THE KURDISH
REPUBLIC OF MAHABAD
By Dr.
A. Ghassemlou (late 1970s / Edited by gerard Chailiand)
On the
20th of August, 1941, the Soviet, British and American Allied
Armies entered
Iran. Reza Shah’s dictatorship was replaced with a weak
Government,
based in Tehran and with no control over the south of the
country,
which was under British and American occupation, or the north,
which
was occupied by the Soviet Union. Various democratic rights were
granted
to the growing number of political parties in the country.
The
Mahabad area was occupied neither by Britain or America nor by the
Soviet
Union. It was an area with a long tradition of Kurdish
nationalism.
In
September 1942, seizing an exceptionally favourable opportunity, the
Kurds
of Mahabad launched the first Kurdish political movement, the
Komala J.K.
(Jiani Kurdistan = Rebirth of Kurdistan).
The
strictly nationalist Komala, led by urban middle class
intellectuals,
soon attracted mass support in the towns and
countryside.
Despite its semi-legal status, Komala had no carefully
defined
political programme and no solid organizational framework. A
new
leadership was elected in 1943.
The
democratic movement in Kurdistan soon outgrew the Komala structure.
There
was a manifest need for cadres with a broader political outlook,
for a
political programme in keeping with the times and for an
organization
capable of leading tens of thousands of members. A new
party
was founded in 1945, the Kurdish Democratic Party, which all the
members
of Komala joined. An eminent intellectual and respected
political
and religious figure, Qazi Mohammed, played a large part in
its foundation.
The K.D.P. presented a programme which contained eight
key
points:
1) The Kurdish people in Iran must manage their
own local affairs
and be
granted autonomy within Iran’s frontiers.
2) They must be allowed to study in their
mother tongue. The
official
administrative language in the Kurdish territories must be
Kurdish.
3) The country’s Constitution should guarantee
that district
councillors
for Kurdistan be elected to take charge of all social and
administrative
matters.
4) State officials must be chosen from the
local population.
5) A general law should provide the basis for
agreements between
peasants
and landowners so as to safeguard both sides’ future.
6) The K.D.P. struggles for complete fraternity
and unity with the
Azerbaijani
people and with the minorities resident in Azerbaijan
(Assyrians,
Armenians, etc.).
7) The K.D.P. is committed to progress in
agriculture and trade;
to
developing education and sanitation; to furthering the spiritual and
material
wellbeing of the Kurdish people and to the best use of the
natural
resources of Kurdistan.
8) The K.D.P. demands freedom of political
action for all the
people
of Iran so that the whole country may rejoice in progress.
Because
this programme reflected the Kurdish people’s aspirations, it
rapidly
won the support of most of the population. The specific
conditions
of the times in both Kurdistan and in Iran generally
encouraged
the democratic forces to go on the offensive.
On 24 January
1946,
during a mass meeting attended by delegates from all the areas
around
Saqqez, the first Kurdish republic was proclaimed and Qazi
Muhammed,
the leader of the K.D.P., was elected president.
This
Republic lasted less than a year, but it was endowed with a
remarkable
dynamism and managed to achieve several of the goals
formulated
in the K.D.P. programme. Kurdish became the official
language
in the administration and in the schools. Several Kurdish
periodicals
appeared regularly, notably Kurdistan, the K.D.P. organ,
Halala
(The Tulip), a paper for women, and Grougali Mindalan (The
Children’s
Babil), a children’s magazine. The first Kurdish theatre was
founded.
Kurdish women began to play an active part in social and
political
life for the first time. Thanks to the rapid development of
direct
trade with the U.S.S.R., the economy also began to improve. The
lands
of the landowners who had fled Kurdistan and gone to collaborate
with
the Tehran Government were distributed to the Kurdish peasants and
to the
Barzani families who had found refuge in Mahabab from the
persecutions
of the Iraqi Government. However, there was no agrarian
reform
similar to that implemented in neighbouring Iranian Azerbaijan.
As the
K.D.P. programme indicates, the authorities in the Republic
strove
to reconcile the interests of the peasants and ‘feudalists’.
The top
jobs in the administration, which had until then been held only
by
Persians and Azerbaijanis, were given to Kurds. The Imperial Iranian
Army
and police were dissolved and replaced by a National Army and
Peshmerga
forces (It was at Mahabad that the term ‘Peshmarga’ was
applied
to the troops for the forst time). {‘Peshmarga’ in Kurdish
implis,
‘those who are ready to face death for Kurdistan’: K2k+}
The
Republic’s red, white and green flag was emblazoned with a sun
surrounded
by corns of wheat with a quill in the middle; the sun for
freedom,
the quill to underline the importance of education. A well-
known
Kurdish song became the national anthem:
0 Enemy, the Kurdish-speaking people still
exist
Let no
one say the Kurds are no more
The
Kurds live on, our flag shall never fall.
The
Cabinet was composed of thirteen Ministers, including a War
Minister
and Foreign Secretary. As no Parliament had been elected yet,
there
was no legislative assembly, so laws were issued by presidential
decree.
But all judicial tasks were assumed by the Supreme Court and
the
Ministry of Justice. The authorities began to set up a local
administration
for the Republic. The precise status of the new
government
was still indeterminate: was it an autonomous regional
government
or a fully independent republic? The official designation
for the
new body was the ‘State of the Kurdish Republic’, (Dawlati
Djumhouri
Kurdistan), but it was also known as the ‘National Government
of
Kurdistan’ (Houkoumati Milli Kurdistan), as in Azerbaijan. The
Kurdish
Government in Mahabad had not yet defined its own ambitions.
0n 23
April l946, the Governments of Azerbaijan and Kurdistan signeda
treaty
of friendship. It had seven articles:
1) The representatives of the two Governments
will be accredited
in each
other’s territory whenever they consider it necessary.
2) In Azerbaijani territory with a majority
Kurdish population,
Kurdish
administrators will be appointed, and vice versa.
3) The two Governments will set up a commission
to deal with
economic
questions and this commission shall be responsible to the
leaders
of the two Governments.
4) Whenever necessary, Azerbaijan and
Kurdistan will form a
military
alliance providing for mutual support.
5) Any negotiations with the Tehran Government
must have the
approval
of the two Governments.
6) The Government of Azerbaijan will take
measures to contribute
to the
development of the Kurdish language and culture amongst the
Kurds
living in Azerbaijani territory, and vice versa.
7)
Whoever tries to undermine the historic friendship, the democratic
unity
or the alliance between the two peoples shall be punished
conjointly
by the two Governments.
Having
said all this, the fact remained that the two Governments had a
different
approach to internal policy. In Azerbaijan the authorities
took
the peasants’ and workers’ demands into consideration and embarked
on a
large-scale programme of economic and social reforms, whereas in
Kurdistan
the order of the day was national unity with no bias in
favour
of the popular strata of society. As Kurdish society was more
backward
socially and economically, the goals proclaimed were much more
modest.
There
was still the problem of drawing up the frontiers between the two
Governments.
Extensive discussion was needed to settle the status of
the
region west of Lake Urmiah, notably the towns of Khoy, Salmus
(Chalpur),
Urmiah (Rezaiyeh) and Miandouad. But in Spring 1946 these
differences
were secondary. The main priority was the defence of the
two
states’ very existence against the threats posed by the American
and
British backed Tehran Government. The treaty between the Kurds and
Azerbaijanis
had enormous implications for the two peoples and was, not
surprisingly,
very badly received in Tehran.
The
K.D.P. was one of the founders of a front which also included the
Tudeh
Party and the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, as well as three
other
progressive parties. Iranian Kurdistan had thus become a base for
all the
democratic forces in Iran.
The Republic
of Kurdistan was also a centre for co-operation and
solidarity
between all the various parts of Kurdistan throughout the
Middle
East. Kurdish patriots were warmly welcomed: thousands of
Barzanis
and representatives from the Kurds of Turkey, Iraq and Syria
were
cordially received in Mahabad. The whole Kurdish nation saw the
Mahabad
Republic as a symbol of their aspirations and hoped that it
would
become the core of a struggle for the liberation of all
Kurdistan.
However, at the time, the political situation in Iran,
notably
the status quo guaranteed by the AngloAmerican occupation of
the
area south of Saqqez, prevented the Kurdish Republic from
liberating
Saqqez, Sanandaj and Kermanshah. The Republic’s sovereignty
extended
northwards from Saqqez over the whole northern part of Iranian
Kurdistan,
an area with an estimated population of one million.
In
keeping with the Tehran Agreements, the Allied forces began to leave
Iran
six months after the end of the war. The Soviet Forces moved out
of the
northern areas of the country a few months after the Anglo-
American
troops’ departure. Before long the Iranian and Soviet
Governments
signed an agreement which allowed for Soviet participation
in the
exploitation of oil in the north of Iran. By late May 1946, no
Soviet
troops were left on Iranian territory.
In
Autumn 1946, the Tehran Government launched a campaign to organize
elections
throughout the country; these ‘free’ elections supposedly
required
the presence of Iranian Government troops in Kurdistan and in
Azerbaijan
to supervise the proceedings.
In
December, the Imperial Army advanced on Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani
movement
collapsed almost without resistance, and its leaders sought
refuge
in the U.S.S.R. The National Government of Azerbaijan fell on 17
December
1946 and soon afterwards the Iranian troops also entered
Mahabad.
Again the Imperial Army encountered no armed resistance. But
the
leaders of the Republic, headed by Qazi Mohammed, remained on the
spot.
Only the Barzanis withdrew, to Naqadeh and Uchnu.
In
Azerbaijan thousands of democrats were massacred by armed irregulars
while
the Shah’s generals turned a blind eye, but in Kurdistan the
Iranian
Army decided to temporize. As for the Barzanis, they were still
awaiting
the outcome of the negotiations being conducted in Tehran by a
delegation
headed by Mullah Mustafa. However, this lull did not last
long.
In late December Qazi and several other Republican leaders were
arrested.
Mustafa Barzani’s negotiations broke down: on 22 February
1947
the Iranian Army advanced on Naqadeh. The Barzanis withdrew
towards
the Iranian-Iraqi frontier and successfully warded off the
attacks
of the Imperial forces, who suffered heavy casualties. Many
Imperial
soldiers and officers were taken prisoner. On 13 April, the
Barzanis
passed into Iraq.
Meanwhile
the Iranian Armed Forces were disarming the supporters of the
Republic;
only those tribes who had collaborated with the Tehran
Government
and helped fight against the Barzani were allowed to keep
their
weapons. After a formal trial before a military tribunal, Qazi
Mohammed,
his brother Sadr Qazi, and his cousin Seif Qazi were
condemned
to death. Because of the popularity of the Qazis, the Iranian
authorities
hesitated for some time before carrying Out the military
tribunal’s
sentence, but eventually, on 30 March 1947 at dawn, Qazi and
his two
companions were taken to Mahabad’s Tchouar Tchra Square by a
large
force of Iranian troops and hanged. Mass executions followed soon
after
in the other towns of Iranian Kurdistan.
Under
Sheikh Abmed, their spiritual leader, most of the Barzanis,
particularly
the women and children, escaped to Iraq. But Mustafa
Barzani
had little faith in the Baghdad Government; so on 27 May he led
500 men
across the Turkish border and re-entered Iran two days later.
10, 000
troops were sent against them. The
battle went on for three
weeks,
till on 18 June 1947, having travelled over 300 km, Barzaniξs
forces
crossed River Arax and enteres Soviet territory.
A
thorough analysis of why the Kurdish democratic movement failed is
beyond
the scope of this essay. However, we can highlight some general
weaknesses,
notably in its leadership. It had been impossible to form
enough
capable and dedicated political* and military cadres in the
eleven
months of the Republic’s existence, and this shortage manifested
itself
in every sphere. However, external factors also played an
important
role. The Tehran Government which was determined to repress
the
progressive movements in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan enjoyed the
backing
of the Anglo-Saxon powers, especiafry America. Furthermore, the
Tehran
regime encountered little difficulty in neutralizing Soviet
policy
in Iran. However, given the political and military fragility of
the
Tehran Government and the great popularity of the Republic of
Kurdistan,
the Kurdish forces could have put up an effective resistance
which,
as the Barzams’ experience showed, might well have been
successful.
……………………………………
* Note
by K2k+: Fifty four years after the
fall of the Kurdish
Republic
of Mahabad, there are still too few individuals amongst the
Kurdish
political organizations capable of understanding and
monopolizing
the international politics and historic opportunities.
Many of
the old characteristics which prevented the Kurdish nation from
achieving
its goals remain alive only in a new form and under different
names. Despite all the external and geopolitical
factors, Kurdish
parties
and their leaderships are to a great extent responsible for the
failures
of the Kurdish movements during the last century. The
experience
in southern Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan) in the last nine
years
is a good example. The Kurds once again
failed to fully, and
wisely,
utilize the situation which was created in the aftermath of the
Gulf
War, i.e. since March 1991. Should KDP
and PUK fail to bring
about a
united parliament they will be cursed by history regardless of
all
other factors involved.