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the kurdish rebellions of sheikh said 67 THE KURDISH REBELLIONS OF SHEIKH SAID (1925), MT. ARARAT (1930), AND DERSIM (1937-8): THEIR IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TURKISH AIR FORCE AND ON KURDISH AND TURKISH NATIONALISM BY ROBERT OLSON Kentucky The Sheikh Said rebellion of 1925, the Mt. Ararat revolt of 1930 and the Dersim rebellion of 1937-38 were significant developments in the history of modern Turkish and Kurdish nationalism.1 In this article I argue that the rebellions also contributed to the develop- ment of Turkey’s air force (TAF) which was to be used as an instrument to control, suppress and eradicate Kurdish national- ism. The suppression of Sheikh Said’s rebellion dealt a severe blow to Kurdish nationalism in Turkey and its potential growth in Iraq and Iran. It contributed to squashing Kurdish nationalism in northwestern Iran by Reza Khan and to British restraining of Kurdish nationalism in northern Iraq. It should be noted that the suppression of the Kurds in Iran after 1925 by Reza Khan was accomplished in part by the use of the nascent Iranian Air Force. In Iraq the British Royal Force (RAF) was instrumental in Great Britain’s conquest of Iraq during WW I and its occupation of that country until 1958. I argue in this article that the development of the TAF from 1925 onward played an important role in the ability of the Turkish state to further consolidate its ideology of Turkish nationalism vis 1 For details of the Sheikh Said rebellion see my, The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion: 1880-1925 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), especially pp. 91-163. For a history of Kurdish nationalism see Chris Kutschera, Le Mouvement national Kurde (Paris: Flammarion, 1979); David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London: I. B. Tauris, 1995). I have used modern Turkish spelling throughout the text with the exception of the spelling of Sheikh. I prefer this spelling rather than the Turkish Øeyh. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2000 Die Welt des Islams 40, 1 273.p65 67 2/24/00, 9:43 AM 68 robert olson à vis that of Kurdish nationalism during the inter-war period. I submit that this ability continued up to the 1990s. I do not argue that the TAF was developed solely with the objective of using it to crush Kurdish nationalism after the Sheikh Said rebellion of 1925, although after this date and up to 1938 it was employed only for this purpose. Air forces were being developed by both industrial- ized and unindustrialized newly independent countries during the inter-war period. Air forces were major instruments by which means the imperial powers also controlled their colonies. The efficacy of air power had been amply demonstrated in WW I and every country that had the necessary means, and many that did not, wanted to develop an air force in the post-WW I era to defend perceived national security interests, to control their own popula- tions, and to attack foes. The interest of Turkey in developing an air force had antecedents in the Ottoman Empire. Turkish nationalism was well developed by 1925. Unlike argu- ments regarding the periodization of Arab nationalism, i. e., whether it was primarily a pre or post-WW I development,2 there is a consensus among historians that Turkish nationalism emerged as an ideological force during the early years of the Young Turk movement.3 There is little difference among scholars of Turkish nationalism that it emerged as a political force during the years 2 For an overview of these arguments in which Ernest Dawn and Rashid Khalidi have been the most active participants see Rashid Khalidi, Lisa Anderson, Muhammad Muslih and Reeva S. Simon, eds., The Origins of Arab Nationalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991). 3 Feroz Ahmad, The Making of Modern Turkey (New York: Routledge, 1993), p. 34 places the date of the emergence of distinct Turkish nationalism as opposed to the ideology of Ottomanism as 1908, the year in which the Unionists, mem- bers of the secret Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) split with the Liber- als; Fikret Adanær, “The National Question and the Genesis and Development of Socialism in the Ottoman Empire: The Case of Macedonia,” in Socialism and Na- tionalism in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1923, eds., Mete Tunçay and Erik Jan Zürcher (London: I. B. Tauris, 1994), p. 46 also states, “The Young Turks had already made clear their stand on the national question in August 1908,”; Erik Jan Zürcher, Turkey: A Modern History (London: I.B. Tauris, 1993) also thinks 1905-6 were the crucial years for the development of Turkish nationalism. In the most definitive work on the Young Turks, M. Øükrü Hanio¯lu, The Young Turks in Opposition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 212 states, “The CUP’s shift to nationalism and securement of the military’s endorsement was realized in 1906.” 273.p65 68 2/24/00, 9:43 AM.

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