Rebel Land by Christopher de Bellaigue

Author:Christopher de Bellaigue [Bellaigue, Christopher de]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Hewer Text UK Ltd
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2010-04-11T16:00:00+00:00

Major Kasim of Kulan, cousin, comrade in arms and brother-in-law of the incarcerated Halit Bey, was a tall, gaunt, almost skeletal man. He had a mottled complexion and his hands were covered in blotches. He was well educated and had written on theological and philosophical subjects. For a while, it seems that he subscribed to Kurdish nationalist ideas and for a while, too, he was known for his closeness to Halit Bey. But something, or some things, led him to betray his leader, his tribe and his people.

It was in Erzurum, so the conventional account runs, that he first served notice of his treachery. Kasim had travelled to Erzurum to join tribal chiefs in a meeting with Mustafa Kemal. Halit Bey did not attend, but he urged the tribal chiefs to promise Mustafa Kemal their support only in the event that he granted autonomy to the Kurds. In the event, runs this account, Kasim offered support without conditions. After the meeting he is said to have had a private word with Mustafa Kemal about Azadi and its plans.

When the Sheikh Sait rebellion broke out, Kasim and his relation through marriage, Halit’s uncle Ismail, absented themselves conspicuously from the rebel ranks. As the rebels bore down on Varto, Kasim won

the confidence of the acting district governor, Ali Efendi. Kasim was showing his loyalty to the government in another way, by dispatching wire reports to Ankara. He posted his kinsmen on the door of the telegraph office to prevent anyone from monitoring the ciphers that were being sent.

Here is a new Kasim, cunningly depleting the defences of Varto town and, at the same time, using his back channel to urge the attackers to come at the town from an undefended route. How did he win Ali Efendi’s consent for the redeployment of most of the Alevi forces, so that a mere twenty remained in Varto town on the eve of the attack? According to Mehmet Serif Firat, Major Kasim told Ali Efendi that the rebels would certainly come through the Feron villages in order to avenge their earlier defeat there. Perhaps so, but who would be surprised if Kasim, exploiting the district governor’s Sunni prejudices, also told him that the presence of so many Alevis in a Sunni town was unacceptable to the populace, and should be scaled down?

It is apt that our main source for the battle of Varto, a rich and diverting domestic fray, should be Mehmet Serif Firat’s History. His account is family lore at its most lavish. The prose is turbulent, a little confused. There is much blood and thunder, Austerlitz transposed to the steppe, a superb defence, the blackguards Kasim and Ismail running for cover. The Ferons perform inspiringly, in particular a young man called Ali Haydar. And we meet another intriguing character, Sergeant Kamer of the Turkish ordinance corps. He is an Alevi. But he, exceptionally, has thrown his lot in with the Sunni rebels.

Mehmet Serif Firat begins:

‘On the evening of March 11 1925 … well

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