Examining the Role of Ottoman Empire, Great Britain and Russian Empire in 1917-1919 Famine from the Legal Viewpoint for Residing in Iranian Collective Memory

Document Type : Original

Authors

1 Department of Iranian Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Iranian Studies Dep., Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran

Abstract

During the WWI and after violating the neutrality of Iran by hostile powers, Iranians experienced horrible consequences of war and after several years of drought and food shortcomings, famine and pandemics killed millions of Iranians. Total occupation and overt violation of neutrality by foreigners gradually resulted in a huge number of casualties that would not happen in peace conditions and undoubtedly the foreigners’ operations were among the causes of the 1917-1919 famine in Iran. Surprisingly, there is almost no trace of the horrible event in Iranians’ collective memory. The main question of this research is how we can compensate for this matter by using the standard definitions of war crimes available in international law and in this way help to reside this bitter experience in the collective memory of Iranians and the people of the world. This paper, examining the documents and memoirs of that period, shows many of those events, based on present international regulations and even of that time being “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity”. It concludes that although filing an international lawsuit to pursue is actually impossible because of political exigencies, using the legal terminology is necessary to register this historic catastrophe in the collective memory of Iranians and humanity as a whole.

Keywords

Main Subjects


حوزه موضوعی: ایران، انگلستان، روسیه و عثمانی

Scope: Iran, Ottoman Empire, Great Britain and Russian Empire

Abadian H. (2011). Political History of Contemporary Vol.2: From WWI to the Coup (1914-1920), Tehran: Political Studies and Researches Institute. [in Persian]
Azhand Y, Aghajari H, Hassani A, Kheyrandish A, Zargarinezhad Gh. (1999). Iranian Governments from Mirza Nasrollah Khan Moshirodoleh to Mir Hossein Mousavi: Cabinet Members, Biographies, Pictures, Signatures and Handwritten samples of Prime Ministers, Ministers, and Prime Minister Deputies Based on Cabinets’ Records. Tehran: Printing and Publishing Organization of Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. [in Persian]
Condorelli L, Villalpando S. (2002). “Referral and Deferral by the Security Council”. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary. A. Cassese, P. Gaeta and J.R.W.D. Jones (eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cryer R, Friman H, Robinson D, Wilmshurst E. (2007). An Introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure. Cambridge University Press.
Floor W. (2005). “Review of The Great Famine and Genocide in Persia, 1917–1919”. Iranian Studies. 38(1): 192–196.
Halbwachs M. (1950). La mémoire collective. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.
Hirsch M. (2015). Invitation to the Sociology of International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
International Criminal Court (2011). Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Hague: International Criminal Court.
Kamali H. (2011), “Violation of Iran's neutrality in WWI and its consequences”. Political Studies Quarterly. 4(14): 127-150. [in Persian]
Kasravi A. (2007). 18-years history of Azerbaijan. Tehran: Negah. [in Persian]
Khalili M, Bornah F, (2013). “Evaluating the reasons for violating Iran’s neutrality in WWI and WWII”. Al-Zahra University's Scientific-Research Quarterly on the History of Islam and Iran. 23 (19, Serial 109): 35-70. [in Persian]
Majd MGH (2015). The Great Famine and Genocide in Persia, 1917–1919. Trans, Mohammad Karimi, Tehran: Political Studies and Researches Institute. [in Persian]
Malekzadeh E. (2013). “Documentary narrative of the famine in eastern Iran during WWI”. Socio-cultural studies of Khorasan Quarterly. 27(3): 122-105. [in Persian]
----- (2015). “Documentary narrative of the role of Russia and the Soviet Union in the famine crisis of WWI in Iran”. The scientific-research quarterly of the history of Islam and Iran of Al-Zahra University. 25(Serial 115): 225-243. [in Persian]
----- (2021a). “Documentary narration of the causes of famine in the southern regions of Iran during WWI”. Historical Studies of the War. 5(1, Serial 15): 95-118. [in Persian]
----- (2021b). “Famine in North Khorasan during WWI according to the unpublished documents of the National Archives of Iran”. Khorasan Socio-Cultural Studies Quarterly. 15(4, Serial 60): 127-150. [in Persian]
----- , Hamedi Z, Alizadeh Birjandi Z. (2013). WWI and WWII in Iran narrated by documents. Tehran: Library, Museum, and Documents Center of Islamic Consultative Assembly. [in Persian]
Nasiri Moghaddam MN. (1995). A collection of documents from the Caspian Sea and the northern regions of Iran in WWI. Tehran: Publishing House of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [in Persian]
Nezam Mafi RGH. (1984), Green Book. Tehran: Iranian History Publications Co. [in Persian]
Ó Gráda C. (2009). Famine: A Short History. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Qassabi Gazkouh J, Beheshti M. (2014). “Domestic affairs of Iran during WWI: From neutrality to the formation of the interim national government”. Research in History. 5(1): 96-110. [in Persian]
Ranjbar P. (2013). “Investigating the violation of [Iran’s] neutrality in WWI”. Historical Research Quarterly, 55: 167-181. [in Persian]
Ricœur P. (2004). Memory, History, Forgetting. trans. by Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer. University of Chicago Press.
Schindler D, Toman J. (eds), (2004). The Laws of Armed Conflicts: A Collection of Conventions, Resolutions and Other Documents. Leiden & Boston: Martinus Nijhoff publishers.
Sepehr AA (Movarrekhodoleh). (1957). Iran in WWI 1914-1918. Tehran: Adib Publication. [in Persian]
Zakeri S, Kheyrandish A. (2015). “The events of Tangak and coastal Tangestan in the first months of WWI; Violation of Iran's neutrality and the formation of popular resistance”. The Biannual Research Journal of Local Histories of Iran. 3(2): 193-207. [in Persian]

Documents

No. 210/009640, National Library of Iran.
No. 210/2760, National Library of Iran.
No. 232/3069, National Library of Iran.
White, dispatch 517 and enclosure, 763. 72119/6653, January 16, 1919.

Websites

Associated Press, 2022:
https://apnews.com/article/business-poland-germany-warsaw- edcf696c9e5f7bb68ad736dc0a00189e      [accessed 10/8/2022]
 
Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, 2023:
https://www.ihcs.ac.ir/fa/news/3439/جنبه-های-اجتماعی-قحطی-بزرگ-جنگ-جهانی-اول-در-ایران-دکتر-حسین-آبادیان-۱۲-۰۴-۹۱-صوتی          [accessed 3/4/2023]
 
Iranian History, 2022:
http://tarikhirani.ir/fa/news/3177/ میزگرد-بررسی-قحطی-بزرگ-هولوکاست-ایرانی-افسانه-بود- [accessed 6/19/2022]
 
Iranian Oral History, 2022:
http://oral-history.ir/?page=post&id=2598     [accessed 6/19/2022]
 
Yale University-A, 2023:
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hague02.asp               [accessed 1/25/2023]
 
Yale University-B, 2023:
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hague04.asp [accessed 1/25/2023]
 
Deutsche Welle, 2022:
https://www.dw.com/fa-ir/احمدینژاد-تا-آخرین-ریال-خسارت-جنگ-را-پس-میگیریم/a-5220517 [accessed 8/9/2022].
 
International Court of Justice- A, 2023:
https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/16/preliminary-objections         [accessed 2/15/2023]
 
International Court of Justice- B, 2023:
https://www.icj-cij.org/en/list-of-all-cases     [accessed 2/15/2023]
 
International Criminal Court, 2023:
https://asp.icc-cpi.int/states-parties [accessed 1/1/2023]
 
Australian War Memorial, 2022:
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/H09966                [accessed 10/2/2022]
 
Genocide Museum, 2023:
https://genocide-museum.am/eng/   [accessed 1/25/2023]
 
Armenian genocide, 2022:
https://www.armenian-genocide.org/recognition_countries.html              [accessed 12/28/2022]
 
Armenian genocide-A, 2022:
https://www.armenian-genocide.org/memorials.html [accessed 1/25/2023]
 
Armenian genocide-B, 2022:
https://www.armenian-genocide.org                [accessed 1/25/2023]
 
EuroNews, 2022:
https://per.euronews.com/2019/11/11/how-many-iranians-perished-during-first-world-war                [accessed 8/9/2022].