I’m “Mr. X.” I came from Iraq, from Baghdad, around ’71, ’72. Thirty-five years ago. I am Armenian, Christian. We had freedom of religion when I was growing up. The Christians, Jews, Muslims Shi’ites and Sunnis, they all took part in the government. The government, the king, did not want to segregate people, to separate them. There wasn’t a dominant race. They didn’t kill Christians like what happened in Serbia. People respected each other. There was no terrorism. Racism was there, especially in the higher positions of business and government. Women could work, they could teach, apply for jobs. After the revolution, though, the revolutionaries came up with ideas that threatened others. They forced Christians to name
their children Islamic names, not Christian ones. Women were suppressed. They had to wear long robes to cover their heads and bodies. If a woman was walking in public with skirts, they would come and spray paint her legs. They paint her legs, not the walls!During the king’s period, the education was fantastic because everything was based on a British education. Everything! In fact, when I graduated from high school in Baghdad, I went to American University in Beruit. I already knew everything! They taught the same things in university, first year of school. I already had all that in Iraq because it was based on the British system. After the revolution everybody came up with some ideas, changing this, changing that. They started changing them, trying to add more Arabic things, and the education level went down. In Baghdad there were high schools, one for girls and one for boys. It was fantastic. I had the chance of working for the boys’ high school, but then they closed it down. They took over all the schools and closed them - European, Christian, Armenian, Catholic, they took them all over. It was their own religions, their own principles, their own curriculums.
Iraq used to be a kingdom. The king was an offspring of the prophet Mohammed, a very, very big religious personality. The British had bases all over Iraq. My father worked for the British at a base about 45 minutes away from Baghdad. I was born there. My father worked for the British for 30, 35 years. Then in 1957 there was a revolution. They killed the king. He was only 18 years old! They killed his mother and all his family. According to the rules, the king was not responsible for anything. It was a monarchy, but the prime minister had all the power. They killed the prime minister. They killed everybody who had anything to do with the king.
Imagine! The king was an offspring of the prophet Mohammed. They killed him! Without thinking, without saying, this is our prophet’s child. Imagine what happens if you killed somebody of that position!
Before the revolution, you could own your own business. There were many foreign companies, French, English, American. The Americans had so many investments there. They built a big hospital, Dar Saalam, and schools. There were no unions because anything having to do with unions was related to communism. But it worked! The market was free, everything was abundant.
You could go out, travel out, and take out as much money as you needed, go to Europe, go to Lebanon, go to all these places. There was opportunity to advance. For example, I was very good at high school. I got a very high average and had a scholarship from the government to go to American University in Beruit. But after the revolution, the market was so bad. You couldn’t find food. Imagine! Before the revolution the egg was about five cents. After the revolution, the second day you couldn’t find any eggs in the market. And if you find any, thirty-five cents! You could still own your own business, but not a big business. The banks and big businesses, they took over all these. You could have a small shop here or there, but only party members could have anything big.
The country celebrated Armenian Christmas with us, but they called it Army Day or Veterans Day. The Armenians helped the king fight against the Turks, so he loved Armenians a lot. January 6th is Armenian holiday, so the king made it a holiday for the whole country. Everybody celebrated with us, but they were celebrating Army Day.
Right after the revolution, the communists were in power. They started killing all non-communists. And then another group came up. They were backed by Egypt, and they started killing the communists. Then the Ba’aths took over, and then the communists came back again and took over. The Ba’aths ran away. And after two or three years the Ba’aths came back and tried to govern the country according to their laws. They all kept going back and forth fighting each other. It destroyed us. Many times we stood in the street with all those big tanks passing by, and we didn’t know which side they were, who these people are. Were they with the government, against the government? We clapped for them all! Then Saddam Hussein came to power. He killed everyone else. He governed the country for thirty-five years with an iron hand. Saddam was the worst thing that happened to Iraq. People disappeared. When you left for work, you did not know if you would come back. Somebody might single you out and say, he is anti-government, and they took you to prison. You go there, if you are lucky you come back with broken bones. You were beaten, especially if they thought you were dangerous or political. They would question you, order you to confess, beat you until you did confess. A woman I worked with, her husband was taken and they beat him so much that he couldn’t walk when he came back. They told him not to say anything or they would get rid of him. Happened anyway, and nothing anyone could do about it.I left when Saddam came to power. I was working for the government so I asked for a vacation to go to Beruit. No vacation. A new manager came, and I trained him for six months because he was a member of the Ba’ath Party. The new manager called me in and asked why I wanted to go to Beruit, why didn’t I take vacation in northern Iraq? He asked if I was going to tell secrets to the Americans and threatened to call the police to beat me. I told him if he let me leave, I would go and never come back. He could have called the police on me, but suddenly they approved my vacation - absence without pay, one full month. I prayed to God, and they approved me! I left, and I didn’t go back. My family came afterwards.
The situation in Iraq right now will be much better. The Iraqis love Americans. They always wanted Americans to come instead of the British. When Americans go there, they build schools, they build hospitals, they build orphanages. They build! They help! And jobs, businesses, everything! When the British come in, the British take everything, all the profit. The Iraqis love the Americans to come and help them.
Interviewed by David West