Revolt

Fethi Bey, Turkish Prime Minister, last week turned his head this way and that, like a victim in the hands of a photographer, but never would he look in the lens. At last he gave up his evasive fight, admitted that the Kurds had revolted, under the leadership of Sheik Said, against the National Turkish Government at Angora. He further admitted that the revolt was serious. Martial law was proclaimed. Eight Turkish divisions (two-fifths of the entire Standing Army) were dispatched to Kurdistan* to quell the bloodthirsty Kurds. Five classes of conscripts were called to the colors. General Ismet Pasha, onetime Prime Minister, was appointed to command military operations. It was impossible to determine the extent or the success of the fighting, as reports were as speedily denied as they were issued; but it could be assumed, since the Turkish Army had not had time to get into action, that no decisive engagements had taken place. The causes for the revolt were obscured, probably by the Turkish censorship. Prime Minister Fethi Bey declined to call it more than a "serious revolt"; but lurking behind the admission is the suspicion that the Kurds are demanding Kurdistan for the Kurds, an echo of the old cry of self-determination. To begin with, they have proclaimed Prince Selim, one of Abdul Hamid's sons, King of Kurdistan, and have also proclaimed themselves as crusaders in the holy cause of Islam against the "atheist" Kemalists who now govern Turkey from her new capital, Angora, in the heart of the Anatolian Peninsula. But the matter goes further. In effect, this is nothing more than the unfurling of the banner of the House of Osman, deposed by the Grand National Assembly in 1922, and raising the question of the Califate, suppressed by the Assembly in 1923 (TIME, Apr. 28,1923). A Kurdish victory, therefore, could mean but one thing--defeat of the Kemalists, resurrection of the Califate at Constantinople, restoration of the Ottoman Empire. It may well be that the Angora Government is only too conscious of these issues; and in view of the gravity of the revolt (the Kurds number, perhaps, a quarter of the entire population of Turkey), have thought it politic to lay the blame on "foreign" (probably meaning British) intrigue.

*Kurdistan is a tract of territory lying partly within Turkish borders, partly within Persian. A large part of the territory was known before and during the War as Armenia. The Kurds are a fierce, lawless people or whom the late Sultan Abdul Hamid II placed much reliance for the internal peace of his shaking Empire. Now that there are an Armenians to kill (they have been driver from the country, exchanged and massacred) it was suggested that the Kurds have nov turned to killing the Turks.