Mr. Grattan Geary, who travelled through Asiatic Turkey in 1878, describes the Kurds as “fine, strong fellows, with well marked features, which are, however, often marred by a sinister expression and a furtive glance, for which it is not easy to account in the descendants of a race of martial mountaineers who have never bowed the neck to any yoke. They have a reputation for treachery and cruelty, which I am afraid is not undeserved.” Mr. Geary during his journey found that the outlying Christian and Moslem villages were again being plundered by the Kurdish mountaineers although
the raids and disturbances which distracted the country before the Sultan’s authority was made real in the more hilly parts of Kurdistan, had been reduced to very small dimensions before the war with Servia, and afterwards with Russia, caused the Turkish troops to be withdrawn.
but in the opinion of those with whom he spoke on the subject
the whole state of things in Kurdistan might be changed in the course of a twelvemonth by a little firmness and energy on the part of the officials representing the Government. The power of the Kurds for organized resistance has been completely broken, and the military strength of the Government can be no longer contested by them. The change has, even as it is, greatly ameliorated the lot of the Christian and the Jewish population; but to complete the work a sufficient force of mounted native police should be organized and properly paid, and the administration of justice improved.[1]
The success of General Hawker, an officer of the Guards placed by the Turkish Government in command of a well equipped and regularly paid gendarmerie (an appointment which he held until the outbreak of the present European war) has amply verified the correctness of these views.
It is worthy of observation that as a means of “civilizing” the Kurds, and accustoming them to discipline, and at the same time suitably utilizing their warlike propensities as a frontier guard against Cossack raids, Sultan Abdul Hamid formed nearly 10,000 of these Kurds into cavalry regiments, styling them the “Hamidieh Cavalry.” The bravery, hardihood and energy of these men rendered them particularly fit for such an operation, and the experiment proved a complete success. It was largely from time-expired men of these regiments that many of the gendarmes, who proved themselves so efficient under General Hawker’s command, were enlisted.
THE THIRD GROUP, the nomadic Kurds, have largely intermarried with the Arabs of the South, where they winter their flocks and herds, and are therefore really semi-Arab rather than pure Kurd. They are neither so industrious nor so reliable as the Kurds proper, but are quicker witted and more intelligent. During the summer months they graze their flocks on the mountain slopes, and as winter approaches migrate to the warmer regions bordering on Mesopotamia, to return again in the early summer.
It is important to note that the four great mountain strongholds of the Hakkiari, the Dersim, the Zeitun and the Sassun form an exception to the general rule that the plains are populated by a tenacious but unwarlike race of farmers and merchants, largely composed of Armenians, while the mountains are occupied by warlike nomadic and semi-nomadic Kurds. The sturdy warlike agriculturists of these four rough inaccessible regions have never, from the earliest until comparatively recent times, really acknowledged the control of a central government. Originally refugees from persecution, they in their turn offered shelter to lawbreakers and bandits. A large proportion of the Hakkiari are Nestorians, while the Dersimli are Kurds and the Zeitunli and Sassunli Gregorian Armenians. Mr. Geary, who believes the Nestorians to be the descendants of the ancient Chaldeans, says:—“They are unquestionably as fine a people, physically, as are to be found anywhere and their well-shaped heads and expressive features denote great natural intelligence.”