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

Although Kurdistan never submitted completely to any
occupiers, no one managed to take advantage of the Kurds
as the Ottomans, with Sheikh Idris Batlisi becoming
instrumental in this, as they managed to exploit the Kurds
by dividing their homeland into maximum possible
administrations in order to exterminate the ancient Kurdish
princedoms and control them forever.
According to this division the Diarbakir province was
divided into nineteen Sunjuqs (Ottoman administration
units) of which eleven were, as the Anatolian
administration units, under the direct control of the Turks
and the remaining eight independent under the rule of
the Kurdish princes. These were: Samghan, Qolip,
Mehranieh, Tarjil, Ataq, Pirtek, Chiachqur and Chirmek.
The princedom in these Sunjuqs was on hereditary basis,
from fathers to sons. In addition there were five
governments in the Diarbakir province directly related to
the Sultan: Ageel, Palu, Jazeert Ibn Omar, Hazu and
Ganj. According to what is stated in the Jahannama
book two other governments were added in a later stage,
which were Khabur and Alishkurd governments. The
rulers of these related governments had the title of Mire-Miran
(Prince of the Princes) and they were completely
independent in regard to their internal affairs (see
Sharafnama, Olia Chalabi, Mu’zin Zadeh, Hammer). This
administration system was not specific to Diarbakir
province only, but was extended to other provinces of
Kurdistan as we can see in Van province, which was
consisted of thirty seven Sunjuqs and four Kurdish
governments under the direct control of the Sultan. These
were:
1- Hakari government: with permanent army forces of
ten thousand fighters, increasing to fifty thousand in
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