Mustafa Barzani

Mustafa Barzani

Born

March 14, 1903Barzan, Iraqi Kurdistan

Died March 3, 1979[1]Washington, DC, USA Mustafa Barzani (Kurdish: مسته فا بارزانی) (March 14, 1903 – March 3, 1979)

was a Kurdish nationalist leader and President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Legendary to many of his people, Barzani was one of the most inspired, tenacious and resilient Kurdish leaders with a commitment to the struggle for Kurdish interests. He led armed struggles against both the governments of Iran and IraqContern to Iraq.

Early life Barzani was born in 1903 in Barzan in northern Iraq (then Ottoman Empire), in the leading family of the region. Early career In 1931 and 1932, together with his older brother, Ahmed Barzani, he led the Kurdish struggle for independence. In 1935, with the suppression of the Kurdish fight, he was exiled to Sulaymaniyah, together with his brother. Barzani escaped from Sulaymaniyah in 1942, and started a new revolt against Baghdad, but it was once again unsuccessful. Mustafa escaped together with 1,000 of his followers and their families into Iran. The Republic of Mahabad In December 1945 the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad was declared by the Kurdistan Democratic Party in northwestern Iran, which was under Soviet military control. Mustafa Barzani became Minister of Defense and commander of the army. At approximately the same time the Republic declared its independence from Iran, a Kurdistan Democratic Party was founded in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and Barzani was, in his absence, elected as its president. (This party is now known as the KDP, while the original Iranian party is known as the KDP-I.)

In May 1946 the Soviet troops were withdrawn from Iran, in accordance with the Yalta Agreement, and in December Mahabad was overrun by Iranian troops. The leaders of the Kurdish Republic were hanged in the main square of Mahabad, and many others were massacred. Mullah Mustafa moved with his people back to Iraq, but once again was forced to flee. With 500 of his pesh merga he fought his way through Turkey and Iran to Azerbaijan in the Soviet Union, where they were disarmed and interned in a prison camp. Exile in the Soviet Union In 1951 the pesh merga were allowed to settle in Baku. Many enrolled in schools and universities. Barzani himself went to Moscow, where he studied political science, and renewed his contacts with Kurdish exiles. Return to Iraq In 1958, following the republican coup, Barzani was invited to return to Iraq by prime minister Abdul Karim Qassim. Barzani went further than Qasim had intended, and suggested independence for the Kurdish regions in the north. This resulted in new clashes between the rulers of Baghdad and the Kurds. In 1961 prime minister Qasim began military actions against the Kurds. Barzani initiated contacts with Israel in 1963 and military cooperation began in 1965. Kurdish guerrillas or peshmerga were led in battle by officers from Israel’s military intelligence. Barzani's militia was highly effective in fighting the Iraqi army during the late 1960s killing thousands of Iraqi troops.

In March 1970 Baghdad and the Kurdish leaders reached an agreement, where Kurdish ethnicity and language were recognized and given a position on par with the Arabic. In the early 1970s, Barzani's son Ubaydallah defected from the Barzani tribe, and began working with the regime of Baghdad. Vice President Saddam Hussein, of the Baath Party, offered the Kurds an autonomy agreement, with all final decisions however, left to Baghdad .

In March 1974 Mustafa Barzani led his followers into renewed fighting with the Iraqi government, this time with the support of Shah Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran and the United States. In early 1975, at an OPEC conference in Algiers, an agreement was signed between the Shah and Saddam Hussein, which ceded important rights in the contested waterway Shatt al-Arab to Iran. In return all aid to the Iraqi Kurds was immediately cut off by Iran. This allowed Hussein to consolidate his power in Iraq and was a major setback for Israel's regional ambitions. Mustafa Barzani was forced to flee his homeland one final time. Death and legacy He went into exile in the United States, and died March 3, 1979 in Georgetown Hospital in Washington, DC. He was buried just west of Mahabad, in Iranian Kurdistan. In October, 1993, Barzani's remains were brought across the border from Iran to Iraqi Kurdistan, to be reburied in the land he fought for.

His son, Massoud Barzani, is the current leader of the KDP and was elected as the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region by the Parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2005.