Hasan Hayri: The Kurdish Deputy Who Was Used, Betrayed, and Hanged — and Called Himself a Donkey (1881–1925)
- Mehmet Özdemir
- Mar 14
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 11
In the annals of Kurdish political history, few figures embody the particular tragedy of the early Turkish Republic more completely than Hasan Hayri. A Kurdish Alevi deputy from Dersim, he served in both the last Ottoman parliament and the first Grand National Assembly of Turkey — and was hanged on its orders in 1925, having been arrested immediately after obeying the personal instructions of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. His story is a compressed demonstration of the mechanisms by which the new Turkish nationalist state simultaneously used Kurdish figures as instruments of political legitimation and then destroyed those figures when their usefulness had expired.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Dersim — The Mountain Fortress That Refused to Yield
Dersim — the region now known as Tunceli Province in eastern Turkey — is one of the most distinctive regions in the Kurdish world. Its people were predominantly Kurdish Alevis: adherents of a syncretic religious tradition combining elements of Shia Islam, pre-Islamic Anatolian beliefs, and Sufi mysticism, distinct from the Sunni Kurdish communities that dominated most of the Kurdish highlands. The Dersim Alevis had managed to maintain a degree of autonomy from Ottoman authority that was unusual even by the standards of the relatively independent Kurdish highlands. Hasan Hayri was born into this world of fierce local pride and ancient resistance in 1881.
Part 2: The Son of an Agha — Formation in the Late Ottoman World
Hasan Hayri came from a notable family. He received an education that combined traditional Islamic learning with the new secular Ottoman curriculum, showed sufficient academic promise to receive military training, and participated enthusiastically in the post-1908 Young Turk constitutional revolution that briefly opened a space for Kurdish political organisation. He absorbed the conviction that Kurds could be full and equal participants in a reformed, constitutional, multi-ethnic Ottoman state while maintaining their distinct identity.
Part 3: The Ottoman Officer and the Kurdish Deputy
After the First World War, Hasan Hayri aligned himself with Mustafa Kemal's nationalist cause — the choice made by many Kurdish politicians who believed Kemal was promising a new state that would guarantee Kurdish rights within a Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood. The Dersim Alevis had their own reasons for preferring Kemalist rule over the prospect of an Armenian or Greek nationalist state that might seek control of eastern Anatolia.
Part 4: The First Grand National Assembly — A Kurd in Atatürk's Parliament
In 1920, Hasan Hayri was elected as a deputy to the Grand National Assembly in Ankara. He was one of a significant number of Kurdish deputies in the first Grand National Assembly. He participated in genuine debates about the nature of the state being created, served on parliamentary commissions, and believed that Kurdish participation in the War of Independence had earned Kurdish people a secure place in the new Turkey.
Part 5: The Trap at Lausanne — A Puppet Performance
During the 1922–1923 Lausanne negotiations, Atatürk ordered Hasan Hayri to appear in parliament wearing traditional Kurdish dress — then prohibited — and to publicly declare that Kurds were content with the republic and had no desire for autonomy or independence. Hayri complied. He wore the prohibited traditional dress. He made the declaration. The performance achieved its diplomatic purpose at Lausanne.
Part 6: The Arrest — Punished for Obeying
Immediately after the Lausanne performance, Hasan Hayri was arrested. The charges were the wearing of prohibited ethnic dress in a public setting, and conspiracy against the security of the state. The man who had been ordered by the head of state to wear the prohibited dress was arrested for wearing it. The man who had been ordered to declare his loyalty to the republic was charged with conspiracy against it. This is one of the best-documented episodes in the early history of the Turkish Republic: a deliberate political act, the use of a Kurdish figure as an instrument and then his immediate disposal.
Part 7: The Sheikh Said Rebellion and the Eastern Independence Court
The Sheikh Said Rebellion of February–March 1925 was the first major Kurdish uprising against the Turkish Republic. The Turkish government used it as a pretext for comprehensive action against Kurdish political figures across the spectrum. Hasan Hayri was brought before the Eastern Independence Court and sentenced to death.
Part 8: The Gallows — Ker Hesen Speaks
Hasan Hayri was hanged in 1925. Before his execution, he made a request that has become legendary: he asked to be buried in the road so that every Kurd who passed would spit on his grave. At the moment of hanging, he shouted: 'Uh Sheikh Said, Ker Hesen has been also martyred in the way of Kurdistan!' Ker Hesen — Hasan the Donkey — was the name he had coined for himself. It was the ultimate self-reproach, and simultaneously a martyrdom declaration for Kurdistan.
Part 9: Legacy — The Symbol of a Betrayal
The sequence of Hasan Hayri's life — Kurdish deputy, Lausanne performer, instant prisoner, executed martyr — is a concentrated demonstration of the structural position that Kurdish politicians occupied in the early Turkish Republic: useful when their identity could be deployed to serve Turkish nationalist interests, disposable when that utility was exhausted. His story has been told and retold in Kurdish political memory as evidence of the bad faith with which the Turkish Republic approached its Kurdish citizens from its very foundation. The name Ker Hesen lives in Kurdish memory not as an insult but as a form of dignity: the dignity of a man who found the courage, at the moment of his death, to name himself a martyr for the people he had been forced to betray.
Chronology of Hasan Hayri
1881 — Born in Dersim (now Tunceli Province), Ottoman Empire.
1898 — Graduates from Ottoman Military Academy; begins military career.
1914–1918 — Ottoman military service in World War I.
1919–1920 — Elected Dersim deputy to the last Ottoman parliament; then to the first Grand National Assembly.
1922–1923 — Lausanne performance: ordered by Atatürk to wear prohibited Kurdish dress and deny Kurdish independence; arrested immediately after.
February–March 1925 — Sheikh Said Rebellion; Eastern Independence Courts established.
November 1925 — Executed by hanging in Elazığ; final words: 'Uh Sheikh Said, Ker Hesen has been also martyred in the way of Kurdistan!'
References
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Hasan Hayri?
Hasan Hayri (1881–1925) was a Kurdish Alevi politician and military officer from Dersim. He served in both the final Ottoman parliament and the first Turkish Grand National Assembly. He is remembered for being ordered by Atatürk to deny Kurdish independence at Lausanne, being arrested immediately after obeying that order, and dying on the gallows with defiant last words for Kurdistan.
What happened to Hasan Hayri at Lausanne?
During the 1923 Lausanne negotiations, Atatürk ordered Hasan Hayri to appear in parliament wearing traditional Kurdish dress — then prohibited — and testify publicly that Kurds did not want independence. Hayri complied with both demands. He was then immediately arrested for wearing prohibited ethnic dress and conspiracy against national security — punished for carrying out the head of state's own instructions.
What were Hasan Hayri's famous last words?
At the moment of hanging, Hasan Hayri shouted: 'Uh Sheikh Said, Ker Hesen has been also martyred in the way of Kurdistan!' He had coined the name Ker Hesen — Hasan the Donkey — as a verdict on his own life of compliance. His last request was to be buried in the road so every Kurd who passed would spit on his grave.
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