Mikdad Midhat Bedir Khan | |
|---|---|
 Mikdad Midhat (top row, second from right) and other members of the Bedir Khan family in around 1880 | |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1880-1912 |
| Known for | Publishing the newspaperKurdistan |
Mikdad Midhat Bedir Khan (1858 – 1915[1]) was aKurdish nationalist and journalist who published the first everKurdish language newspaper,Kurdistan, in 1898. He was also a son ofBedir Khan Beg, the lastKurdishMîr andmutesellim of theEmirate of Botan.
Bedir Khan was born inCrete, but returned toIstanbul and was educated atÜsküdar Military High School and then theImperial High School atGalatasaray (Mekteb-i Sultanî) and after graduation took a job in theOttoman bureaucracy. Writing in theBritish Journal of Middle Eastern studies about Bedir Khan's upbringing, Bajalan notes that "Ottoman policies of co-option created Kurdish ‘stakeholders’ in theimperial system—an enlightened and educated noblesse oblige that, on the whole, regarded themselves as both loyal Ottomans and proud Kurds."[2]
The first edition ofKurdistan was published in Cairo on April 22, 1898.[3] During its four years of publication, Kurdistan was printed in Egypt, England and Switzerland. The last two issues were published on 14 March 1902 inGeneva.[4]
At the time, it was difficult to publish inKurdish "because of the absence of a standard language, or even a dominant dialect."[5] The newspaper was therefore a bilingual mix of the Kurmanji dialect of Botan, and Turkish. Speakers of other dialects had difficulty understanding it.[5]
The newspaper was critical of theAbdul Hamid II and theHamidian regime generally,[6] as well as of the Kurdish tribal leader Mustafa Pasha, who controlled the region which had been part of the Emirate of Botan after the 1877-78Russo-Turkish War.[7] The newspaper also featured Kurdish literary works and tributes to famous Kurdish poets. The third issue contained a eulogy for the Kurdish poetHaji Qadir Koyi.Ahmad Khani was also honoured byKurdistan.[7]
Stansfield and Sharif, writing inThe Kurdish Question Revisited, also note thatKurdistan supported the Young Turk reformers who wanted to oust Sultan Abdul Hamid II and reinstate the constitution: "Kurdistan was also aCUP newspaper. It reported on the activities of the CUP and the Young Turk movement, and in so doing distinguished itself as a forum for opposing theHamidian regime".[7] Bajalan also notes that "the paper advocated the restoration of the Constitution of 1876. This, it was believed, would serve as a panacea to both the Ottoman Empire’s problems and those of the Kurds."[2]
Following theYoung Turk Revolution in 1908, the Bedir Khan family returned to Turkey, but in 1912 went into exile again when they discovered that theCUP intended to repress the Kurdish nationalist movement in the Ottoman Empire. They remained in exile after the founding of theTurkish republic byMustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923.