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1947: Qazi Muhammed, father of Kurdistan
31.3.2008
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March 31, 2008
On March 30* (31), 1947, the only president of the
world’s only Kurdish state was hanged with two aides
in Mahabad, the Iranian Kurdish city that had been
the capital of his nascent country.
Ground between the maneuvers of much more powerful
states — the stereotypical fate of the Kurds — Qazi
Muhammed’s endgame begins not in mountainous
northwest Iran (Iranian Kurdistan) where he declared
the short-lived Republic of Mahabad (alternatively,
Mehabad), but in Berlin, where a distant dictator
had hurled Europe’s great powers into war.
The contest for influence in Middle East and its
lifeblood of oil for the modern mechanized army
forms a crucial sidebar to World War II’s European
chessboard, and the unpredictable collisions between
rival empires and competing anti-colonial interests
made many strange bedfellows. |
Qazi Muhammed hanged March, 30, 1947 |
Two months after Germany invaded the Soviet Union,
British and Soviet troops jointly seized Iran from
its potentially pro-German ruler — securing both oil
resources** and a precious route for sending
American supplies to Russia’s desperately pressed
defenders.
Kurds were very far from Stalin or Churchill’s
calculation, but the moment also offered a power
vacuum permitting de facto Kurdish self-rule in a
narrow band straddling Soviet and British occupation
zones.
As the war drew to a close, erstwhile allies began
girding for the Cold War — and the disposition of
Iran was a dress rehearsal. Moscow was keen to
maintain influence in that country’s north, and to
that end encouraged Iran’s Azerbaijani region to
break away as an independent state — which it did in
December 1945. The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad
followed suit on January 22,1946 (a date still
commemorated by Kurdish activists) with Qazi
Muhammed as president. Although the Mahabad Republic
is sometimes characterized as “Soviet-backed,” or
even a Soviet puppet, that might be a better
description of its hopes than its reality.
Mahabad may have represented the national dream for
Kurds, but it was a small pawn to the Soviets,
easily sacrificed when its position became
untenable. Moscow’s priorities were elsewhere,www.ekurd.net
and this was the brief
window when America was the only nuclear power: the
Red Army was (diplomatically) forced out of Iran and
the breakaway Republics reoccupied by the
western-backed Iranian government. And Mahabad, a
statelet founded by a middle class party with only
limited backing from tribal chiefs, required Soviet
support to have any hope of holding up.
Seeing where the wind was blowing, the Kurds
submitted in December 1946 to the advancing Iranian
army without a hopeless fight, but Muhammed refused
on his honor to flee, hoping to placate the
Iranians.
For all its inadequacies, Mahabad was the only
Kurdish state of the 20th century, and Qazi Muhammed
its founder and only president. That has earned him
a place of honor in the crowded pantheon of Kurdish
martyrs.
After the Iranian military court had him hanged,
leadership of the Kurdish struggle passed to Mustafa
Barzani, whose refugee guerrillas had made
declaration of the Kurdish state a possibility in
the first place.
In a biography of Barzani written by Barzani’s son,
the Kurdish captain describes his last meeting with
the president — and if the manifest interest of the
reporting parties colors our presumption of its
literal authenticity (journalist Jonathan Randal,
for instance, reports that Barzani never held
Mohammed in high regard), it likewise underscores
the place of this day’s victim in the Kurdish
mythology.
I went to Qazi Mohammed and asked him what he
personally intended to do. He said that he intended
to sacrifice his life to prevent bloodshed in
Mahabad, that he would surrender to the Iranian
forces, and that he had sent an emissary to General
Hamayoni in Miyandoab informing him of his decision.
He broke down in tears as he continued: “Never rely
on anyone but your own group. All those who took the
oath of allegiance have betrayed us and are rushing
to prove their loyalty to the Iranian forces. Beware
of the tribal chiefs who would target you if they
could. I hope that you will leave Mahabad as soon as
you can to avoid confronting the Iranian forces.”
…
I insisted that he go with us [to Iraq], and
pledged my word of honor that I would sacrifice my
life and the lives of all who were with me to defend
him, because he was the symbol of our nation. I told
him that my advice to him was not to trust Iranian
promises. It would be painful to see the first
president of the Republic of Kurdistan fall into
enemy hands.
In tears, Qazi Mohammed rose and hugged me, saying,
“I pray God will give you strength and protect you.
May my sacrifice spare the citizens some of their
affliction and mitigate the terror and vengeance.”
Then, he pulled a flag of Kurdistan from his pocket
and gave it to me and said: “This is the symbol of
Kurdistan. I give it to you as a token of trust in
your honor, for I think you are the bes man to keep
it.”
The Encyclopedia of Kurdistan has an excellent entry
on Mahabad’s straitened political situation, as well
as a good article on the background of tribal
politics in the years prior to World War II.
* Some sources report March 30; the small hours in
the morning of the 31st seems to have the plurality
of scholarship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qazi_Mohammad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Mahabad
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranę or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatę
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
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