An American woman married to a Kurdish man recommended a book to me while we were enjoying tea and pastries in their living room. The book, titled The Diplomat, is authored by James Aldridge. This scene comes to mind when Botan Tahseen of the Kurdistan Chronicle approaches me for a submission to his magazine. I re-read the book last week and thought, "Yes, I can write a review for him.

“Happiness,” says the American historian David McCullough, “makes people think better.” 

Living in a corner of the world that produces a lot of misery and bad thinking – and beheadings too! – could art be the remedy for our ills? After reading the 1949 novel The Diplomat by Australian writer James Aldridge, the resounding answer is: Yes, it can!

The Diplomat spans the three capital cities of London, Moscow, and Tehran, but Kurdistan is at the heart of the story, taking up the age-old struggle of the Kurds for a place of their own under the sun. The main theme of the novel is liberty, which finds its nemesis in an equally powerful theme of order, the old, traditional variety of order that is. If you liked the movie Braveheart, you will enjoy The Diplomat.

World War II has just ended and the Cold War has yet to begin, but the world’s countries are already forced to choose sides between the Western capitalist world and the Soviet socialist one. London and Moscow will decide on which side Iran will fall.

The story’s three leading characters – the diplomat Lord Harold Essex, his assistant Ivre Angus MacGregor or Mac, and their assistant Katherine Clive – undertake a powerful journey across the regions within and around Kurdistan. 

First to Moscow

We already know what happens to Iran. With a bit of help from the United States, the British prevail and the Soviets withdraw, but the book describes how London and Moscow fight over the prize. If the Russians had stayed in Iran, the Republic of Mahabad and the Azerbaijan People’s Government might still exist today. 

The novel starts with a plane ride from London to Moscow in December 1945 carrying Lord Essex and Mac, as well as some Soviet natives who are heading home. Flying through inclement weather, the plane crashes in a field of snow near the Soviet capital. The plane is damaged, but the passengers survive, and Lord Essex and Mac make it to Moscow by sled and car.

What Lord Essex wants to do in Iran is identical to what Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, the first Secretary General of the NATO, would later do in Europe: keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down. More specifically, Lord Essex wants to keep the British in, the Russians out, and the Kurds and the Azeris down, so that a grateful Shah would then favor the British in Tehran. 

That is the ultimate plan. But then there are events, pesky unplanned occurrences that rattle the best of plots, that bring Lord Essex and Mac face-to-face first in Iran and then in London. The fact that the cause of Kurdish freedom ruptures their relationship makes you want to uncork a bottle of champagne at this point.

But let the champagne chill a little longer until you, dear reader, reach the end of this review. Lord Essex speaks neither Russian nor Persian, but Mac grew up in Iran and speaks both nearly fluently. He also knows something else: that freedom is the birthright of the Kurds and their neighbors, the Azeris. 

In Moscow, the meetings with the Russians do not go well. Meanwhile, at the British Embassy, the encounters with the embassy staff spark an unexpected romance. First, Mac falls head over heels in love with Katherine, but Lord Essex thinks she should belong to him. This tension adds flavor to the days in Moscow until Stalin finally says he is ready to receive Lord Essex.

The plan in Iran

The Russian leader has stationed troops in Kurdistan and Azerbaijan since 1941, with both provinces practicing self-rule. Stalin knows that neither the Kurds nor the Azeris want to submit to the Shah and urges Lord Essex to visit the region to find out for himself. 

Lord Essex and Mac do just that. After landing in Tehran, instead of directly driving to Tabriz, the larger challenge, Lord Essex suggests that they take a detour through Kurdistan. While preparing for the trip, Katherine joins them. With the embassy driver at their command, they head toward the mountains, the land of the Kurds.

Once there, they meet a Yezidi leader, who tells gives them an earful. He tells them how they worship their archangel, Tawusi Melek. 

But what pleases Katherine even more is what the non-Yezidi Persians say about the faith of the Yezidi: that they worship the Devil, the fallen angel, because the Devil is stronger than God. And what is their proof for that? “Because it is quite obvious from the amount of evil on earth that God is not all-powerful.”

Finally, they meet the Kurds. Mac, a Scotsman, sympathizes with their struggle for self-determination. When a Kurd named Salim asks him if the Scottish were conquered by the English, Mac responds, “like the Kurds, we have been defeated, but never conquered.” 

Lord Essex, on the other hand, is on another planet. He cares only for two things: the oil fields of Abadan in Iran and those of Mosul and Kirkuk in Iraq.

If the Republic of Mahabad stays intact, the oil fields of Mosul may be in jeopardy, as the Kurds in Iraq may seek their annexation into Kurdistan proper, muses the diplomat. He locates Kurds who oppose the Republic of Mahabad and bribes them. This infuriates Mac. Nevertheless, the seeds of the conflict are sown. In London, the battle lines are drawn.

Lord Essex’s mission looks like a slam-dunk, until Mac decides to take the matter into his own hands and, with the able help of Katherine, connects with journalists and key members of the British Parliament. 

In the ensuing debate in the House of Commons, the Tories cry wolf and want to punish Mac for blowing the whistle on Lord Essex. The Labour Party rises to his defense. At this point, the English language reaches new heights of eloquence that make you want to be alive just to read how it is done!

Something else happens after that magnificent verbal jousting: Katherine finally dumps Lord Essex and chooses Mac. Now is the time to pour that champagne and give a toast to love and freedom!

Kani Xulam is a commentator on the history and politics of Kurdistan and an advocate for the Kurdish people's right to self-determination. He serves as the director of the American Kurdish Information Network.