Kurdistan and The Kurds A Divided Homeland and a Nation without ...

the Russian army advanced to the south and occupied
many Kurdish cities in the east of Kurdistan. In order to
stabilize their own rule, the Russians freed the head of
Shikak tribe, Ismail Agha (Simko), who was imprisoned
by them, on the condition of his cooperation with them.
This as it seems included paying him a reward of five
thousand golden Rubles after his release, and he was
appointed as a ruler on some Kurdish areas. The Russians
continued their advance until in the spring of 1916 they
arrived at the borders of the Southern Kurdistan from
three directions: Khanaqin, Sulaimany and Rawanduz.
All this did not prevent the Kurdish people or discourage
them from the Kurdish liberation struggle. Thus the
Botan Revolution of 1915 and revolutions of Batlis,
Mardin and Diarbakir 1917 took place. In addition to
other armed Kurdish revolutions, the Kurdish liberation
movement resorted to political and diplomatic activities.
The number of Kurdish associations and organizations
increased and their influence was widely spread among
the people, especially the intellectuals. This was due to
their wide distribution of announcements and publications
that were full of liberation ideas and intensified attacks
on the colonizers. Among those publications we find
one of them with such an expressive title as: “This Land
Belongs to Us”
In 1902 the first Kurdish political organization was
formed in Egypt under the name: “Association of the
Powerful Will of Kurdistan”.
In 1908 the organization “Association of the Kurds
Exalting and Development” was established in Istanbul,
whose founders were: Amin Ali Badirkhan, Genral Sharif
Pasha, Sheikh Abdulqadir Nahri and Colonel Aldamad
Zulkufil Pasha. In the same year another organization
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