The physical features of Kurdistan have an important bearing on the
political history of the country. It is a high tableland 6,000 feet or so
above the sea level. On the north it descends somewhat abruptly to the
Black Sea, on the south it exhibits a series of rugged terraces ending in
the lowlands of Mesopotamia, while on the east and west it slopes more
gradually, until it reaches the low plateaux of Persia and Asia Minor.
The general appearance of this tableland is uninteresting and monotonous.
Most of the hills are grass-covered and treeless except for patches of
scrubby looking bushes, while the plains are wide and cultivated. The
winters are long and severe; the summers, which last about five months,
are very hot and almost without rain.
The population falls into three distinct groups: sedentary, semi-nomadic
and nomadic.
THE FIRST GROUP, consisting of Armenians, Greeks, Turks, Jews, and some
few Kurds, lives in the plains, chiefly as agriculturists, merchants and
traders, but their staple means of livelihood is undoubtedly agriculture.
During the short summer months they till the fields, and in the winter
retire to their towns and villages. They are a hard-working, thrifty and
prosperous race.
THE SECOND GROUP, the semi-nomads, are Kurds. They migrate with their
flocks along the valleys in the spring, the slopes in summer, and the
mountain tops in autumn. They sell wool, butter, goats’ hair, skins,
and animals for slaughter to the traders in the plains, and in return
purchase domestic necessaries such as barley, petroleum and sugar for
their own use, and hay for their herds. Thus provided they move, as
winter approaches, to the mountain villages, there to await the coming of
the following spring.
These Kurds are a truculent, warlike, yet simple, generous and
industrious race. They live in separate tribes or communities under their
own chieftains. The character of the tribes varies considerably, some
being fiercer than others. Some regard all strangers with suspicion and
repel them, while others welcome and confide in them. In this respect,
and in fact in many other characteristics, they very much resemble the
Scotch Highland clans of some two hundred years ago. Like these they at
times war with one another, the usual cause for dispute being either
the ownership of the ground on which the flocks are grazed, or the
proprietorship of a well.
Mr. Grattan Geary, who travelled through Asiatic Turkey in 1878,
describes the Kurds as “fine, strong fellows, with well marked features,
which are, however, often marred by a sinister expression and a furtive
glance, for which it is not easy to account in the descendants of a
race of martial mountaineers who have never bowed the neck to any yoke.
They have a reputation for treachery and cruelty, which I am afraid is
not undeserved.” Mr. Geary during his journey found that the outlying
Christian and Moslem villages were again being plundered by the Kurdish
mountaineers although
the raids and disturbances which distracted the country before
the Sultan’s authority was made real in the more hilly parts of
Kurdistan, had been reduced to very small dimensions before the
war with Servia, and afterwards with Russia, caused the Turkish
troops to be withdrawn.
but in the opinion of those with whom he spoke on the subject
the whole state of things in Kurdistan might be changed in
the course of a twelvemonth by a little firmness and energy
on the part of the officials representing the Government. The
power of the Kurds for organized resistance has been completely
broken, and the military strength of the Government can be
no longer contested by them. The change has, even as it is,
greatly ameliorated the lot of the Christian and the Jewish
population; but to complete the work a sufficient force of
mounted native police should be organized and properly paid,
and the administration of justice improved.[1]
The success of General Hawker, an officer of the Guards placed by the
Turkish Government in command of a well equipped and regularly paid
gendarmerie (an appointment which he held until the outbreak of the
present European war) has amply verified the correctness of these views.
It is worthy of observation that as a means of “civilizing” the Kurds,
and accustoming them to discipline, and at the same time suitably
utilizing their warlike propensities as a frontier guard against Cossack
raids, Sultan Abdul Hamid formed nearly 10,000 of these Kurds into
cavalry regiments, styling them the “Hamidieh Cavalry.” The bravery,
hardihood and energy of these men rendered them particularly fit for
such an operation, and the experiment proved a complete success. It
was largely from time-expired men of these regiments that many of the
gendarmes, who proved themselves so efficient under General Hawker’s
command, were enlisted.
THE THIRD GROUP, the nomadic Kurds, have largely intermarried with the
Arabs of the South, where they winter their flocks and herds, and are
therefore really semi-Arab rather than pure Kurd. They are neither so
industrious nor so reliable as the Kurds proper, but are quicker witted
and more intelligent. During the summer months they graze their flocks
on the mountain slopes, and as winter approaches migrate to the warmer
regions bordering on Mesopotamia, to return again in the early summer.
It is important to note that the four great mountain strongholds of the
Hakkiari, the Dersim, the Zeitun and the Sassun form an exception to the
general rule that the plains are populated by a tenacious but unwarlike
race of farmers and merchants, largely composed of Armenians, while the
mountains are occupied by warlike nomadic and semi-nomadic Kurds. The
sturdy warlike agriculturists of these four rough inaccessible regions
have never, from the earliest until comparatively recent times, really
acknowledged the control of a central government. Originally refugees
from persecution, they in their turn offered shelter to lawbreakers and
bandits. A large proportion of the Hakkiari are Nestorians, while the
Dersimli are Kurds and the Zeitunli and Sassunli Gregorian Armenians. Mr.
Geary, who believes the Nestorians to be the descendants of the ancient
Chaldeans, says:—“They are unquestionably as fine a people, physically,
as are to be found anywhere and their well-shaped heads and expressive
features denote great natural intelligence.”