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FOREWORD
Kurdistan during the First World War was first published in Kurdish by the Kurdish historian, Professor Kamal Madhar Ahmad. It was very well received by scholars in Kurdish affairs in particular, and Kurdish readers in general. Since some aspects of the Kurdish question are closely linked to the history of the Arab nations, in addition to that of Iran and Turkey, it was natural that the book should be translated into English in order to provide an international readership with the historical facts pertaining to the division of Ottoman Kurdistan between Turkey and two newly established countries, Iraq and Syria.
The struggle of Kurdish leaders—at the local, regional and international levels—to create an independent Kurdistan began during the nineteenth century along with other national movements within the Ottoman Empire. In spite of their determination, however, the Kurds failed to achieve an independence similar to that conceded to the Arabs and other nations in the region.
Until the First World War, Kurdistan was part of the Persian and Ottoman Empires, with its own autonomous dynasties, self-sufficient economy, free peasant-pastoral communities, and a rich cultural heritage. After the war, the two victorious allies, Britain and France, divided up the possessions of the Ottoman Empire, creating new national states to suit their long-term interests and strategies. Kurdistan was denied the political entity it had been promised by the Allied powers in the treaty of Sevres of 1920, and by Britain in 1922. After the signature with Turkey of the treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923, the densely populated areas of Kurdistan came under foreign rule, with the Kurdish nation divided by artificial frontiers, which respected neither ethnic nor historical factors. As a result of the Lausanne treaty, the Kemalist regime in Turkey started its oppression and ‘assimilation’ of the Kurds through the destruction of their towns and villages, and the use of border checks and army patrols as an occupying force. While doing so, they also coined a new name for the Kurds, euphemistically calling them ‘mountain Turks’.
The present study is of unique importance since it focuses on a decisive stage in the evolution of the Kurdish question. The Kurds attached great importance to the speech of British Prime Minister Lloyd George in January 1918 before the British parliament, and to the implementation of the Fourteen Points declared by US President Wilson in the joint session of Congress, five days after Lloyd George’s speech. Both Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson held out the promise of autonomy and independence for non-Turkish nationals living under Ottoman rule and within the boundaries of an independent, sovereign Turkish state in Anatolia, including Istanbul.
In its first four chapters, the book discusses in detail the political manoeuvring engaged in by the Allied powers, especially Britain, before and during the First World War, in order to secure easy access to the oilfields in Kirkuk and ensure a firm, effective grip on all the oil-producing areas of the Middle East. They therefore ignored the rights of the Kurds to exist as an independent nation, let alone to self-determination. At that time, the Kurdish people were no less capable of self-rule than their Arab neighbours, but the policy of divide and rule was aimed mainly at controlling all the region’s natural resources, particularly oil.
These chapters of the book explain how political factors designed to secure interests in the Middle East overshadowed the national rights of the Kurds. During the First World War, the situation of the Kurds became even more complicated, and soon afterwards the creation of an ‘iron curtain’ around the newly established Soviet Union altered all previous targets, agreements and regional understandings.
A considerable part of Prof. Madhar Ahmad’s book is devoted to the Armenian bloodshed under the Ottoman Empire and to the role of the Kurds in these massacres. This is the first objective treatment of such a sensitive issue. It clarifies to a great extent the misconception that certain Kurdish tribes were the driving force behind the tragedy of the Armenian people under Ottoman rule.
The reactions of the countries involved and the international community in general, including members of the League of Nations (subsequently the United Nations), appear to ignore the Kurdish nation’s serious geopolitical disadvantage created by the Allied powers as a result of the partition of Kurdistan between Iran and the newly created states of Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Had it not been for the formidable topography of Kurdistan, it would have been impossible for the Kurds to survive the shattering effects of this physical and cultural dismemberment. The disadvantages suffered by the Kurdish people after 1923 are still having an effect and are responsible for the increasingly aggressive struggle of the Kurds for independence and for the continuing tragedy and suffering of the people.
The Kurdish people have been left with no option but to defend their right to freedom, and a decent human existence, through armed struggle despite all the risks involved in this option. What makes matters even worse is the support, both direct and indirect, that the dictatorial regimes of the Middle East receive from the great powers and other industrialized nations, whose sole concern is profit, through the supply of armaments and consumer goods. The Gulf war and the Iran-Iraq war are only two vivid examples.
Today the plight of the Kurds—a nation of over 25 million people—demands a lasting solution. After each war, a ‘new world order’ has always been declared. US President George Bush declared such a new world order after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and, again, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The artificial and unjust borders erected after the Lausanne treaty demand a courageous new appraisal. The Kurdish nation has been dismembered but its survivors eagerly await the day when they will be able to celebrate—like many other nations—their freedom and unity. It will not be easy to unite Kurdistan, but then dividing it seventy years ago was also a difficult task.
Akram Jaff
Rome, July 1993
Introduction
It is unfortunate that the history of the Kurdish people, with the possible exception of the modern period (especially the nineteenth century) and some aspects of the Kurdish national liberation movement,1 has not received systematic, in-depth study. Clearly, however, without a detailed and methodical investigation of the various phases in the history of the Kurds and Kurdistan, an important link will be missing from the study of Middle Eastern history as a whole, and many important questions will remain unanswered.
The years of the First World War are a stage in the history of the Kurdish people that still awaits such careful investigation. This period was included in a plan drawn up by Soviet orientalises for the study of the history of the Kurds. The present book is the first serious study of this period as it relates to the Kurdish people.
The First World War (1914-1918) caused massive upheavals in the lives of most nations. The countries of Europe and the Near and Middle East, and to a lesser degree North Africa, however, were more exposed to its effects than other parts of the world because they were the regions where the war was staged. Kurdistan, an important part of the Middle East, featured prominently in the First World War, for the life and future of its people were significantly touched by the events and consequences of the war.
Nothing of value has been written in Kurdistan about this important topic. The Kurdish historians Muhammad Amin Zaki, Rafiq Hilmi, and Hussein Huzni Mukryani2 (especially the first) have only treated the one aspect of it relating to the many hardships and ordeals of the Kurdish people during the ... |
