The Kurdish Movement and the End of the Ottoman Empire, 1880–1923

doi:10.1017/9781108623711.005

4 - The Kurdish Movement and the End of the Ottoman Empire, 1880–1923

from Part I - Historical Legacies

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2021

Edited by

Cengiz Gunes and

Hamit Bozarslan: Affiliation:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Cengiz Gunes: Affiliation:
The Open University, Milton Keynes
Veli Yadirgi: Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Book contents

Get access

Summary

This chapter examines the formation and development of modern Kurdish political activism in the final decades of the Ottoman Empire’s existence. It charts the evolution of the movement through an examination of contemporary documentary evidence, including newspapers, publications and archival materials. Over the course of the period between 1880 and 1923, there was a slow but steady uptick in Kurdish political agitation. However, while growing numbers of Kurdish elites came to see themselves as part of a Kurdish ‘nation’ and began to advocate for Kurdish ‘rights’, there was little consensus on how or within what type of framework those rights might be secured. While some looked towards the creation of an autonomous or even independent Kurdish nation-state as a panacea to the Kurdish question, many early Kurdish intellectuals remained committed to the continuation of the Ottoman state. Indeed, it was only in the aftermath of Ottoman defeat during the First World War that support for Kurdish statehood emerged as the dominant trend within Kurdish intellectual circles. However, ultimately the geopolitical circumstances that came into being with the empire’s collapse served to foreclose nationalist aspirations.

Keywords

Kurds Ottoman Empire nationalism Sultan Abdülhamid II Young Turks World War I Treaty of Sèvres Treaty of Lausanne

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Kurds , pp. 104 - 137

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108623711.005 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Ahmad, K. M. (1994). Kurdistan during the First World War. London: Saqi Books.Google Scholar

Akçam, T. (2012). Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

Akçam, T. (2018). Killing Orders: Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide. Cham: Palgrave Macmillian.CrossRef Google Scholar

Akgül, S. (1995). Rusya’nın Yürüttüğü Doğu Anadolu Politikası İçinde İrşad ve Cihandani Cemiyetlerinin Rolü. In Çaycı, A. (ed.), Prof. Abdurrahman Çaycı’ya Armağan (pp. 23–32). Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi.Google Scholar

Alakom, R. (1998). Eski İstanbul Kürtleri. Istanbul: Avesta.Google Scholar

Ali, O. (1997). The Kurds and the Lausanne peace negotiations, 1922–23. Middle Eastern Studies, 33 (3), 521–34.Google Scholar

Astourian, S. (2011). The silence of the land. In Suny, R. G., Göçek, F. M. and Naimark, N. M. (eds), A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire (pp. 55–81). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Ateş, S. (2014). In the name of caliph and nation: The Sheikh Ubeidullah Rebellion of 1880–1881. Iranian Studies, 47 (5), 735–98.CrossRef Google Scholar

Averyanov, P. (2010). Osmanlı İran Rus Savaşlarında Kürtler (19. Yüzyıl). Istanbul: Avesta.Google Scholar

Aydın, S. and Verhij, J. (2012). Confusion in the cauldron: Some notes on ethno-religious groups, local powers and the Ottoman state in Diyarbekir Province, 1800–1870. In Jongerden, J. and Verheij, J. (eds), Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870–1915 (pp. 15–54). Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar

Aydoğan, E. (2005). İttihat ve Terakkî’nin Doğu Politikası 1908–1918. Istanbul: Ötüken.Google Scholar

Bayrak, M. (1994). Açık-Gizli/Resmi-Gayrıresmi Kürdoloji Belgeleri. Ankara: Özge.Google Scholar

Bedickian, S. V. (1912). The Red Sultan’s Soliloquy. Boston, MA: Sherman, French and Company.Google Scholar

Bedirhan, A. (2000). Otobiyografya. Istanbul: Perî.Google Scholar

Bozarslan, H. (2016). The Ottomanism of the Non-Turkish groups: The Arabs and the Kurds after 1908. Die Welts des Islam, 56 (3–4), 317–35.Google Scholar

Bozkurt, S. (2014). The Kurds and settlement policies from the late Ottoman Empire to the early Republican period: Continuities and discontinuities. Iranian Studies, 47 (5), 823–37.Google Scholar

Celîl, C. (2000). Kürt Aydanlanması. Istanbul: Avesta.Google Scholar

Celîl, C. (2008). Kürt Halk Tarihinden 13 İlginç Yaprak. Istanbul: Evrensel.Google Scholar

Çetinsaya, G. (1999). II. Abdülhamid Döneminde Kuzey Irak’da Tarikat, Aşiret ve Siyaset. Divan İlmî Araştırmalar, 7, 153–68.Google Scholar

Deringil, S. (1998). The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1876–1909. London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar

Deringil, S. (2012). Conversion and Apostasy in the Late Ottoman Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Der Matossian, B. (2014). Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar

Dersimi, N. (1996). Kürdistan Tarihinde Dersim. Istanbul: Doz.Google Scholar

Dündar, F. (2008). Modern Türkiyeʼnin Şifresi: İttihat ve Terakkiʼnin etnisite mühendisliği (1913–1918). Istanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar

Edib, H. (1926). Memoirs of Halidé Edib. London: John Murray.Google Scholar

Ekrem, C. (1992). Muhtasar Hayatım. Ankara: Beybun.Google Scholar

Eliot, C. (1900). Turkey in Europe. London: Odysseus.Google Scholar

Eskander, S. (2000). Britain’s policy in southern Kurdistan: The formation and the termination of the first Kurdish government, 1918–1919. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 27 (2), 139–63.Google Scholar

Eskander, S. (2001). Southern Kurdistan under Britain’s Mesopotamian Mandate: From separation to incorporation, 1920–23. Middle Eastern Studies, 37 (2), 153–80.CrossRef Google Scholar

Gökay, B. (2007). A Clash of Empires: Turkey between Russian Bolshevism and British Imperialism, 1918–1923. London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar

Göldaş, İ. (1991). Kürdistan Teâli Cemiyeti. Istanbul: Doz.Google Scholar

Hanioğlu, Ş. (1995). The Young Turks in Opposition. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Hanioğlu, Ş. (2001). Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902–1908. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Hay, R. (2008). Iraq and Rupert Hay’s Two Years in Kurdistan. Plymouth: Lexington.Google Scholar

Heller, J. (1980). Britain and the Armenian question, 1912–1914: A study in Realpolitik. Middle Eastern Studies, 16 (1), 3–26.Google Scholar

Henning, B. (2018). Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family. Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press.Google Scholar

Hurewitz, J. (1979). The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics. Vols 1 and 2. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Jongerden, J. (2012). Elite encounters of the violent kind: Milli İbrahim Paşa, Ziya Gökalp and political struggle in Diyarbekir at the turn of the 20th century. In Jongerden, J. and Verheij, J. (eds), Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870–1915 (pp. 55–84). Leiden: Brill.CrossRef Google Scholar

Jwaideh, W. (2006). The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar

Kaligian, D. M. (2009). Armenian Organization and Ideology under Ottoman Rule: 1908–1914. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar

Karabekir, K. (1990). Kazim Karabekir Anlatiyor. Istanbul: Tekin Yayınevi.Google Scholar

Keeling, E. H. (1924). Adventures in Turkey and Russia. London: John Murray.Google Scholar

Kévorkian, R. (1995). La formation des régiments de cavalerie Kurde Hamidié: Introduction. Revue d’histoire arménienne contemporaine, 1, 31–44.Google Scholar

Kirişci, K. and Winrow, G. M. (1997). The Kurdish Question and Turkey: An Example of a Trans-state Ethnic Conflict. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar

Klein, J. (2002). Power in the periphery: The Hamidiye Light Cavalry and the struggle for Ottoman Kurdistan, 1890–1914. Unpublished PhD thesis, Princeton University.Google Scholar

Klein, J. (2007). Kurdish nationalists and non-nationalist Kurdists: Rethinking minority nationalism and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1909. Nations and Nationalism, 12 (1), 135–53.Google Scholar

Kodaman, B. (1983). Şark Meselesi Işığı Altında Sultan II. Abdülhamid’in Doğu Anadolu Politikası. Istanbul: Orkun.Google Scholar

Koyî, H. Q. (2004). Dîwan-î Hacî Qadir-î Koyî. Stockholm: Nefel.Google Scholar

Lynch, H. F. B. (1901). Armenia: Travels and Studies. London: Longmans.Google Scholar

Malmîsanij, (1986). Kürt Milliyetçiliği ve Dr. Abdullah Cevdet. Uppsala: Jina Nû.Google Scholar

Malmîsanij, (2009). İlk Kürt Gazetesi Kurdistan’ı yayımlayan Abdurrahman Bedirhan. Istanbul: Vate.Google Scholar

Malmîsanij, (2010). Diyarbekir’de Kürt Ulusçuluğu (1900–1920). Istanbul: Vate.Google Scholar

Mayak, F. (2010). Babanzâde İsmail Hakkı’nın Tanin’de Yayımlanmış Makalelerine Göre Osmanlı Devleti ve Dış Politika (1911). Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 3 (11), 422–37.Google Scholar

McDowall, D. (1997). A Modern History of the Kurds. London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar

McMeekin, S. (2016). The Ottoman End Game: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908–1923. London: Penguin.Google Scholar

Nursî, S. (2007). Bediüzzaman Said Nursî’nin İlk Dönem Eserleri. Istanbul: Söz.Google Scholar

Olson, R. (1989). The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar

Özoğlu, H. (2004). Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar

Pistor-Hatam, A. (2002). Sheikh Ubaidullah’s revolt and the Kurdish invasion of Iran: Attempts at a new assessment. Journal of Kurdish Studies, 4, 19–30.Google Scholar

Polatel, M. (2015). Land disputes and reform debates in the eastern provinces. In Kieser, H., Öktem, K. and Reinkowski, M. (eds), World War I and the End of the Ottomans: From the Balkan Wars to the Armenian Genocide (pp. 169–83). London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar

Provence, M. (2017). The Last Ottoman Generation and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Reynolds, M. (2011a). Shattered Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1908–1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Reynolds, M. (2011b). Abdurrezzak Bedirhan: Ottoman Kurd and Russophile in the twilight of empire. Kritika: Exploration in Russian and European History, 12 (2), 411–50.Google Scholar

Rogan, E. (2015). The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. London: Penguin.Google Scholar

Safrastian, A. (1948). The Kurds and Kurdistan. London: Harvill Press.Google Scholar

Sarkisian, Y. (1994). Documents from the history of Armenian–Kurdish relations (appeals of Kurdish intellectuals to their compatriots). Acta Kurdica, 1, 29–30.Google Scholar

Silopi, Z. (1991). Doza Kurdistan: Kürd Milletinin 60 Yıllık Esaretten Kurtuluş Savaşı Hatiraları. Ankara: Özge.Google Scholar

Soane, E. B. (1914). To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise: With Historical Notices of the Kurdish Tribes and the Chaldeans of Kurdistan. Boston, MA: Small, Maynard and Company.Google Scholar

Soleimani, K. (2016a). Islam and Competing Nationalisms in the Middle East, 1876–1926. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar

Soleimani, K. (2016b). Islamic revivalism and Kurdish nationalism in Sheikh Ubeydullah’s poetic oeuvre. Kurdish Studies, 4 (1), 5–24.Google Scholar

Strohmeier, M. (2003). Crucial Images in the Presentation of a Kurdish National Identity. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar

Suny, R. G., Göcek, F. M. and Naimark, N. (2011). A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Tepeyran, E. H. (1998). Hatıralar. Istanbul: Pera.Google Scholar

Torr, J. (2002). American War Library, World War I: Primary Sources. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books.Google Scholar

Tunaya, T. Z. (2007). Türkiye’de Siyasal Partiler: İkinci Meşrutiyet Dönemi. Vol. 1. Istanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar

Tunaya, T. Z. (2009). Türkiye’de Siyasal Partiler: Mütareke Dönemi. Vol. 2. Istanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar

Ülker, E. (2005). Contextualising ‘Turkification’: Nation‐building in the late Ottoman Empire, 1908–18. Nations and Nationalism, 11 (4), 613–36.Google Scholar

Ünal, F. II (2008). Meşrutiyet, Ulusçuluk ve Kürt Ayrılıkçı Hareketi. Doğu Batı, 46, 69–106.Google Scholar

Üngör, U. Ü. (2015). Explaining regional variations in the Armenian genocide. In Kieser, H., Öktem, K. and Reinkowski, M. (eds), World War I and the End of the Ottomans: From the Balkan Wars to the Armenian Genocide (pp. 240–61). London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar

Üngör, U. Ü. and Polatel, M. (2013). Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar

van Bruinessen, M. (1992). Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structure of Kurdistan. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar

van Bruinessen, M. (2002). Kurds, states, and tribes. In Jabar, F. and Dawod, H. (eds), Tribes and Power: Nationalism and Ethnicity in the Middle East (pp. 165–83). London: Saqi Books.Google Scholar

Zeki, M. E. (2011). Kürtler ve Kürdistan Tarihi. Istanbul: Nûbihar.Google Scholar

Ziyaeddin, Y. (1894/1895). al-Hediyyet’ul Hamdiye fi’l-Lugat-il Kurdiye. Istanbul: Saadet.Google Scholar