Kurdish and Turkish Alliances Throughout the History

Written by Kerem Muldur

Looking at history, Kurds have always been a local power across the Middle East. They’ve been maintaining their strong relationships among very crowded tribes, which facilitated Kurdish people to stay alive and very powerful in such a challenging area, the Middle East. Many nations and societies that desired to become the dominant power of the Middle East reviewed their relations with Kurdish tribes, who are the local power, and guaranteed the Kurdish people’s support. Even though some conflicts occurred over time, thanks to the unifying effect of Islam, Turks established their economic, social, and military relationships with Kurds led up by alliances.

First contacts: Seljuk alliance with Kurds

The official start of Turkish-Kurdish relationships began with‌ the arrival of‌ Turks to the Middle East from Persia and Central Asia. To understand the roots and targets beyond the alliances, we have to examine the historical situation of the Middle East, starting from circa the 10th century. The region was fragmented into smaller divisions called "Tevai-f-ül Mülk" after the decline of Abbasids as a unifying power of the Middle East. The Shi’a groups gained popularity and established huge empires such as Hamanids and Buyids after the Abbasid caliphate, as shown in Map 1. To justify the power over himself against Shi’a Buyids, Seljuks allied with the region’s Sunni Muslim groups, most notably Kurds(1). Because of this alliance relationship, cultural interaction rapidly increased, and famous architectural structures such as Diyarbakir Ulu Camii, representing both Kurdish and Turkish architectural cultures, were built as a symbol of the alliance. 

Relationship between Kurdish people and the Ottoman Empire until the 20th century

With the unstable relationship between the Sunni and Shi’a Muslims in the Middle East, the results and casualties of these conflicts increased rapidly with the beginning of the 15th century. Despite that, the Safavid Empire, a Shi’a empire located in Persia, didn’t establish an exact superiority over the Ottoman Empire, a Sunni empire located in the Balkans and Anatolia, The Ottoman Empire’s power was concentrated in Istanbul, and Safavid missionaries were leaked into east Anatolia, which means, the Ottoman needed a strong local power at its east borders against Shi’a activities. This ally was the Kurdish people. Although a minority of the Kurdish people were Shi’a Muslims, the Kurdish people decided to help the Ottoman Empire by guiding Ottoman forces against Shi’a rebellions and the Safavid army, supplying water and food resources to the Ottoman army(2). Ottoman and Kurdish relations stayed slightly stable, including minor rebellions simultaneous with the Ottoman Empire’s political stability.

Shifting tensions between Kurdish authorities and Turks after the 19th century

During the 1750s and 1900s, the world witnessed a series of new rules and big changes such as the Enlightenment, French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and new movements such as Nationalism, that affected and triggered massive scales and rebellions. The effect of nationalism on the Kurdish people and the fact that the authority of the Ottoman Empire was struggling facilitated the Kurdish people to rebel against the Ottoman Empire. Even though big conflicts between Kurdish tribes and the Ottoman Empire occurred and intensified, the majority of them were suppressed successfully by the Ottoman army such as the Bitlis Rebellion(3), before World War 1; the Bedirhani Rebellion during World War; and a series of other rebellions under the will of “Exalting Kurdistan Community”(4). Some Kurdish groups, most notably Sunni Muslim Kurds, kept their loyalty to the Ottoman Empire and participated in World War 1 and the Independence War on the side of Turks(5).

In conclusion, if there have been strong alliances appeared between Kurds and Turks, the effect of religion made it possible. Aside from conflicts between Turks and Kurds, most notably Yazidi and Shi’a groups, Kurdish tribes established good relationships with Turks. Kurds performed an active role during the social life of the Ottoman Empire, most notably in trade. These relationships weakened, though, as the effects of nationalism penetrated the Kurdish people, and the relationship evolved to modern-day Turkish-Kurdish relations.

References:

1. Bekir BİÇER.(2013).SELÇUKLULAR VE KÜRTLER.The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies

2. Artan, M. (2019). The Causes for the Rebellion of Shahkulu Based on Ottoman Archival Sources. Journal of Alevism-Bektashism Studies, (19), 285–312. https://doi.org/10.24082/2019.abked.245

3. Faik Bulut. (2023, October 2). Nakşi şeyhlerinin 1907 Bitlis İsyanı. Independent Türkçe. https://www.indyturk.com/node/664416/t%C3%BCrki%CC%87yeden-sesler/nak%C5%9Fi-%C5%9Feyhlerinin-1907-bitlis-i%CC%87syan%C4%B1

4. Zeynep Çamsoy. (2007). Milli Mücadele Dönemi'nde Kurdistan Teâli Cemiyeti (1918-1927). https://kaynakca.hacettepe.edu.tr/eser/13260226/milli-mucadele-donemi-nde-kurdistan-teali-cemiyeti-1918-1927

5. Vahap Coşkun. (2021, March 8). Türkiye Kurulurken Kürtler (1): Kürtleri bize bağlayan ana kuvvet dindir. Independent Türkçe. https://www.indyturk.com/node/127681/t%C3%BCrki%CC%87yeden-sesler/t%C3%BCrkiye-kurulurken-k%C3%BCrtler-1-k%C3%BCrtleri-bize-ba%C4%9Flayan-ana-kuvvet-dindir