Mustafa Pasha Yamulki was a Kurdish Ottoman officer, tribunal judge and participant in Sulaymaniyah’s political and publishing life. Also known as Nemrut Mustafa Pasha, he served in Sheikh Mahmud’s administration and edited Bangî Kurdistan. His career requires distinguishing separate court proceedings, newspaper editions and conflicting biographical dates.

Black-and-white portrait of Mustafa Yamulki with a moustache, tall dark cap, decorated uniform, braided belt and gloves beside a sword
Mustafa Yamulki in a photograph catalogued to the 1910s. Photographer unidentified; archival source Sara Distribution, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain, PD-Ottoman. Photographer unidentified · Sara Distribution / Wikimedia Commons · 1910s · Public domain / PD-Ottoman.

Sulaymaniyah and the biographical record

Yamulki came from Sulaymaniyah and pursued an Ottoman military career before returning to Kurdish political activity. Rebwar Fatah’s biographical account, written in 2005 and republished by Tabsir in 2009, gives 25 January 1866 as his birth date and describes schooling in Sulaymaniyah, Baghdad and Istanbul. Fatah explicitly acknowledges relying heavily on the family. [1] Çağatay Benhür’s review of Ferudun Ata’s archival biography instead treats the precise birth date as uncertain. [2] The exact day should consequently be attributed to the family-based account rather than presented as an uncontested archival finding.

Military and consular service

Benhür’s review records consular appointments at Hoy and Selmas in the 1890s and subsequently Kars, followed by service with the Ottoman Sixth Army. It places his promotion to brigadier general and command of the 21st Brigade in 1909, participation in the Balkan War and retirement in 1914. [2] A brigade should not be inflated into a “21st Army”. These postings also show that his work combined military and consular responsibilities. They provide a firmer outline than an unqualified list of purported wartime army commands.

Different cases in the postwar courts

The Istanbul courts-martial changed personnel and jurisdiction during the postwar years. Taner Akçam’s research places Mustafa Pasha’s court presidency from April 1920; this does not make him the presiding judge in every 1919 proceeding. [3] Alongside trials concerning the Armenian genocide, the tribunals prosecuted the Turkish nationalist movement. Osman Akandere’s study dates the death sentence against Mustafa Kemal and associates to 11 May 1920, with the sultan’s ratification on 24 May. [4] That in-absentia case concerned opposition to the Istanbul government. It should be distinguished from prosecutions for deportation and massacre of Armenians.

The judge’s own prosecution

Akçam also reconstructs Mustafa Pasha’s criticism of the treatment of Armenians during proceedings against him, using contemporary newspaper reports. Separately, the former tribunal president and other judges were prosecuted over procedural irregularities in the Bayburt case concerning Nusret. The study records a December 1920 judgment, an appeal and the eventual commutation of sentences. [3] These episodes complicate a simple portrait of either an unblemished judicial hero or merely a political villain. Criticism of wartime atrocities and scrutiny of the judge’s own conduct belong in the same biography.

Kurdistan Association and education

The documentary introduction reproduced by Sara Distribution connects Yamulki with the Kurdistan Association established in Sulaymaniyah on 21 July 1922. It transcribes the association’s organising account and a decree of Sheikh Mahmud’s administration naming Mirliva Mustafa Pasha as head of education. [5] This is evidence for a specific ministerial appointment and an institution-building effort. It does not by itself establish a completed programme of universal schooling or measurable improvements in literacy. The association, newspaper and administration were related institutions with different responsibilities.

Bangî Kurdistan in two cities

C. J. Edmonds’s 1937 bibliography, based on his own collection, lists Bangî Kurdistan as a Sulaymaniyah weekly edited by Hajji Mustafa Pasha, beginning on 2 August 1922. It separately records three Baghdad issues dated 28 January, 15 February and 1 April 1926, again naming Mustafa Pasha as editor and Mustafa Shauki as writer. [6] The later Baghdad run was therefore not the beginning of Yamulki’s publishing career. Edmonds also lists Rojî Kurdistan separately, with Muhammad Nuri as editor: related newspaper titles and their editors should not be merged.

Death and later documentary interest

Both the family-based biography and Benhür’s review place his death in Baghdad in 1936, but they differ over the date: Fatah gives 25 May, whereas the review reports February. [1] [2] His later reception includes the documentary Mustafa Pasha Yamulki, A Fighter for Justice. Rudaw Production’s listing names Horen Ghareeb and Hardi Qadir as directors, gives a 67-minute running time and a completion date of 18 April 2023. [7] Those production details document a modern interpretation of his life; they do not resolve the discrepancies in the historical record.

Sources and further reading

  1. Rebwar Fatah, “Mustafa Pasha Yamolki: His Life and Role in the Kurdish Nationalist Movement” (2005), republished by Tabsir, 26 December 2009; family-based biographical account.
  2. Çağatay Benhür, review of Ferudun Ata’s Süleymaniyeli Nemrut Mustafa Paşa (2008), Selçuk University Faculty of Letters Journal 20, pp. 239–242; biography and conflicting dates.
  3. Taner Akçam, chapters 10–12 in Vahakn N. Dadrian and Taner Akçam, Judgment at Istanbul (2011), especially pp. 197–198, 243–244, 258–259 and 263; tribunal cases and procedural history.
  4. Osman Akandere, study of nationalist death sentences under Damat Ferit’s fourth government (2008), Selçuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal 20, pp. 11–40, especially pp. 17–18 and 23.
  5. Sara Distribution, Bangî Kurdistan documentary introduction and transcribed association record and cabinet decree; association, education appointment and publishing context.
  6. C. J. Edmonds, “A Bibliography of Southern Kurdish, 1920–36” (1937), Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society XXIV, especially pp. 489–491; contemporary collection and newspaper entries.
  7. Rudaw Production, Mustafa Pasha Yamulki, A Fighter for Justice: documentary listing, directors, runtime and completion date.