Hamdi PashaAhmed Hamdi Pasha was a Kurdish Ottoman minister of the Marine, Secretary General of the Society for the Elevation of Kurdistan from 1918-1920 and a General officer of the Ottoman army.[1] A graduate of the Ottoman military academy,[1] he rose to the rank of divisional general and chief of general staff.[1] He was forced into early retirement by the Committee of Union and Progress, but continued to oppose them politically.[1] British government documents describe Hamdi as one of the leading lights of the Kurdish movement.[2] Hamdi was in continuous contact with Sir Horace Rumbold, 9th Baronet regarding the memorandums of the Society for the Elevation of Kurdistan including the prospect of an independent Kurdistan as a barrier to Bolsheviks progression into Mesopotamia.[3] During the Turkish War of independence Hamdi went into exile to Greece and never returned, even after being offered amnesty and permission to return.[1][4] He was also known as Hamdi the ostentatious.[1] References
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