Participation in War, Refugee Policy, and Student Demonstrations: Iraq’s Stance on the 1948 Palestine Question in Light of New Evidence from Turkish Diplomatic Archives

The partition of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel triggered a profound transformation in the region, exerting a direct influence on the domestic and foreign policies of numerous Arab states. The present study examines Iraq’s stance on the 1948 Palestine issue by analyzing primary documents from the Turkish diplomatic archives. The study posits that Iraq’s decision to enter the war was not the result of a top-down political will, but rather the product of bottom-up social pressure shaped by civil society organizations, tribal congresses, and ideological allegiances. Moreover, the study draws directly on archival documents to examine shifts in Iraq’s stance on the refugee issue and the student demonstrations of December 1948. It is evident that the diplomatic reports compiled by Turkey in its capacity as an independent observer present a third-party perspective that has been predominantly overlooked in regional historiography. Despite the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ close monitoring of the events, studies relying exclusively on Turkish archival records have remained rather limited in scope. The present study aims to address this lacuna by examining the subject directly through the records of the Turkish Diplomatic Archive.