The Kurdish-Azeri Spirit

Dear Readers:

Once upon a time, the people of the Sürmeli Plain passed through a ring of fire. The story you are about to read is fictionalized from the true narrative of the late Hacı Hasan Armağan.

YEAR 1905

It is the autumn of 1905. The Sürmeli Plain (the region of Iğdır, Tuzluca (Kulp), Aralık (Başköy/Başkent)) is under the administration of Tsarist Russia. There is a Russian military barracks in the Serdarbulak plateau, separating Greater and Lesser Mount Ararat. Additionally, another Russian military unit is stationed in the area known as “Topçular” in central Iğdır. Armenian, Kurdish, Yazidi, and Azeri villages are side by side, intertwined. Peace, tranquility, kinship, and friendship have naturally formed. Until the Japanese defeated the Russian Army in the Far East…

HACER HANIM

A cavalry unit enters the courtyard of a house in Başköy (Aralık). The leading horseman shouts in a loud voice:

“Ay Hacer Hanım! Come to the door!”

The wooden door creaks open. Hacer Hanım, her eyes tired from days of crying, answers with an exhausted and hopeless demeanor:

“Yes, my brother! What do you want?”

“Eli Ağa, leader of the Brukan Tribe, sent us. How many days ago did your son leave home?”

“Today makes five! He took the livestock and left. He said, ‘I’ll be back by evening, Mother.’ We haven’t heard from him since.”

“What did he take with him?”

“There were five cows, one bull, one donkey, and one ox.”

“How old was your son? Who was with him?”

“He was 15-16 years old. He was alone. He said he was going to cross to the other side of the Aras. He said the grass hadn’t dried there yet.”

Hacer Hanım involuntarily wipes her eyes, now dry of tears, with her headscarf.

“What is your son’s name?”

“Cevad!”

Hacer Hanım has been living alone with her son since her husband passed away.

The cavalry unit quickly moves away, heading towards the Iranian border.

THE 1905 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia makes a big mistake. When the Japanese attacked the Russian fleet at the Port Arthur Military Base in the Far East in February 1904 without declaring war, the Tsar underestimated the Japanese, saying, “There is nothing serious to worry about!” However, as the Russian army suffered defeat after defeat, the bad news spread throughout Tsarist Russia. Peasants, workers, intellectuals, and even soldiers, fed up with the despotic regime, took action.

Baku, the center of world oil, was shaken by strikes. Civil war began. This was a revolutionary movement. The city of Baku was razed to the ground. A power vacuum emerged in the Caucasus. The Okhrana (Secret Police) provoked ethnic tensions, hoping it would help break the strikes. The ethnic conflict that erupted in Baku flared up and spread throughout the region. The army was disorganized and undisciplined. Taking advantage of this, Iranian bandits plundered the Yerevan region. It was at such a moment that they captured the unfortunate Cevad and took him and his animals to Iran.

BRUKAN (BRUKÎ) TRIBE WINTER QUARTERS

On the lands now known as the “Kazım Karabekir State Production Farm,” there were once 12 villages that served as winter quarters for the Brukan Tribe for many years. The villages, built on flat terrain, were not suitable for defense. When the Civil War began in Iğdır, Armenian forces attacked the Muslim population in the plain, and the Brukan Tribe sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire, which they saw as a safer region, settling in Van.

***

In the autumn of 1905, when Cevad disappeared with his animals, the Brukan Tribe was settled in these winter quarters, 10 km from the district of Aralık.

BRUKAN CAVALRY UNIT ON THE TRAIL

A 10-man cavalry unit, composed of the most distinguished warriors of the Brukan Tribe, commanded by Hamit Ağa, turned towards the Iranian border, covering a distance of 100 km without rest, and arrived in the city of Maku. Hamit Ağa became a guest of a familiar family belonging to the Helikan Tribe.

Hamit Ağa summarizes the situation:

“Bandits from Iran have taken an Azeri boy and his animals from a place near Yerevan. His mother is a widow. This boy is her only hope… The poor woman has been distraught for days… Eli Ağa ordered us to find the boy.”

The host speaks without hesitation:

“Currently, there is unrest and conflict in this region within the Celali Tribe due to a blood feud. Most likely, members of the Şikaki Tribe must have carried out this attack.”

“I understand them taking the animals, but why are they taking the boy?”

“They make him a shepherd (çoban) and force him to work. Since he is under the command of their own shepherds, the boy cannot escape, and after a while, he gives up trying to escape anyway.”

Hamit Ağa is surprised:

“Such things don’t happen on our side (Kurds under Tsarist Russian rule). Not even a bird flies without Eli Ağa and Eleşref Bey knowing. Which way should we go?”

“Go to the plateaus near Salmas. There are Şikaki Tribe villages in that vicinity. I have a kinsman in Salmas. He knows everything that happens. Give him my regards!”

The cavalry unit spends the night in Maku. The next day, they set off early for Salmas. The horsemen arrive in Salmas towards evening and find the Helikan’s kinsman.

The old man knows everything that is happening in the region.

“Recently, the Şikakis brought quite a few animals and 3-4 young men from the Yerevan side. They took them to the village of Zirveh on the Ottoman (Empire) border. However, you can only raid there at night. You cannot deal with them in broad daylight. I will send someone to find out which house they are hiding the kidnapped young men in, and you can raid at night.”

The old man hosts the Brukan cavalry unit. Hamit Ağa respectfully offers a pouch of gold to the old man for his services.

Two days later, news arrives. As the old man predicted, the captured young men are being held under house arrest in a mud-brick house in the village of Zirveh.

Hamit Ağa takes the scout with him and sets off.

As they approach the village, the warriors entrust their horses to a guard in a secluded area and crawl towards the village.

The mud-brick house is at the foot of a rock. Hamit Ağa assigns three of his most distinguished warriors and orders them to rescue those inside. He and his companions, weapons in hand, provide cover for them.

The three warriors make a hole in the mud roof and pull out four young men. They silently move away from the village and reach Hamit Ağa. Hamit Ağa questions them:

“Is there anyone among you named Cevad?”

“My name is Cevad,” one of them steps forward.

“What is your mother’s name?”

“Hacer!”

“Alright! We are leaving here quickly.”

The Şikaki guard, realizing that the shepherds had been kidnapped, fires into the air, waking up the village. Hamit Ağa tries to delay the approaching Şikakis with his four warriors, urging the others to get away. The clash continues all night. Hamit Ağa is slightly wounded in the leg, but it does not prevent him from mounting his horse and riding away.

Hamit Ağa receives brief treatment. A few days later, he delivers Cevad to his mother. Eli Ağa sends 5-10 cows, donkeys, and oxen collected from the village to Hacer Hanım. Hacer Hanım goes to Eli Ağa’s house and thanks him for his help and generosity.

YEAR 1919

Years pass. In 1917, when the Russian Army suddenly withdrew from the region, the balance was disrupted. Ethnic tensions increased. Armenians declared the Republic of Armenia on May 28, 1918, and put an end to the Aras-Turkish Republic, established in November 1918 with Nakhchivan city as its center, in June 1919. From August 1919 onwards, the Sürmeli Plain struggled with a relentless Civil War. Armenian gangs, armed to the teeth, mercilessly attacked the Muslim population in the Sürmeli Plain, and massacres and genocides followed one after another.

Eli Ağa prepares a plan to attack a train loaded with weapons coming from Gyumri and heading towards Nakhchivan city via Yerevan.

Deciding that the Brukan Tribe also needed to arm itself at a time when Armenian forces were growing stronger every day, Eli Ağa began preparations. Meanwhile, the civilian population of Başköy, unable to withstand the Armenian raids, had already set off in a desperate state towards Iranian Azerbaijan. Cevad sees off his mother Hacer, his wife, and children, and then joins Eli Ağa’s armed unit.

THE MARTYRDOM OF ELİ AĞA AND CEVAD

Eli Ağa ambushes the weapon-laden train, coming from Gyumri and continuing its journey to Nakhchivan city via Yerevan, near the town of Şerur. A fierce clash ensues. Eli Ağa, Cevad, and many Brukan warriors fall as martyrs on the spot. (This unfortunate event has gone down in the history of the Brukan Tribe as Şere Şerur (The Şerur Conflict).)

The train continues its journey and moves away. The Brukan warriors bury their martyrs side by side and retreat. The Brukan Tribe, without waiting for a retaliatory attack from the Armenians, decides to abandon their indefensible villages and seek refuge in the Ottoman Empire.

Today, when you go near the town of Şerur in Nakhchivan, remember that beneath those lands, in an unknown place without even a tombstone, the Kurdish leader of the Brukan Tribe, Eli Ağa, and the Azeri Cevad lie side by side.

Hacer Hanım receives the news of her son’s death in Iranian Azerbaijan. She cries again, bursting into tears. She passes away, carrying the pain in her heart.

Without forgetting the unity and spiritual legacy of the Kurdish-Azeri spirit, I pray for Allah’s mercy upon our martyrs.

AN EXCERPT FROM THE MEMOIRS OF THE LATE KİNYAS KARTAL

“My late father Bedir was martyred by the bullet of an Armenian traitor. This was not the first pain the Armenians inflicted on our family and tribe. Nor was it the last. After this, our bloody struggle with the Armenians continued. They wanted to uproot us from that region. They did not want Muslims in their own territories. They were striving to realize their dream of an Armenian homeland without Muslims. They could not uproot us with individual murders. Later, they started raiding villages, burning houses and crops. Thus, a life-and-death struggle began and continued between us and them.”

SİVAS KABAKYAZI CAMP AND THE “55” INCIDENT

Four days after the May 27, 1960 military coup, the National Unity Committee (MBK), using the pretext that they supported or could support the Barzani Movement gaining momentum in Iraq, gathered 485 people, aged between 14 and 70, consisting of prominent Sheikhs and Tribal Chiefs and their members from Turkey’s Eastern and Southeastern regions, at the Sivas Kabakyazı Military Camp. They “hosted” them in the camp for 9 months, as they called it. After 9 months, 55 people were exiled to various provinces, and the others were released. This is why this event is known in history as the “55” incident.

While at the Sivas Kabakyazı Military Camp, in its third month, an order was issued by the Minister of Interior and approved by the MBK to execute the detainees by firing squad. This order was conveyed to the Military Camp Commander. Preparations were made. Knowing they were to be executed, some wrote their wills, others prayed. Kinyas Kartal, the leader of the Brukan Tribe, was shaken by the bad news and fell ill. Sheikh Selahaddin Efendi, son of Sheikh Sait Efendi, came to Kinyas Kartal’s side:

“Kinyas Bey, you are a soldier. You shouldn’t be so shaken!”

Kinyas Kartal’s answer is meaningful:

“Sheikh, by God, I fought against both the Russians and the Armenians. But the conditions were not like this. My hands were not tied. They had weapons, and I had weapons. But this desire to slaughter us unarmed truly shakes me.”

The Military Camp commander refused to carry out the order. Since there was already discomfort within the army due to the power struggle, the decision to execute was abandoned, and instead, a decision for exile was issued.

Meanwhile, I also respectfully commemorate the late Sheikh Mehmet Emin Karadeniz, who was taken from Iğdır to the Sivas Kabakyazı Camp.

ANECDOTE… ANECDOTE…

MOUNT ARARAT AND TSAR NICHOLAS I

Friedrich Parrot, a German-born citizen of Tsarist Russia, reached the summit of Mount Ararat on October 9, 1829. According to recorded history, this was the first expedition to the summit of Mount Ararat. Parrot summarized his experiences in his book Reise zum Ararat (Journey to Ararat), published in 1834. One of the first to read this book with enthusiasm and curiosity was Tsar Nicholas I. The Tsar embarked on a journey to Yerevan to see both the South Caucasus, which had recently joined his Empire (1828), and Ararat, mentioned in the holy book.

The Tsar was hosted in Yerevan for three days. Interestingly, for three days, dark clouds did not leave the summit of Mount Ararat; the Tsar was not destined to see Mount Ararat.

The Tsar, half-sad, began his return journey. Just as Mount Ararat was about to disappear from sight, the dark clouds above it dispersed, and Mount Ararat revealed itself in all its glory. The Tsar’s aide-de-camp became excited:

“Your Imperial Majesty! Look! Look! Ararat is visible.”

The Tsar was not interested. He spoke with a grimace:

“For three days, Ararat did not want to show itself to me. Now, I do not want to see it.”

THE SPLENDOR OF THE BLUE MOSQUE

It was during the Russian administration. Şemsettin Ağa, who lived in a Kurdish village on the slopes of Mount Ararat, was an active person and friendly with everyone. While wandering in the city center of Yerevan, his path led him to the Blue Mosque (Göy Mescid).

The Azeri imam of the mosque recognized Şemsettin Ağa and asked for help:

“Şemsettin Kirve! Don’t ask! Thieves have become a real nuisance! Every day they take something from the mosque. It would be good if we put one of your shepherds on guard!”

Şemsettin Ağa sent a trusted shepherd to the mosque.

The interior of the mosque was filled with magnificent carpets and gold-plated chandeliers. Every two weeks, the shepherd would ask for leave on the pretext of seeing his family in his village, and each time he would secretly take one of the small carpets with him.

The imam noticed that whenever the Kurdish shepherd left the mosque, something was missing, and he muttered to himself:

“It seems that when the shepherd is in the mosque, the thieves are afraid to come, but whenever the shepherd leaves, they take advantage of it and plunder the mosque. It’s best if I ask Şemsettin Ağa to send another shepherd when the current one goes on leave.”

Şemsettin Ağa accepted the request. When one shepherd went on leave, another took over the duty.

The imam noticed that in this situation, even more carpets and items were missing. He couldn’t make sense of it. He explained his concern to Şemsettin Ağa. Şemsettin Ağa, trying to downplay the theft and protect the shepherds, supposedly consoled the imam:

“Imam, in our village, because of a beautiful girl, we face all sorts of troubles. Young men kill each other, families suffer. As long as your mosque has such beautiful carpets, such beautiful chandeliers, you will never be free from trouble! Pray that no one comes and kills you. Don’t worry, let it be a carpet, let it be a chandelier that is gone…”