Interesting early analysis of the Kurdish national movement from around the Comintern’s Third Congress reported in its English-language newspaper. I have not a clue who ‘V. Suerto’ is.

‘The National Movement Among the Kurds’ by V. Suerto from Moscow. No. 6. May 31, 1920.

There is again a revolt in Kurdestan. This is not the first year that the Kurd nation is struggling for its liberty and it is not their first rising against the yoke of the Turkish Bey’s and Pashas and against the domination of the Caliph.

Forty years ago this movement had become quite defined and in 1903 it even had its own printed organ “Kurdistan-Borrcham-Boya” which conducted an energetic struggle for the liberation of the Kurdestan nation. The centres of these, “absurd visionaries” were the towns Publibmanne, Takiya Semme and others. The Sultans struggled in vain against the Kurds: the punitive expeditions and cruel repressions had the exact opposite results to which they were intended. The Sultan Adul Hamid only “weighed up” the Kurds, decided to bribe them. He made presents and of land to the Beys and Sheiks, (the Spiritual leaders of the Kurds), granted them special rights, rewarded them with titles, and important posts. For instance for services rendered in the Russo-Turkish war the Sultan presented the tribes of Chamava with extensive lands. There they erected castles, subjected the “Raia” (a separate population) to their rule, and took to brigandage. The Sultan particularly tried to use the Kurds against the Armenians, counting the latter as enemies of the Turkish Empire; he gave the Kurds unlimited powers in comparison to the Armenians: the right to impose taxes for their own benefit, to dispose of their property unchecked, etc.; by their aid the Sultan accomplished his brutal plans; created differences, caused massacres, etc. The Sultan was successful in temporarily disorganising the Kurd nation, but the intelligentsia clearly saw the ruin of such a policy, and conducted a fierce struggle against corruption introduced by the servants of the Caliph. “Kurdestan” more than once pointed out the danger for the Kurds–lying in these international relations. The migratory agitators of the Young Kurds strenuously tried to convince them against acts of provocations and more than once in recent years, the Kurds refused to carry out the orders of the Pashas and the Beys and in the last massacres during the war as was proved by the Armenians–that the places where the Kurds were in the majority suffered least. Not one thousand Armenian families were saved by the Kurds from the persecution of the Turkish gendarmes.

The Kurd National movement is one of the most interesting phenomena. The Kurds a nation half of which are settlers “Paia” and the other half nomadic-pastoral, chiefly “settler” state. The tribal form still exist, the outlines of the “nation” are still very indistinct. But the national Movement for liberation has sprung up and has now assumed a very fierce form. How can this be explained? First of all Turkey did much to assist it by its executions and repressions.

The main causes however may be found in the economics of this country. Kurdestan is a hilly country with a great amount of cattle-breeding and the products therefrom, with a great need for imported materials. It has had close economic connection with Persia, Armenia and Mesopotamia for a long period, while it had no connection with its Metropolis apart from a political connection. The idealist Kurd intelligentsia has close relations with the Mesopotamian Arabs and the latter had a great influence in the formation of the movement for freedom. The British, not wholly unsuccessfully, tried to take advantage of this latter circumstance, during the war. They made an effort by means of the Arabs to organise an uprising of the Kurds against the Turks. They succeeded in convincing a number of tribes to remain neutral during the English offensive from the south. Towards the end of the war the English abandoned all thought of making use of the Kurd National movement in their own imperialist interests. It is very evident that the British are now still supporting the Kurd nationalists.

Nevertheless this does not mean in the least that this entire movement is artificial and the result of the snares of the imperialists. It is carried on under the leadership of the young Kurds united around the Mutual Aid Society in Constantinople, which has branches in all cities of Eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and a newspaper “Djin”, the organ of the nationalists of Constantinople. A great number of the agitators of this Society tour all the cities of Kurdestan and untiringly agitate for the independence of Kurdestan. Ferid-Pasha, one of the Sultan’s ministers, asserted that this movement had an immense influence over the masses of the Kurd people. At first Kemal promised to make them autonomous, but the Kurds following the example of the Armenians realized that the promise of Kemal meant nothing and continued to fight.

At one time Kemal-Pasha put down the Kurds very severely, this was in the middle of 1919, the second time will be much more difficult, for the aggressive tendencies of the Kemalist Movement, to reestablish Turkey in its ancient boundaries (no wonder the Sultan had a prayer said in Aia-Sofia for victory for Kemal), united the anti-Turk forces as much as weaken the militarists by rousing series of peasant as well as nationalist uprisings.

Moscow was the English-language newspapers of the Communist International’s Third Congress held in Moscow during 1921. Edited by T. L. Axelrod, the paper began on May 25, a month before the Congress, to July 12.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/3rd-congress/moscow/Moscow%20issue%206.pdf