Jön Kürtler-Birinci Dünya Savaşı’ndan önce Kürt Hareketi (1898 – 1914)

This study focuses on the “Young Kurds” who pioneered the publication of the first Kurdish newspaper Kurdistan in 1898 and continued the fight for Kurdish “enlightenment” in Istanbul after the 1908 revolution. In order to understand who the "Young Kurds" are and their ideology, the issues in the Kurdish press are tried to be read and examined within the general atmosphere of the period. The basic question of the book can be briefly summarized as follows: What was this Kurdish enlightenment and how far did it go?

In the first part, the general outlines of the theoretical debates shaping the studies on nationalism are examined. In the second part, the historiography on the Kurdish nationalism movement is questioned, taking into account the understanding of nationalism specific to the empire in the last periods of the Ottoman Empire. In the third part, the Kurdish elite class and the impact of the Ottoman reform in the 19th century on the structure of this class are discussed; in the fourth part, II. Abdulhamid's Kurdish policy and his efforts to establish an Islamic Ottoman nationalism are evaluated. The fifth, sixth and seventh chapters include the "Young Kurds" and their policies between 1898-1914, which form the basis of this book. These chapters discuss this group's thoughts on Kurdish identity and Ottoman patriotism.