Sheikh Said of Piran

Sheikh Said of Piran was a Kurdish Sunni religious leader and freedom fighter originally from a village in Bismil town of Amed (Diyarbakir). Sheikh Said was raised both in Palu and Xinis districts of Erzurum. He spoke both Kermanci and Zazaki and was a widely respected religious figure in Southeastern Turkey. He was a prominent member of the mystic school of Sufism. Sheikh Said led a rebellion against Turkish rule in 1925. In the face of Kemal Ataturk’s purge against the Kurds, Sheikh Said mobilized diverse elements of the population to resist, numbering over 15,000. His forces were predominantly Kurdish citizens, religious, and members of the Hamidiye militia cavalry. Said merged the interests of Kurdish tribal chieftains and experienced military officers who had served in the first World War. The movement’s goals were broad but included the restoration of Islamic governance and guaranteed rights of language, freedom, and expression for Kurds. The rebellion would ultimately fail after an unsuccessful siege of the city of Diyarbakir, where the rebels were outmatched by the modern military equipment of the Turks, which included machine guns and airplanes. Sheikh Said was captured in the spring of 1925 and was publicly hanged. After his death, the Turkish government launched a brutal punitive campaign of reprisals and mass killings in the Kurdish region of Turkey.