The development of the Kurdish national movement in Turkey from Mahmud II to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

The Ottoman "re-conquest of Kurdistan" began during the reign of Mahmud 2 and continued during the ensuing era of reforms, Tanzimat. Kurdistan remained a battleground between two futures. Kurdish nationalists hoped to mobilize for independence. However, former Committee of Union and Progress activists disseminated strong pro-Turkish propaganda. The real threat to the Kurdish independence movement came when Ottoman Sultan Mehmed Vahdeddin appointed an Ottoman officer, Mustafa Kemal, as military inspector to the 9th Army in the north Anatolian town of Samsun in May 1919. Mustafa Kemal's secular, Turkish nationalist vision conflicted with the overt religious propaganda used to mobilize Kurdish leadership, disillusioning Naqshbandi Kurdish spiritual leader Shaykh Said and other traditional tribal and religious chiefs. For the French, Kurdish nationalism was vital for their policy of empowering ethnic and religious minorities against the rising threat of Syrian Arab nationalism challenging French rule in Syria.