Abdürrezzak Bedir Khan

Abdürrezzak Bedir Khan (1864 in Constantinople – 1918) was an Ottoman Kurdish diplomat, politician and a member of the Bedir Khan family.

Education After he graduated from school, he entered into the Ottoman administration, following his father to the sanjak Aydin, where his father has been appointed as the Governor.

Diplomatic career In 1889, he was sent to Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire to work for one year in the Ottoman Consulate as a secretary. As he returned to Constantinople, he asked for more work and was offered an office at the Consulate in Tehran. It was a post he eventually was not able to assume as he was called back to Constantinople. He didn't comply with the demand and left for the Russian Empire, in which he wanted to settle in Yerevan. Through his diplomatic relations he established during his time at the consulate in Saint Petersburg, he managed to arrive in Tiflis but his plans to live in Yerevan were dashed due to pressures from the Ottoman Empire. From Tiflis he began a wide journey over Batumi, Kiev and then also the United Kingdom, before his father Mustafa Bedir Khan compelled him to return to Constantinople in 1894. Back in the Ottoman capital, he was given a post in the office of the master of ceremonies in Constantinople. As such he got to know several European diplomats to which he retained long-lasting cordial relations. This then lead Abdürrezzak to encourage the assassination of Rıdvan Pasha following which he was dismissed, sentenced and imprisoned in Tripoli, (in present-day Libya) in 1906. Other members of the Bedir Khan family were sent into exile for this accusation. Following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, he was not pardoned and permitted to return from exile as other members of the Bedir Khans and remained in detention until he was released in 1910.

In 1911, several members of the Bedir Khan family toured the Bohtan area, also Abdürrezzak who at the time intended to be elected as a deputy for the Ottoman Parliament. In 1912, he was supporting a Kurdish uprising around Erzurum. By 1913 he demanded the inclusion of the Kurds in negotiations concerning an eventual land reform of the eastern provinces. following which he attempted to gain the Russians assistance for the Kurdish aims of an independent Kurdistan. The Ottomans reportedly stated that he was seen as a leader of the Kurdish tribes by the Russians, and that he attended a meeting with them together with Simko Shikak in May 1914. He was killed in 1918,

Personal life He was born to Necib Pasha Bedir Khan and Hanife Bedir Khan into a household of the Bedir Khan family.