'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎210v] (425/862)

308 history
at least those Kurds who lived outside Mosul vilayet, British policy
still toyed with the notion of creating a small state of southern
Kurdistan out of the Mosul Kurds, and from the beginning the
administration was committed to a policy of special treatment for
Kurdish areas in accordance with the Anglo-French Declaration of
1918. Such doctrines naturally excited the wild Kurds and wilder
chiefs, particularly in the remote regions and traditional centres of
Kurdish independence such as Amadia, Ruwandiz, and Sulaimaniya,
the main centre of the autonomists. For twelve years (1919-1931)
intrigues and outbreaks centred on Shaikh M^ahmud of Sulaimaniya,
the most notable of a number of Kurdish shaikhs and aghas who were
all impatient of any government save their own. The strength of these
chiefs lay in their ability to raise revenues by terrorizing their
villagers and to maintain armed bands with the funds raised. The
tribesmen themselves, whether shepherds or cultivators, though
easily excited by political or religious talk to acts of violence, were
worn out by the destitution and poverty brought by the war and
anxious for settled government and freedom from the excessive
tyranny of their chiefs. If the Turkish claim to Mosul had not been
left open for so many years the history of Iraqi Kurdistan would have
been less troubled by local rebellion.
Mahmud, who had invited the British to Sulaimaniya before the
armistice, was for a time recognized not only as governor of his
district but as leader of any Kurdish tribe between the Great Zab
and the Diyala which freely accepted him. Temporarily he had
a great following, but his misgovemment soon made it necessary to
curb his authority by providing Sulaimaniya and other centres with
forceful Political Officers. Mahmud retaliated by collecting a troop
of Kurds from Persia, seizing Sulaimaniya, and declaring himself
ruler of all Kurdistan (May 1919). Military action soon put an end
to this kingdom. Mahmud was tried and sentenced to death, the
sentence being changed to banishment. Similar rebellions, usually
more local in scope, continued to trouble the remoter districts.
In 1921 Sulaimaniya province rejected union with the new man
datory state of Iraq and refused to vote in the referendum for Faisal,
while the Kurds of Erbil and Ruwandiz voted against Faisal, though
accepting union with Iraq. A special provisional administration was
devised for these areas, but British authority was weakened by the great
reduction of military forces, and the substitution of R.A.F. squadrons,
some armoured car companies and Levies raised in Iraq, for the
regular army of occupation. It was the opportunity of the Turks, who