Great Britain has never considered establishing a state called Kurdistan. Particularly after the March conference in Cairo in March 1921, they never had that thought. T.E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Martin Sykes, and Arnold Wilson took part in the Cairo Conference in March 1921. Those who spoke at that conference believed that Sheikh Mahmoud Barzanji's war with the British was very wrong. We can also remember that Mustafa Kamal supported Sheikh Mahmoud Barzanji in that fight and even sent his army weapons.
Six months ago, we announced the 100th commemoration of the Lausanne Conference that took place in Lausanne, Switzerland. In this article, I try to retail what I saw during those two days at that conference. We took part in the 100th commemoration of the Lausanne Conference with Jamal Tamal, a member of IBV.
The airplane that took off in Istanbul airport, landed in Geneva airport. Geneva is 40 kilometers away from Lausanne. Switzerland is a country that is totally developed in credit cards and also small industries. At the same time, there is a developed form of agriculture in this country. On both sides of the road, we saw many places where there were no crops in them, or in order to protect the crops from rainfall, they had planted tall trees. There was a lot of livestock. There were many large structures for keeping agricultural machineries and vehicles such as tractors and trucks visible which indicates there are enough infrastructures for agriculture in this country. The food on the table, such as bread, cheese, chicken, and all kinds of vegetables showed that Switzerland is a highly developed country for its agriculture and livestock and they firmly try to make these fields even stronger. (See Dogan Ceren, Switzerland, the most beautiful land in the Alpes, Volume 1, Published by Serenis, February 2021, Switzerland, p. 176, 178, 296).
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The conference was held in the Conference Hall at Royal Savoy Hotel in Lausanne. During these two days, this hall was always crowded. We can say that during these two days, almost 500 people took part in the event. At this conference, representatives of the North, West, South, and East parts of Kurdistan gave speeches. However, I believe that the lack of a representative from the Caucasus was a great flaw for this conference.
On May 11th, 2023, the national memorial for Barzani was opened. The lack of a Caucasian representative in that event also was strange to me.
Another flaw in my opinion was the lack of female speakers in that event. There was only the name of one woman in the panel to give a speech for the first day's afternoon, however, later only male speakers showed up.
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In the second panel, during the QA section, the women claimed that "we did not have the opportunity to talk" and then they participated in repeating the slogan of "Woman, Life, Freedom". The majority of these women had taken part in the conference in traditional Kurdish dresses. Another peculiar point was that some names were in the program who were supposed to give speeches but they did not participate in the event at all.
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One of the speakers said that the Ottoman part of Kurdistan was divided into three parts and that the Iranian part of Kurdistan was separated long before that. I believe that this is an incomplete statement in terms of partnership and division, thus it is better to say that; a society was divided in a particular historical point and now this happens in a stronger form.
In the first fifty years of the seventeenth century in 1639, Kurdistan was divided into two parts between the Ottoman and Iran empires by the order of the Shirin Palace.
That part of Kurdistan that was under Iran's empire's authority was attacked by the Russians in the first 25 years of the 19th century. The northern parts of this part of Kurdistan were dominated by the Tsardom of Russia in the 1828 treaty.
After the Sykes-Picot treaty in 1916, the Kurdistan under Ottoman's authority got divided into three parts and this was confirmed in the 1923 Lausanne Treaty.
In order to know how the idea of the division was developed, we need to discuss another topic here. In the first discussions between Britain and France on the Sykes-Picot treaty, they decided that the Barzan and Badinan areas of Kurdistan would be given to France as parts of Syria and Britain would dominate the Suleimani and Kirkuk regions. This situation clarifies the questions on the division issues. Kurdistan got divided into North, South, East, and West and later the South part got divided one more time. (See Hassan Yaldiz, Those who did politics by the name of Kurdistan were in the large cities not in their countries. Dang, No. 128, May 2023, p. 16).
As I mentioned before, Mosul province was completely under Britain's control. Since France thought that the lands that were under their control were not large enough, they withdrew from the negotiation. After the treaty of Ankara on October 20, 1921, the Ankara State was recognized officially and the border of Syria - Turkey was established.
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The Turks considered Lausanne as a haunting ghost for Turkey; Suleiman Damral (1924 – 2015) the ninth President of Turkey both at the time he was prime minister and later when he became the President, had called the Lausanne treaty a haunting ghost for Turkey.
The social events and the political circumstances of Turkey for the Turks and the Kurds have different meanings. For instance, when the Lausanne Treaty was called a haunting ghost by the Turks, the Kurds saw it as a form of Colonialism. Osman Baidamir who gave a speech in the 100th commemoration of the Lausanne Treaty said that this treaty was a corpse's suit for the Kurds.
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The 100th commemoration of the Lausanne Treaty commenced with a speech by Esmail Kamil the head of Kurdistan Diaspora Confederation. Hemin Hewrami, the representative of Chief Masoud Barzani, and Shifa Barzani, the general manager of Kurdistan Diaspora Confederation gave speeches too.
Later the first panelists were invited to join the speakers. In this part, some academic and political figures who were not Kurds spoke. I was one of the five people who spoke in this part.
Former French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kochner who was invited to give a speech in this section, did not take part in the event. A professor from Ohio University spoke in this section.
Rodger Nordmann, a Swiss politician and a member of Canton of Vod, also gave a speech in this section. The British photographer, Richard Wilding, was also one of the speakers.
On the first afternoon of the event, the representatives of the East and the West parts of Kurdistan spoke.
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On the second day in the morning, Mullah Baxtiar from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Hoshyar Zebari of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, Mustafa Hijri from the Democratic Party of Kurdistan of Iran, and Osman Baidamir, the former mayor of Amed municipality gave their speeches.
Mulla Baxtiar talked about colonialism, Kemalism, and Bolshevism in his speech. He also said that these three parties were united with those who divided Kurds and Kurdistan and they supported those policies that the three parties were implementing. He said that they were always against Kurds and Kurdistan.
In the beginning, I said that Osman Baidamir said that the Lausanne Treaty was a corpse suit for Kurdistan. He criticized those countries who agreed with the Lausanne Treaty signed it and supported it.
Hoshyar Zebari talked about the South part of Kurdistan's circumstances.
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Some of the speakers talked about the British plans for Kurdistan. The discovery of oil in Kirkuk in the nineteenth century was discussed and this oil was sold in the international markets. Oil was very essential to the British. After World War I, the British who had established a country named Iraq, considered Mosul province a part of Iraq.
Great Britain never thought about establishing a country named Kurdistan. Particularly after the March conference in Cairo in March 1921, they never had that thought. T.E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Martin Sykes, and Arnold Wilson took part in the Cairo Conference in March 1921. Those who spoke at that conference believed that Sheikh Mahmoud Barzanji's war with the British was very wrong. We can also remember that Mustafa Kamal supported Sheikh Mahmoud Barzanji in that fight and even sent his army weapons.
When Sharif Makka Hossein (1852 _ 1931) cooperated with the British to get rid of the Ottoman, at that time Sheikh Mahmoud Barzanji said, "We will redeem Islam, we will redeem the imprisoned Calipha", and he was also fighting the British makes us feel very confused! This shows that the Kurdish politicians at the time of Sheikh Mahmoud did not understand the international changes comprehensively.
In fact, the Kurdish intellectuals and politicians of that time lived in big cities such as Istanbul and they were far away from the Kurdish society and the newspapers and magazines they used to send to Kurdistan could not have a great impact on people.
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In 1920 Great Britain decided that the Turkish government must be established as the Ottoman's extension so that they would prevent Bolshevism from spreading out.
The 100th commemoration of the Lausanne Treaty speakers discussed Mosul as well. The Turkish politicians wanted to add Mosul to Turkey. Mustafa Kamal also emphasized this point a lot. Mustafa Kamal's representative and some military units were in Rwandiz and they had diplomatic disagreements on this issue with the British until the end of 1923. In my opinion, this issue was solved this way.
Perhaps Mustafa Kamal had said that he would retreat his forces and claim on Mosul if the British never accepted the Kurds' demand for independence and autonomy and did not agree with that. Great Britain had accepted these demands of Mustafa Kamal completely. We can simply see this in the events that happened in the region.
Great Britain managed all its colonies from India to Kenya with an independent government. In this respect, the British way of managing colonies was different from the way the French used to do it. The only place where Britain did not establish an independent state in it is Kurdistan. I think this was a response to Mustafa Kamal's demands.
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Some of the speakers at this conference said that the first Lausanne Conference was held to implement Turkey's demands.
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In the 100th commemoration of the Lausanne Treaty, I answered the questions that the audience asked me. The first question was that the Lausanne treaty was signed for a century and when this time is ended, the conditions of the treaty will be meaningless, is it true? I answered: The Treaty of Lausanne is a permanent international treaty and the consequences of it will always involve the governments.
The second question was about the Kurdish language. Can those Kurds who plan for the establishment of the Great Kurdistan, use the Kurdish language as a diplomatic language? What can be said about the Kurdish language use?
In response to that, I said that in the South and East and West parts of Kurdistan, there is no problem for such an issue however, in the North part there is a big problem. Dictating the hegemony and assimilation of Kurds by the Turks is continuing. In my opinion, this has occurred even more during the revolution of the Garillas and political parties such as DEHAP, DEP, HEP, HDP, and HADEP.
During the revolution, when it was necessary that being a citizen of Kurdistan became a daily issue, being a Turkish citizen became more popular. It also resulted in the development of assimilation.
Thus, stronger and more firmly awareness must be dedicated to the Kurdish language. Without the Kurdish language, the national revolution does not mean much.
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Since we had to go to the airport on time, we did not take part in the second afternoon of the conference in which the final panel was held.
In this panel, Esmail Kamil, the head of Kurdistan Diaspora Confederation, Kurdish and Iraqi diplomats, Borhan Jaf, the former Iraqi ambassador in Greece and Kenia, Mahmat Tanrvardi, the Kurdish politician in Germany, Professor Hawre Mansour Bag and the Kurdish attorney Shekhmous Ozdamir participated.
* The conference was held by the Switzerland Center of Kurdistan Diaspora Confederation.
** The printed program included:
Years of Division Kurdistan 1923- 2023 A Century After The Treaty of Lausanne, Opinion and Perspectives 27 and 28th May 1923
