Süreyya Bedir Khan (1883 in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

– 1938 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a Kurdish prince, a descendant of

Bedir Khan Beg Bedir Khan Beg (Kurmanji: ''Bedirxan Beg'', ; 1803–1869) was the last Kurds, Kurdish Mir (title), Mir and mütesellim of the Bohtan, Emirate of Botan. Hereditary head of the house of Rozhaki whose seat was the ancient Bitlis Castle and descen ...

and a member of the Bedir Khan family. He was an influent supporter of Kurdish independence, a journalist and author of several books. His works are also known under his pen-name Bletch Chirguh. Like other members of the Bedir Khan family, he claimed an ancestry to

Khalid Ibn al-Walid Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (; died 642) was a 7th-century Arabs, Arab military commander. He initially led campaigns against Muhammad on behalf of the Quraysh. He later became a Muslim and spent the remainder of his career ...

, the ''Sword of Islam'' and general and companion of the

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

prophet

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

Early life and education

He was born into the noble Kurdish family of the Bedir Khans, as the son of

Emin Ali Bedir Khan Emin Ali Bedir Khan (also Bedirhan, ; 1851/1852 – 1926) was an Ottoman and Kurdish politician and judge. He was a founding member of the Kurdish Society for Cooperation and Progress and vice president of the Society for the Elevation of Kurd ...

and his first wife. His mother died as he was still a child, in 1887. He attended the

Galatasaray High school Galatasaray High School (, ), established in Istanbul in 1481, is the oldest and Selective school, highly selective high school in Turkey. It is also the second-oldest Turkish educational institution after Istanbul University, which was establi ...

in Constantinople until 1906, as he had to abandon his studies when he and other male members of the Bedirkhan family were sent into exile to

Isparta Isparta is a city in western Turkey. It is the seat of Isparta Province and Isparta District.İl ...

, after his uncle Ali Şamil Bedir Khan was accused of being involved in the murder of the mayor of Constantinople, .

Political and journalistic career

He came back to Constantinople in 1908, where he began his journalistic career. From 1909 and 1912 he was a member of the Ottoman bureaucracy and governed municipalities in the Aydin and

Beirut Vilayet The Vilayet of Beirut (; ) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire. It was established from the coastal areas of the Syria Vilayet in 1888 as a recognition of the new-found importance of its then-booming capital, ...

. According to a British intelligence report, he was requested to enter the Ottoman Government by

Enver Pasha İsmâil Enver (; ; 23 November 1881 – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and Istanbul trials of 1919–1920, convicted war criminal who was a p ...

in 1912, a demand he did not follow and concerned over reprisals, he left for

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. In Egypt he was welcomed by a community of exiled former Ottoman intellectuals and was given the task to take care of the estate of Nimetullah Hanim, a princess of the Khedivial family and daughter-in-law of Ahmed Muhtar Pasha. In 1918 he established the Committee for the Independence of Kurdistan and onwards he re-initiated the publication of the Kürdistan newspaper which originally was founded by his uncle Mikhdad Midhat Bedir Khan. He also supported the Kurdish ambitions at the

Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...

, using his contacts to the diplomatic circles in Cairo, but did not personally attend the conference. From 1920 on, he mainly stayed in Egypt, after he was urged by the

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to return from a short Syrian stayHenning, Barbara (2018-04-03), p.357 and established himself in the az-Zahir quarter in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. Other family members such as Zarife Bedir Khan, who was the wife of Arif Mardinzade, also lived in Cairo at the time, and were joined by several others in March 1920 coming from Istanbul. They were accompanied by a spy of the

Kemalists Kemalism (, also archaically ''Kamâlizm'') or Atatürkism () is a political ideology based on the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurcher, Turkey: A Modern History. New York, ...

, who suspected Süreyya Bedir Khan of having much influence with the British diplomatic community. The spy later threatened the Bedirkhan family after it was found out what she was doing. After the

Xoybûn Xoybûn or Khoybun () was a Kurdish nationalist political party, that is known for leading the Ararat rebellion, commanded by Ihsan Nuri. Many Armenians joined the movement as well, the party was active in all parts of Kurdistan until it was d ...

was founded in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

in 1927, he became its local representative in Cairo, and together with his brothers Kamuran and Celadet Bedir Khan was a leader of the organization. He travelled to the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

(USA) in 1928, attempting to raise support among the Kurdish community for the

Ararat rebellion The Ararat rebellion, also known as the Ağrı rebellion ( or ''Ağrı isyanı''), was a 1930 uprising of the Kurds of Ağrı Province, in eastern Turkey, against the Turkish government. The leader of the guerrilla forces during the rebellion ...

. He stayed there for eight months and resided in

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.Gorgas, Jordi Tejel (2007).p144 He returned to Europe in April 1929 accompanied by Grigor Vartanian a member of the who was asked by the soviets to figure as the liaison between the Xoybun and the soviets. He attempted to support the Ararat rebellion throughout 1930. After the Turkish Government decided to strip him of his Ottoman passport in 1928, he successfully applied for the

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

citizenship, alleging that we was born in Maqtala, a claim that was refuted by the French in 1933. Due to Turkish pressure during the Ararat Revolt, the authorities of the

French Mandate The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (; , also referred to as the Levant States; 1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning the territori ...

encouraged Süreyya to leave Syria. In 1931, he settled in Paris, where he established relations with the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

intellectual community and lived in an apartment in the . He lived in Paris until his death in 1938.

Works

* 1926, ''Les massacres Kurdes en Turquie'' * 1928, ''The case of Kurdistan against Turkey''

References

{{Authority control Kurdish politicians Kurdish writers 1883 births 1938 deaths 19th-century Kurdish people Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to France