Captured by the Ottomans after the disastrous Siege of Kut, he was eventually released and found his way back into the employ of the British.

This military service ended on November 25, 1915, when British troops, Malek among them, attempted to capture Ctesiphon, a city 26 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The survivors, including Malek, were sent on a death march to Turkey to work in railroad chain gangs.

However, due to his belief that a future Assyria depended on the sale of oil to Western nations from Bet-Nahrein (which coincided with French and British political developments in that region), he was able to get a promotion to Secretary Inspector for the State of Nineveh.

Trying to resolve the issue, the League of Nations mandated that the Mosul Vilayet was to be ceded to the British and that Hakkari was to stay as part of Turkey.

Two days later, the Minister of the Interior ordered him to be transferred to Nassiriya, at least 400 miles southeast of Malek's current station.

[1] Only a few days after the Simele massacre occurred, where Assyrians in Northern Iraq were killed under the orders of Faisal, Malek went into exile in Cyprus in 1933.

[1] Although he was turned down for an audience in Switzerland, London, and France; Malek lectured many politicians on what was happening in the Middle East.

Malek expressed outrage that the British had neglected to fulfill their promise of an independent nation, leaving the Assyrians to be helplessly murdered by the Arabs.