Ebook: The Quest For Sultan Abdülhamid's Oil Assets. His heirs' legal battle for their rights

Much has been written on the history of the oil industry in general and on the exploitation of oil resources in different regions of the world, the Middle East being foremost among them. Over the years have also appeared many volumes or erudite studies on the struggle between the major Powers at the turn of the 20th century for future sources of energy, specifically for liquid as opposed to solid fuels often referred to as black gold, namely Petroleum. This 'study' differs from previously published works in that it concentrates on what went on behind the scenes in the capitals and chancelleries of the competing Great Powers, most of which remained under wraps for many decades, some for fifty years.

The author here deals specifically with the untold history of one of the richest oil hearing region of the Middle East: Mesopotamia, which used to be part of the old Ottoman Empire and is now better known of course as Iraq. The struggle to secure the Mesopotamian oil deposits involved primarily the British Empire and Imperial German, with France and Tsarist Russia as secondary players and the United States a very important latecomer. It stands out as the hardest fought and protracted political. Diplomatic, financial and later military struggle in the history of the petroleum industry. The only final common objective of all the contestants was the eventual downfall and subsequent dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, which was an essential prerequisite.

Great Britain emerged victorious from this long drawn out struggle, having shrewdly secured for itself at the League of Nations in 1922 the crucially important position of Mandatory Power (Class A) responsible for the former Ottoman territory of Iraq, thus establishing its commanding authority over the oil bearing lands of former Mesopotamia, and seizing for British interests the rich deposits of black gold. One of the other beneficiaries in this venture was an Armenian entrepreneurial genius by the name of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, better known since as Five Per Cent. And the loser? To some extent the emerging young Turkish Republic miraculously rising from the ashes of the old Empire, and - believe it or not - the exiled Ottoman Imperial Family, under the surface of whose privately owned tracts of land in former Mesopotamia lay rich deposits of petroleum.

How did Britain achieve this long coveted objective? Not surprisingly some of the important and fascinating details have long remained buried in the national archives of the main players, and see the light of day for the first time as the author retraces the history of the triumph of British policy. which in the final analysis can be seen to have seen guided by the very doctrine of Might is Right against which it fought two world wars this century.

Mahmud Sami
Kinsale, Eire
March 1994.