Society for the Rise of Kurdistan
Society for the Rise of Kurdistan also known as the Society for the Advancement of Kurdistan (SAK), was secretly established in Constantinople on 6 November 1917 and officially announced organization formed on the 17 December 1918. It was headquartered in Istanbul, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state in eastern Turkey. The Society based its statements for an independent or autonomous Kurdistan on the Treaty of Sèvres and the Fourteen Points stipulated by Woodrow Wilson. The society formed many local dependencies in the eastern provinces of Turkey.
Society Vice President Emin Ali
Society Vice President Kurd Fuad Pasha
Alîşêr Efendî and his wife Zarife Xatun, in hiding in Tunceli. Probably photographed in the 1930s.
Kurdish fighters
The Treaty of Sèvres was a 1920 treaty signed between the Allies of World War I and the Ottoman Empire. The treaty ceded large parts of Ottoman territory to France, the United Kingdom, Greece and Italy, as well as creating large occupation zones within the Ottoman Empire. It was one of a series of treaties that the Central Powers signed with the Allied Powers after their defeat in World War I. Hostilities had already ended with the Armistice of Mudros.
The Ottoman delegation at Sèvres comprising the three signatories of the treaty. Left to right: Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı, Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha, the Ottoman education minister Mehmed Hâdî Pasha and ambassador Reşat Halis.
Mehmed Hâdî Pasha signs the Treaty of Sèvres.
Syrian Northern Sanjaks ceded to Turkey by France in the Treaty of Ankara 1921 (area shaded in yellow). The orange line shows the Treaty of Sèvres border
