'General information on Persia for any future edition, 1895' [‎66v] (123/211)

3(5
Inclosure 2 in No. 32.
Acting Vice-Consul Boyadjian to Acting Consul Hampson.
> Diarbekir, February 24, 1891.
11 ’ YOU may be aware that, after the event at Erzeroum last year, a project to raise,
in imitation of the Russian Cossacks, a Kurdish volunteer corps of Dragoons, was on
foot. I have the honour to inform you now that instructions to that effect have lately
been received in this vilayet from Constantinople, and steps are being taken by the
Local Government to organize the said corps. .... i
I am not in a position to state the details of these instructions but I learn that
these dragoon corps will be provided with rifles by the Government; that those Kurdish
Chiefs who undertake to raise as many men as to form a regiment or battalion will,
respectively, have the rank and the title of Colonel or Major, and that the officers thus
named will have to go to the capital to receive their final instructions-
I have also to state that, as far as I am aware, the proposal has been, for reasons
mentioned below, declined by the Kurdish Chiefs, with one exception. It is stated by
them that they suspect that the Government, under this pretext, would take them to
Constantinople and keep them there as hostages. But it would not be dlfhcult tor the
Government to dispel from their minds this unfounded suspicion and bring them to a
different state of mind. The only one who accepted the proposition, and promised to
form a regirbent, is said to be Mustafa Agha, the powerful Head of the Miran nomad
Kurds The antecedents of this man do not inspire in the public mind much hope of
an honourable career. He has been accused of incendiarism, murder, rapine, and all
sorts of crimes; and it was only a few months since that he carried off several hundred
head of sheep belonging to a merchant of Orfah, and, on being complained against,
refused to obev the summons of the Mardin Governor, and the threats of the Governor-
General were of no avail, and I am told that he is negotiating now with the Local
Government for free pardon, as a reward fqr undertaking to form a regiment of
' ° I cannot pretend to be acquainted with the intentions of the Government in regard
to the formation, employment, and discipline of the corps in question, but the public
in general and Christians in particular look upon the realization of the project with
great misgiving. ,
They state, and with reason, that as these hordes have always been the terror and
scourge of the peaceable inhabitants both Moslem and Christian, no one knows what
they may do wffien incorporated into the army and provided with arms. And it may
also be added that, unless they are put under strictest discipline, it is to be feared that
in the end they may cause serious anxieties even to the Government itself.
I have &c.
(Signed)' ’ THOMAS BOYADJIAN.
No. 33.
Sir W. White to the Marquis of Salisbury.—(Received April 3.)
My Lord, Constantinople, March 30, 1891.
I HAVE the honour to report that a detachment of Kurdish auxiliary cavalry
arrived here yesterday evening by special steamer from Trebizond, and have been
accommodated at Tchiragli Yali Beshiktash. Consul Longworth, in reporting, their
departure from Trebizond, states that they have been invited by tbe Porte for military
purposes.
This appears to be tbe detachment of that newdy-formed Kurdish cavalry militia
which is to do duty at the Palace of Yildiz and at Constantinople, as mentioned in my
despatch to your Lordship of the 24th Eebruary, 1891, and is clearly an imitation
of the duty done by the Caucasian Irregular Cavalry under the name of Circassians
or Mountaineers at St. Petersburg!!, and at one time at the Viceregal Court at Warsaw.
I have the honour to transmit herewith, with reference to this subject, a transla
tion of a further extract from to-day’s “ Tarik ” on the arrival of the Kurdish regiment
and Chiefs at this capital.
I have, &c.
(Signed) W. A. WHITE.