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| The State of the Republic of Kurdistan |
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Qazi Mîhemmed
Dr Ali KILIC
Paris on 22 January 2009
The State of the Republic of Kurdistan
The Republic of Mahabad, also called the State of the Republic of Kurdistan) is established in eastern Kurdistan on 22 January 1946. It is the third contemporary Kurdish state, after the armed resistance against Sex Mahmoud Berzence English imperialism and the armed struggle against the imperialist states for the Turkish Foundation of Independent Kurdistan Government in Kocgiri March 21 of 1921 until 1938 Resistance Army Dersim including the Republic of Ararat in Turkey, it marks our tragic history in a historic turning point .. Its capital is the Kurdish town of Mahabad in northwestern Iran. Its existence is tied to the Soviet-Iranian conflict between the USA and the USSR.
It Qazi Muhammad who is President of the Republic, Mustafa Barzani is the minister of defense. The Prime Minister is Scheikh Hadji Baba. The Cabinet is composed Mihemed Husén Xanî Seyfi Qazi: Wezîrê CEng parastina û û hevkarê serokkomar. Sidiq Heyderî, Minister of Propaganda, Menaf Kerim Mihemed Emin Mo, Seyid Mihemed Eyyûbyan, Minister of Health, Ehmed Îlahî, Minister of Economy, Xelîl Xusrewî, Minister of Labor, Kerim Ehmedyan:, Minister of Post and Communication Hacı Mistefa Dawud, Minister of Commerce, Mela Husén MECD, Minister of Justice, Mihemed Welîzade, Minister of Culture, Haci Ebdulrehman Îlxanîzade, Ismail Îlxanîzade, Minister of Public Works.
The arrival in August 1941, British troops and Soviet allies in Iran changes the balance of power. As the Iranian army is disintegrating and folds to the south, rifles and ammunition from falling into the hands of Kurdish tribes. Supported behind the scenes by the USSR, Komala develops. Renamed the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in 1945, it dominates the Kurdish movement. At its head, the Soviets favor Qazi Mohammed, an erudite man, religious and respected. Accouru mountains of Iraq, Mullah Barzani Moustapha, fearsome warrior who became the hero of the Kurdish movement, was greeted with open arms Mahabad. KDP missing soldiers and above all a leader.
After the end of Tabriz in 1944, the Soviets set up the independent Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. Fort example, and assured of Russian support, Qazi Mohammed proclaims to turn his Kurdish government. On 22 January 1946 on the site Tchwar Tchira "The Four Lanterns", he said that Kurds are a people from occupying their own land and, like all others, has the right to self-determination.
Mahabad adopted colors. The same as those of Iran, but in reverse: three horizontal stripes, red, white and green. At the center of the torch, a sun, flanked by wheat symbolizes the Kurdish nation. "When I had finished, Fatima continues, I brought the fighters. Barzani has embraced the flag and, as a reward, he gave me a gun." We must master Archie Roosevelt Jr., then U.S. assistant military attache in Tehran and visitor of Mahabad in August 1946, the only testimony on the western Kurdish Republic. "Roosevelt was very surprised by the atmosphere of freedom that prevailed in Mahabad, compared to the communist caporalisation of Azerbaijan," says William Eagleton in his book. "Qazi Mohammed tried to convince Americans that the Kurds wanted to form a democratic province within a federal system similar to the American model, and if the U.S. government could not support the Kurdish aspirations, at least it did opposes it. (...) But there was no question for the United States to meddle in a nationalist movement in a remote corner of Iran. "
A Mahabad and elsewhere, the Kurds are hurrying to destroy reports, photographs and documents. Individuals and families destroy all traces of their involvement in the Kurdish movement by burning letters, appointments and pictures, as Qazi Mohammed or Stalin. On 31 March 1947, at 3 o'clock in the morning on the orders of the Shah, Qazi Mohammed, his brother and cousin were hanged on the spot Tchwar Tchira Fourteen months after the proclamation of the Republic, in the same place.
For Barzani and his men then retired in the Zagros mountains bordering northern Iraq. Back from, they will find refuge in the USSR. Qazem remembers the epic: "It was late fall, it snowed. We walked sixty-four days without being able to change. We were cold and hungry. Bombardments we continued unabated. The hardest was to find water. Dozens of us are dead. I wish you write this disaster. There were Mala Habib, who could read and write, but he died after a few days. Those who survived were fed hope Mullah Mustafa and the Kurdish flag. We followed up Russia. Here, we were scattered. The exile lasted more than eleven years in misery and loneliness. "
The Republic of Mahabad was established in Iranian Kurdistan in 1946 (1). Although its short-lived success is linked to the rivalry between the USA and the USSR, this experience has remained a symbol of national aspiration of the Kurds. Proclaimed on 22 January 1946, it will be crushed less than a year later by the Iranian troops. This is the approximation of Reza Shah with Germany during the Second World War that led Britain and the USSR to invade Iran on 25 August 1941, to file and replace it with his son Mohammad Reza. This operation is part of a large anti-alliance, which will be symbolized by the conference in Tehran in November 1943 attended Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. The three leaders confirmed their support for the independence of Iran.
After the destruction of Mahabad, clichés have accompanied everywhere, throughout the epic military retreat Kurdish, Soviet Russia and then in Iraq, where Hachem arrived in 1958, after eleven years of exile. To escape the repression of Iraqi regimes, which have fought Kurdish independence, it has long been hiding these photos. Imprisoned for three years in the jails of Saddam Hussein, the old man had given to friends. No one knew, of course, if Hashem would be released one day. But in a sense, his images were more valuable than his life. They were memory, proof that a Kurdish Republic had existed once in Iran. They were both real and dream.
The current president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, was born in Mahabad when his father, General Mustafa Barazani was the general in Mahabad. Archibald Roosevelt, son of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, wrote in The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, the main problem of the Republic of Mahabad was she needed Soviet aid. But this alliance with the Red Army caused a disagreement with many Kurdish tribes.
Mahabad, the heart of the short-lived Kurdish Republic was proclaimed in Iran on 22 January 1946 and dissolved by the troops of Mohammed Reza Shah in December of that year is less than 100 kilometers east of the Iraqi border. Half a century later, that remains there to this city, which has deeply marked the Kurdish imaginary?
The militarization of the region is obvious and distorts the perception of distance. The relief does not control these areas that Tehran wants to see separated by a "security zone" in order to establish a no man's land control. The city of Mahabad regroupe sixty thousand (sixteen thousand in 1946). With the villages bordering the sharestan (district) of Mahabad in total about one hundred ten thousand. A modest population growth on the measure to the scale of Iran where the rate of natural increase was 3.5% in 1993. But Kurdistan is marked by the scars of the past.
The administrative Mahabad is a paradox. In an arbitrary manner, the former Kurdish capital is not for the Ostan (province) of Kurdistan, but of West Azerbaijan. The regional authorities have focused the Iranian Kurdistan (1) on the city of Sanandaj (ex Sinneh), located 280 kilometers south of Mahabad. Timid movements of local opinion, have called for a connection to the province of Kurdistan, as constituted in 30 years, or for the creation of another Kurdistan whose epicenter was Mahabad. In vain. The central government of Iran under the chahs as under the mullahs, refused to give an expression in Kurdistan administrative correspond more closely to the area of settlement of the Kurdish population.
In addition, Mahabad, "city of the moon" in Persian, is a name imposed by Reza Shah there are more than sixty years as part of a broad policy persanification toponyms. The old name, Saujbolagh was of Turkish origin. The city was founded in the seventeenth century by a sultan qadjar We can see the mausoleum near the new cemetery. To his misfortune, in the eyes of the Iranian Mahabad could not assert any legitimacy ancient Persian. The city was located in a basin of altitude, collected in the foothills of the Zagros mountains whose peaks rising to over 2 000 meters. This situation reinforces the sense of isolation of the people and expose them to the rigors of winter. In the north-east, the silhouette of a mountain blocking the horizon is evocative
But the crushing of Nazi Germany has caused divisions between the USSR and its allies yesterday in many areas. The cold war is preparing the land and rivalry are many, from Europe to Asia. Iran, with its huge oil resources, is attracting all appetites. Especially as the removal of the Shah led to the development of political activities and that the communist Tudeh Party organized effectively. National aspirations are also strong in this country of many minorities.
A first The first action is developing in the province of Iranian Azerbaijan, where the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, supported by the Soviets, proclaimed in Tabriz, in December 1945 an autonomous republic (officially as part of Iran). Azeris, also present in the USSR, are the largest national minority in Iran, about 20% of the population (Kurds make up about 10% of population).
A few weeks later, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (East-Iranian) (KDPI) proclaims the Mahabad Republic. It Qazi Mohammad who is elected president, and Moustapha Barzani will be his minister of defense. On 22 January 1946, Qazi Mohamad announce the birth of the first Republic of Kurdistan. Small area (15 000 km2) and with very limited resources, the Republic has primarily a cultural and symbolic importance. Thus, many Iraqi Kurds are immediately moved to Mahabad. And they are under the direction of General Mohamad Barzani, who delay the first attacks by the Iranian army. The latter is the head of a major Kurdish tribe after the fall of the Republic, he took refuge in the USSR, then return to Iraq, where he became one of the main Kurdish leaders. His son, Mr. Massoud Barzani, who was born in Mahabad in 1946, was elected president of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan in 2005. /
Recall that the Kurds, an Indo-European nation, would total between 40 and 45 million people: 25 million in Turkey, 8 million in Iran, Iraq 7 million and 3 million in Syria. The KDPI, headed by Dr. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, will attend the 1979 revolution, but will be forced to go into opposition. Its leader will be assassinated in Vienna by Iranian agents of power on 13 July 1989. The KDPI continue to experience sporadic military activities.
Qazi Mohamad is a negotiator who seeks the support of the Soviets, while trying to reach agreement with Tehran. Lack of result, he ended up adopting a more bellicose in 1944: the signing of a mutual aid agreement for the creation of large Kurdistan with Kurdish leaders in Iraq and Turkey, he joined late in Komala (secret organization for the Kurdish renaissance in Iran, the ancestor of the KDPI, Democratic Party of Kurdistan of Iraq). And on 17 December 1945, he hoisted the Kurdish flag on official buildings of Mahabad. This time he obtained the protection of the Soviet Union, which has views of the Kurdistan.
But the international context is changing unfavorably. In May 1946, under pressure from Western powers, Soviet soldiers evacuate Iran. In August, Qazi Mohamad is once again in Tehran to negotiate a modus vivendi. In vain, the new Shah, Mohammad Reza, master finally home, back to the bloody political antikurde of his father. On 27 November, the Iranian army attack. Mahabad surrendered on December 16. On 31 March 1947, Qazi Mohamad was hanged in a public place. The same place where he had proclaimed fourteen months before the birth of the Republic of Mahabad.
The uncertainties of international politics are complicating the problem of the Kurds, much more seriously than the efforts &'erivain left for little people. In the aftermath of war in the northern region occupied by Iran since August 1941 by troops soviétiques1 was formed in August 1945. A Democratic Party of Kurdistan, on 22 January 1946. Proclaims, with support from Moscow the Democratic Republic of Kurdistan, five months later niai end. Stalin. Respecting the division decided at Yalta, decides to abandon the Kurds, as it leaves isolate and crush the popular uprising in Greece. Soviet troops evacuated the north of Tehran that Iran began the reconquest: Tehran liquid first Autonomous Government of Azerbaijan established with the support of the Soviet Azerbaijani region of Iran, then. in December 1946. reoccupies the Kurdish city of Mahabad. It stops the leaders of the Kurdish Republic, sentenced to death by a military court and hanged in the central square of Mahabad on 30 March 1947. Punishment ravaged Kurdistan and then pushes the Iraqi Kurds headed by Mulla Barzani. moved into the Kurdish Republic to return to Iraq where they are again persecuted. A group of some 500 fighters and fled to Turkey. Hence they are expelled, returned to Iran where the Shah's troops hunt down and finally, May 17 the 499 survivors. headed by Mustafa Barzani. Crossing the border on horseback and Soviet arms and enter Azerbaijan. The Soviets to disarm and set in a military camp on the edge of the Caspian Sea.
The head of Homeland Security sent Abakoumov master spy Soudoplatov Baku to negotiate with Barzani the conditions of his stay in the USSR. It installs Kurds near Tashkent "We passed. Soudoplatov said. an agreement under which Barzani himself and some of his officers attend courses taught by Soviet military academies. Under this agreement installation in Central Asia should be a parenthesis in their long march. "
The Staff delegate 20 officers to train these fighters But the honeymoon soon turns sour. The yew) in February 1949 the Minister of the Interior. Stalin Krouglov reminds the dangers of these Kurds and their leader, the measures already taken to isolate him, breaking up the group. disperse Kurds and the need to continue and further extend Mustafa Barzani, being a man pol1iqucmeni illiterate, wants to bring together Kurdish tribes cry a principality and start its ite. Barzani believes its presence in the Soviet Union as a temporary situation that requires him to do nothing. " Also a year ago already BAGUIROV, Secretary of the PC and the Azerbaijani old accomplice Beria had therefore proposed to remove the ungrateful of the border with Iran. to actually prevent the Kurds from resuming their struggle for national claims Also earlier said than done by decree of 9 August 1948, the posting of Kurds is transferred to a camp of the Ministry of Interior located near a station railway line on the secondary Tashkent. But Barzani did not mean to end this way in 1948 it called a meeting with the secretary of the Uzbek Center PC. and calls him an appointment with Stalin that he wants to present his plans he threatened to commit suicide in case of refusal. Finally, adds Krouglov, maintenance Barzani, a real feudal lord, according Soudoplatov. and its military personnel "in 1949 cost the sum of 6 662 467 rubles sic" huge sum indeed. Conclusion "The Ministry of I Internal Justice to dissolve the rational detachment Kurds and disperse in small groups in remote districts of the Republic of Uzbekistan so that the Kurds can not communicate with them"
Mustapha Barzani triumphantly returned to Baghdad eleven years later, after the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy by General Abdel Karim Kassem. Several Kurdish ministers then enter the government, including the son of Sheikh Mahmoud. In exchange for the guarantee of respect for "national rights" of Kurds in the "Iraqi entity" and the publication of newspapers Kurdish Barzani proclaims "Kassem Soldier," and help those who are called "Zaïm "(the Leader) to nip in the blood Arab nationalist rebellion in Mosul led by Colonel Abdel Wahab Chawaf. Wounded, the colonel was completed on his hospital bed. Four hundred of his supporters - including Bedouin Chammar - were massacred in a mosque by Kurdish militias and the "Popular Resistance Forces."
The support of Barzani Kassem regime goes further. In May 1959, he lends a hand to the Iraqi army to quell a revolt ... leaders of the Kurdish region Rawanduz. More than 24 000 Kurds fled to Turkey and Iran!
The relations between Mustafa Barzani and General Kassem deteriorated following an extended period spent by the Kurdish leader in Moscow, without a doubt the Soviets to serve the "Zaïm" they do not like his decision to oust the power the Iraqi Communist Party (PCI). Barzani took refuge in the mountains and the war resumed. Curiously, claims he sent Kassem in March 1962 are moderate. He spoke only of opening schools, agricultural and industrial development, recognition of the Kurdish language, not autonomy or borders.
63 Then three years after what is the solution of the Kurdish national question? In other words what is the strategy and tactics KDPI?
A first response from the Secretary General of the KDPI, Mr Mustafa Hijri,
We, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), believe that only regime-change in Iran will realize the Iranian people’s quest for liberty and dignity as well as the outside world’s vision of Iran as a force for the good within the International Community.
It is high time for the West to adopt a long-term strategy to bring about regime-change in Iran by supporting the democratic and secular forces inside as well as outside of the country.
For those who have any doubts about such a policy, we invoke (in addition to the five-part threat that Iran poses to international peace and security) the clerical regime’s practice of systematic violations of human rights and its brutal oppression of the country’s various ethnic, religious and national communities.
We also believe that a nuclear-armed clerical regime in Iran, with its terrorist mindset, is dangerous for the entire Middle East due to the risk of nuclear proliferation in an already volatile and war-prone part of the world.
Some of the neighboring countries sudden and simultaneous interest in nuclear power in the second half of 2007 is a warning sign of the frightening scenario that would unfold. A nuclear-armed Iran will feel emboldened to use its terrorist groups in Lebanon, Iraq and elsewhere to blackmail the United States, other Western powers and countries in the Middle East.»
Bearing in mind that the experience in Iraq has resulted in skepticism towards regime-change through foreign military intervention, the task of regime-change in Iran should be left to the Iranian Opposition. This would relieve the United States and its allies of the type of burden they have shouldered in Iraq and, more importantly, no one would be able to doubt the moral and political legitimacy of regime-change from within Iran.
However, such a strategy will not succeed without having as one of its central pillars genuine support for the ethnic and national diversity in Iran. Support for this diversity is also of strategic importance for democracy in Iran.
As long as Iran derives a substantial portion of its income from the sale of petroleum, there will be no incentives for the country’s rulers to adhere to calls for popular sovereignty or democracy. This is often the case with regimes that become financially independent of their population. It is in this regard that Iran’s national and ethnic diversity will be of strategic importance for democracy in the country and thereby a key component for stability in the Middle East. Provided that there is real support for the creation of a multinational federation in Iran, the ethnic and national diversity in the country will constitute a novel form of “checks and balances”. Put differently, since democratic mechanisms are absent in Iran, this novel form of checks and balances will most certainly be conducive to a working democracy.
Transforming Iran into a multinational federation would result in a fundamental change in prevailing ideas about our country. An Iranian multinational federation would put an end to the myth of mono-nationality – a myth that is being maintained by massive military and psychological violence – and correspond with the country’s true multinational makeup. This kind of federalism is premised on the recognition of identity as a source of dignity for the individual members of Iran’s ethnic and national communities. The solution to the national question in Iran does not lie in improved socio-economic conditions for the individual members of oppressed nations. Rather, a just and long-term solution is political recognition of the national identities of Iran’s nations and constitutional safeguards for their national and territorial rights. Contrary to the fear of some people that federalism would result in the breakup of Iran, such a model would create unity out of diversity.
In short, whereas Iran’s national diversity has been regarded as a “problem” by successive regimes in Iran and has been subject to violence and forced assimilation, in fact it holds the key to democracy in the country. Thus, it is in the outside world’s interest to support Iran’s national diversity.”
Dr Ali KILIC
Paris on 22 January 2009
History
1941: As part of World War 2, Iran is partly occupied by foreign forces. In the south, British troops move in, while Soviet troops take control over the north. The region around Mahabad is not occupied.
1942: The Kurdish movement Komala Jiani Kurdistan is founded, asking for more rights of the Kurds.
1945: The Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) is started, and all members of Komala joins. KDP asked for autonomy (i.e. not an independent state), Kurdish as an official language, local democracy and governance and better laws for dealing with the relations between peasants and landowners.
1946 January 22: The State of Republic of Kurdistan is proclaimed by the Kurdish Democratic Party in a ceremony in Saqqez. Delegates from the surrounding lands participate. Qazi Muhammad becomes president, while Mustafa Barzani becomes commander-in-chief.
— May: Soviet troops withdraws from Iran, and leaves the republic vulnerable for attack by Iranian forces.
— December: Iranian troops march into Mahabad, and end the Kurdish rule over the region.
Bibliography
• William Eagleton, Jr. : La république kurde, Complexe, Bruxelles, 1992. (ISBN 978-2870274187)
• William Eagleton, Jr. : The Kurdish Republic of 1946. Oxford University Press, London 1963. (en)
• Yassin, Burhaneddin A., Vision or Realty: The Kurds in the Policy of the Great Powers, 1941-1947, Lund University Press, Lund/Sweden, 1995. (ISSN 0519-9700 [archive]), ISBN 91-7966-315-X Lund University Press. ou ISBN 0-86238-389-7 Chartwell-Bratt Ltd. (en)
• The Republic of Kurdistan. Fifty Years Later. dans : International Journal of Kurdish Studies. Library, Brooklin NY 11.1997, 1 & 2. (ISSN 0885-386X [archive]) (en)
• Moradi Golmorad: Ein Jahr autonome Regierung in Kurdistan, die Mahabad-Republik 1946 - 1947 in: Geschichte der kurdischen Aufstandsbewegungen von der arabisch-islamischen Invasion bis zur Mahabad-Republik, Bremen 1992, ISBN 3929089009 (de)
• M. Khoubrouy-Pak : Une république éphémère au Kurdistan, Paris u.a. 2002, ISBN 2747528030
• David A. McDowall : Modern History of the Kurds, I. B. Tauris, 1996 (Current revision at May 14, 2004). ISBN 1860641857 (en)
• Susan Meiselas : Kurdistan In the Shadow of History, Random House, 1997. ISBN 0679423893 (en)
• Archie Roosevelt, Jr. : The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad. dans: Middle East Journal. Washington DC 1947,1 (July), p. 247-69. (ISSN 0026-3141 [archive]) (en)
• Kurdish Republic of Mahabad. [archive] dans : Encyclopedia of the Orient. (en)
• The Kurds : People without a country. dans : Encyclopedia Britannica. [archive] (en) |
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