The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-08-15
prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington. ID. CD

prepared by the National Geographic
Society, Washington. ID. ca
THE KurdS, who have revolted
along the Turkish-Persian Dor
der and against whom large
Turkish forces have been oper-
ating near famous Mount Ararat, have
been fighting periodically against the
established states of Asia Minor for
thousands of years. Always their
favorite method of strife has been
guerrilla warfare. They have been
historic marauders, but perhaps they
have every reason, so far as environ
ment Is concerned, to lead such lives
State after state has struck against
them with forces more powerful than
any they could raise.
The days of Assyrian power in
Mesopotamia seem pretty far back
toward the beginnings of history.
Records of that empire show that
time and again its soldiers were sent
into the rough country around the
headwaters of the great rivers to sub
due the mountaineerS-anceSto of
the Kurds-who harried Assyria's out
lying settlements. These same noun
taineers fought the Armenians when
the latter came into the region be-
tween 1000 and GOO B. G.
When Xenophon retreated from
Asia Minor In 401 B. c. the Kurds
(then called the Carduchi) attacked
his 10000 Greeks, rolling great stones
down on them from cliffs and noun
tains. They fought continually against
the Bagsad caliphs. Since the Turks
rose to power in Asia Minor the
Kurds have fought them repeatedly;
in tact, the Turks never established
any considerable measure of control
over these fierce, freedom-loving high
landers.
Since the World war the European
territory Of Turkey has been negli-
gible. The country has consisted al
most solely of the big, fat peninsula
lying between the Black sea on the
north and the eastern arm Of the
Mediterranean on the south, and an
extension to the east about as broad
as the Asia Minor peninsula. reaching
roughly half way from the Black sea
to the Caspian. The southern half of
this eastern extension-the southeast
ern corner of postwar Turkeys
what is loosely called Kurdistan. The
other half of the eastern extension.
Immediately north of Kurdistan, was
once Turkish Armenia.
Kurdish Sphere Is Large.
I Now that tens of thousands of the
Armenian residents have been driven
across the Russian border, while other
tens of thousands have persisted. the
region hardly deserves the old name.
The Kurdish population was always
high in Turkish Armenia; now it is
proportionately much greater. The
whole eastern end of present Turkey,
constituting almost third of the
territory Of the country, therefore.
may roughly be considered the Kurd-
fish sphere of influence. 1t is in the
northeast corner Of Turkey that the
Kurds have recently been most active.
Geographic and political and eco
nomic complications apIenty are
found in this region. On the east
Kurdistan touches Persia. and the peo-
pie for a considerable distance into
that country are Kurds, too Indeed,
Kurdish people inhabit the entire
Zagros mountain range which extends
from Turkey for 900 miles to fine
southeast. forming the boundary be-
tween Persia and Iraq.
The Kurds belong to the Iranian
branch of the white race. Because of
the open-air lives which they live,
most of them have harsh features.
The great majority are nominally
Mohammedans. Some few of them
near Mosul are Yezidis or Devil Wor-
slippers Those who are Mohamme-
dams take their religion rather less
seriously than the Arabs and even the
Turks. They follow the Shah sect.
whose members are looked upon as
heretics by the orthodox Moslems.
Some of them. however. are very cos
mopolitan in their religious observ-
ances. and when away from home
readily join in prayers in either
Shah or Sunni mosque They have
even been known. when in Armenian
villages. to join in the Christian serv-
ice of the Armenian church, kneeling
and bowling with the congregation.
The plateau region lying partly in
old Armenia, partly in Kurdistan,
where many of the most warlke Kurds
live, presents good example of the
effects on man of a mixture of rugged
uplands and fertile valleys. Limestone
mountains and recently extinct vol
canoes occupy the upper levels. Lower
are magnificent canyons cut by the
Tigris and Euphrates headstreams,
and numerous broad. basin-shaped val
leys whose floors are fertile plains.
The ancestors Of the Kurds were
pushed from many of these desirable