By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj

Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan — 22 May 2026

Sheikh Said of Piran united Kurdish tribes, religious leaders, and former Ottoman fighters against Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s centralizing state — triggering one of the bloodiest crackdowns in modern Kurdish history.

 Explore the story of Sheikh Said of Piran, the Kurdish Sunni religious leader who led the 1925 uprising against the Turkish Republic and became a lasting symbol of Kurdish resistance and repression in Turkey.

The Revolt That Terrified the New Turkish Republic

In 1925, only two years after the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic, a massive Kurdish uprising erupted across southeastern Anatolia under the leadership of Sheikh Said.

The rebellion would become one of the most defining confrontations between Kurdish nationalism and the Turkish state in the twentieth century.

To the government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the uprising represented a direct threat to the survival of the new republic and its radical secular-nationalist reforms. To many Kurds, however, the revolt was a desperate resistance against political repression, forced centralization, and the systematic erasure of Kurdish identity.

The conflict ended with mass executions, military devastation, and a brutal state campaign that reshaped Kurdish-Turkish relations for generations.

Who Was Sheikh Said?

Sheikh Said was born in the village of Piran near Bismil in the region of Diyarbakır, historically known to Kurds as Amed.

He was raised in both Palu and Xinis in Erzurum province and became a highly respected Sunni religious authority in Kurdish society. Fluent in both Kurmanji Kurdish and Zazaki, Sheikh Said occupied a unique position capable of bridging tribal, linguistic, and regional divides among Kurdish communities.

He was also a prominent member of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, one of the most influential Islamic mystical traditions in the region.

At a time when the newly founded Turkish Republic was aggressively dismantling Ottoman religious institutions and imposing a centralized Turkish national identity, Sheikh Said emerged as a focal point for opposition.

Atatürk’s Reforms and Kurdish Anger

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Republic under Atatürk pursued sweeping reforms aimed at building a secular, unitary nation-state.

The reforms included:

• The abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate
• Restrictions on religious institutions and Sufi orders
• Centralization of political authority
• Suppression of non-Turkish ethnic identities
• Expansion of Turkish-language dominance in public life

For many Kurds, these reforms were seen not merely as modernization, but as an assault on both Kurdish identity and Islamic tradition.

Kurdish regions that had historically maintained significant tribal and religious autonomy suddenly faced direct state control from Ankara.

This political climate created the conditions for revolt.

The 1925 Kurdish Uprising

In early 1925, Sheikh Said launched an armed rebellion against the Turkish government.

The uprising rapidly spread across large parts of southeastern Turkey. Sheikh Said succeeded in mobilizing a broad coalition that included Kurdish tribes, Sunni religious networks, former Ottoman officers, and members of the Hamidiye cavalry militias.

At its height, the rebellion reportedly involved more than 15,000 fighters.

Unlike later Kurdish nationalist movements, the Sheikh Said rebellion combined both religious and national demands. The movement sought:

• Restoration of Islamic governance and protection of religious institutions
• Kurdish cultural and political rights
• Greater freedoms of language and expression for Kurds
• Resistance to Turkish state centralization

This fusion of Kurdish nationalism and Islamic legitimacy gave the movement substantial grassroots support across rural Kurdish regions.

The Battle for Diyarbakır

The rebellion’s most decisive moment came during the attempted siege of Diyarbakır.

Sheikh Said’s forces attempted to capture the strategically critical city, hoping its fall would trigger wider uprisings and potentially destabilize the Turkish government.

But the rebels faced a modernizing military that possessed overwhelming technological advantages.

Turkish forces deployed:

• Machine guns
• Heavy artillery
• Airplanes for aerial operations
• Better logistics and centralized command structures

The Kurdish fighters, despite their numbers and local support, could not match the firepower of the Turkish military.

The siege failed.

That failure marked the turning point of the rebellion.

The Capture and Execution of Sheikh Said

Following the collapse of the uprising, Turkish authorities launched a sweeping military crackdown across Kurdish regions.

Sheikh Said was captured in the spring of 1925 along with many of his associates.

He was tried by the Independence Tribunals established by the Turkish Republic — extraordinary courts designed to suppress political opposition during the early republican era.

Soon afterward, Sheikh Said was publicly hanged.

The execution was intended not only as punishment, but as a warning to any future Kurdish resistance movements.

Instead, it transformed Sheikh Said into one of the most enduring martyrs in Kurdish political memory.

The Turkish State’s Punitive Campaign

The defeat of the rebellion did not end the violence.

In the aftermath, the Turkish government initiated a severe punitive campaign across Kurdish regions. Entire communities suspected of supporting the uprising faced repression.

The state imposed:

• Mass arrests
• Forced displacement
• Military operations against villages
• Executions and reprisals
• Expanded restrictions on Kurdish cultural expression

The rebellion also accelerated Ankara’s long-term policy of assimilating Kurdish populations into a singular Turkish national identity.

For many Kurdish historians and activists, the aftermath of the Sheikh Said rebellion marked the beginning of a systematic state campaign against Kurdish political and cultural autonomy in modern Turkey.

Why the Sheikh Said Rebellion Still Matters

The 1925 uprising remains one of the foundational events in modern Kurdish political history.

It exposed a central contradiction that would continue to shape Turkey for decades: the Turkish Republic’s insistence on a centralized national identity versus Kurdish demands for recognition, autonomy, and cultural rights.

The rebellion also revealed the complexity of Kurdish resistance movements. Sheikh Said’s uprising was not purely nationalist or purely religious — it was both.

That blend of Islamic legitimacy, tribal politics, and Kurdish identity reflected the realities of Kurdish society during the early twentieth century and distinguished the rebellion from later secular Kurdish movements.

Today, Sheikh Said remains a deeply symbolic figure across Kurdish communities.

To supporters, he represents resistance against forced assimilation and authoritarian state-building. To the Turkish state of the era, he represented a challenge to the survival of the republic itself.

More than a century later, the political questions raised by the rebellion — identity, autonomy, religion, and state power — continue to shape Kurdish-Turkish relations.

The Legacy of a Failed Revolt

Militarily, the Sheikh Said rebellion failed.

Politically and historically, however, it changed the trajectory of the Kurdish issue in Turkey forever.

The uprising pushed Ankara toward harsher security policies in Kurdish regions, entrenched mistrust between the state and Kurdish populations, and established a legacy of rebellion and repression that would echo throughout the twentieth century.

The execution of Sheikh Said did not erase Kurdish political aspirations.

It immortalized them.

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