'Kurdistan and the Kurds' [‎13r] (25/122)

2B
the forces of these tribes; on the next day a body of gendaimes ^vas
despatched to quell the disturbance and to investigate its causes as fully
as possible. The officer in charge of them endeavoured to arrange a
meeting between the chiefs of both tribes with a view to bringing about
an understanding between them, but he did not dare to take any measures
to punish the guilty party. On the 26th of the month the Badelli received
reinforcements from the Karakechili, and on the following day they attacked
the Dukurlu, who were forced to beat a retreat and leave several villages
in the hands of the enemy. Two days later the officer in charge of the
gendarmes sent an urgent message to Uriah to ask for more police , on the
BOth ten mounted gendarmes were .despatched to him. On the same day
the Mutesarrif of Uriah sent a telegram to Severek requesting the cavalry-
commander there to send out some troops to the scene of the disturbances.
In the evening the officer commanding the gendarmes arrived at Urfah in
person and reported that he was ill and unable to suppress the turbulent
tribesmen. By this time the Badelli had obtained further help from the
Sheikhan tribe .and had captured the small town of Dibhassar. On the
1st of May the Badelli occupied the hills on the west of the river Jullab,
while the Dukurlu lay encamped on the opposite bank. Thereupon the
Mutesarrif elected nrne of the notables of Urfah as delegates and sent
them next day to arrange peace between the tribes. Ihe Dukurlu then
had abo.ut 500 troops in the field and the Badelli about 800 men ; the
casualties, it was said, amounted to 70 killed on both sides. Three days
later the mounted gendarmes and the delegation arrived back in Urfah and
reported that the dispute had been settled, and a truce of one month s
duration signed, when a definite treaty of peace would he concluded. The
most effective argument employed by the emissaries was the fear ot British
intervention. Both the parties, however, continued to threaten vengeance
and an early renewal of hostilities was thought probable, especially as
Sayyid Bey, the chief of the Badelli, had not surrendered all the plunder
that he had taken.
The Karakechili* tribes, unlike the Milli, are all of Kurdish origin! ;
they are fewer in number, but braver than the Milli, with whom they
have been on terms of enmity for at least thirty y'eais, the fighting
between these two tribes being more or less continuous. One of the
* Or Karagetch. , _ , , „
t Another view is that these Kinds were originally a nomad Turkoman clan of
Western Anatolia Peninsula that forms most of modern-day Turkey. , who were settled by Sultan Selim on the slopes of the Qarajah
Dagh. The object of this transfer was to compensate Kurdistan for the loss of Ziriki,
Tirikan, and other tribes, which the Ottoman Government had forcibly settled in
Western Anatolia Peninsula that forms most of modern-day Turkey. . The Karakechili, however, quickly inter-married with the local,
non-tribal Kurds of low origin, and, being illiterate, they soon lost their language and
became, to all intents and purposes, a Kurdish tribe. Further, owing to the fact that
for some years after their re settlement they were protected and favoured by the
Ottoman Government, many families of nomadic Kurds joined their encampments,
and not only swelled their numbers, but also completed their transformation from a
Turkoman into a Kurdish tribe.—(Sykes).