'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎220v] (439/501)

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Baz and Des adjoining it, are now derelict. I remember well that to enter the Jelu
Valley from Gavvar 1 bad to traverse a gorge only a few feet wide, with limestone
crags towering two or three hundred feet on either side, and at a sharp turn of the
stream bed we were confronted by a stone loop-holed erection, by w r hich we had to pass.
This could have been occupied and held by a tew men if the Jelu people had wished to
dispute our passage.
This gives an idea of the difficulties of controlling these wild districts without
using a large military force, which the Turks declined to do.
Looking farther south along the Persian frontier, the Bashkala Government
generally maintained kaimakam in Neri, which before the war contained the fine house
in which resided the Sheikh of Neri, the father of the present Sheikh Sayyid Taha,
wnom we have recently installed as District Governor of Bowanduz. The old sheikh
was a remarkable man of considerable wealth derived from tobacco growing in the
district and from smuggling it over the Persian border at Katunan, where he had
another large house, a mansion for these parts. A man of great reputed sanctity, he
was a special protege of the late Sultan Abdul Hamid, and consequently the kaimakam,
if at all assertive, found himself in a most difficult position, as bis royal master would
hear nothing against so holy a personage as the sheikh, and, moreover, one who sent
him such costly presents.
I encountered once a kaimakam in the far north of the Van Vilayet, where he had
just got a post, wffio told me of recent experiences of his post at Neri, wffiere he had
fallen foul of the sheikh in some way, and suddenly one evening found himself engaged
in a desperate struggle with three Kurds, who leapt in through the window with the
intention of strangling him. He told me he just managed to escape, but thought it
best to ask for transfer to another post.
At present the houses of the old sheikh at Neri and Katunan are in ruins after
the war, and the place is occupied by a Turkish garrison, a detachment of the
9th Army Corps, and is an important centre of action, political and military, against
our position in Bowanduz and also in Akra.
In previous memos I have set out the importance of this line of Van-Bashkala-
Diza-N eri—Bowanduz to the Turks as being the only easy route through this mountainous
country, and thus the best for military action and propaganda against our position in
Southern Kurdistan.
For not only is there an easy mountain track from Neri through Kaniresh to
Bowanduz, but there is also a track, much used, through Barzan, the Great Zab Ferry
at Bezan to Zebar and Akra, centres of hostile activity against us.
South of Neri, where the authority of Van was none too secure under the old
sheikh, its authority scarcely penetrated ; the Kurdish district Haschea, close to the
Persian frontier, was regarded as practically independent, as was Baradost. Bowanduz
was then in the \ ilayet of Mosul, and there was no settled boundary between it and
the district under the Sheikh of Neri, although such might have been roughly indicated
by the line of the Budbar-i-Barasgir, about Kaniresh, near which our frontier has
temporarily been drawn, and behind which the Turkish invaders of Bowanduz have
recently been driven by our troops.
r lhis concludes the survey of the shadowy boundaries between the Sanjak of
Hakkiari and the Mosul Vilayet, and we may turn further north to the limits of the
Sanjak of Van itself to the south-west of that town. South of Van itself a kaimakam
was installed in Shattakh, a small place, once half •Armenian, on the upper waters of
the Boh tan Biver, and connected with Van by a good road over a low easy pass.
From here the Nurduz district immediately to the south, consisting of high uplands
or downs easy to traverse, was controlled. Sometimes a mudir, under the kaimakam,
was installed in Merwanen, or a local agha was employed to look after the several
villages of sedentary Kurds in Nurduz. These, with the district of Khoshab (Makmudie)
to the east, also the seat of a kaimakam, rarely gave any trouble, and these districts
were well under control.
But it was to the south-west of Merwanen where difficulties began, as in that
direction habitations ceased, and the great upland pasturages or “ yailas ” of the nomad
Kurds commenced.
One of the largest of these “yailas” was that of Farashin, under the
northern slope of Kokobulend Peak, usually occupied by the Hartoshi confederation
of Kurds.
I have travelled along the line of migration of these nomads without seeing a
single habitation after leaving Shernakh, near Jezire-ibn-Omar, until I reached Merwanen
a fortnight later.

'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎220v] (439/501)

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'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎220v] (439/501)

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