Nuri, Ihsan

(1892-1976)

   Ihsan Nuri Pasha was the famous military leader of the Kurdish Ararat revolt against Turkey around Mt. Ararat in 1929-1930. In 1910, he graduated from the Military College in Istanbul and then served in the Ottoman army. After World War I he became involved in the Azadi Kurdish nationalist movement and served as an informant for British intelligence. In August 1924, he was involved in the premature Kurdish uprising at Bayt Shabab, a small town in Turkey just north of the Iraqi border. This fiasco tipped the Kurds' hand to the Turks and helped lead to the ultimate failure of the Sheikh Said uprising in 1925.

   In 1929, the Khoybun, a transnational Kurdish party based in Syria, sent Ihsan Nuri to organize and lead tribal chiefs already in rebellion on and near Mt. Ararat. At first the Kurds achieved some notable successes, but after Turkey was able to convince Iran to cede a small piece of Iranian territory on the eastern side of Mt. Ararat in exchange for some Turkish territory, the Turks were able to surround the area and crush the rebellion. Ihsan Nuri lived out his life in exile in Iran.