TURBULENT KURDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 84, 9 April 1925, Page 5

TURBULENT KURDS.

HEAVY FIGHTING PROCEEDING.

TURKISH CONCENTRATION. A RELIGIOUS WAR. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON", April 8. The first direct news of the Kurdish revolt has just been cabled by Mr. C. J. Ketchum. the special correspondent of the '"Daily Express," from Goyan, on the Turco-Kurdish frontier. The dispatch states that, contrary to the official Turkish reports of the suppression of the rising in the west of Kurdistan, the disturbances in the Diarbekr area continue.

Kurd rebels were encountered a few days ago on the outskirts of Dersim.

jfhoy were strongly entrenched. These rebels were, driven back to Kharput after fierce fighting.

Hostilities also occurred recently at Mush and Malata. as well as at other towns in the Diarbekr area.

The main Turkish forces, ■which have arrived via the Bagdad railway through French Syria, arc concentrated in the Diarbekr and Bitlis area.

When reinforcements arrive from the Turkish reserves on the Russian frontier the plan of campaign will be to press eastwards on the line running from Bitlis to Sert,

The correspondent says complete calm prevails in the forward areas of Traq. British airmen and also Indian and Iraq troops are in readiness for any emergency. However, he is of the opinion that Turkey is too much occupied at present to think of adventures in the direction of Mosul.

The motive of the Kurdish outbreak, says Mr. Ketchum, appears to be a reiijrious war against the President of Turkey, Mustapha Kemal Pasha, and the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ismet Pasha, for the restoration of the Caliphate. The full effect of the blow struck against the Moslem faith by the expulsion of the Caliph has only just permeated the more remote regions, and fanatical tribesmen have now been roused to engage in a fierce struggle. They believe that without the Caliphate they will be deprived of their only medium of communication with God. — (A. and NZ Cable.)