INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from aity type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photogr^hs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproductioiL In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note wiH indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing &om left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available foraiqr photographs or illustrations ^>pearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 UNIMAGINABLE COMMUNITY: NATIONALISM AND KURDISH NOTABLES IN THE LATE OTTOMAN ERA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By A . Hakan Ozoglu, MLS ******** The Ohio State University 1997 Dissertation Committee: pd b% Professor, Stephen Dale, Adviser Associate Professor, Victoria Halbrook Adviser Associate Professor, Jane Hathaway Department of History UMI Number: 9813328 UMI Microform 9813328 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, M l 48103 ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank first my adviser. Professor Stephen Dale, for his intellectual support and positive encouragement without which completing this dissertation would never have been possible. I have benefited from his advise and experience as an accomplished scholar in every step of this work. I am truly honored to work under his supervision. I would also extend my appreciation to my other committee members. Professor Jane Hathaway for commenting on my dissertation and correcting my stylistic and intellectual errors, and Professor Victoria Holbrook for providing me with the chance to become a scholar and for her guidance throughout my graduate studies. I should also express my sincere gratitude to my wife Elizabeth for giving me the emotional support in the long and tiring process of completing my dissertation and for her time in proofreading this work. Needless to say, responsibility for the mistakes and shortcomings of the present study belongs completely to me. VITA December 17, 1964.................. Born - Istanbul, Turkey 1993............................... M.L.S. Comparative Studies, Ohio State University 1997-Present...................... Lecturer, University of Chicago 1997 Winter-Summer................ Adjunct Faculty Ohio Wesleyan University and Franklin University PUBLICATIONS 1. "State-Tribe Relations: Kurdish Tribalism in the 16th and 17th Century Ottoman Empire," British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 23-1 (Summer 1996), p p . 5-22 . 2. "Kurdish National Discourse: Comparing and Contrasting the Shaikh Said and the PKK Revolts," Turkish Studies Association Bulletin. 18-1 (Spring 1994), pp. 90-93. Abstract. 3. "Winds of Change : The Kurdish Workers' Party and Turkish Nationhood," Turkish Studies Association Bulletin. 17-2 (Fall 1993), pp. 111-122. 4. "Turk Basininda Can Pazari," [Crises in the Turkish Press], Gozlem. 18 (Winter 1992), pp. 18-21. Ill FIELD OF STUDY Major Field: History IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgments........................................ ii Vita.................................................... ill Chapters : 1. Introduction........................................ 1 1.2. Why Study Kurdish Nationalism ............. 3 1.3. Some Clarifications.......................... 5 1.4. Boundaries of the Research................... 6 1.5. Sources...................................... 10 1.4.a. Primary Sources....................... 10 I. Archival Documents................... 11 II. Memoirs ............................ 13 III. Interviews ........................ 14 IV. Other Sources....................... 16 1.4.b. Organization.......................... 18 2. Nationalism: For Granted?........................... 22 2.1. On the Evolution of Nationalism........... 23 2.2. Present State of Scholarship.............. 25 2.3. Ethnicity and Nationalism................. 32 2.4. More Remarks on Nationalism as Employed in this Study................................... 3. History and Kurdistan............................ 4 0 3.4. Kurdistan in the Late Ottoman Period....... 57 3.5. Kurdistan in the Ottoman Sources........... 64 3.6. Conclusion.................................. 71 7. Notables and Kurdish Political Organizations During the World War I Era....................... 4.8. Kurt Terakki ve Teavun Cemiyeti............ 8 4 4.9. Kurdistan Teali Cemiyeti (KTC) of 1918.... 88 10. Kurdish Notables and Their Background.............. 96 5.11. The Naksibendi SemdinanFamily of Nehri 102 5.1.a. Seyyit Abdulkadir................... 108 5.2. The Bedirhani Family....................... 118 5.2.a. Emin Ali Bedirhan................... 125 5.2.b. Celadet Ali and Kamran Ali Bedirhan... 128 5.2.C. Other Members of the KTC in the Bedirhani Family........................... 5.3. The Cemil Pasazade Family.................. 134 5.3.a. Ekrem Cemil Pasa................... 137 5.3.b. Kadri Cemil Pasa (Zinar Silopi) 139 5.4. Sefik Efendi (Arvasi)...................... 142 5.5. Serif Pasa................................. 145 5.6. Said Nursi................................. 150 5.7. Hizanizade Bitlisli Kemal Fevzi............ 156 5.8. Conclusion................................. 150 6. Concluding Remarks............................... 166 Appendices............................................ 17 9 vi Bibliography.......................................... ^84 vil Chapter I Introduction It has been often postulated that nationalism is a movement of the middle class engineered and ushered by the bourgeoisie. Is this a tenable assertion to espouse regarding the entire world, or does the composition of the nationalist leadership in the non-Western world exhibit distinct characteristics? Undoubtedly, nationalism proves to be one of the most effective and competent political ideologies of the modern world. As it has increasingly attracted scholarly attention, the concept of nationalism continues to provoke lively debates among scholars on many theoretical fronts such as the definition, origin, nature, and function of it. Among these hotly contested issues concerning nationalism, the present study deals mainly with the above-mentioned questions in the context of the Middle East and the Kurds and claims that Kurdish nationalism in its early stage was primarily a movement of the notables. Following the nationalist movements in the Balkans at the end of the 19^^ century, the Muslim subjects of the Ottoman Empire began making national demands early in the 20^^ century. However, it seems fair to state that nationalist movements in most of the Middle East gained considerable momentum after World War I when the collapse of the Ottoman Empire seemed eminent. As the Young Turk movement became increasingly Turkish nationalist in nature, Arab nationalism, receiving support from the West, came correspondingly to the fore. Unlike the nationalist leadership in the West, early Turkish and Arab nationalists did not belong to the middle class. Case studies on the Syrian nationalism, for example, clearly demonstrate that nationalist leaders were in fact local notables, who enjoyed a privileged status as members of the Ottoman elite. The same observations can also be made for most of the Turkish nationalist leaders, who came mainly from the askeri (military) class. Therefore, it can be asserted in connection with the best known nationalist movements in the Middle East—Turkish and Arab—that such nationalisms were not middle-class movements. 1.1. Why Study Kurdish Nationalism. By the same token, Kurdish nationalist leadership, as this study will demonstrate, consisted exclusively of the representatives of notable families. Kurdish nationalism, however, is unique in the Middle East in that it has not yet realized its objective of establishing an independent (or even autonomous) nation-state, ein ultimate goal of nationalist movements. While Turkish and Arab nationalisms have attracted scholarly attention, studies on Kurdish nationalism have remained rather peripheral. Kurdish nationalism, however, is a fundamentally important subject, if one wishes to understand nationalism in the Middle Eastern context. I believe that reliable generalizations on Middle Eastern nationalisms cannot be made, if the Kurds, a group of approximately 20-25 million people, are ignored. If this impressionistic figure is accepted, the Kurds constitute the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, and the largest