Младокурды и младотурки: особенности национально-политических движений в Османской империи в конце XIX – начале ХХ вв.

Abstract

The article examines the little-studied question of the relationship between the young Turk and young Kurd movements in the crucial years for the Ottoman Empire preceding the revolution of 1908. The formation of the Kurdish identity and the beginning of the cultural and political movement in the late XIX century. it was received ambiguously in the Ottoman Empire. Thus, unlike the Armenian political movement, the leaders of Turkey’s Kurds expressed the full commitment of the Central government and the Empire reforms, whose purpose in part was to involve the Kurdish population in a more active participation in economic life. It is significant that after the victory of the young Turk revolution of 1908, there was a split in Kurdish society and among its leaders in relation to the new government and its slogans. The Kurdish movement showed great conservatism and adherence to traditional Islamic values, while the pan-Turkist Pro-European ideology of the young Turk political elite was not accepted by the main Kurdish mass. Nevertheless, during the First world war, the Kurds of the Ottoman Empire remained loyal to the government, actively waging an armed struggle against the enemies of the Empire.