Kurdish-British relations 1918-1925

Kurds mainly live in regions close to the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. The initiatives of Kurdish nationalists rejecting the division of the borders, to organise Kurds living in the borders of four different states along with the aim of an independent Kurdistan causes civil clashes threatening the integrity and security of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Since it is a problem mainly affecting these four countries, Kurdish problem is the most important problem in the Middle East. Despite the importance of the problem, the researches on Kurds are not sufficient to define the Kurdish problem and to find a solution to the problem. In the study where the relationships of Kurds and Britain between 1918 and 1925, the relations between 1918 and 1920 are needed to emphasize more. In these 2 years, Britain had difficulties to form policies for Kurds and Kurds missed the opportunity for the independence. Beginning in 1920 in Kurdish-British relations, the Sykes-Picot Agreement was guided and dealt with in the context of planning in San Remo, in the direction of Kurdish leaders' new quests and British representatives to try to lose control of the Kurds. The questioning term of Kurdistan is frequently used in the study. The term has the flexibility to be used for different objectives in different countries by various components. It is even not agreed today if Kurdistan is a political or geographical term. The use in this study aims to meet the geographical definition gap in a process where the changes are so rapid. Since the Kurdish problem is very sensitive in Turkey, use of resources at first hand is especially considered. Since the correspondences within the content of Kurdish – Britain relations between 1920 – 1925 in Iran and Iraq were least reflected in official letters of Ottoman State caused the correspondences of Britain to provide more accurate information. Therefore, the documents in the archives of Britain were needed to benefit more than the documents in the archive of Turkey. For this reason, in 2011 we felt the need to benefit from the National Archives more than the documents we provided in the context of Kurdish-English relations. Keywords: Kurds, Tribes, Autonomy, Landlord, Sheik, Assyrians, Britain,Armenians, Simko, Seyyid Taha, Sheik Mahmud, Şerif Pasha, Lausanne, Sykes-Picot.