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The first Kurdish Republic-62 years later
23.1.2008
By Khalid Khayati
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January
23, 2008
The lack of a cohesive political perspective and
organizational structure limits Iranian Kurds.
"Today, 62 years later, the Kurds celebrate the
memory of their first Republic in a situation where
the panorama of political life for the Iranian Kurds
does not seem to be very clear." -Khalid Khayati
Presently, the Kurds, both in the homeland and
diaspora, are celebrating the 62nd anniversary of
the very first Kurdish Republic that was established
in the Kurdish city of Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan
in 1946. Even though the celebration of the Mahabad
Republic's memory can be partially explained by the
historic nostalgia, i.e., referring to the history
as an essential source of legitimacy that has always
been an inherent feature of the Kurdish political
movement, it would be quite unjustifiable if we
consider the current celebration activities uniquely
as an act of historic obsessionism.
The first Kurdish Republic had a number of
fundamental characteristics that have been
actualized by both Kurdish and non-Kurdish
historians. |
Kurdistan Republic president Qazi Muhammad and
General Mustafa Barzani (3rd from the right) 1946,
Iranian Kurdistan. |
For instance, the
establishment of a Kurdish political power in the
following days of World War I-which may, according
to the theories of the nation-state, be considered a
modern political entity-gave Kurds the opportunity
for the first time in history to create and drive
their own political structure, even if it occurred
in a limited geographic area. Moreover, even if at
that time democracy was not an advanced idea as a
model for the organization of the politics,www.ekurd.net
the prevailing political
culture in the society and the specificity of the
state institutions and governmental structures of
the Kurdish Republic showed the existence of a kind
of individual freedom and a relatively satisfying
level of political participation that the Kurds
enjoyed. It is noteworthy that the involvement of
Kurds from all other parts of Kurdistan in the
political processes of the Mahabad Republic showed
one more time that the Kurdish question, as a
transnational political movement, could not remain
within the framework of the political and
territorial boundaries of the dominant states.
Today, 62 years later, the Kurds celebrate the
memory of their first Republic in a situation where
the panorama of political life for the Iranian Kurds
does not seem to be very clear. In Iran, where the
essence of the political power and the ideology of
the governmental institutions are constructed around
the Persian ethnicity and Shiite religion, the
Kurds, regardless of their endeavors and struggles,www.ekurd.net
have been and are denied
their national identity and the right to use their
language in the public context. Along with the
policy of denial, the Iranian Kurds suffer further
from a wide-reaching form of structural
discrimination, manifested mostly in the form of
economic and social injustice and the
underdevelopment of their region. In this respect,
Kurdish youths and Kurdish women are among the most
subjected social groups in Iran.
The thorny condition of the oppositional Kurdish
political organizations, who are mostly settled in
exile, may be seen as another negative factor that
further worsens the situation. As the majority of
these organizations are currently going through a
period of relative passivity and organizational
crisis, the sentiment of pessimism does not stop
increasing among the Iranian Kurds. For instance,
over the course of the last two years a number of
Kurdish oppositional organizations have been divided
into rivalry factions.
The phenomenon of dividedness and fragmentation
among these exiled organizations has been referred
by the Kurdish political observers not only to the
condition of exile that they experience but also to
their inability to renew their political
perspectives and organizational structures,
necessary steps if they intend to lead the Iranian
Kurds toward a better horizon in the future.
In other words, the transformation of the miserable
life of Iranian Kurds is not imaginable unless those
political organizations who claim the political
representation of the people do not advance
effective and up-to-date political approaches and
start and promote the process of democratization and
organizational reforms-primordial measures for
understanding the current global situation and the
geopolitical condition of the Middle East.
However, those people who, under the constraint of
historic determinism, see the destiny of oppressed
nations in victory and development should realize
the fact that the painful condition that Iranian
Kurds still experience 62 years after the
establishment of their first Republic shows the
reality in a quite reversed way.
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