1925-1937: Early Kurdish Rebellions against Turkey:
In 1925, the Kurds of Turkey, led by tribal leader Sheikh Said, launched a rebellion against the newly established Ankara government under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. This uprising, one of the earliest significant expressions of Kurdish nationalism, sought to challenge Turkish authority but was brutally suppressed. The rebellion ended in a decisive Turkish victory, with Sheikh Said and more than 600 other rebel leaders captured and executed. In the aftermath, mass deportations targeted Kurds and other minority groups, while the government imposed harsher measures of control through the Law on the Maintenance of Order (1925). This marked the beginning of systematic efforts to eliminate Kurdish resistance and assert centralized Turkish power.
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A little over a decade later, in 1937, another major uprising occurred in the Dersim Province of Turkey under the leadership of Seyit Riza. The rebellion was fueled by three key factors: Turkish policies aimed at assimilating Kurds and erasing their cultural identity, the Kurdish demand for full autonomy and preservation of their traditions, and state-imposed forced relocations accompanied by widespread land confiscations. The Turkish government responded with extreme brutality, carrying out a genocidal campaign that included the deployment of nearly twenty tons of chemical weapons, resulting in the deaths of over 70,000 Kurds. Seyit Riza, along with his 16-year-old son and other tribal leaders, was publicly hanged. Beyond the mass killings, thousands of Kurds were forcibly relocated across Turkey, and the state implemented strict Turkification measures to eradicate Kurdish identity. For decades, speaking Kurdish, giving children Kurdish names, and practicing Kurdish traditions were banned. These violent suppressions of Kurdish uprisings left a deep and lasting impact on Kurdish-Turkish relations, shaping the strained socio-political dynamics that persist to this day.
Test your knowledge and quiz yourself: Quiz on Kurdish History from 1925-1937
