Grandson of Sheikh Said, Kurdish Tribal Leader, Declares "Palestine is True Armenian Homeland"

(Zaman Online; 26,10,06)

Abdulilah Firat, grandson of the infamous Kurdish chieftain Sheikh Said of Piran, is quoted as making a series of outrageous statements regarding Armenians and the events of 1915.

Most notable are his claims that:

1)The homeland of the Armenians is Palestine. They were exiled by the Byzantines to Anatolia.

2) The Hamidiye Kurdish Calvary units were formed by Sultan Hamid to "protect the Muslims from the Armenians."


3)Armenians began slaughtering Turks without provocation and were armed by Europe.

These and other ridiculous distortions are to be found at Zaman

What are we to make of Mr. Firat's statements. Are his views shared by other Kurds of his stature who should know better?? We would urge Mr. Firat to reacquaint himself with a more objective history of the time. The book "People Without A Country:The Kurds And Kurdistan", edited by Gerard Chaliand, would be a good start.

(Pokr Mher: Sheikh Said of Piran led a Kurdish uprising in and around Kharpert in the mid 1920's. The forces under his leadership soon had "liberated" huge areas in eastern Anatolia. Ankara sent 80,ooo troops to quash the revolt and, with the help of the French, used the Northern Syrian railroad to encircle the Kurdish partisans who were besieging the city of Diyarbekir. On September 4, 1925, Sheikh Said and 52 of his followers were hung in Diyarbekir. Turkish repression was brutal. Thousands of Kurdish peasants were massacred and hundreds of Kurdish villages were burnt to the ground. In the autumn of 1925 some 400 Kurdish patriots were hung in Kharpert and 100 more in Hinis..)