The Kurds, the Armenian Question, and the History of Armenian-Kurdish Relations
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VAHAN BAIBOURTIAN THE KURDS, THE ARMENIAN QUESTION, AND THE HISTORY OF ARMENIAN-KURDISH RELATIONS OTTAWA 2 0 1 3 This publication was made possible BY A GENEROUS GRANT FROM THE DOLORES ZOHRAB LlEBMANN FUND The r.nglish-lanpuage edition was translated by Mariam Mesropyan. The editor of the monograph is Aram Arkun. In this edition, the original ver sions of Knglish-language quotations have been used wherever possible. A modified version of the Librarv of Congress transliteration system has been used for Armenian, and that of the United States Board on Geo graphic Names for Russian. Turkish letters not in the original Latin al .(؟ phabet usually are given accessible approximations (e.g. "sh" for This book elucidates the political and economic history of the Kurdish people who first composed a significant part of the Ottoman Empire, and later, of Republican Turkey. It goes on to explore the development of Ar- menian-Kurdish relations with its entire vicissitudes. It comprehensively illustrates manifestations of the Armenian and the Kurdish Questions at international diplomatic forums and the political interactions of the two neighboring nations in the last few decades. The Armenian Question is touched upon here only as much as it is closely linked with the Kurdish Question. This volume brings to the reader's attention that the Kurdish factor has had a negative impact on the development of the Armenian Question and was one of the reasons for the ultimate failure of the Arme nian liberation movement. Copyright ©2t)ld Vahan Baibourtian All rights reserved. No part of tliis book may be reproduced or transmitted in any ,an)- n,،'.ins, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, record ’١اform or 1 ١n information storage and retrieval system - except by a reviewer who< in^ or by ie،v to be printt'd in >1 magazine or newspa^r're١ ١> ١g،'s in>ma)’ quote brii'f fXJss .writing from the publisher ١n ii١،vithoitt f٢rn١issi' - BcH١k design and layout by Klialag Zeitlian ,itic'i> and is taken from the ^wk.-١l١ ^ Chris -١.pared b'is pr٠ ﻻ١.٩. Ih،' map on page .ork, 2012, .-\NEC ١ iii,. New,-r„i٠ ١-. UhU'riiitl ■Xlliis >>f irinted in Qtta'va. Canada, TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD 1 CHAPTER ONE 25 Armenian-Kurdish Relations in Western Armenia in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century CHAPTER TWO 79 Armenian-Kurdish Relations on the Eve of the Emergence of the Armenian Question CHAPTER THREE 101 The Kurds and the Armenian Question from the Congress of Berlin to the First World War CHAPTER FOUR 207 The Armenian and Kurdish Questions During World War 1 and the 1919 Paris Peace Conference CHAPTER ElVE 271 The Kemalist Movement and the Attitude of the Turkish Nationalists Concerning the Armenian and Kurdish Questions CHAPTER SIX 297 Developments in the Kurdish and Armenian Questions in the Period Between Sevres and Lausanne FOREWORD Kurds belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. Their ethnogenesis has not been scientifically elucidated yet, nor has the exact land of their origin been identified.' A whole series of questions remain to be definitively answered through scholarship, including the following. When did the Kurds first enter the historical arena? When did they settle down in the re gion of the Middle East which nowadays is known by the name Kurdistan? What religion did they practice before conversion to Islam? What is the origin of the name Kurd (plural akrad)7 In literature, the concept of "Kurdistan" was used and to this day is still used not to refer to a specific state organization with distinct political borders, but to a geographical area where the Kurdish ethnos has lived. One of the first and the foremost rea sons for this is the fact that the Kurdish people, throughout its his torical development, have never been able to achieve statehood. As a consequence, the territory of Kurdistan has been identified by varying criteria during different periods of time. The name Kurdistan appears in history merely as an ethnic and geographic concept (Iranian Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, or Turkish Kurd istan) because no political unit has ever existed in history with those names. As a result, the term Kurdistan is a conditional one, constantly subject to change territorially throughout time. Arab authors provide some information about the Kurds liv ing in the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. Arabs often called them Az-Zavzan (from the Kurdish word zozan which means Another common term used referring to Kurds ؛.(summer pasture was al-Jibal al-Akrad, which means "Mountains of the Kurds," or "Kurdish Mountains."’ Jibal is the plural form of jabal, meaning a CHAPTER SEVEN 327 The Kurdish Uprisings of the 1920s and 1930s; Kemalist Repression in Action, and New Pages of Armenian-Kurdish Cooperation CONCLUSION 345 SUMMARY 349 MAP 355 Armenia Under Ottoman, Russian and Persian Domination (1828-1914) ENDNOTES 357 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 417 Foreword through the entire Middle East as far as Egypt and Algeria. The Egyptian sultans used the Kurds to fight against the Mongols. The terms "Kurdistan" and "Kurds" first entered into circula tion in the twelfth century during the Seljuk dominion. Literary sources mentioned the Kurds for the first time much later, in Rashi- daddin Fazlallah Hamadan's Javan at-Tamrikh and Hamdallah Mo- stoufi Khazvini's Nuhzad al-kulub,*' where the Kurds were described as nomadic and cattle-breeding tribes. Medieval Arab authors fre quently used the name Kurd to mean "nomadic shepherd." In more recent times, prior to World War I the territory under stood to be Kurdistan was divided between the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran. After the war, the Kurdish-populated territories in the Middle East were divided up and placed under the control of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, along with a small section in Syria. The last two countries had only been created recently. Since then, the terms Iranian Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Turkish Kurdistan, which had all existed even earlier, have been regularly used in historical literature. Hence, it can be concluded that the Kurdish people were scattered through the broad territory of the Middle East and divided by the state borders of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. Currently, besides the abovementioned countries there are a certain number of Kurds in the North Caucasus, the Russian Federation, newly formed republics of Central Asia, European countries, the United States, and many other countries all over the world. It is a fact that throughout their long history of many centuries, the Kurds have never been able to establish their own statehood, partly because of their separation and dispersion in various coun tries, and this has surely obstructed their political and national solidarity. A lack of consciousness of national unity existed up to the twentieth century. Because of the existence of tribal organiza tions, the idea of collective independence was never a subject of concern, so that the Kurdish ideal and desired goal was only the independence of their tribal states. Karo Sasuni, an Armenian ex pert on the Kurds, wrote: "The feeling of ultimate independence did not receive a political form throughout the centuries, and the Kurds were not motivated to construct a national state and seek their security and independence in a collective homeland."‘' Of course, at various periods of time, some Kurdish tribes were able Qt4eflioii ﺀ,لﺀ,„’،«„^٠ ،٠ﻟﻢ٢' ,K iinlf <،ﻟﺮ٢' mountain. This was the name given to the political-geographical unit ot the Arab caliphate comprising the south-western regions ot Iran or so-called "Persian Iraq," which was a part of historical Marastan in its structure. It is an indisputable fact that in 640 A.D. during the Arab invasion ot Nortli Mesopotamia the caliph's army found Takrit, Jlolvan, Mosul, ،ind neighboring areas densely inhabited by the Kurds. It is .supposed that around the 630s, the Arabs started fore- ing Islam upon tlie Kurds.^ However, it was only in the ninth cen- tury that tlie process ot Kurdish mass conversion to Islam began. In tlie Middle Ages, the major Kurdish settlements were Mosul, .lezireli, Jibal, Kliuzistan (Khuzhastan in the Armenian sources; located to the southwest of Iran), Luristan, and Pars (within the ٩'.(territory of lran According to Nikoghayos Adonts, historical Kurdistan com- prised the spacious plateau of the Zagros mountain chain from Lake LJrmia and the Bohtan River up to the plains of Luristan. It stretclied along the valleys of the Tigris River from the west, and from tlie Dizful River with its valleys from the east, and includ- ed tlie regions of Soujbulag, Ardelan, and tlie basin of the Dizful River up to I’ersian Arabia, as well as Nortli Mesopotamia or Mo- sul proi’ince While mapping the borders of Kurdistan, Adonts took into account not only the dominant ethnic nature in a territorial unit but also its historical-cultural essence and the econ- -oniy ،IS ،1 wliole. lie wrote: "Those borders embrace the land in habited by tlie Kurds ،ind tlieir kindred mountainous tribes who mainly are of lraiii،in origin. Geographically tlie entire territory is -F١١rfectly suitable for till, lifestyle of its nomadic inhabitants occu pied witli sliepherding. Tlie Alps of the Zagros with their pichtr- ١v،iy to the river valleys have esque highlands descending all tlie "".ii inliabited by lr،inian nomadic tribes since ancient times'l١١ number ot. local dynasties of Kurdish ١، In tlie tenth century ,(origin develop'd, sucln ،ns tine Klarvanid (Diy،irbakir-Iezireh llasanwailnid (Daynavar and Sliatirezur), Fadluyid (luristan), Ayyubid (byria), and btiaddadid. Tven tlnougli these state forma- tions spmad tlneir dominion over vast territories, tine Kurds ne- giectvxl establishing tlneir own national state.