Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: Intercommunal Relations on the Pe ...

The majority of the Kurdish leaders had urged Bedr Khan Beg to listen to their opinion that there was no use in resisting the mighty army of the sultan. Saadun Khalgholi had gone further, declaring that ‘Bedr Khan Beg can always depend on his support in fighting with the tribes, but he can’t do so with the Sultan and his government’. Furthermore, Bedr Khan had ordered the inhabitants of the villages in the plains to leave for the Dair Quli in the mountains with all their possessions, because he intended to desert al Jazirah. Meanwhile news had arrived in Mosul of fighting between Ottoman forces and those of Khan Mahmud of Van, but the vice-consul said he could not verify it. At this stage, it seems the Ottomans were taking precautionary measures in the regions, notably by sending a military force to Amadia to prevent any foreseeable Kurdish disturbances.²⁴ The same day, Wellesley wrote to Rassam that the Porte intended to end the issue by force. Therefore he asked him to exert his utmost effort to induce Bedr Khan to surrender with all his immediate supporters.²⁵

16 May 1847

Bedr Khan’s letters to Rassam were translated and submitted to the ambassador at Constantinople. From them, it appears that he had received assurance for his life and property if he headed to Constantinople, as the Porte demanded. However, Rassam told Canning that Bedr Khan hesitated to go to Constantinople and that Asaad Pasha of Mosul believed it was better to wait and give him an opportunity to make his next move.²⁶

Rumours had begun to circulate a few days before that the Kurdish leader had burnt the town of al Jazirah and the surrounding villages. At the same time, Zenal Beg, from his side, was threatening to attack the Assyrian tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari once again, as well as Mosul. Rassam secretly dispatched Khawaja Anton to urge Bedr Khan not to lose time but to go to Diarbekir and surrender himself to the Ottoman Sar Askar.