Sheikh Said Efendi

Dear Readers:

Every now and then, some ill-mannered, morally bankrupt individual on social media or TV screens insults the spiritual values of Kurds, then retreats to their corner, watching to see, "What will be the reaction of the Kurds?" We experienced such a situation once again last week. A fop who frequently appears on screens dared to call Sheikh Said Efendi "dishonorable."

To be honest, I'm not angry at this person or these people. The real culprit is the Kurdish left. How so?

***

It was 1979. I was a student at the ITU Faculty of Electrical Engineering. I was staying at the Abdi İpekçi Student Dormitory in Maçka. I often had the chance to go to Nişantaşı. During one such walk, I was passing by a bookstore. In this small bookstore, which was two or three steps down to the ground floor, Atilla İlhan and Selim İleri were signing their books for readers.

Sheikh Said Efendi

I went inside. I bought a book by Atilla İlhan and joined the queue for an autograph. Atilla İlhan, while signing his books, was also talking about the Sheikh Said Rebellion, explaining in his unique tone and intellectual manner, with relish, how Sheikh Said collaborated with the British to restore the Caliphate and how he betrayed the Young Republic. My turn for the autograph came. As Atilla İlhan signed my book, I interjected:

"Sheikh Said rebelled for the cause of an independent Kurdistan," I said. Atilla İlhan became uncomfortable when he heard the word "Kurdistan." He turned crimson: "No, sir! You don't know history! You should read history well. Sheikh Said was a traitor. He was a reactionary. He was a British agent."

Atilla İlhan considered himself a devout and determined "Atatürkist." His reaction in this way was, in a sense, natural.

I countered and continued:

"The office of the Caliphate was in the hands of the Turks. It is true that there were uprisings to restore the Caliphate, but these were initiated by Turks in Anatolia. Both Arabs and Kurds fought for their independence by all means. This was their natural right. They had no concern about restoring the Caliphate. You are ignoring the Turkish rebellions and uprisings that remained loyal to the Caliph and opposed the National Struggle: For example: the Bozkır Rebellion, the Anzavur Rebellions, the Düzce Rebellion, the Zile Rebellion, the İnegöl Incident, the Konya Rebellion. All of these occurred before the Sheikh Said Rebellion. They were the ones who truly championed the institution of the Caliphate."

Atilla İlhan did not like this answer, but I continued:

"The real betrayal of Atatürk was not by Sheikh Said but by his own comrades-in-arms. When the Caliphate was abolished on March 3, 1924, one of those most disturbed by this was Kazım Karabekir Pasha. Eight months later, with his friends, on November 17, 1924, four months before the Sheikh Said Rebellion, he founded the Progressive Republican Party (TCF). His aim was to rival Atatürk's Republican People's Party, founded on September 9, 1922, and if possible, to re-establish the institution of the Caliphate. Atatürk was disturbed by this situation. He used the Sheikh Said Rebellion as an excuse to close the party (TCF). The tension between the two Pashas continued. Kâzım Karabekir Pasha was arrested in 1926 on the grounds that he had planned the İzmir Assassination attempt against Mustafa Kemal. He was tried for execution with 49 of his friends at the Independence Tribunal. 15 people were executed. Who organized the İzmir Assassination? Were there any Kurds among those executed? Were there any Kurds among those tried? No!"

Atilla İlhan, this time, made an explanation of his own, saying that Kazım Karabekir Pasha and İsmet İnönü were "traitors," that they could not stomach Mustafa Kemal Pasha's revolutions, and that they envied him, and so on. Of course, he was talking nonsense. Because İsmet İnönü was Prime Minister when the Sheikh Said Rebellion was suppressed.

***

The bitter truth is that in those years, the magazines and newspapers published by the Kurdish left, such as Rızgari, Özgürlük Yolu, Kawa, etc., wrote the following about Sheikh Said: "Reactionary, servant of imperialism, feudal element, etc."

The Turkish Left and the Kurdish Left, hand in hand, had made their definitive and common decisions regarding Sheikh Said.

Years passed. I was in France. I regularly followed all the magazines and newspapers of the Turkish and Kurdish left in Paris. The judgment about Sheikh Said in the newspapers of the Kurdish left was always the same: "Feudal, reactionary, sheikh, aga, etc."

***

The Sheikh Said Rebellion erupted prematurely. The AZADİ (Kurdistan Independence Committee) organization was planning the rebellion. The AZADİ organization, led by Colonel Cibranlı Halit Bey, was preparing for a systematic and large-scale rebellion. The aim was to establish the Kurdistan envisioned in the Treaty of Sèvres. Sheikh Said was married to Cibranlı Halit Bey's sister. Cibranlı Halit Bey's other sister was married to Major Kasım (Ataç). Major Kasım acted as an informant, notifying the state of the rebellion preparations.

Sheikh Said Efendi (seated right), his brother-in-law Major Kasım (center back)

Cibranlı Halit Bey was arrested in Erzurum on December 20, 1924, before the Sheikh Said Rebellion began, and taken to Bitlis (the Sheikh Said Rebellion broke out on February 13, 1925). Yusuf Ziya Bey, Yusuf Ziya's brother Lieutenant Ali Rıza Bey, Yusuf Ziya's son-in-law Faik Bey, and Molla Abdurrahman were executed by firing squad in Bitlis on April 14, 1925. Immediately afterward, this time, Seyit Abdülkadir, the President of the Kurdish Teali Society, and his friends were executed on May 27, 1925.

Cibranlı Halit Bey and Yusuf Ziya Bey, executed together

The Kurdish Teali Society also had no problem with restoring the Caliphate. The aim of the Kurdish Teali Society, founded on December 30, 1918, was to pave the way for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state. As can be seen, the issue was not "Caliphate" but Independent Kurdistan. In the conditions of the time, it was also natural and understandable for every nation—Azeri, Georgian, Armenian, Arab—in short, every nation, to strive to establish its own state. To view Kurds as "traitors" because they wanted to establish their own states in an era when the nation-state delusion was at its peak is certainly not an acceptable approach.

Seyit Abdülkadir Efendi

The AZADİ organization also had no concern about restoring the Caliphate. The leaders of the AZADİ organization were Kurdish intellectuals who closely followed world politics, knew many languages, and had European experience. Those who want to understand the true purpose of the Sheikh Said Rebellion should carefully examine the structure and activities of the AZADİ organization. Under the conditions of the time, the Government branded the Sheikh Said Rebellion as "reactionary, backward" and created a pretext that could convince international public opinion, with the aim of fundamentally solving the Kurdish Question. It largely succeeded in this endeavor. So much so that even the Kurdish Left adopted this perspective and adhered to the "reactionary-backward-feudal" terminology regarding the Sheikh Said Rebellion for many years.

Some writers hold the view that "Sheikh Said initiated a rebellion. He was guilty." In those years, Kurdish heroes like Cemilê Çeto, who supported Mustafa Kemal or at least remained silent, were also unjustly sent to the gallows.

***

Sheikh Said Efendi is a spiritual value for Kurds. Those who insult him are pathetic and insignificant creatures. What grieves me is the attempt of these groups to legitimize their disgusting attacks by hiding behind the mask of ATATÜRKISM, a common value of our country.

Sheikh Said Efendi is brought to the gallows. As the rope is about to be placed around his neck, he turns to Diyarbakır Governor Mürsel Bey and says: "We will settle accounts in the afterlife."

Before Sheikh Said Efendi could finish his sentence, the stool beneath his feet was kicked away.

Sheikh Said Efendi may have left the reckoning to the "afterlife," but as his spiritual descendants, we have no intention of leaving this reckoning to the "Day of Judgment."

I commemorate Sheikh Said Efendi and his comrades-in-arms with mercy.