UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ROYAL HOLLOWAY AND BEDFORD COLLEGE HISTORY DEPARTMENT PhD Thesis CLASHES OF AGENCIES FORMATION AND FAILURE OF EARLY KURDISH NATIONALISM 1918-1922 By Süleyman Azad Aslan 1 Abstract This work analyses the question of why the Kurds failed to establish their own nation- state in the aftermath of the First World War. It looks at two interconnected issues, the formation of Kurdish nationalism and the failure of the early Kurdish nationalists to establish an independent Kurdish entity. These issues have been discussed within the framework of local, regional and international political developments. The thesis argues that the beginning of Kurdish nationalism corresponded to a specific historical period, in effect, the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI. This study rejects the prevailing classification of Kurdish nationalism existent prior to WWI. It attributes the failure of the early Kurdish nationalism to agencies rather than social structures. Agency is defined as the total goal-oriented activities of a group or a state for specific political objectives. Structure is defined as historically accumulated social and economic foundations, in the case of the Kurds, tribalism, pastoral economy etc. From this perspective the study examines the respective roles played by the Kurdish nationalists, the Kemalists and the British and other Great Powers‘ imperial policies at this particular period. Struggles between these agencies paved the way for the failure of the early Kurdish nationalists and the division of Ottoman Kurdistan into three regions. The role of structure has been treated as a complementary rather than a determinant factor behind the Kurdish nationalists‘ failure. In stressing the role of agency the thesis scrutinizes the ideas, discourses, and activities of the leading Kurdish intellectuals and nationalists from 1898 to 1922 through their publications, memoirs and the British official sources. The literature in English lacks such a detailed examination of the early Kurdish nationalists, and in that sense, this study fills a gap. 2 Table of Contents Transliteration 5 Abbreviation 6 Acknowledgment 7-8 Introduction 9-30 1. Introductory Remarks 9 2. The Scope and Purpose of the Study 10-11 3. Discussion on the Formation of Kurdish nationalism 11-16 4. Modernist theory of Nation and Nationalism 16-22 5. Agency and Structure 22-25 6. National Identity and Kurdistan 25-27 7. Outline 27-28 8. Sources 29-30 Chapter I A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 31-83 1. The Kurds, Tribes and the State 31-38 1.1. Tribe and Nationalism 38-40 1.2. The Geography 40-42 2. Ottoman Policy in Kurdistan 42-56 3. From the Mid-19th Century up to WWI 57-65 3.1. The Establishment of Tribal Cavalry 65-71 4. First World War and Kurdistan 72-83 Chapter II KURDISH ENLIGHTENMENT, 1898-1914 84-120 1. The Kurdish Elite 86-104 1.1. New Generations 91-93 1.2. The Ulema 94-97 1.3. Tribal Chiefs 97-98 1.4. Intellectuals and Professionals 98-105 2. Cultural Enlightenment 105-120 2.1 The First Kurdish Associations 1908-1913 105-109 2.2 Kurdish Publications 1898-1914 109-110 2.3 Ottomanism and Identity 110-116 2.4 Education and Reform 117-120 Chapter III FORMATION OF EARLY KURDISH NATIONALISM 121-160 1. Political Formation 123-143 1.1 Formation of the KTJ 123-136 1.2 Division of the KTJ 136-140 1.3 Teşkilat-i Ictimai Jamiyati 141-143 2. Discursive Kurdish Nationalism 143-160 2.1 History and Language 144-146 2.2 Mythology and National Days 146-148 2.3 Culture and Tradition 149-150 3 2.4 Gender 150-152 2.5 Westernization, Modernity, and Progress 152-160 Chapter IV KEMALISM 161-204 1. The Rise of Kemalist Movement 164-179 1.1 Prelude to Kemalism: Young Turks 167-175 1.2 The End of the War and Coming of Mustafa Kemal 176-179 2. The Resistance Movement 179-197 2.1 Composition of the Resistance Movement 179-184 2.2 The Formation and Development of the Resistance Movement 184-189 2.3 Was the Resistance Movement a 'War of Liberation/Independence 189-198 3. The Kemalist Movement's Kurdish Policy, 1919-1922 198-204 Chapter V FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF KURDISH NATIONALISM 205-250 1. Kurdish Nationalism Prior to Koçgiri 206-225 1.1 The Noel Mission 211-221 1.2 The Sevres Treaty 221-225 2. Koçgiri National Movement 225-246 2.1 The Road to Uprising 226-227 2.2 The Koçgiri Uprising 227-235 2.3 Following the Defeat 235-236 2.4 Discussion in the Character of the Koçgiri Movement 237-241 3. Reasons behind the Failure 241-246 4. Post-Koçgiri Period 246-250 Chapter VI GREAT BRITAIN AND KURDISTAN 251-304 1. First World War Agreements 252-263 2. Britain in Kurdistan 1918-1920 263-293 2.1 British Policy in Southern Kurdistan 263-269 2.2 Sheikh Mahmut's First Revolt 269-275 2.3 The Inter-departmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs 275-281 2.4 From the Cairo Conference to the Lausanne Treaty 281-293 3. Britain, Kurdistan and Oil 293-295 4. The Bolshevik Revolution 295-297 5. France and Britain on the Revision of the Treaty of Sevres 297-304 Conclusion 305-318 Appendixes 319-325 Map 326-331 Endnotes 332-355 Bibliography 356-371 4 Transliteration The thesis follows the transliteration system of the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES). Diacritical marks are used only on italicized technical terms. Macrons and dots are not added to personal names, place names, names of political parties, or titles of books. For Ottoman Turkish modern Turkish orthography has generally been used in transcribing Turkish or Kurdish names, place names, journals and books titles. The pronunciation of the following Turkish letters used in this study should be noted: c – j as in jam ç – as in Churchill ö – French eu as in deux ş – sh as on shall ü – French u as in lumiere 'i' without the dot and 'ğ' have been discarded as printing hazards. Names of people and places that possess a Europeanized version are not transliterated, e.g. Basra, Suez. Terms found in a good English dictionary are not transliterated nor italicized, e.g. ulema, qadi, madrasa, jihad, pasha. 5 Abbreviation BNA British National Archives CAB Cabinet Files CO Colonial Office CUP Committee of Union and Progress FO Foreign Office HMBG His Majesty's British Government KJ Kurdistan Jamiyeti (Kurdistan Society) KMF Kurd Milli Firkasi (Kurdish National Party) KNMJ Kurd Neşr-i Maarif Jamiyeti (Society for the Propagation of Kurdish Education) KTTJ Kurd Teavvun ve Teraqi Jamiyeti (Society for the Rise and Progress of the Kurds) KTTG Kurd Teavvun ve Teraqi Gazetesi (Rise and Progress Society Newspaper) KTJ Kurdistan Teali Jamiyeti (Society for the Rise of Kurdistan) KTIJ Kurd Teşkilat-i Içtimaiye Jamiyeti (Kurdish Social Organization Society) KTMNJ Kurd Tamin-i Maarif ve Neşriyat Jamiyati (Society for the Kurdish Education and Press) KKTJ Kurd Kadinlar Teali Jamiyati (Society for the Advancement of Kurdish Women) P.P Parliamentary Papers TBMM Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) TPC Turkish Petroleum Company WWI World War I 6 Acknowledgment I am especially indebted to the supervisor of my PhD thesis at Royal Holloway, University of London, Prof. Vanessa Martin, for her guidance, encouragement and understanding. Without her support this study would not be completed. I would like to thank my father, Mehmet Emin Aslan whose insightful criticism and moral support helped me to continue my research with a clear sense of direction. I would also like to thank the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, who welcomed me to Kurdistan, where I have completed most of my writing of this thesis. I owe special thanks to my dear friends, Lee Salter, Rolf Fraun, Djene Bajalan, Rebar Jaf for their long and arduous support during the long process of my research and writing. Their moral, material, and linguistic support are deeply appreciated. I would also like to thank two of my ex-students at the University of Salahaddin, Vian Mahmut Abdullah and Mohammed Amin for their translation of Kurdish periodicals into English from Sorani dialects. I am grateful to Beyar, PhD student at the University of Mosul, who provided valuable materials for my study in Kurdistan. I also wish to thank the staff of the following institutions whose assistance greatly facilitated my research: The library of School of Oriental and African Studies; the British National Archives; the Kurdish Institute in Paris; France Central Library; the library of University of Salahaddin; the library of University of Duhok. Finally, but not the least, I must thank my wife, Sara, for tolerating the intrusion of this thesis into our lives for the past three years. She took on more than her share of household and family duties in order to give me time to research and write. At times 7 she believed that the thesis would never be completed, particularly at stressful moments. Here it is, finally over. 8 INTRODUCTION 1. Introductory Remarks Since the late 20th century, particularly following the First Gulf War in 1991, the Kurdish issue has as a whole acquired an international character, and as a result has become a new subject of scholarly studies. At the root of the Kurdish national question today lie the political developments which took place during the period immediately following the First World War (WWI), mainly from 1918 to the commencement of negotiations leading to the Treaty of Lausanne. It is thus imperative to comprehend this particular period as the historical background to the Kurdish national question, a background which affects four nation-states in the Middle East, in effect, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.