Simko Shikak revolt (1918–1922)

BelligerentsQajar Iran
Assyrian volunteers
Azerbaijani volunteers Supported by:
Ottoman Empire (1918–1920)
Turkey (1920–1926)Commanders and leadersReza Khan
Amir Arshad
Hasan Arfa
Major Malakzadeh †
Mohammad Taqi Pessian†
Khalo Ghorban †
Masoud Divan †
Zafar al-Dowleh
General Hassan Moqaddam
Agha Petros
Shimun XIX BenyaminX
Malik Khoshaba
Malik YaqoSimko Shikak (WIA)
Amar Khan ShikakStrength 37,000 (1918)
33,000 (1921–1922)

37,000 (1918)
33,000 (1921–1922) 1,000 (early stage)
5,000 (later stage)

• Dehbokri (1,700 soldier)
  Mamash (700 soldier)
  Mangur (700 soldier)
• Several hundred Ottoman soldiers and Turkish mercenaries
  

Casualties and losses

8,500 killed, captured and wounded

• 200 irregular soldiers killed, including Amir Arshad
• 150 gendarmes killed, including Mohammad Taqi Pessian
• Along with Khalo Ghorban, 200 irregular troops killed
• 600 Iranian gendarmes, including Major Malakzadeh, were killed
• 1,500 civilians froze to death.

4,500 killed, captured and wounded

• 10,000 Kurds and Turks massacred

Total: ~25,650 killed

The Simko Shikak revolt was an armed Ottoman-backed tribal Kurdish uprising against the Qajar dynasty of Iran from 1918 to 1922, led by Kurdish chieftain Simko Shikak from the Shekak tribe. During 1920–1922 under the leadership of Agha Simko, Kurdish tribal forces in Kurdish areas of the new born Iran challenged the authority of the central Persian government.

After Brigadier-General Reza Khan deposed the Qajars in a 1921 coup, he defeated Simko Shikak as well as several prominent rebel commanders such as Kuchik Khan and Colonel Pessian during the Iranian events of 1921. Following the assassination of Mar Shimun by Simko, the forces of Agha Petros carried out a retaliatory massacre in the city of Urmia in 1918, in which an estimated 10,000-15,000 Kurds and Turks—men, women, and children—were killed.