Society for the Rise of Kurdistan
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Society for the Rise of Kurdistan (Kurdish: Cemîyeta Tealîya Kurdistanê[1]) also known as the Society for the Advancement of Kurdistan (SAK), was secretly established in Constantinople on 6 November 1917 [2] and officially announced organization formed on the 17 December 1918.[3][4] It was headquartered in Istanbul, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state in eastern Turkey.[5] The Society based its statements for an independent or autonomous Kurdistan on the Treaty of Sèvres and the Fourteen Points stipulated by Woodrow Wilson.[6] The society formed many local dependencies in the eastern provinces of Turkey.[6]
Leadership
The leadership of the society was almost identical to that of its predecessor a decade earlier, including both Abdulkadir Ubeydullah[7] and Emin Ali,[7] together with Şerif Pasha, who was in exile, whose representative was his brother Fuad Pasha.[7]
The leadership structure of the society;
- President: Abdulkadir Ubeydullah[2]
- Vice President: Emin Ali[2]
- Vice President: Fuad Pasha[2]
- Secretary General: Hamdi Pasha[2]
- Treasurer: Abdullah Effendi[2]
History
In January 1919 the society in a letter outlined its objectives to the British government through their High Commissioner in Constantinople Sir Somerset Gough-Calthorpe the letter consisted of four main points;
- A specified and geographically defined territorial area to be assigned to the Kurds.[8]
- The Kurds would be grateful to enjoy the same privileges and to receive the same treatment at the hands of the Allied Powers of the Entente, as those granted to the Arabs, Armenians, Chaldeans, Assyrians and other small nationalities without distinction of race and religion.[8]
- The Kurds should be granted self government.[8]
- The Kurds particularly beg the British government to kindly undertake the protection of their rights and interests, and to help them in their path to civilisation and progress.[8]
In June 1919, during its annual conference, the society voted to place the Wilsonian Fourteen Points at the centre of its political program, and warned that if Kurds were to fail in securing their national rights, they would remain oppressed and deprived of rights, and possibly remain imprisoned for centuries.[8] The conference also declared the Kurds had the right to choose their own form of administration in their homeland and that it was appropriate for them to work towards attaining their national rights as did other nations and neighbouring communities.[8]
The society in a meeting at their Constantinople headquarters unanimously passed a proposal from their members that Serif Pasa be appointed as the sole representative of the Kurdish nation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.[9]
A SAK delegation represented the Kurds at the
It further aimed to promote the
Following the uprising, the SAK was banned by the Turkish national assembly. The former leaders of the SAK, notably its president Sayyid Abdulkadir, his son Sayyid Mehmed, Dr. Fuad Berxo and the journalist Hizanizâde Kemal Fevzi were executed on the 27 May 1925 following their prosecution by the
Membership
Other notable members of the society numbered 176 in total.[2] They included Mevlanzade Rifat Bey, Mustafa Yamulki.
Membership to the society was not limited to Kurds. John Duncan (British Army officer) noted that the statutes of the society included "To be admitted, prospective members were to provide a recommendation from one of the established members."[19]
References
- ^ "Mewlanzade Rifat û Rojnameya Serbestî" (in Kurdish and English). Retrieved 21 December 2019.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ ISBN 0791459934.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7914-5994-2.
- S2CID 154897102.
- ^ a b The Kurdish nationalist movement: opportunity, mobilization, and identity, by David Romano, p.28.
- ^ a b Robert W.Olson (1989), p.28–29
- ^ ISBN 1856491943.
- ^ ISBN 978-1000008449.
- ISBN 9750802586.
- ^ Özoğlu, Hakan (2004), p. 112
- ISBN 978-0-292-77619-7.
- ^ Özoğlu, Hasan (2004), p.82
- ^ a b Özoğlu, Hakan (2004), p.81
- ^ Özoğlu, Hasan (2004), pp. 95–97
- ^ Özoğlu, Hakan (2004), pp.91–92
- ^ Özoğlu, Hasan (2004), p.113
- ^ Özoğlu, Hasan (2004), p. 98
- ^ Üngör, Umut. "Young Turk social engineering : mass violence and the nation state in eastern Turkey, 1913- 1950" (PDF). University of Amsterdam. p. 241. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- ISBN 978-3863095512.