Title: Britain’s Kurdish Policy and Kurdistan 1918 -1923
Author: Ilhan KILIC
Place of publication:
Publisher:
Release date:2018

The Kurdish issue has remained in place on Turkey’s agenda and that of the world for almost a hundred years. This subject recently became a current issue again with the invasion of Iraq by the coalitions in 2003. Over time, Turkey has attempted to enact different policies in order to resolve the Kurdish problem that causes armed to enact different policies in order to resolve the Kurdish problem that causes armed conflicts in some regions even now. Declaration of part of Iraq as Iraqi Kurdistan region in 2005 by some Kurds who benefited from the chaos in this region brought a new dimension to the subject. The Kurds managed to found an autonomous region on the border of Turkey. Civil war broke out along the southern border of Turkey and Syria in 2011. The balance of the Southern border of Turkey has changed with Kurdish communities actively taking a role in the civil war in Syria. On 16th of July 2014, ‘The law for ending terrorism and strengthening social integrity’ was published in Turkey, and the Democratic initiative process was legalized. All these factors brought the Kurdish problem back into question.The archival documents show that the Kurdish-British relations became intense especially between 1918 and 1923. In this term relationships were established between some British officers and Kurdish leaders. Major Noel, Major Soane, Talbot Wilson and Percy Cox in Eastern Anatolia and in the Mesopotamia region; Admiral Webb and Admiral Calthorpe in Istanbul; Churchill and George Curzon in London played important roles in shaping the British – the Kurdish relations, and in negotiations on possibility of establishing a Kurdish state. The British officials met with Sayyid Abdulkadir in Anatolia, Serif Pasha in Europe, Sheikh Mahmud and Sheikh Taha in Iraq and undertook important negotiations.[1]