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CRUCIAL IMAGES IN THE PRESENTATION OF
A KURDISH NATIONAL IDENTITY
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SEPS-86-stroh.qxd
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CRUCIAL IMAGES IN THE PRESENTATION OF
A KURDISH NATIONAL IDENTITY
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SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL
STUDIES OF
THE MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA
(S.E.P.S.M.E.A.) (Founding editor: C.A.O. van Nieuwenhuijze)
Editor REINHARD SCHULZE Advisory Board Dale Eickelman (Dartmouth College) Roger Owen (Harvard University) Judith Tucker (Georgetown University) Yann Richard (Sorbonne Nouvelle)
VOLUME 86
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CRUCIAL IMAGES IN THE PRESENTATION OF A KURDISH NATIONAL IDENTITY Heroes and Patriots, Traitors and Foes BY
MARTIN STROHMEIER
BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2003
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is also available. Strohmeier, Martin. Crucial images in the presentation of a Kurdish national identity : heroes and patriots, traitors and foes / by Martin Strohmeier. p. cm.–(Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East and Asia, ISSN 1385-3376 ; v. 86)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 9004125841 (hard cover)
1. National characteristics, Kurdish. 2. Kurds–Middle East. 3. Nationalism–Middle East. I. Title. II. Series. DS59.K86 S79 2003 320.54'089'91597 dc2l 2002032270
ISSN 1385-3376 ISBN 90 04 12584 1 © Copyright 2003 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands
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CONTENTS
Preface ........................................................................................ Note on Transliteration .............................................................. Preview ........................................................................................ Introduction ................................................................................
ix
xi
xiii
1
PART ONE
“AWAKENING” THE KURDS Chapter One The 19th-century Background: Religion and Tribalism .......................................................... Chapter Two Óamidian Opposition ...................................... Chapter Three Kürdistàn .......................................................... Chapter Four Mem ù Zìn ........................................................ Chapter Five (stanbul—Promulgating the Case
for Kurdish Interests .............................................................. 1. Kürd Te'àvün ve Tera˚˚ì Cem'ìyeti and its Periodical .......... 2. Hèvì, Rojè Kurd, Hetavè Kurd .............................................. Chapter Six Post-War Mobilization ...................................... 1. Kürdistàn Te'àlì Cem'ìyeti .................................................... 2. Jìn and Kürdistàn ................................................................ 3. Hèvì ......................................................................................
9
18
21
27
36
36
42
56
56
57
65
PART TWO
THE KURDISH QUESTION IN THE TURKISH REPUBLIC Chapter One }ükrü Me˙med Sekbàn: The Patriot ............ 77
Chapter Two Azadì and the Sheykh Sa'ìd Revolt .............. 86
Chapter Three A Letter to (nönü .......................................... 93
Chapter Four Khoybùn and the Ararat Revolt ...................... 95
Chapter Five Ôüreyyà Bedir Khàn ........................................ 100
1. Imagining the Enemy and the Continuity
of Revolt ............................................................................ 100
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2. The Turkish Press and Conflicting Images
of the Sa'ìd Revolt: Fanatics or Rebels? ........................ 3. The same Turk .................................................................. Chapter Six }ükrü Me˙med Sekban, the “Traitor”:
Denying Legitimacy; Arguing Viability .............................. Chapter Seven Celàdet Bedir Khàn’s Letter to
Atatürk: a Lesson in Kurdishness ........................................ Chapter Eight Celàdet’s De la question kurde .......................... 1. Trick or Treason .............................................................. 2. The History of the Kurdish Question in Turkey .......... 3. The Deportation Law ......................................................
107
110
116
128
136
136
141
144
PART THREE
A “NOVEL” APPROACH TO PRESENTING THE KURDISH NATION Chapter One The Bedir Khàns and French Orientalists .............................................................................. Chapter Two Kàmuràn’s Literary Career ............................ Chapter Three “The Eagle of Kurdistan”:
Heroes, Patriots, Traitors, Foes ............................................ Chapter Four Celebrating the Kurds .................................. Chapter Five The Battle for Kurdistan ................................ Chapter Six Epilogue: The Glories of Kurdistan ....................
163
174
181
195
Conclusion .................................................................................. Bibliography ................................................................................ Annex .......................................................................................... Illustrations I–XII ...................................................................... Index ............................................................................................
199
205
215
243
257
151
155
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PREFACE
A decade ago, while I was working at the Orient-Institut of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft in Istanbul, I came across a small brochure in Ottoman with the title Kürdler Türklerden ne istiyor lar? (“What do the Kurds want from the Turks”?). It was the time following the Gulf War, when the plight of the Kurds in Iraq and their flight into Turkey had aroused world-wide attention, and the Kurdish question was being more openly discussed. I was intrigued by the booklet, actually an open letter, because it seemed to promise a historical reading of the Kurdish question. But I had no clue about the author, Dr. Me˙med }ükrü. It took me some time to establish that the full name of the author was Dr. Me˙med }ükrü Sekban and to gather details about his life. A staunch supporter of the Kurdish movement from its inception at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, Sekban withdrew from the movement in the 1930’s. He came to be considered a traitor by his former comrades. His bad reputation is probably the reason that his writings have been neglected. In this book I argue that he deserves scholarly attention. Sekban’s writings led me to a study of the wider context of the discourse on Kurdishness. An important source was the nascent Kurdish press. Among the other ethnic groups in the Ottoman Empire, the press was a crucial instrument in generating and main taining a discourse on the respective nationalisms and the so-called awakenings. The study of the Kurdish press drew my attention to the family which was involved in most Kurdish newspapers between 1898 and 1919: the Bedir Khàns. In particular, three of its scions, Celàdet, Kàmuràn and Ôüreyyà, became the most active advocates of the Kurdish movement after the establishment of the Turkish Republic. Driven by a cultural as well as a political mission, moti vated by claims to leadership and legitimized by their noble descent, as they saw it, they created a Latin alphabet for Kurmanjì, estab lished journals, wrote open letters to statesmen and supranational organizations, published propaganda brochures, and engaged in acad emia. Specifically, Kàmuràn’s literary activities aroused my interest. His novel Der Adler von Kurdistan (“The Eagle of Kurdistan”), ignored by students of the Kurdish national movement, constitutes my third
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major source. All three groups of sources, Sekban’s writings, the press, and Kàmuràn’s novel have been used to analyze the evolv ing discourse of the Kurdish movement. This study has grown out of lectures given at the Universities of Halle (1994), Bamberg (1994) and Freiburg (1995) as well as two papers delivered at the Congrès d’Association Française pour l’Etude des Mondes Arabe et Musulmans (AFEMAM) and the International Conference “Querelles privées et contestations publiques. Le rôle de la presse dans la formation de l’opinion publique au Proche-Orient”, both held at Aix-en-Provence in 1996. The writing of the book took place at the University of Bamberg, for many years my home insti tution, where I had the privilege of a stimulating academic exchange with Bert Fragner, Roxane Haag-Higuchi, Klaus Kreiser, Maurus Reinkowski, Semih Tezcan and many others. Most of the manu script was finished in spring 1998. Due to my move to Cyprus later that year I was only able in 2001 to get back to the manuscript. After updating and revising, the editor of the series Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia (SEPSMEA), Reinhard Schulze, accepted it for publication. I have profited immensely from the encouragement, support and constructive criticism of my wife Angela. The late Ulrich Haarmann read the manuscript at an early stage. Elizabeth Boleman-Herring (New York) and Nancy Kobrin (Minneapolis) made a number of valuable suggestions. The anonymous reader not only prevented me from making some unfounded speculations, but also provided help ful comments and bibliographical information. Malmîsanij (Stockholm) contributed some data on members of the Kurdish national move ment. Winfried Riesterer (München) is my lifeline to libraries. Ludwig Paul (Göttingen) advised me on Kurdish transliteration, while Trudy Kamperveen of Brill Publishers (Leiden) kindly persevered with the project despite missed deadlines. My sincere thanks go to all of them, but, as usually, all responsibility lies with the author. Nicosia, May 15, 2002 Martin Strohmeier
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NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
The transliteration of Oriental languages has always been a tiresome problem. German orientalists transcribe differently than their English speaking colleagues; Arabists use other systems than Ottomanists. Nor is the transcription of the authoritative Encyclopaedia of Islam fol lowed by all scholars of Oriental Studies. This situation is further complicated in this study because terms and names from Kurdish, Arabic, Persian and Turkish resp. Ottoman are used. Moreover, since there is no unified Kurdish language, different ways of translit eration for Kurmanjì and Sorani are employed, e.g. the word for “hope” is in both Kurmanjì and Sorani, the same, but it is differently pronounced and transcribed, hèvì in Kurmanjì and hìva in Sorani. Under these circumstances any attempt to create a consistent translit eration runs into serious difficulties. Therefore, a certain degree of anarchy is inevitable. I have tried to cope with the situation in the following way: Since most of my sources are Ottoman, I have fol lowed the transcription system of (slam Ansiklopedisi (generally used by Ottomanists) with the following exceptions, mainly on account of the English language context: instead of “¢” “kh” is used instead of “s” “∆” is used
Inconsistencies were unavoidable: In Ottoman texts “{” was used, whereas in other contexts a “sh” like in sheykh was used. Again, in an Ottoman text “c” or “ç” were used, whereas I preferred to employ “j” as in Hijaz. In an Ottoman context the letter “©” of the Arabic alphabet was transcribed as “©” (like in ©azete), but throughout the book the transliteration agha (instead of à©à, the Kurdish axa or mod ern Turkish a