page_title: Early Kurdish nationalism
section_title: The Treaty of Lausanne
hierarchical_section_title: Early Kurdish nationalism / The Treaty of Lausanne
caption_attribution_description: English: Signing of Treaty of Lausanne
context_page_description: The nationalist movement among the Kurdish people first emerged in the late 19th century with an uprising in 1880 led by Sheik Ubeydullah. Many Kurds worked with other opponents of the Ottoman regime within the Committee of Union and Progress. A growth in ethnic consciousness at the start of the 20th century was spearheaded by the Society for the Elevation of Kurdistan. Some Kurdish nationalist groups agitated for secession, others for autonomy.
  During the First World War, while some Kurdish nationalists were working with the British and Russian enemy powers, Kurdish tribal forces were fighting alongside Ottoman troops on the Russian front. Deaths and displacements occurred on a large scale among Kurdish civilians due to wartime conditions and deliberate ethnic cleansing policies.
  There was a brief opportunity for Kurdish nationalism after World War I with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Western powers promised the Kurds they would act as guarantors for Kurdish freedom, a promise they subsequently broke.
context_section_description: After it became apparent how vehemently the government in Ankara opposed the Treaty of Sèvres and with the rising power of the Kemalists, Major Noel and the British began seriously considering supporting a Kurdish rebellion. The fear that the rebellion might not be controllable resulted in the plan's abandonment.
  This plan was revived, however, in 1921 after Kemalist troops were found meddling with tribes south of the Armistice line. British policymakers again began contemplating assisting a wide-scale Kurdish rebellion against the Turks in order to counter their growing strength and influence in the region. There were many drawbacks to this plan. This would reflect negatively on King Faisal of Iraq, as weapons would come to northern Kurdistan via Iraq. If the revolt failed, it was thought that the British in Iraq would face a massive amount of Kurdish refugees. There was also the constant worry that Kurdish leaders were unreliable and the Kurdish forces were not unified. But the French had reached an agreement with the government in Ankara on the basis of the National Pact rather than the Treaty of Sèvres. This was done after the Greeks seemed likely to lose against the Turks. France ceded much of its previously occupied land in southern Anatolia, thus providing the Kemalists with the ideal assembly point for an assault on British occupied Iraq. This caused the British to re-evaluate the plausibility of their plans to foment rebellion among the Kurds against the Turks.
  Yet it still appeared that the British favored Kurdish autonomy in Iraq when they issued a Joint Declaration with the Iraqi government in 1922 that was communicated to the League of Nations. It recognized the right of the Kurds to form a government within the borders of Iraq.
  In the end, as Kemalist forces spread and grew in strength, "the British desire for peace with Turkey, on the best terms for itself, of course, subordinated Britain's Kurdish policy to this objective." (p. 81). It became desirable for the British to negotiate peace with Turkey on much different terms than those of the Treaty of Sèvres.
  On 24 July 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed between the British, their allies, and the Turks. The treaty failed to mention the Kurds, even though they made up around 1/3rd of the population of Turkey in the new borders and contained 48.5 percent of the total Kurdish population.
  Borders between Turkey and Iraq were to be decided between Great Britain and Turkey within nine months of the implementation of the treaty. Kurdish leaders did petition the League of Nations and Britain for the recognition of Kurdish autonomy during negotiations on the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. In the end, the League of Nations abandoned ethnic considerations in favor of economic and strategic ones. Kurdish territory in modern-day Iraq was granted to Iraq, under British control. The Kurdish regions were fully incorporated into the state in 1923 when Iraq held its first elections to the Constituent Assembly.
  The Iraqi Prime Minister, before the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, was authorized to meet with Kurdish tribal leaders in Sulaymaniyah in 1923. By this time, he found that they were very much in support of the plan to recognize their national aspirations but within the framework of one country. They even displayed support to King Faisal in a meeting with him in May 1923. These Kurdish leaders, as well as other Kurdish business men and dignitaries were opposed to Shaykh Mahmud's style of nationalism because of his history of political manipulation and lawlessness. According to Muhsin al-Musawi, many tribal Shaykhs and many in the Kurdish elite were strongly inclined by this time to a unified Iraq. Nevertheless, Kurds in Iraq established the short-lived Kingdom of Kurdistan in the city of Sulaymaniyah. The Kingdom lasted from September 1922 until July 1924.
caption: Signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923)
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