Kurdistan During WWI and the Armenian Genocide
by Kamal Mazhar Ahmad
Kordestan dar salha-ye jang-e jahani-e avval va qatl-e aamm-e aramaneh
Ruydad-e Dehkadeh Jahani Publishing, 1385. 189 pp

• Yerevan, October 23 2007, Noyan Tapan - Armenians Today . The book entitled "Kurdistan during World War I and Armenian Genocide" was translated from Kurdish into Persian. The book written by Kurd historian Kamal Mazhar Ahmad was translated by Rauf Kyarim (Karimi), as well a Kurd by origin. According to the "Alik" daily, the documentary work is valuable especially in the sense that its author is a Kurd, the book gives new documentary information to the readers about the Armenian Genocide. New facts appear concerning the Turky's anti-Armenian policy, when the book author uncover the young Turks' genocide programs and goals impartially and based on true bases, which, in words of Kamal Mazhar Ahmad, always attempted to ascribe their own sin to Kurds, to spread enmity among the latters and Armenians.
  

• The following is a review of Kamal Mazhar Ahmad's book Kordestan dar salha-ye jang-e jahani-e avval va qatl-e aamm-e aramaneh ("Kurdistan During WWI and the Armenian Genocide"). Trans. Rauf Karimi. Tehran: Ruydad-e Dehkadeh Jahani Publishing, 1385. 189 pp. 15000 rls. The review appeared in Jahan-e Ketab Magazine, No. 209-211.
  
  
• World War I was a determining event for many ethnicities and nations of the Middle East. For the imperial forces old and new it was an attempt to preserve and expand their hegemony or move to the sidelines. It was during this war that more than one million Armenians were massacred, putting them on the brink of extinction. Also, with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire at the end of this war, nomadic Kurds acquired a national identity and the question of forming a nation-state unit called "Kurdistan" first came about.
  
  According to documents remaining from this period, next to the "Special Establishment" units of the Ottomans, the nomadic Kurd units played a determining role in the killing of Armenians in 1915 and this book is an attempt to understand the historical events leading up to the genocide.
  
  But Kurdistan During WWI and the Armenian Genocide is not successful in the objective that it sets out for itself. One of the most important reasons is the wide range of issues that informs regional politics. The mere study of "Kurdistan during WWI," given the region's vast geographic expanse, including the evolution of Kurdish regions in Iran, Mesopotamia, the northern regions of Anatolia, and their developments during WWI could span volumes, let alone the complex issue of Armenian Genocide. This, of course, has become a current political issue given Turkey's status vis-à-vis EU membership. With the recent availability of Turkey's archival material to researchers, the complex dimensions of the issue are coming to the fore. The importance of this book is that it recognizes the controversy surrounding the genocide and the unfortunate role that Kurds played in it.
  
  One of the high points of this study is its referencing Russian sources, which have seldom been included in historical studies. {Kamal Mazhar Ahmad} is an Iraqi Kurd who went to the Soviet Union after World War II and got his PhD in Kurdish History. Tsarist Russia also paid great attention to the Kurdish region as part of it expansionist policies and some of the resources referenced in Kurdistan During WWI and the Armenian Genocide are from the Tsarist period.
  
  
• Farrokh Amirfaryar, tehranavenue.com, 2006-December
  
  
• Kurdistan during First World War, Kamal Madahar Ahmad, Review by Hilmar Kaiser, JSAS, Vol.9, (1996, 1997 [1999]): pp.149-151
  

La Conférence-Débat " L’Histoire et le sort des minorités en Turquie" 
Versailles samedi 25 novembre 2006

• A une question posée sur le rôle des Kurdes durant le génocide,
  - Vassia Karkayannis-Karabelias, historienne et critique d’art, souligne que les autorités turques ont toujours utilisé les populations les plus défavorisées de l’Empire ottoman pour faire le sale boulot.
  - Kendal Nezan, président de l’Institut kurde de Paris, réaffirme : C’est une page noire dans l’histoire des Kurdes. Les milices hamidiennes ont été créées par Abdul Hamid, contre les visées de l’Empire tsariste. Elles ont repris du service dès que l’ordre de génocide a été décidé par les membres du gouvernement Jeune-Turc. Ces mêmes milices ont également été utilisées contre le mouvement national kurde. Malheureusement, des milices, on en trouve partout, même en France pendant la seconde guerre mondiale... Beaucoup de Kurdes ont protégé leurs voisins, comme les Justes du temps de la Shoah, au péril de leur vie. Cette question de la participation des Kurdes a été posée dès les années 20 : il n’y a pas de négationnistes chez nous.
  - Raymond Haroutioun Kévorkian : L’historiographie officielle turque a brouillé les pistes pour désigner les Kurdes comme responsables. Mais la réalité est autre : l’Organisation Spéciale avec ses cadres Tcherkesses dirigeait les milices kurdes nomades. Très peu de Kurdes sédentaires ont participé aux massacres.

Les massacres de la province de Diyarbékir
et les Sauvageries des Kurdes
(Récit d'un témoin oculaire)


par Thomas K. Meguerditchian,
ancien vice-consul britannique à Diyarbekir
128 pages . imprimerie Krikor Djihanian, le Caire 1919