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they did not wish for British intervention ; the Patriarch, who affixed his
signature to this document, together with other spiritual leaders, shortly
afterwards left Mardin for Constantinople. It is probable that he was
induced to give his assent to this document by a rumour which was
circulated at that time, that it had been decided at the Peace Conference
to establish an independent Armenia under an American mandate ; the
Patriarch, it was said, had announced that in such a case he and his
community would remain loyal to Turkey or unite with the Kurds.
Another opp onen k of the British is the Syrian Catholic Bishop ; the club
used to meet in the houses of these two prelates.
I On the 19th of March, Yusuf Haidar and Khair-ud-Din uz-Zarguali,
the directors of the paper called “ El-Mufid,” which is published in
Damascus, printed a long article on Kurdish independence; / that this
article was of the nature of propaganda is proved by the fact that a large
number of copies was distributed free in the streets of Aleppo. fThe
document was entitled 1 An open letter to to the Kurds of North and
South Kurdistan” ; it began by lamenting the political indifference of the
Kurdish race and called to their minds President Wilson’s words about
“ the removal of the yoke of bygone days from the necks of nations, the
yoke which stifles all progress ” ; after referring to the noble uprising of
their kindred, the Arab people, to win for themselves a complete autonomy, it
invoked them to bestir themselves to claim a free Kurdistan which should
include Erzerum, Van, Bitlis, Kharput, Diarbekr, Mosul, and many
other places, where three and a half million Kurds live. I Unknown
agitators also were very active in distributing pamphlets in the towns
and villages; and their emissaries were known to have worked in Aleppo,
Midiat, Azekh, Goyan, and in the country to the north of Zakho, Nisibin,
Jezirat-ibn-‘Omar, Shernakh, Mosul, the country of the Zaband elsewhere.
Nor was 'Ali Batti, chief of the Haverki, inactive; for about this time he
met ‘Abd-ur-Rahman, chief of the Shernakhli, and Ramazan, chief of the
Salahan, in a conference at which they agreed to oppose the further
advance of the British towards their country. ‘Ali Batti then began bo
unite the aghawdt of the tribes around him in this movement and made
up his quarrel with Tzz-ud Din, chief of the Habasbani, in order to obtain
his support. t /
f. The Kurdish agitation had been started in Jezirat-ibn'Omar at the
beginning of February by ‘Ali Ihsan Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , who directed it chiefly against
the occupation of the country by the British Army^ influential Arabs and
Armenians from Mesopotamia were detained in prison without cause and
traffic on the Tigris was impeded at Mosul ;Cthe enrolling and arming of
Kurds was carried out without hindrance and all orders from Constantinople
to pub into execution the terms of the armistice were disregarded by the
Kurds, with the connivance of the local Turkish authorities.^ On the 25bh
of March representatives of the Kurdish National Committee at Constan
tinople passed through Mosul on their way to Suleimaniyah with letters
to the Kurdish tribes, urging them to rise and throw off the British yoke