-1939, the Kurds instigated one of t...
Dec 26, 2021•36 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Today's voicemail is taken from James Barr's book, A Line in the Sand, paraphrased from page 11-12. The consequences of WWI were far-reaching, and the Middle East was no exception. Between 1916 to 1923, three major treaties were signed which carved up this region. These treaties went on to define the new borders, influence policies and as ever, impact the lives of millions. In this episode I hope to give you a summary of how significant each treaty was, who the winners and losers were. I present...
Dec 11, 2021•35 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Today's voicemail is taken from the following article on the YPJ Zeynab Serekaniye, written by Elizabeth Flock: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/20/turkey-airstrikes-kurds-syria-ypj-ceasefire/ Introducing Season 2! Hello and welcome back to Voicemails from History. In this season, I will be taking you on a tour of modern Kurdish history, each episode highlighting a significant event or moment for them in the 20th century. The Kurds have gained more and more attention in the last decade or so, b...
Oct 27, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Today's voicemail is taken from page 188, The Hidden History of Burma, A Crisis of Race and Capitalism, by Thant Myint-U. Timestamps (as I know this episode is longer than usual!) Intro & background: until 10:30 Burma's economy: 11:00 Aung San Suu Kyi: 23:58 Rohingya and the state of Arakan: 31:25 In part 2 of this episode , I try to understand some of the main political and economic developments of the newly independent country in the 20th and 21st century. There's the military dictatorship...
Sep 01, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Today's voicemail is taken from the book, The Hidden History of Burma, A Crisis of Race and Capitalism, by Thant Myint-U. Burma/Myanmar has experienced a long period of instability, turmoil and civil war. It has cropped up in the news time and time again in relation to 2 main crises - the military junta versus Aung San Suu Kyi and the mistreatment of the Rohingya. In part 1 of this episode, I explore some of the main threads in Burma's medieval and colonial history, as well as the developments d...
Aug 18, 2021•47 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Today's voicemail is taken a snippet of a poem titled Learning Urdu from Agha Shahid Ali, a Kashmiri-American poet. The partition of British India in 1947 brought about a scale of violence and bloodshed which followed the pattern of the traumatic years following 1945. In this episode, I break down Chatterji's article, in which she has analysed how the partition came about, specifically looking at the Bengal Boundary Commission. Contrary to previous episodes where I've looked at the experiences o...
Jun 05, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Today's voicemails are taken from the book, the Polish Deportees of WWII, edited by Tadeusz Piotrowski. This book is a collection of diaries and memoirs of Polish deportees from 1939 to 1945. World War Two witnessed one of the largest population movements in modern history, with approximately 40-60 million Europeans becoming refugees or displaced peoples. Out of this tragedy, 1.7 million Poles were exiled by the Soviet Union until 1941 when they were granted 'amnesty'. This led to a Polish exodu...
May 09, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Today's voicemails are taken from Greta Uehling's book, Beyond Memory: The Crimean Tatars' Deportation and Return. In this episode, I talk about the history of the Crimean Tatars, a group considered to be Europe's oldest surviving Muslim community. On the 18th of May 1944, Joseph Stalin ordered the en masse deportation of 191,000 Crimean Tatars, signalling an astounding break from previous Soviet policy towards ethnic groups in the late 1920s. I consider how the study of Crimean Tatars challenge...
Apr 16, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Today's voicemail is adapted from a debate on page 148 from Philippe Sands's book, East West Street . This brilliantly written book focuses on the personal narratives responsible for the development of the legal concepts 'genocide' and 'crimes against humanity'. Sands explains how three men moving through this one city in central Europe all affected the Nuremberg Trials of 1946. I discuss how these origins have implications for our understanding of international law and the International Crimina...
Apr 08, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 1
