1900-1920’s

A Brief Overview…

The aftermaths of the first World War brought great devastation to Kurdistan. The Treaty of Sèvres was drawn up in 1920, between the Allies of World War I and the Ottoman Empire, it provided for an autonomous Kurdistan but was never confirmed. The Treaty of Lausanne then followed in 1923, which replaced the Treaty of Sèvres  - it did not consider the rights of Kurdistan or the Kurds – they were completely disregarded in the formation of new borders. The early 20th century saw Kurdish women suffer under feudalism and tribalism in rural parts of Kurdistan, with Northern and Eastern Kurdistan who were subjected the most to linguicide and ethnocide at the hands of Turkish and Iranian rulers. In Southern Kurdistan, the British mandate that oversaw Mesopotamia (Iraq) did grant the Kurds publishing and educational rights in the Kurdish language. One prominent rebellion against the British mandate in Southern Kurdistan was led by Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, who was the appointed governor of Silêmanî and later the self-declared King of Kurdistan which saw the establishment The Kingdom of Kurdistan, this lasted from September 1922 to July 1924, when the British Mesopotamia eventually re-took control over the Southern Kurdish region. It was also during this period that the first ever educational school for girls in British Mesopotamia (Iraq) was established by Hepse Xanî Neqîb (1891-1953) in the Silêmanî, 1926. In the north of Kurdistan (Bakur), a few rebellions against Ataturk’s forced assimilation of the Kurdish culture and language were swiftly crushed by the state, these rebellions (16th May – 17th June, 1926) were primarily led by Ibrahim Heski and would set the grounds for the Ararat revolt that would soon follow in the early 1930’s. In the north of Kurdistan (Bakur), a few rebellions against Ataturk’s forced assimilation of the Kurdish culture and language were swiftly crushed by the state, these rebellions (16th May – 17th June 1926) were primarily led by Ibrahim Heski and would set the grounds for the Ararat revolt that would soon follow. On the 5 October 1927, a handful of Kurdish leaders from Bakur who were exiled to Lebanon after the failed rebellions established the Xoybûn Association; a nationalist organization that sought to unify and drive another Kurdish revolt against the Turkish state. Other prominent Kurdish regions in the 1920’s, such as that of Soviet Armenia (Nagorno-Karabagh) was undertaking a socialist transformation which lasted from 1923 to 1929.