Simko Shikak | |
---|---|
سمکۆی شکاک Simkoyê Şikak | |
Born | Ismail Shikak 1887 |
Died | |
Cause of death | Surprise ambush and assassination by Imperial Iranian Armed Forces |
Nationality | Kurdish |
Citizenship | Qajar Iran, and later Pahlavi Iran |
Known for | Simko Shikak revolt (1918–1922) |
Title | Chieftain of the Shekak tribe, and General of the Shekak forces. |
Predecessor | Cewer Agha |
Successor | Abolished title |
Family | Shekak |
Rebellious leader | |
Allegiance | Azadî - Society for the Rise of Kurdistan |
Service/ | Azadî Battalion |
Rank | General - Agha |
Battles/wars |
Simko Shikak [lower-alpha 1] (born 1887 Chehriq, near Salmas - died 19 July 1930 in Oshnavieh), was a Kurdish chieftain of the Shekak tribe, former Ottoman soldier and leader of the two revolts in what is today north-western Iran from 1918-1922 and years later at 1926.
He was born into a prominent Kurdish feudal family based in Chihriq castle located near the Baranduz river in the Urmia region of northwestern Iran. By 1920, parts of Iranian Azerbaijan located west of Lake Urmia were under his control. [1] He led Kurdish farmers into battle and defeated the Iranian army on several occasions. [2] The Iranian government had him assassinated in 1930. [3] Simko took part in the massacre of the Assyrians of Khoy [4] and instigated the massacre of 1,000 Assyrians in Salmas. [5]
His family was from the 'Awdo'i clan of the Shekak tribe. The Shekak played a prominent role in local politics, occupying the districts of Somay, Baradost, Qotur, and Chahriq. [6] His brother, Ja'far Agha, served as a frontier commissioner and a brigand. On order of the governor-general in 1905, he was killed in Tabriz. [6]
After the murder of Ja'far Agha, Simko became the head of Shikak forces. In May 1914, he attended a meeting with Abdürrezzak Bedir Khan who at the time was a Kurdish politician supported by the Russians. [7] The Iranian government was trying to assassinate him like the other members of his family. In 1919, Mukarram ul-Molk, the governor of Azerbaijan devised a plot to kill Simko by sending him a present with a bomb hidden in it. [8]
Simko was also in contact with Kurdish revolutionaries such as Seyyed Taha Gilani (grandson of Sheikh Ubeydullah who had revolted against Iran in the 1880s). Seyyed Taha was a Kurdish nationalist who was conducting propaganda among the Iranian Kurds for the union of Iranian Kurdistan and Turkish Kurdistan in an independent state. [9]
Jointly with the Ottoman Army he organized the massacre in Haftevan in February 1915 during which 700–800 Armenians and Assyrians were murdered. [10]
In March 1918, under the pretext of meeting for the purpose of cooperation, Simko arranged the assassination of the Assyrian Church of the East patriarch, Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin, ambushing him and his 150 guards, as Mar Shimun was entering his carriage. The patriarchal ring was stolen at this time and the body of the patriarch was only recovered hours later, according to the eye-witness account of Daniel d-Malik Ismael. [11] [12] [13] On March 16 after the murder of Mar Shimun, the Assyrians under the command of Malik Khoshaba and Petros Elia of Baz attacked Simkos' fortress in Charah in which Simko was decisively defeated. [14]
By summer 1918, Simko had established his authority over the regions west of Lake Urmia. [15] In 1919, Simko organized an army of 20,000 Kurds and managed to secure a self-governed area in northwestern Iran, centered in the city of Urmia. Simko's forces had been reinforced with several hundred soldiers and mercenaries from the Ottoman Empire, including Kurdish deserters and nationalists. [16] After taking over Urmia, Simko appointed Teymur Agha Shikak as the governor of the city. Later, he organized his forces to fight the Iranian army in the region and managed to expand the area under his control to the nearby towns and cities such as Mahabad, Khoy, Miandoab, Maku and Piranshahr in a series of battles. [17]
In the battle of Gulmakhana, Kurdish forces under the command of Simko Shikak took control over Gulmakhana and the Urmia-Tabriz road from Iranian forces. In the battle of Shekar Yazi, the commander of the Iranian Army, General Amir Ershad, was killed.
At this time, government in Tehran tried to reach an agreement with Simko on the basis of limited Kurdish autonomy. [18] Simko had organized a strong Kurdish army which was much stronger than Iranian government forces. Since the central government could not control his activities, he continued to expand the area under his control and by 1922, cities of Baneh and Sardasht were under his administration. [19]
In the battle of sari Taj in 1922, Simko's forces could not resist the Iranian Army's onslaught in the region of Salmas and were finally defeated and the castle of Chari was occupied. The strength of the Iranian Army force dispatched against Simko was 10,000 soldiers. [20]
At the Ottoman Army, simko organized the massacre in Haftevan in February 1915 during which 700–800 Armenians and Assyrians were murdered. [10]
In March 1918, under the pretext of meeting for the purpose of cooperation, Simko arranged the assassination of the Assyrian Church of the East patriarch, Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin, ambushing him and his 150 guards, as Mar Shimun was entering his carriage.
Simko took part in the massacre of the Assyrians of Khoy [4] and instigated the massacre of 1,000 Assyrians in Salmas. [5]
During December 1919, Simko prepared forces to attack Lakestan. When the people of Lakestan heard, they prepared for war and gathered from nine villages in two places, one being Soltan Ahmad and the other being Qara Qeshlaq. They brought their wives and children along with them. There were 8,700 locals, although over 340 did not have weapons. [21] The leaders of the Azerbaijanis were Masoud Divan and his brother Sadegh Khan. Taymour Yavur Habshi and Hajireza Qaraqeshlaghi and Karbalaei Ibrahim Khan Qazaljah were also among the companions of Masoud Divan and the chiefs of Lakestan. Before the battle began, Kazem Khan, an Azerbaijani leader from Qushchi, came to Lakestan with fifty of his fighters. [22]
Simko had nearly 4,000 Kurdish troops. On Friday, 19 December, the Kurds reached the vicinity of Soltan Ahmad, beginning the battle. The Azerbaijanis resisted for two hours before being overwhelmed by the Kurds, who entered the city from all sides and began looting and killing. Civilians who escaped made it to Qara Qeshlaq, while some were killed before they reached it. [23] Simko asked for 5,000 tomans and 15,000 bullets in order to end the invasion, however his demands were not met. [21]
After capturing Soltan Ahmad, Simko led the assault on Qara Qeshlaq. Masoud Divan and his brothers Sadiq Khan and Ibrahim Khan led the defence of Qara Qeshlaq and were able to resist for eleven hours. The battle in Qara Qeshlaq was much bloodier than the one in Soltan Ahmad. Masoud Divan was later killed. The Kurds eventually captured Qara Qeshlaq. Qara Qeshlaq residents escaped at night in the desert, while those who stayed in the village were captured. Many of those who escaped died from the cold, while the survivors reached Sharafkhaneh after 2 days. [24]
In the telegram that survivors of Lakestan sent to Tabriz, they claimed that 3,500 Azerbaijanis had died, with 2,000 of them dying during the battles and 1,500 dying due to the cold weather while they were trying to escape. The deaths created a strong shock in Tabriz, where the people criticised the Iranian government. They compared the Lakestan incident to the Uprising of Sheikh Ubeydullah, where Kurdish rebels infiltrated Iran and nearly reached Tabriz, before failing due to the Shia Azerbaijanis refusing to surrender to Sunni Kurds. [25] [26] [27] The Iranian Army later deployed troops to Lakestan and retook it. During and after the Lakestan events, Azerbaijanis and Assyrians clashed with Kurds in nearby settlements. [25] Simko stopped his attacks after reaching an agreement with Iran, although he began attacking once again, and his men returned to looting Azerbaijani and Assyrian villages. [28] Immediately after, Simko led an invasion of Urmia, where another battle ensued. [29]
When Reza Khan had become Reza Shah in 1925, Simko pledged eternal loyalty to him and Iranian state. [30] However, next year Simko allied himself with Haji Agha of Herki and tribal chiefs of Begzadeh, [30] regained control of his tribe and begun another rebellion. [31]
Short military confrontation has started in October 1926 [32] in Salmas (a.k.a. Dilman or Shahpur) where rebels started encircling the city. [30] Shortly after, Iranian forces were dispatched from Urmia, Sharafkhaneh and Khoy, engaged rebels and defeated them. [30] During engagement half of Simko's Shikak troops defected to the tribe’s previous leader and Simko himself fled to Mandatory Iraq. [31]
In 1926, another unrelated Kurdish tribal revolt occurred in Kurdistan Province. [33] Kurdish insurgency and seasonal migrations in late 1920s, along with long-running tensions between Tehran and Ankara, resulted in border clashes and even military penetrations in both Iranian and Turkish territory. [34] In 1930, the commander of Iranian Army General Hassan Muqaddam sent a letter to Simko, who was residing in the village of Barzan, and invited him for a meeting in the town of Oshnaviyeh. After consulting with his friends, Simko along with Khorshid Agha Harki went to Oshnaviyeh and were invited to the house of local army commander, Colonel Norouzi and were told to wait for the Iranian general. Colonel Norouzi convinced Simko to go to the outskirts of the town to welcome the general's arrival. However, this was a trap and Simko was ambushed and killed on the evening of June 30, 1930. [30]
Simko's revolts are considered as attempt by a powerful tribal chief to establish his personal authority vis-à-vis the central government throughout the region. [30] Although elements of Kurdish nationalism were present in this movement, historians agree these were hardly articulate enough to justify a claim that recognition of Kurdish identity was a major issue in Simko's movement. [30] It lacked any kind of administrative organization and Simko was primary interested in plunder. [30] Government forces and non-Kurds were not the only ones to suffer in the attacks, the Kurdish population was also robbed and assaulted. [30] Simko's men do not appear to have felt any sense of unity or solidarity with fellow Kurds. [30] On other hand, Reza Shah's military victory over Simko and Turkic tribal leaders initiated with repressive era toward non-Iranian minorities. [30]
Simko's revolts are seen by some as an attempt by a powerful tribal chief to establish his personal authority over the central government throughout the region. [35] Although elements of Kurdish nationalism were present in this movement, historians agree these were hardly articulate enough to justify a claim that recognition of Kurdish identity was a major issue in Simko's movement. [35] It lacked any kind of administrative organization and Simko was primarily interested in plunder. [35] Government forces and non-Kurds were not the only ones to suffer in the attacks, the Kurdish population was also robbed and assaulted. [35] Simko's men do not appear to have felt any sense of unity or solidarity with fellow Kurds. [35] In the words of Kurdologist and Iranologist Garnik Asatrian: [36]
In the recent period of Kurdish history, a crucial point is defining the nature of the rebellions from the end of the 19th and up to the 20th century―from Sheikh Ubaydullah’s revolt to Simko’s (Simitko) mutiny. The overall labelling of these events as manifestations of the Kurdish national-liberation struggle against Turkish or Iranian suppressors is an essential element of the Kurdish identity-makers’ ideology. (...) With the Kurdish conglomeration, as I said above, far from being a homogeneous entity―either ethnically, culturally, or linguistically (...)―the basic component of the national doctrine of the Kurdish identity-makers has always remained the idea of the unified image of one nation, endowed respectively with one language and one culture. The chimerical idea of this imagined unity has become further the fundament of Kurdish identity-making, resulting in the creation of fantastic ethnic and cultural prehistory, perversion of historical facts, falsification of linguistic data, etc.
On the other hand, Reza Shah's military victory over Simko and Turkic tribal leaders initiated a repressive era toward non-Persian minorities. [35] In a nationalistic perspective, Simko's revolt is described as an attempt to build a Kurdish tribal alliance in support of independence. [37] According to Kamal Soleimani, Simko Shikak can be located "within the confines of Kurdish ethno-nationalism". [38] According to the political scientist Hamid Ahmadi: [39]
Though Reza Shah’s armed confrontation with tribal leaders in different parts of Iran was interpreted as an example of ethnic conflict and ethnic suppression by the Iranian state, the fact is that it was more a conflict between the modern state and traditional socio-political structure of pre-modern era and had less to do with the question of ethnicity and ethnic conflict. While some Marxist political activists (see Nābdel 1977) and ethno-nationalist intellectuals of different Iranian groups (Ghassemlou 1965; Hosseinbor 1984; Asgharzadeh 2007) have introduced this confrontation as a result of Reza Shah’s ethnocentric policies, no valid documents have been presented to prove this argument. Recent documentary studies (Borzū’ī 1999; Zand-Moqaddam 1992; Jalālī 2001) convincingly show that Reza Shah’s confrontation with Baluch Dust Mohammad Khan, Kurdish Simko and Arab Sheikh Khaz‘al have merely been the manifestation of state-tribe antagonism and nothing else. (...) While the Kurdish ethno-nationalist authors and commentators have tried to construct the image of a nationalist hero out of him, the local Kurdish primary sources reflect just the opposite, showing he was widely hated by many ordinary and peasant Kurds who suffered his brutal suppression of Kurdish settlements and villages.
Urmia is the largest city in West Azerbaijan Province of Iran. In the Central District of Urmia County, it is capital of the province, the county, and the district.
The Sayfo, also known as the Seyfo or the Assyrian genocide, was the mass murder and deportation of Assyrian/Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish tribes during World War I.
Petros Elia of Baz, better known as Agha Petros, was an Assyrian military leader during World War I.
Assyrians in Iran, or Iranian Assyrians, are an ethnic and linguistic minority in present-day Iran. The Assyrians of Iran speak Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, a neo-Aramaic language descended from the eastern dialects of the old Aramaic language with elements of Akkadian, and are Eastern Rite Christians belonging mostly to the Assyrian Church of the East and also to the Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Pentecostal Church, Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church.
Salmas is a city in the Central District of Salmas County, West Azerbaijan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is northwest of Lake Urmia, near Turkey.
Hakkari, was a historical mountainous region lying to the south of Lake Van, encompassing parts of the modern provinces of Hakkâri, Şırnak, Van in Turkey and Dohuk in Iraq. During the late Ottoman Empire it was a sanjak within the old Vilayet of Van.
The Shekak or Shakkak is a Kurdish tribe present in various regions, mainly in West Azerbaijan province, Iran.
Mar Shimun XX Paulos served as the 118th Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East.
Abdullah Beg Benari was a Kurdish tribal leader, who lived from 1880 to 1939. He was the son of Sheikh Jahangir, who was the son of Sultan Beg, and a descendant of Bradostian Kurdish princes who fought in the battle of Dimdim Castle against the Iranian invasion by the Shah Abbas in 1609. Abdullah lived in the castle of Binar, which witnessed several battles between the local princes of Bradost and the Iranian-Afshar army. The last battle was fought between Mir Sultan Bradost and Amir Askar Afshar Urmia in 1841. Kurdish folklore is full of oral stories about Aola Begi Benare and his battles against the Persians and Russians.
Malik Khoshaba Yousip was an Assyrian tribal leader of the Tyari tribe who played a significant role in the Assyrian independence movement during World War I.
The Simko Shikak revolt refers to 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.
Kurdish separatism in Iran or the Kurdish–Iranian conflict is an ongoing, long-running, separatist dispute between the Kurdish opposition in Western Iran and the governments of Iran, lasting since the emergence of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1918.
1926 Simko Shikak revolt refers to a short-timed Kurdish uprising against the Pahlavi dynasty of Iran in 1926, led by Kurdish chieftain Simko Shikak from Shikak tribe.
West Azerbaijan province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, whose capital and largest city is Urmia.
Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan is an unofficial name for the parts of northwestern Iran with either a majority or sizable population of Kurds. Geographically, it includes the West Azerbaijan Province, Kurdistan Province, Kermanshah Province, Ilam Province and parts of Hamadan Province and Lorestan Province.
The Assyrian volunteers were an ethnic Assyrian military force during WW1, led mainly by General Agha Petros Elia of Baz and several tribal leaders known as Maliks under the spiritual leadership of the Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Shimun Benyamin allied with the Entente Powers described by the English pastor and author William A. Wigram as Our Smallest Ally.
The Mohammad Khiabani's uprising was a liberal and democratic uprising that was started by Mohammad Khiabani against the central government in Iran on April 5, 1920 and was suppressed when he was killed on September 14, 1920.
The Battle of Charah or Charah Expedition took place between the Assyrian Volunteers led by Agha Petros and Malik Khsoshaba against Shekak tribesmen led by Simko Shikak in revenge for the assassination of Mar Benyamin Shimun by Simko. Simko Shikak, who was responsible for the murder of the Assyrian patriarch Mar Shimun was staying in the fortress. The fortress had never been conquered despite numerous attempts by the Iranian government.
The Hakkari Expedition of 1916 was a number of raids conducted by the Assyrian volunteers against local Hakkari Kurdish tribesmen who the year prior, with the help of the Ottomans expelled the Assyrians from Hakkari and resulted in them settling in Russian controlled Urmia and its surroundings.
The Lakestan incident refers to the invasion and massacres led by Simko Shikak in the Lakestan region of West Azerbaijan.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Simko later arranged the assassination of Mar Shamon, the Assyrian patriarch in March 1918, under the pretext of a meeting to discuss cooperation.
Simko, their leader in Iran, had invited Mar Shimon for conference in Kuhnehshahr, west of Salmas, kissed him—and then treacherously murdered the Nestorian patriarch and his men
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)