After the Russian Revolutions in 1917, the Ottomans again took control over some lands Russians controlled. The Ottomans executed Abdürrezzak Bedir Khan. However, in Mesopotamia the British Empire took control of Baghdad. The British military was on its way to Mosul when the Ottoman government surrendered, and made an armistice (the Armistice of Mudros) with the Allies of World War I in October 1918. Simko Shikak took control of lands in Iranian Kurdistan near Lake Urmia. (Simko Shikak kept control of these lands until 1920.) In December 1918, Kurds in Constantinople started the Society for the Betterment of Kurdistan (SBK). The power in this organization was in two parts: a Kurdish nationalist political faction and another faction which supported the Ottoman Empire's existence. The son of Sheikh Ubeydullah, Sheikh Abdülkadir, was the leader of the Ottoman faction of the SBK. Bedir Khan Beg's son, Emin Ali Bedir Khan, was the leader of the SBK's nationalist faction.