British Representations of the Kurds and the Armenian Question 1878-1908

There are still gaps in the understanding of British representations of the Armenian question which was an important issue for Britain for decades. Notably, the Kurds were one of the most influential parties in the Armenian question and had a significant impact upon it. However, to date, there has been no study about how the British, who were the Europeans closest to the Armenian question, regarded the Kurds and their position in this conflict. It is this issue, therefore, that this thesis addresses. The thesis investigates the British perceptions of the Kurdish position and contributes to a better understanding of the image of the Kurds in the late Victorian period. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Kurds were seen in Britain through the prism of the Armenian question and were generally presented as oppressors of the Christians. This thesis examines the British views, official and public, of the Kurds and shows the effects of these perceptions in shaping British attitudes towards the Kurds, which in turn influenced British policy towards the Ottoman Empire. The study highlights the growing British attention to the Kurds as part of wider British concerns relating to the Armenian question and eastern Anatolia, which was an essential area for British interests in the East. This thesis is based upon analysis of British primary sources that have not previously been systematically analysed in relation to the history of the Kurds and their relations with the Armenians. While historians have used considerable amount of Foreign Office Papers regarding the Kurds and the Armenian question, other categories of British sources, in particular Parliamentary Debates and British newspaper material, have not been systematically studied. Through studying British attitudes to the Armenian question, as represented through these sources, many aspects of Kurdish and Armenian history can also be revealed during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.