In the twentieth century, nowhere has had so much conflict as the Middle East, and in this region, no other nation other than Kurds has experienced so much suffering. There have been other nations that have been dominated by more powerful nations and even have been genocide, but for many internal and international reasons, they tried to change their sufferings into international subjects for all the world and the politicians at that time to know about it. They were supported by the authorities both in Europe and America at that time, and their problem became a regional and even international issue. This became a reason to be protected and even obtain their independent land and state. If an example should be discussed, it could be the genocide of the Armenians in 1916. This event was very severe and painful for the Armenians however, it was as much discussed and became popular in the world, too. This is why they were mentioned in the Sevres Treaty with a particular article about Armenians and finally obtained their independent state.
However, at the same time in 1916, according to American Writers' evidence in a city like Sablagh or today's Mahabad, the superpowers of the world committed one of the cruelest crimes in the history of this area and during a few months, more than 10 thousand people from Mahabad were slaughtered. If we look at this number statistically, both at that time that the population of Kurdistan was not very high, this number was extremely large, and even nowadays, ten thousand individuals, is so much that can hurt humans' conscience.
But then or even now, this historical event and misfortune, is not being mentioned in Iran and the region's political history or any other sources. It was covered at that time forever and even based on the evidence, when Iran was presenting their complaints against the western countries occupying the west of Iran in which Mahabad is located, never mentioned this city's genocide. Whatever Iran's agent discussed and demanded in Versailles, included everything except Mahabad's genocide event. This shows that as much as the Kurds have been oppressed by the superpowers of the region such as the Ottomans and the Russians, they have been under the central state's pressure, and at times of difficulties, even Iran's state has ignored them. Iran's state has never mentioned the Kurdish people whose 10 thousand people only in one city had been genocide even in a short line to demand their rights.
Hassan Qazi, in an article called "Seven Shocking Pieces of Evidence", has translated the evidence that he could find on this genocide written by foreign and non-Kurdish writers. He has shown that only in those writers' reports this event had been mentioned as a piece of news and it never was discussed later. In order to clarify this genocide, we mention one of these pieces of evidence that were written in an article by Gorrin:
Clearly, there was a newspaper published by the missionaries in Kurdistan named "Kurdistan Missionary". In this newspaper, those missionaries' activities in Kurdistan were published now and then. In the number 12 Kurdistan Missionary, which was published in September 1916, one of those people named "Goodheart" talked about this genocide that he had witnessed with his own eyes. As Hassan Qazi mentions, some people have said that this disaster happened in 1917. He later declined this claim based on some evidence because "Goodheart" was in America in 1917 and this article was written in 1916. The interview is written from a perspective that shows the writer had witnessed that catastrophe personally. Goodheart wrote:
The number of deaths is estimated at 10 thousand. The women and girls that had not been killed were taken with them. The number of people killed in Sablagh was 7670 most of whom were men. Bishop Phasom found one hundred and fifty bodies only in one house.
It should be noted that Bishop Phasom and Mrs. Yay Goodhart were both in Sablagh and witnessed the events. The article shows that Bishop Phasom, who assisted Goodheart, himself found 150 bodies in a house in Sablagh.
This short article proves a bitter fact. That is, in the conflicts between Russia and Ottomans in 1916 that happened in Mahabad, the Ottomans left Mahabad and the Russians began to occupy it. Apart from the fact that ten thousand people got killed in Mahabad, the Russians also raped their women and girls and they even took some of them away. According to all the modern rules and laws, this is an international genocide and the Kurdish intellectuals and scholars had to write against it and condemn it strongly and collect evidence on it so that they could use it to gain their national rights. Something that neither the Kurds did, nor the Iranian politicians ever mentioned.
