'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎640r] (1281/1386)

17
and the Kurdish rebellions that have occurred during the last two years have in every
case been suppressed with the aid of other friendly Kurdish Chiefs.
That there exists a certain amount of agitation amongst the Kurds, with reference
to the once much talked-of question of Armenian autonomy, I am personally aware.
When at Van last summer, several high officials spoke to me on the subject, and
Kurdish Chiefs have themselves alluded to the subject in conversation with me. It is
very possible that if exceptional privileges were granted to the Armenians, from which
lurks and Kurds were excluded, the Kurds might combine against the Christians and
against the Government, which introduced such an innovation. Such a combination
would probably end in the massacre of the Christians in out-of-the-way places, where the
Christians would be unable to offer any resistance, and the Government would not have
the power, even if it had the will, to prevent it.
It is certain that the most influential man in Eastern Kurdistan is the Sheikh
Ubeydullah, and amongst the frontier Kurds his person and authority are held more
sacred than those of the Sultan. There can be little doubt that this man’s one object is
to rid the country of the Sultan’s officials, and set himself up as Ruler of Kurdistan,
i.e. of the southern portion of the Van and the northern portion of the Mosul Vilayet,
and as much further in every direction as he can extend his influence. In order to do
this, his present policy is to conciliate the Christians about him—not out of love and
regard for them, but as instruments to carry out his desires.
He is the only possible head of a Kurdish League, yet I know that some influential
Kurdish Chiefs are dead against him; and although his authority extends across the
frontier into Persia, he has lost influence in the western portion of Kurdistan.
It is possible that the Sheikh’s recent move into Persia may have been made under
the impression that the Persian Government was more rotten than that of Turkey, and
that it would be easier to obtain independent authority there than in Turkey. This
once obtained, he would use his greatly increased power against the Ottoman officials.
I use advisedly the term " Ottoman officials ” rather than that of the Sultan’s
authority, as I believe the Sheikh to be more or less personally loyal to the Sultan; and
he would be ready to submit to his authority and pay him tribute as long as he could get
rid of the Ottoman officials, and be looked de lege as well as de facto the ruling Chief of
Kurdistan.
The Sheikh is, I believe, the son of Sheikh Zahar, another very famous Sheikh, who
was, in 1843, the principal instigator of the Nestorian massacres by Beder Khan Bey,
of Boktan. Sheikh Ubeydullah was also reported by Mr. Consul Taylor, in 1869, to be
one of the principal instigators of terrible outrages on Christians on the part of the
Kurds in his neighbourhood. On the other hand, I have been given to understand that,
during the last war, the Sheikh who brought some thousands of volunteers to the Turkish
army, used his influence in favour of the Christians at the time of the Bayazid massacre,
and saved many of them from destruction.
if the Porte were wise in their own interests, it would seize the present opportunity
of crushing the Sheikh, who, as long as he remains in his native country, will continue to
be a thorn in their side.
I have &c.
(Signed) ‘ HENRY TROTTER.
No. 23.
Mr. Thomson to Earl Granville.
(Substance received by telegraph, November 2.)
My Lord, Tehran, November 2, 1880.
I HAV E the honour to inform your Lordship that His Majesty the Shah is very
desirous that a further representation should be made to the Porte, on the part of Her
Majesty’s Government, pressing the Ottoman Government to have the Turco-Persiau
frontier closely watched, so as to prevent the Kurds from crossing and recrossing the
border. His Majesty also urges the necessity of a summons being addressed by the
Porte to Sheikh Obeidullah, calling upon him to return to Turkish territory and resume
his allegiance to the Sultan, and intimating that if he does not comply stringent
measures will be adopted to coerce him.
Inflammatory proclamations are still being circulated by the Sheikh among the
Persian Kurds, and he has lately dispatched a secret agent to Tehran, charged with a
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