Republic of Mahabad

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The Republic of Mahabad (Kurdish: Komarî Mehabad, Persian: جمهوری مهاباد ), also known as Republic of Kurdistan, established in Iranian Kurdistan, was a short-lived, Soviet backed Kurdish state of the 20th century after the Republic of Ararat in Turkey. Its capital was the Kurdish city of Mahabad in northwestern Iran. The republic's founding and demise was a part of the Iran crisis, a conflict between USA and USSR, which was a precursor to the Cold War.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Founding of the Republic 3 End of the Republic 4 Aftermath 5 Reasons for failure 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Overview

The republic was led by President Qazi Muhammad and the Minister of Defense, Mustafa Barzani. The Prime Minister was Hadschi Baba Scheich. All these men were members of the then new Kurdistan Democratic Party, which was founded in 1946, the same year Mahabad declared its independence. The Republic of Mahabad declared independence on January 22, 1946, but was never recognized by the international community, and was defeated a year later by the army of the central government of Iran once the occupying Soviets pulled out. [1]. A few month after the collapse of the republic in December 1946, Qazi Muhammad was hanged in public in Chuwarchira Square in the center of Mahabad (March 1947).

[edit] Founding of the Republic

As the theatre of World War II expanded into the Middle East, British and Soviet forces occupied two-thirds of Iran, with the Brits moving in from the south and the Soviets from the north. The middle region containing Mahabad was left unoccupied and labeled “neutral” (Yassin "A History" 128). The occupational forces dethroned the Shah and weakened his regime by deactivating his army in order to secure their Middle Eastern supply routes (Yassin "A History" 126).

At first, the British and the Soviets were both thoroughly dedicated to non-intervention, but their definitions of “intervention” differed. For the British, non-intervention translated into unquestioned support of Teheran in all questions of self-determination (Yassin "A History" 133). For the USSR, non-intervention meant involving themselves only in matters related to their ability to fight the Axis powers (Yassin "A History" 140). Early on, these interpretations of non-interference produced similarly negative responses to any possibility of Kurdish autonomy.

In 1944, an oil crisis hit the USSR. Soviet support for Kurdish mobilization became a bargaining chip which the Soviets used against Teheran to expedite negotiations regarding large oil concessions. When the new Shah (the former Shah's son) decided against granting any concessions until after the war, the USSR began to court the democratically-run, underground Kurdish Komala party. The Soviets invited Qazi Muhammad and a delegation of his choosing to represent the group during a visit to the USSR.

Thus, Qazi Muhammad and other Kurdish diplomats along with some high profile US leaders visited Tabriz to see a Soviet Consul on the backing of a new communist republic, and were then redirected to Baku, Azerbaijan SSR. There, they learned that the Soviets were planning to establish a communist state in Iranian Azerbaijan, and his supporters should do the same in their region in West Azerbaijan (McDowall 240).

On January 22, 1946, Qazi Muhammad announced the formation of the Republic of Mahabad. (McDowall 241). Some of their aims mentioned in the manifesto are listed below (McDowall 241)-

• i. Autonomy for the Iranian Kurds within the Iranian state.
• ii. the use of Kurdish as the medium of education and administration.
• iii. the election of a provincial council for Kurdistan to supervise state and social matters.
• iv. all state officials to be of local origin.
• v. unity and fraternity with the Azerbaijani people.
• vi. the establishment of a single law for both peasants and notables.

[edit] End of the Republic

On March 26, 1946, the Soviets promised to the Iranian government that they would pull out of northwestern Iran (McDowall 243). Shortly after in June, the Azarbaijan rebels who took control in East Azerbaijan handed control of the Azerbaijan provinces back to Iran. This move isolated the Republic of Mahabad, eventually leading to the destruction of the republic (McDowall 243).

By this point, Qazi Muhammed's support was dwindling, mainly from the Kurdish tribes who had supported him initially. Their crops and supplies were dwindling, and their way of life was becoming hard as a result of the isolation. The economic aid and military assistance from the Soviet Union was now gone, and the tribes saw no reason to support Qazi Muhammed. Many tribes began to leave, those who stayed began to resent the Barzani Kurds, as they had to share their resources with them (McDowall 243). By December 5th, the war council told Qazi Muhammad that they would fight and resist the Iranian army if they tried to enter the region (McDowall 243).

On December 15, Iranian forces entered and secured Mahabad. Once there, they closed down the Kurdish printing press, banned the teaching of Kurdish, and burned any books that were written in Kurdish that they could find (McDowell 245).

Finally, on March 31, 1947, Qazi Muhammad was hanged in Mahabad (McDowall 246) on counts of treason.

[edit] Aftermath

Massoud Barzani, the current President of Iraqi Kurdistan, was born in Mahabad when his father, the late General Mustafa Barzani, was chief of the military of Mahabad declared in Iranian Kurdistan [2]. After the republic was defeated, Barzani fled with 500 of his supporters to the Soviet Union, not returning until 1958 to Northern Iraq (Meiselas 182). In October of 1958, Mustafa Barzani returned into his homeland of Northern Iraq, beginning a series of struggles to fight for an independent Kurdish state under the KDP party, carrying the same flag that was used in Mahabad[3].

[edit] Reasons for failure

Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr., grandson of the former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, wrote in "The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad" that a main problem of the People's Republic of Mahabad was that the Kurds needed the assistance of the USSR; only with the Red Army did they have a chance. But this close relationship to Stalin and the USSR caused most of the Western powers to side with Iran. Qazi Muhammad, though not denying the fact that they were funded and supplied by the Soviets, denied that the KDP was a communist party, stating this was a lie fabricated by the military authorities, and adding that his ideals were too different from the Soviets (Meiselas 182).

Also, the republic was suffering from a number of internal issues. The townspeople and the tribes had a large divide between them, and their alliance for Mahabad was crumbling. As previously stated, the tribes and their leaders had only supported Qazi Muhammad for his economic and military aid from the Soviet Union. Once that was gone, many didn't see the purpose in staying with Qazi Muhammad. Other tribes resented the Barzanis, since they didn't like sharing their already dwindling resources with them. Some Kurds deserted Mahabad, including one of Mahabad's own marshalls, Amr Khan. Also, Mahabad was economically bankrupt, and it would have been nearly impossible for Mahabad to have been economically sound without harmony with Iran (McDowall 244-245).

[edit] See also

• Kingdom of Kurdistan
• Republic of Ararat
• Kurdish Autonomous Region
• Ethnic minorities in Iran

[edit] External links

• The Republic of Kurdistan in Mehabad, Encyclopaedia Kurdistanica.
• Kurds at the crossroad
• Proclamation of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad from The Encyclopedia of World History Sixth Edition, Peter N. Stearns (general editor), © 2001 The Houghton Mifflin Company, at Bartleby.com.
• The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad at PDKI-Canada
• Republic of Kurdistan, A discussion forum on Washington Post's blog. (Anaylsis by Kurdologists: Amir Hassanpour, Goran Nowicki and Burhan Elturan)