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and Progress in the same place, were sowing the seeds of rebellion among the
tribes in the immediate surroundings of the town and organising a force to
fight against the British. For the same purpose Turkish troops were
reported to he joining the Milli tribes, and the Turkish military authorities
presented Mahmud with two or three field-guns. Meanwhile, Mustafa
Bey, chief of the Karakechili tribe, quarrelled with his cousin ‘Abd-ul-Qadir
Bey, chief of the Karakechili tribe, over the question of joining the Milli;
the government of Severek tried to mediate between these two chiefs in
order to win them over to the side of the'Milli, but without success.
1 In Diarbekr the Kurdish Club was already organised and at work; its
activities seemed to be two-fold: primarily they were intended to check
British intervention, for which a volunteer force of young Turks and
Kurds was enrolled; in the second place, it was directed against the
Armenians, v To this end the mufti of Severek was induced to issue a
religious decree that, as the Armenians who went to Aleppo did so in order
to accuse Moslems of complicity in the Armenian massacres before their
co-religionists, it was no crime for a Moslem to kill any Armenian who
was guilty of such a course of action ; consequently, the Armenians again
became subject to molestation at the hands of Turks and Kurds. The
ringleaders were Sherbeji Shamdin oghlu ‘Abd-ur-Rahman and Sallah
Bey Sayyid.
iNominally the Turkish government was opposed to these operations
and ordered the arrest of several prominent members of the Committee
of Union and Progress, who immediately took refuge with the neigh-
bouring Kurdish tribes, where they were engaged in preaching the
independence of Kurdistan. * In their absence the crusade against the
British and Armenians as Christians was carried on by other Turkish
members of the club; they even went so far as to publish notices in the
streets, inviting all patriotic Kurds to join the Kurdish Club. On the 21st
of March they met a deputation of Kurdish chiefs and others, amongst
whom were Hajji Ahmed, chief of the Serkuji, Serdim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , chief of the
Hazo, the mufti of Severek and two notables of Derek. It was arranged
at this meeting to defend Mardin and Diarbekr against the British at all
costs; simultaneously Nejim Effendi ihn Amin Effendi and Shevket Bey
were sent to stir up the inhabitants of Midiat.
/In Mardin the Kurdish Club was managed by seven prominent citizens,
‘Abd-ur-Rnziq Shahtana, ‘Abd-ul-Qadir Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. and his son Shakir Bey,
Najib Effendi, Shevket Bey, Sheikhiy Shahtana and Khadr Chelebi
Shahtana. These men were careful to conceal their plans from all
Christians, as their object was to prevent the occupation of Mardin by the
British. They sought to obtain signatures to a document to the effect
that all the inhabitants of the town, Kurds, Turks and Christians, were
unanimous in desiring an autonomous Kurdistan); but many persons refused
to sign it, including Mar Elias, the Patriarch of the Old Syrian Church,
who gave as his reason for declining that he was an Ottoman and not a
Kurd. Finally, they drew up another statement that, being Ottomans,