Koçgiri İsyanı: Sosyo-Tarihsel Bir Analiz by Dilek Kızıldağ Soileau (review)

410 Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, Vol. 4.2 into account the burdens of the thesis format and the delicate questions and problems social sciences have been trying to tackle in Turkey, this contribution could well be increased if researchers were encouraged to re-write their dissertations in a way to include a critique of the whole process of researching , writing, and defending. Moreover, the author’s preference of the adapted play over the original narrative by Baronian deserves more attention. With the assumption that the adaptation is an exact replica of Baronian’s text, neither generic differences between the two nor the choices made by Jack Antressian are challenged in the book. Overall, building on this worthy effort, the subject is waiting to be further exploited by the author himself and other researchers. Murat Cankara Social Sciences University of Ankara doi:10.2979/jottturstuass.4.2.11 Dilek Kızıldağ Soileau. Koçgiri İsyanı: Sosyo-Tarihsel Bir Analiz. Istanbul: l̇etişim Yayınları, 2017. 428 pp. 32.50 TL. ISBN: 978-9750521324. In recent years, there has been a remarkable increase in the publication of studies on early twentieth-century Turkish history, many of which have been used and abused as part of the politics in today’s Turkey. A good example of such a work is Dilek Kızıldağ Soileau’s study, whose title can be translated as Koçgiri Rebellion: A Socio-Historical Analysis. The book is based on the author’s doctoral thesis completed in 2014 at Ankara University. The book examines the 1920 Koçgiri rebellion, which took place during the Milli Mücadele Dönemi (1919–23) or “the period of National Struggle.” The fact that the rebellion took place during the period of transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish nation-state played an important role in making it part of the ideological foundation of the new state that has survived to date. Until recently, apart from a few works published outside of Turkey, studies of the Koçgiri rebellion within Turkey fit in one of two historiographies. One of these is the official Turkish historiography that identifies the rebellion as a brutal, political movement against a legitimate authority and affirms the practices of the Ankara government against the rebellion. The other one is the Kurdish historiography, which considers the rebellion as a genuine struggle for independence and harshly criticizes Ankara’s campaign to suppress the rebellion. While the author skilfully discusses these two historiographies, she keeps her distance from them and presents a critique of their approach. The book consists of three main parts as well as an introduction, conclusion , appendices, and a photo section. In the introduction, the author presents her research questions about the subject and draws the conceptual and Book Reviews    411 theoretical framework of the study. In the first chapter, the historical background of Kurdish nationalism from the nineteenth century until the establishment of the Republic is presented with a discussion of the state’s practices in Kurdish regions, relations between the Kurdish population and the state, revolts, and political movements. In the second chapter, after the Armistice of Moudros (1918), the formation of Kurdish nationalism under the auspices of the Kürdistan Teali Cemiyeti (Society for the Advancement of Kurdistan) and its relations with the Kurds in Eastern Anatolia is examined. The author also highlights the influence of Kürdistan Teali Cemiyeti on the development of nationalist sentiments in the Koçgiri-Dersim region due to relations between the society and leading figures of the Koçgiri rebellion, such as Haydar Bey, Alişan Bey, and Alişer Efendi (p. 155). The third chapter contains a comprehensive analysis of the Koçgiri rebellion . The situation in the region before the revolt, the unfolding of the rebellion , reasons for its failure, its Kurdish andAlevi dimension, the reaction of the state to the rebellion, and its consequences are discussed in detail. The author benefits considerably from archival sources of state institutions and memoirs of those who witnessed the rebellion. Further, a document entitled Koçgiri Hadisesine Dair Heyet-i Tahkikiye Raporu (Report of the Investigation Committee on the Koçgiri Incident...