Shortly before the Armistice of Mudros in October 1918, Mahmud Barzanji broke away from the Ottoman Empire and established a quasi-independent Kurdish state under British supervision.

The Kurds hoped that the Allies of World War I would aid them in creating an independent Kurdish nation if they were to fight against the Ottomans.

[5] Ottoman staff officer Barhan Ozkok, writing in 1932, attributes Kurdish resistance to a desire for independence as well as banditry.

[6] A 2022 article by Turkish academic Erhan Taş contests claims that Kurdish resistance (specifically the 1916 Dersim revolt) was driven by nationalism or a desire for independence, as these are not backed by contemporary war documents and based on statements by authors writing in later decades.

[12] Its causes laid in the Kurdish fear that they would suffer the same fate as the Armenians, as well as the desire to remove the state control in Dersim.

[6] Kurdish rebels occupied and destroyed the towns of Nazimiye, Mazght, Pertek, and Charsandjak,[12] and then marched towards the residence of the province governor (vali), Mamuretülaziz (modern day Elazığ).

[14] Turkish officials in Mezere and Harput felt extremely threatened by the Kurdish revolt, since the Russians at the time occupied the area between Erzurum and Erzincan which adjoined Dersim to the north.

[15] The Ottoman army would likely to be incapable of resisting a coordinated Kurdish-Russian advance on Harput,[15] leading the Muslim population of that settlement to make preparations to escape.

From September to October 1916, Kurdish rebel efforts turned the situation of the Ottoman rear south of Kiğı into one of "insecurity and disorder".

[21] On 2 August 1916, the Ottoman Second Army led by Ahmed Izzet Pasha began an offensive to recapture Malazgirt from Russia.

Kurdish civilians hostile to the Ottoman Empire helped Russian forces find uncharted tracks across the mountains.

In Diyarbekir and Bitlis, only a tiny portion of Kurdish tribesmen subscribed to the Hamidiye, while, for instance, in Dersim, everybody refused to join.

Lack of military enthusiasm was commonly noticed among the Kurds in the Ottoman Army, with Kurdish forces frequently showing contempt for orders and avoidance of responsibility.

[24] Ottoman staff officer Barhan Ozkok, writing in 1932, states that Kurdish rebels suffered 300 killed and 200 captured in a battle on 28 April 1916 during the Dersim revolt.

[26][failed verification] According to the Treaty of Sèvres, the Kurdistan region, including Mosul Province, was scheduled to have a referendum to decide its fate.

There was no general agreement among Kurds on what the borders of Kurdistan should be because of the disparity between the areas of Kurdish settlement and the political and administrative boundaries of the region.

); in the south they follow the line from Harran, Sinjar Mountains, Tel Asfar, Erbil, Süleymaniye, Akk-el-man, Sinne; in the east, Ravandiz, Başkale, Vezirkale, that is to say the frontier of Persia as far as Mount Ararat.

Emin Ali Bedir Khan proposed an alternative map that included Van and an outlet to the sea via what is now Turkey's Hatay Province.

[30] Neither proposal was endorsed by the treaty of Sèvres, which outlined a truncated Kurdistan on what is now Turkish territory (leaving out the Kurds of Iran, British-controlled Iraq and French-controlled Syria).

[31] The Turkish War of Independence (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was fought between the Turkish National Movement and the Allied powers—namely Greece in the West, Armenia on the East, France on the South, royalists and the separatists in various cities, and the United Kingdom and Italy in Constantinople (now Istanbul)—after parts of the Ottoman Empire were occupied and partitioned following the Ottomans' defeat in World War I.