File 36/1919 Pt 3 ‘KURDISTAN POLICY & SITUATION’ [‎286r] (590/608)

Content

This volume contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, newspaper clippings, parliamentary notes, telegrams and minutes. It mainly covers conversations between British officials regarding the political situation in Kurdistan, but also contains correspondence from Kurdish representatives and various British organisations.

The volume covers and includes the following:

• A description of the political situation in Kurdistan by Philippe Berthelot of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• Opinions expressed by British officials as to whether Turkish authorities should be excluded form Kurdistan, whether Kurdistan should be portioned, and whether its frontier should follow that of the ethnological frontier between Kurds and Arabs
• Opinions expressed by British officials on the growth of political and social movements related to Kurdish nationalism
• Descriptions of the political movement towards the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish state
• The views of Hamdi Bey Baban [Ḥamdī Beg Bābān] regarding the Kurdistan situation
• Minutes of monthly conferences on Middle Eastern affairs throughout 1920, giving views on Kurdistan from British and French officers and covering different subjects regarding the political situation in Kurdistan and Mesopotamia
• Aspects of the future administration of Sulaimaniyah [As Sulaymaniyah]
• Plans from British officers regarding the political situation in Mesopotamia and its possible future government
• Mentions of interest in Mesopotamia in ‘bolshevism’
• Reports on India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. recommendations regarding Kurdistan
• A memorandum on Kurdistan, with the following headings: ‘Kurdish political activity', ‘Aims of the Kurds’, ‘Turkish Scheme’, ‘Kurdish Objections’, ‘The immediate situation’, and ‘Suggested solution’ (ff 267-270)
• Opinions expressed by Kurdish people on Kurdistan and its politics
• Conflict in Mesopotamia and Kurdistan regarding: British refusal to allow visits to the tomb of Shaikh Kaka Ahmad [Ḥājjī Kākā Aḥmad al-Shaykh], including the imposition of heavy fines and prison sentences; arrests and deportations to Baghdad of unnamed ‘notables’; and the execution at Sakis [Saqqez] of Rusten Khan [Rustam Khān] by order of the Governor of Sineh [Sanandaj]
• Correspondence relating to Kurdistan, including: repatriation of Assyrian Christians; securing of borders; Kurdish districts in Persia [Iran;] Kurdish nationalism
• A letter from the Travellers Club regarding the situation in the Kurdistan.

The principal correspondents are: Civil Commissioner, Baghdad; High Commissioner, Constantinople [Istanbul]; Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for the Colonies; Political Officer at Sulaimaniyah; Hamdi Bey Baban.

The volume includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format

1 volume (295 folios)

Arrangement

The volume’s contents are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

The subject 36 (Kurdistan) consists of 2 volumes, IOR/L/PS/10/781-782. The volumes are divided into three parts, with parts 1-2 comprising the first volume and part 3 comprising the second volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the inside last folio with 293; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

The volume has four foliation anomalies: f 106a, f 111a, f 172a and f 203a.

A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

Written in

English and French in Latin script

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