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

Historically, the Battle of Chaldiran led to profound military, political, and ethnic changes. The Ottomans owed their victory to their alliance with their co-religionists the Sunni Kurds, mainly those of Azerbaijan, who had been harshly persecuted by the Shi’a Safavids. The Kurds, for their part, found a safe and prosperous shelter from persecution after Chaldiran. According to the agreement between the Ottoman sultan Selim I and the Kurdish leader Idris al Bidlisi, they were to be settled along the newly gained Ottoman eastern borders, which geographically matched the northeastern frontier of the modern state of Iraq. For their part, the Ottomans also had an interest in the arrangement, since it secured their eastern frontier, on the one hand, and so freed them to pursue their design and desire for expansion in Europe, on the other. Thus the settlement of the Persian Kurds along the eastern border was the first powerful action in changing the demographics of the Assyrian homeland.

The Assyrians as Element of Balance Between Ethnic Groups

Although the Kurdish settlement in Assyria after 1514 affected the Assyrians in the extreme eastern parts of their homeland, it did not seriously affect the independent tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari for several reasons, most notably the martial culture of the tribes and the inaccessibility of their country. While the new Kurdish settlements went some way to strengthen the circle around the tribes, they continued to maintain their independence and give significant support to those semi-independent Assyrians who had to make some degree of forced submission to the Kurdish aghas. At the same time, however, the tribes maintained good relations with their Kurdish partners in the emirate of Hakkari, who had settled in its eastern parts before the emergence of the Safavid state.