Fragile frontiers: Sayyid Taha II and the role of Kurdish religio-political leadership in the Ottoman East during the First World War

ABSTRACT

At the start of the First World War the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), the ruling party of the Ottoman Empire, used numerous means to ensure that the Kurdish leaders remained allies. Interpretations of Jihad became a major tool for recruitment of Kurdish soldiers by all sides in the war, including the Ottomans, Russians, British and Kurds, though the tactic had limited success. During this period, several religio-political leaders emerged among the Sufi orders in Kurdistan and created their own regiments that fought alongside the Ottomans. Other leaders sided with Russian and British forces. Among those leaders that did not support the Ottomans, Sayyid Taha II arose as a rational, yet unorthodox political figure. His political maneuvering proved that the frontiers were fragile, fluid and impermanent. The present study aims to show that in the context of the First World War the Kurdish leaders of the time, primarily Sayyid Taha II, vis-à-vis the non-religious notables in Istanbul, were transformed into political leaders by their experiences during and after the war.

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Corrigendum

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to a number of colleagues, Hamit Bozarslan, Metin Yüksel, and Selim Adalı, for reading an earlier version of this article and for offering invaluable insight, Scott Evans for his meticulous revision, Talha Çiçek for encouraging me to write on the involvement of the Kurdish sheikhs into the First World War and his invitation to the conference ‘World War One and the End of the Ottoman Social Formation’ held on 16–17 May 2015 at Istanbul Şehir University, and colleagues from Iran for helping me to locate some of the valuable primary documents and sources.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. M. van Bruinessen, The Sadate Nehri or Gilanizade of Central Kurdistan in Mullas, Sufis and Heretics: The Role of Religion in Kurdish Society (Istanbul: Isis Press, 2000), pp.199–213. For a detailed study of Sayyid Taha of Nehri, see Mehmet Saki Çakır, Seyyid Tâhâ Hakkârî ve Nehrî Dergâhı [Seyyid Taha Hakkari and Sufi Order in Nehri] (Istanbul: Nizamiye Akademi, 2017). For the proceedings of Hakkari conference held in October 2013, see Halit Yalçın et al. (eds.), Uluslararası Seyyid Taha-i Hakkari Sempozyumu Bildirileri [Proceedings of the International Symposium on Seyyid Taha-i Hakkari] (Hakkari: Hakkari Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2014).

2. Sabri Ateş, ‘In the Name of the Caliph and the Nation: The Sheikh Ubeidullah Rebellion of 1880–81’, Iranian Studies Vol.47 (2014), pp.735–98.

3. For more details on Sheikh Ubeydullah rebellion, see Fırat Kılıç, ‘Sheikh Ubeidullah's Movement’ (Unpublished MA thesis, Bilkent University, 2003); see Celilê Celîl, 1880 Şeyh Ubeydullah Nehri Kürt Ayaklanması, M. Aras (trans.) (Istanbul: Peri Yayınları, 1998); Mehemed Hama Baqî, Şureşê Şêx Ubeydullayê Nehrî (1880) Le Belgenameyê Qacar da [Sheikh Ubeidullah Nehri Revolt (1880) in Qajar Documents] (Arbil, Iraq: Çapxaneyê Wezaretê Perwerde, 2000); Eskendar Qurians, Qiyam-e Sheikh Ubeidullah Shamzini dar Ahd-e Shah Naser al-Din [Sheikh Ubeidullah Revolt in the Age of Shah Nase al-Din], Abdallah Mardukh (ed.) (Tehran: Donya-ye Danesh, 1356).

4. Ottoman sources indicate that Muhammad Sadiq stayed away from politics and dedicated himself to improving the quality of life in his region. The Ottomans did not miss the opportunity to use this occasion to keep him quiet and rewarded him for building roads and bridges in the Nehri region. Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (BOA-Ottoman Archives of the Prime Ministry of Turkey), DH.MKT.2108, 14, 3.Ca.1316 (19 September 1898); The British Council at Van, Captain F.R. Maunsell reported that in the autumn of 1900, Sayyid Sadiq attempted to meet the Shah in order to obtain the restoration of villages in Tirgever, which Iran had confiscated from his father in 1881. The Ottomans naturally disapproved strongly of this expedition and forced him to return to Nehri. The National Archives of the United Kingdom (TNA), Foreign Office (FO) 195/3082 in A.L.P. Burdett, Records of the Kurds: Territory, Revolt and Nationalism, 1831–1979, Vol. 4, Cambridge Archive Editions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp.74–5.

5. Robert Elliott Speer, ‘The Hakim Sahib’ The Foreign Doctor: A Biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M. D., of Persia (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1911), p.74.

6. One short article about Sayyid Taha II was written by Nazmi Sevgen, a researcher who worked for the Turkish Army during the Republican Period and attempted to minimize Sayyid Taha II's role in the First World War. Sevgen refers to Sayyid Taha II as a ‘false sayyid’ because of his family lineage, and as a ‘traitor’ because he fought the CUP and Kemalist regimes. Moreover, Sevgen describes Sayyid Taha II's homeland as a center where political conspiracies were designed. Nazmi Sevgen, ‘Seyyid Taha’, Tarih Konuşuyor, Vol.7 (May 1967), p.3165.

7. Sherif Pasha, for instance, presented a memorandum to the Peace Conference of 1919 with references to historical accounts in order to prove that the Kurds were an ancient people of the region. Cherif Pacha, Mémorandum sur les Revendications du peuple kurde (Paris: Imprimerie A.G. L'hoir, 1919), pp.5–7. On the other hand, Emin Ali Bedirkhan protested against Armenian claims and found Sherif Pasha's map covering fewer parts of Kurdish regions, which excluded most of northeastern Anatolia, and thus presented a more inclusive one. TNA, FO 371/5068/4396, 20 March 1920 as cited in Hakan Özoğlu, Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State (New York: State University of New York Press, 2004), p.40.

8. Michael A. Reynolds, ‘Abdürrezzak Bedirhan: Ottoman Kurd and Russophile in the Twilight of Empire’, Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History Vol.12 (2011), pp.411–50.

9. Kamal Mazhar Aḥmad, Kurdistan during the First World War (London: Saqi Books, 1994), pp.66–7.

10. Wigram was there around 1910 and he estimates the age of Sayyid Taha as 19. That makes the year of his birth around 1891–2. W.A. Wigram and E.T.A. Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind: Life in Eastern Kurdistan (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1914), p.165. Nazmi Sevgen gives 1878 as the year for his birth but provides no source for this information. Besides, he claims that his father Muhammad Sadiq died in 1903, whereas most sources agree on the year of 1911. Sevgen, ‘Seyyid Taha’, pp.3165–67.

11. Several Qajarian documents in Baqî's documentary book refer to Sayyid Sadiq and the degree of his involvement in the 1880 revolt. Mehemed Hama Baqî, Şureşê Şêx Ubeydullayê Nehrî (1880) Le Belgenameyê Qacar da [Sheikh Ubeidullah Nehri Revolt (1880) in Qajar Documents] (Arbil, Iraq: Çapxaneyê Wezaretê Perwerde, 2000), pp.154, 183, 295, 227.

12. During his exile in Mecca, Sayyid Abdulkadir sent letters along with pilgrims to the ulama in Nehri and other parts of Kurdistan exchanging news about the political situation in the region. DH.MKT.1971, 47, 18.Z.1309 (13 July 1892) and DH.MKT.1946, 91, 13.L.1309 (10 May 1892).

13. Abdulhamid was very suspicious of Sheikh al-Islam, and thus used all means in order to keep them under his order. Some of them like Hayrullah Efendi were dismissed and sent into exile to Medina. The Sultan's favorite tool against opponents was banishment based on the Ottoman Penal Code. As places of exile, he preferred provinces far away from the capital and where the exile could remain under surveillance. François Georgeon, Abdulhamid II: Le sultan calife (Paris: Fayard, 2003), pp.156–7. Apparently not only the Ottomans, but also the Mughals used Mecca as a convenient place of exile for political offenders, especially those who could be possible contenders for the throne. Naimur Rahman Farooqi, Mughal-Ottoman Relations: A Study of Political & Diplomatic Relations between Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire, 1556–1748 (New Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1989), p.128. On Mecca and Medina being an intellectual hub in the second half of the nineteenth century for trans-imperial Muslim scholars from around the world, see Seema Alawi's excellent work: Muslim Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015).

14. BOA, BEO, 309323, 07.M.1331 (17 December 1912).

15. BOA, BEO, 310096, 10.S.1331 (19 January 1913).

16. Sayyid Taha had close relations with Abdurrezzak, a member of the Bedirkhani family who was backed by the Russians, and with Ismail Simko Agha, the leader of the Shikak tribe on the Iranian side. Both figures were active through the First World War and its aftermath. For the Ottoman documents on the relationship between Sayyid Taha II and aforementioned figures, see BOA, BEO, 313374, 27.C.1331 (3 June 1913); BOA, BEO, 310387, 24.C.1331 (31 May 1913); BOA, BEO. 318329, 06.S.1332 (4 January 1914) and for his contact with the Russians, see BOA, BEO, 316735, 19.Za.1331 (20 October 1913); BOA, BEO, 318351, 07.S.1332 (5 January 1914).

17. Wigram and Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind, pp.166–7.

18. BOA, DH.EUM.2.Şb, 24, 25.N.1332 (8 May 1916).

19. BOA, BEO, 322900, 26.N.1332 (9 May 1916).

20. W.R. Hay, Two Years in Kurdistan: Experiences of a Political Officer, 1918–1920 (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1921), p.353. British officer A.M. Hamilton, who was stationed in Iraq in the early 1920s, states that Sayyid Taha II spoke very good English. A.M. Hamilton, Road Through Kurdistan: Travels in Northern Iraq (London: Latimer Trend & Co, 1958), p.76.

21. Wigram and Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind, p.165.

22. Hamilton, Road Through Kurdistan, p.76.

23. Muzaffer İlhan Erdost, Şemdinli Röportajı (Istanbul: Onur Yayınları, 1987), p.45.

24. Wigram and Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind, p.165.

25. Edmonds says that Sayyid Taha II's style was unique to him: ‘S. Taha's costume is in the central style, but the head-dress is his own national knitted “Balaclava” and the short jacket over the choghe is unusual.’ C.J. Edmonds, Kurds, Turks and Arabs: Politics, Travel and Research in North-eastern Iraq, 1919--1925 (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), p.90.fn.

26. Edmonds, Kurds, Turks and Arabs, p.306.

27. Wigram and Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind, p.165.

28. Edmonds, Kurds, Turks and Arabs, p.306.

29. Hamilton, Road Through Kurdistan, p.75.

30. Not only the Russians but also the British tried to make the Kurdish leaders work together for their interest. During the second half of the First World War and afterwards, they sought to bring Sheikh Mahmud of Sulaimaniya, Sayyid Taha II and Simko Agha together, however with no result. Derk Kinnane, The Kurds and Kurdistan (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), p.38. Also see Cipher sent by Cabir Pasha, the Commander of Eleventh Army Corps in Van, to the Ministry of Interior. BOA. BEO., 302848. 1.Za.1330 (18 October 1912).

31. For the best work on Abdurrezzak Bedirkhan's relationship with Russia and his leadership, see Reynolds, ‘Abdürrezzak Bedirhan’. An earlier work by the Soviet period historian Celilê Celîl contains valuable information from the Russian archives and secondary literature: Celîlê Celîl, 19. Yüzyılın Sonu 20. Yüzyılın Başı Kürt Aydınlanması [Kurdish Enlightenment in the Late 19^th and Early 20^th Century], Arif Karabağ (trans.) (Istanbul: Avesta, 2000).

32. Some of the excellent examples of works on Kurdish history, culture, literature and society are produced by the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian Kurdologues. Chèref-Nâmeh de Charaf-khân Bidlîsî, 6 Vols., F.B. Charmoy, (trans. and comment) (St. Petersburg: MM. Eggers et Comps, 1868–1873); Alexandre Jaba, Recueil de notices et récits kourdes (St. Petersburg: MM. Eggers et Comps, 1860); Basile Nikitine, Les Kurdes: étude sociologique et historique (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1956). For a general overview of Kurdology during the Soviet period, see M. Leezenberg, Soviet Kurdology and Kurdish Orientalism in M. Kemper and S. Conermann (eds.), The Heritage of Soviet Oriental Studies (London: Routledge, 2011), pp.86–102 and the same author's ‘“A People Forgotten by History”: Soviet Studies of the Kurds’, Iranian Studies Vol. 48 (2015), pp.747–67; Ismet Cheriff Vanly, ‘The Kurds in the Soviet Union’ in Philip G. Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl (eds.), The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge, 1992).

33. Michael A. Reynolds, Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1908–1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p.60.

34. Reynolds, Shattering Empires, p.47.

35. David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004), p.102.

36. McDowall, The Kurds, pp.102, 111–2.

37. Reynolds, ‘Abdürrezzak Bedirhan’, p.448. Execution of rebellious leaders was not common during the regime of Abdulhamid II. In fact, throughout all the Ottoman administration, Kurdish leaders were either sent into exile or incorporated into the bureaucracy and appointed to a high-level position in other provinces, whereas CUP and Kemalist regimes became much more brutal towards the leaders of rebellious groups, including Arabs, Albanians and Caucasians, and executions with fast track trials through Divan-ı Harb became a common practice. Some of the Kurdish leaders who were executed by the Ottoman and Republican administrations: Molla Selim (1914), Sayyid Ali (1914), Sheikh Şehabettin (1914) Sheikh Abdulselam Barzani (1914), Sayyid Abdulkadir (1925), and Sheikh Said (1925).

38. Özoğlu, Kurdish Notables, p.93.

39. G. R. Driver, Kurdistan and the Kurds (Mount Carmel: G. S. I. Printing Section, 1919), p.106.

40. Reynolds, ‘Abdürrezzak Bedirhan’, p.427.

41. For more information on Simko Agha, see Kamal Soleimani, ‘The Kurdish Image in Statist Historiography: The Case of Simko’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.53 (2017), pp.949–65; Mihemed Resûl Hawar, Simko Axayê Şikakî û Tevgera Neteweyî ya Kurd [Simko Agha of Shikak and the Kurdish National Movement], Ziya Avci (trans.) (Istanbul: Nubihar, 2016); Aḥmad Chupani, Masʼalah-yi Ismail Agha Simku dar Aẕarbayjan va Mukriyan [The Question of Ismail Agha Simko in Azerbaijan and Mukriyan] (Tehran: Nashr-i Ana, 1394).

42. Wadie Jwaideh, The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2006), p.176.

43. Jordi Tejel Gorgas, Le mouvement kurde de Turquie en exil: continuités et discontinuités du nationalisme kurde sous le mandat français en Syrie et au Liban (1925–1946) (Bern: Peter Lang, 2007), pp.66fn, 129.

44. Both leaders met each other in 1928 in Iran. Gorgas, Le mouvement kurde, p.251.

45. Dated 21 October 1912, in his telegram from Van to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Said-i Kurdi stated that he knew Sayyid Taha well, that he served his people greatly, that he lost most of his property because of mismanagement and if he was not forgiven because of his actions, big trouble would await eastern Anatolia. BOA, BEO, 302848, 9.Za.1330 (21 October 1912) cited in Fatih Ünal, ‘Rusların Kürt Aşiretlerini Osmanlı Devleti'ne Karşı Kullanma Çabaları’, Karadeniz Araştırmaları Vol.5 (2008), pp.133–52.

46. Sevgen, ‘Seyyid Taha’, p.3167.

47. Erdost recorded some details on Sayyid Taha II from the first witnesses who lived in Nehri. In his account, it seems that Sayyid Taha II tried to convince the Kurdish tribes of the Shamdinan area to join him and include Nehri in the territories of Iraq under the administration of the British. However, he was unsuccessful in his venture and left Nehri in 1920 for good. Erdost, Şemdinli Röportajı, p.44–9. See also BOA, DH.ŞFR. 638 81, 22 Temmuz 1335 (22 July 1919).

48. For instance, one cipher from the governor of Van sent on 28 Mayıs 1335 stated that Sayyid Taha was considered a ‘dangerous’ (muzır) person by the British, thus was ‘isolated’ (nefy ve tecrid) (BOA, DH.ŞFR. 632 58, 28 Mayıs 1335–28 May 1919), while another cipher that was sent a couple of weeks later by the same governor stated that he was ‘convinced’ (elde edildiği) by the British in order to work for them (BOA, DH.ŞFR. 633 136, 10 Haziran 1335–10 June 1919).

49. Tigeyashtini Raste, 12 January 1918, in Mazhar Aḥmad, Kurdistan During the First World War, pp.107–8.

50. Tigeyashtini Raste, 20 May 1918.

51. Tigeyashtini Raste, 1 January 1918.

52. Tigeyashtini Raste, 12 February and 22 April 1918.

53. Tigeyashtini Raste, 12 January 1918.

54. McDowall, The Kurds, p.103.

55. Mazhar Aḥmad, Kurdistan During the First World War, p.157.

56. Soleimani also highlights the role of the sectarian division in the Kurdish regions of Iran during the First World War and states ‘A binary of Sunni Kurds vs. Iranians and non-Kurdish Shiʿa was the operative dichotomy employed by both Kurds and non-Kurds.’ Soleimani, ‘The Kurdish Image in Statist Historiography’, p.956.

57. BOA. DH. KMS., 19/27, Lef 2. 5.Ca.1332 (1 April 1914) letter from the governor of Van to the Ministry of Interior; also BOA. DH. KMS., 21/55, Lef 3/1, cited in Fatih Ünal, ‘Rusların Kürt Aşiretlerini’, p.149.

58. BOA. DH. SYS., 24/2-4, Lef 112–113 cited in Fatih Ünal, ‘Rusların Kürt Aşiretlerini’, pp.144–5.

59. Dispatch of Shirkov, 24 March 1914 [6 April 1914], AVPRI (Foreign Affairs Archive of the Russian Empire), f. 180, d. 1406, ll. 5, 7 cited in Reynolds, ‘Abdürrezzak Bedirhan’, pp.443–4.

60. Janet Klein, The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias in the Ottoman Tribal Zone (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011), p.162.

61. AVPRI, Telegram from Chirkov, 30.5.1913 [12.4.1913], f. 180, o. 517/2 d. 3573, l. 158 cited in Reynolds, Shattering Empires, p.64.

62. Arshak Safrastian, Kurds and Kurdistan (London: The Harvill Press, 1948), p.74.

63. Safrastian, Kurds and Kurdistan, p.74.

64. M.A. Zaki estimates that out of all these Kurdish recruits, 300,000 of them fell victim to the war. Muhammad Amin Zaki, Khulasat Tarikh al-Kurd wa Kurdistan min Aqdam al-‘Usur Hatta al-‘An [A Concise History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Ancient Periods until Today], Muhammad Ali Awni (trans.) (Cairo: al-Sa'ada Press, 1939), pp.274–5; Jwaideh, The Kurdish National Movement, p.125.

65. McDowall, The Kurds, p.103.

66. Mazhar Aḥmad, Kurdistan During the First World War, p.91; on the desertion and defection from the Ottoman Army, see also: Erik-Jan Zürcher, ‘Between Death and Desertion: The Experience of the Ottoman Soldier in World War I’, Turcica Vol.28 (1996), pp.235–58.

67. According to the British records, Simko's sources included 200 Kurdish-Ottoman officers. Eastern Reports, TNA, CAB/24/129. Not 4 5. 2 November 1921, p.574; whereas Othman Ali claims that as many as 3000 Ottoman army deserters joined Simko's militias. Othman Ali, Dirasat fı al-Hạrakah al-Kurdiya al-Muʿasịrah (1833–1946) [Studies on the Modern Kurdish Movement (1833–1946)] (Arbil: Maktab al-Tafsir, 2003), p.344; both sources are cited from Soleimani, ‘The Kurdish Image in Statist Historiography’, p.954.

68. McDowall, The Kurds, pp.100–1.

69. Siddiq Damaluji, Bahdinan al-Kurdiya Aw Imarat al-‘Amadiya [The Kurdish Bahdinan or Emirate of Amadiya] (Mosul: al-Ittihad al-Jadida Press, 1952), p.94, cited in Mazhar Aḥmad, Kurdistan During the First World War, p.67.

70. Mazhar Aḥmad, Kurdistan During the First World War, p.67.

71. McDowall, The Kurds, p.99.

72. Communiqué of vice-consul of France in Van to M. Bompard, Ambassador of France in Constantinople. Centre des Archives diplomatiques de Nantes, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, France (CADN), 166PO/E, No. 19, 11 June 1914.

73. Communiqué of vice-consul of France in Van to M. Bompard, Ambassador of France in Constantinople. CADN, 166PO/E/133, No. 10, 10 May 1914.

74. From the Ottoman Gendarmarie to the Ambassador of France in Constantinople. CADN, 166PO/E/133, 4 April 1914.

75. Telegraph from the Ottoman Ambassador Emin Bey. BOA. BEO., 309556. 6.M.1331 (16 December 1912).

76. The document to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after Shahbandar of Urumiya sent a telegraph. BOA, BEO. 318351, 7. S. 1332 (5 January 1914).

77. Cipher sent by the governor of Van, Tahsin Bey, to the Ministry of Interior. BOA. DH. KMS., 9/26, Lef 8–9. 6.Ra.1332 (29 January 1914).

78. From Ambassador of France in Constantinople to Paris. CADN, 166PO/E/133, 5 April 1914.

79. Cipher from the Ottoman Embassy in Tehran to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, BOA, DH.ŞFR. 45.241. 21.Za.1332 (11 October 1914).

80. Basil Nikitine, ‘Les Kurdes racontés par eux-mêmes’, L'Asie française Vol.25 (1925), pp.148–57.

81. Parliamentary Papers: The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915–16 (London, 1916), cited in McDowall, The Kurds, p.103.

82. Jwaideh, The Kurdish National Movement, p.126.

83. McDowall states some 200,000 Christians (Armenians and Assyrians) abandoned their lands and followed the Russian army to further north. McDowall, The Kurds, p.105.

84. McDowall, The Kurds, p.103.

85. Uğur Ümit Üngör, The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913–1950 (Oxford University Press, 2012), p.117; Nikitine, Les Kurdes, p.196; Celadet Ali Bedirkhan states that the directorate for the refugees in Istanbul at the time recorded the same number Nikitine presents. Celadet Ali Bedirxan, Kürt Sorunu Üzerine [On the Kurdish Question] (Istanbul: Avesta, 1997), p.18. Sharif Pasha states that 900,000 Kurds were deported and dispersed among Istanbul, Konya, Ankara, Adana, and Izmir. He adds ‘half of them perished in terrible misery while the other half is about to perish in the same conditions’. Sharif Pasha's letter to the British Government, TNA, FO, 608–95, 3 August 1919. Although the Settlement of Refugees Statute (İskân-ı Muhâcirîn Nizâmnâmesi) was in place until 1916, a new ordinance was issued by the General Directorate for Tribes and Refugees (Aşair ve Muhacirîn Müdiriyyet-i Umumiyyesi) for those refugees who were displaced by the Russian occupation of the Eastern provinces. Serhat Bozkurt, ‘The Kurds and Settlement Policies from the Late Ottoman Empire to Early Republican Turkey: Continuities and Discontinuities (1916–34)’, Iranian Studies Vol.47 (2014), pp.823–37.

86. Bozkurt, ‘The Kurds and Settlement’, p.832.

87. Edward W. C. Noel, Diary of Major Noel on Special Duty in Kurdistan (Basra: Government Press, 1920), pp.54–5.

88. BOA, DH.ŞFR. 551.11. 09.N. 1333 (9 April 1917).

89. BOA, DH.ŞFR. 554 78, 19.M. 1333 (19 May 1917).

90. BOA, DH.ŞFR. 43.218, 18.N. 1332 (1 May 1916).

91. BOA, DH.ŞFR. 556 62, 7.H. 1333 (7 June 1917).

92. For instance, after the war ended, the governor of Van wrote a very polished résumé of Sayyid Taha II filled with his service to the Ottoman army during the war, and thus asked the government to reward him with money. BOA, DH.ŞFR.621.27 16 Mayıs 1335 (16 May 1919).

93. Report prepared by Khoy Agency (Kargozari), sent through Azerbaijani Agency, Archives of Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no.394, 16 Jumada al-Awwal 1337, 37-42-19 cited in Kavah Bayat, Ravabit-i Iran va Turkiyah: az Suquṭ-i Dawlat-i Usmani ta bar'Amadan-i Niẓam-i Jumhuri (1297–1302 Shamsi) [Relations of Iran and Turkey: from the Demise of the Ottoman State to the Rise of the Republic (1297–1302 Shamsi)] (Tehran: Pardis-i Danish, 1394), pp.28–9.

94. M.S. Lazarev, Emperyalizm ve Kürt Sorunun (1917–1923) [Imperialism and the Kurdish Question (1917–1923)], Mehmet Demir (trans.) (Ankara: Özge Yayınları, 1993), p.21.

95. Abdülhalûk M. Çay and Yaşar Kalfa, Doğu ve Güneydoğu Anadolu'da Kuvay-ı Millîye Hareketleri [The National Forces Movements in East and Southeast Anatolia] (Ankara: Türk Kültürünü Araştırma Enstitüsü, 1990), p.32.

96. Nikitine, Les Kurdes, p.195; Jwaideh, The Kurdish National Movement, p.129.

97. Gertrude Margaret Bell, Review of the Civil Administration of Mesopotamia (London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1920), p.65.

98. BOA, DH.KMS. 19 38, 27.Ca.1332 (23 April 1914).

99. BOA, DH.ŞRF.65.41 18.Ş.1334 (18 February 1918) and BOA, DH.ŞRF.65.113 26.Ş.1334 (26 February 1918).

100. McDowall, The Kurds, p.107.

101. Kenneth Mason, ‘Central Kurdistan’, The Geographical Journal Vol.6 (1919), pp.329–47.

102. Zaki, Khulasat Tarikh al-Kurd, p.280.

103. BOA, DH.ŞFR.624.134, 6 Nisan 1335 (6 April 1919).

104. BOA, DH.ŞFR. 632 72, 13 Mayıs 1335 (6 May 1919).

105. BOA, DH.ŞFR. 635 27, 22 Haziran 1335 (22 June 1919).

106. Hamilton, Road Through Kurdistan, pp.74, 194.

107. BOA, DH.ŞFR. 636 8, 2 Temmuz 1335 (2 July 1919).

108. Archives of Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 43-10-42, 11 Safar 1339.

109. BOA, DH.ŞFR. 638 45, 20 Temmuz 1335 (20 July 1919).