Mustafa Barzani

Mustafa Barzani (مەلا مسته‌فا بارزانی; 14 March 1903 – 1 March 1979), also known as Mela Mustafa (Preacher Mustafa), was a Kurdish leader, general and one of the most prominent political figures in modern Kurdish politics.

Mustafa Barzani was born in 1903 in Barzan, a village in southern Iraqi Kurdistan.

Following an insurrection launched by his tribe, he and his family were imprisoned, when Barzani was only three years old.

His father, grandfather, and a brother were later executed by the Ottoman authorities for other insurrections.

At an early age he was sent by his older brother Sheikh Ahmed Barzani to join with about twenty men the revolt of Kurdish chiefs of Az Zibar against the British in Iraq.

About a hundred fighters managed to ambush the British diplomat J.H.H. Bill and his company and the group was divided into two.

Bill was killed with three others, while two local Kurdish tribesmen were spared.

After the revolt resulted in a raid on Akre, the contingent of Barzani returned to their homeland.

The British did not let such an attack on their authority unpunished and destroyed the houses of the Zibari chiefs as well as the ones from the Barzanis.

In 1931 he followed his older brother, the Barzani chieftain (sheikh) Ahmed Barzani, who led an insurrection against Baghdad's attempts to break up tribal power in the Kurdish regions of Iraq.

The insurrection began when Sheikh Ahmed had entered into a feud with a neighboring tribal chieftain in Baradost after the latter attacked Sheikh Ahmed for heresy, prompting Iraq to intervene as they had intended to check the Barzani tribe before then.

Iraq received help from its British allies, who engaged in aerial warfare against territories in rebellion.

The aerial bombardments led to widespread damage and setbacks, leading Sheikh Ahmed to surrender to Turkish forces on the then-contested border with Turkey in June 1932, while Mustafa Barzani and a brother Muhammad Sadiq continued fighting for another year.

On the advice of Sheikh Ahmed, Mustafa Barzani surrendered to Iraq.

But in 1939 he was involved in the formation of the political party Hewa (Hope), the first Kurdish political party in Iraq.

Mustafa Barzani was kept under surveillance until 1943, when he again broke free from his exile in Sulaymaniyah as Iraq underwent the effects of World War II.

Baghdad again utilized tribal rivalries to defeat Barzani, sending him, Sheikh Ahmad, and about three thousand followers fleeing across the border to Iran, entering Oshnavieh in October 1945, where Kurdish nationalists under the guidance of the Soviet Union were establishing a new Kurdish state.

Despite differences between Qazi Muhammad and Mustafa Barzani, the arrival of Barzani's forces gave a boost to the ability of the nationalists to assert control over the region.

In December 1945 the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad was declared by Qazi Muhammad, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran in Mahabad (northwestern Iran) which was under Soviet military control.

Barzani was appointed as the Minister of Defense and commander of the Kurdish army in the Republic of Kurdistan.

As Iranian forces began to engage the forces of the Republic of Mahabad, Barzani quickly proved his reputation as a capable commander with his forces inflicting defeats on the Iranian divisions, and was one of the few who did not surrender or defect to the advancing Iranian forces.

In 1946, he was chosen as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to lead the Kurdish revolution against the Kingdom of Iraq.

In May 1946 the Soviet troops were withdrawn from Iran and all support for the Republic of Kurdistan was cut, in accordance with the Yalta Agreement.

In December of that year Mahabad was finally overrun by Iranian troops, which was followed with harsh punishments for those involved; the president of the Republic Qazi Muhammad was hanged in public in the "Çuar Çira" square in Mahabad city along with his brother and a cousin, and a number of libraries containing Kurdish texts were burned.

Barzani and his followers arrived in the Armenian SSR and were put in a camp near Nakhchevan.

After appealing to the Soviet Union to help them, Barzani and his followers were transferred to the Azerbaijani SSR, kept in camps near and around Baku.

Barzani met with Azerbaijan Communist Party officials, who under orders from Moscow were told to help the Kurds.

In November 1947, Barzani met for the first time Mir Jafar Baghirov, the First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party, to discuss what the Kurds could do in the Soviet Union.

Barzani's followers were organized into a military regiment and received training in military tactics and politics, as well as education to learn to read and write Kurdish.

On 19 January 1948, a conference was held gathering Kurds from Iraq and Iran in Baku, where Barzani outlined a plan for the Kurdish movement.

This prompted Iran to again demand that the Soviet Union extradite Barzani and his followers to Iran to stand trial, which the Soviet Union rejected.

Barzani however fast ran into problems with Baghirov due to differences and stances towards the Kurdish movement.

As Baghirov was connected to Lavrentiy Beria, this gave Baghriov a lot of power in regional affairs, leading to Barzani requesting his followers be transferred out of Azerbaijan fearing Baghirov would act against them.

Barzani and the others were transferred to the Uzbek SSR in August 1948, but Baghriov's disputes with Barzani were not forgotten.

Despite assurances from both the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan Usman Yusupov, Baghirov's rivalry with Barzani spilled over into Uzbekistan and resulted in Barzani himself and much of his followers to be separate and spread across the country to do hard labor.

For the following three years, Barzani was separated from his followers, prompting them to engage in sit-ins and strikes demanding they be reunited and their cause recognized.

Barzani sent numerous letters to Moscow, addressing them to Joseph Stalin himself, requesting that he and his followers be treated better and reunited.

Only one of these letters reached the Kremlin and shortly afterwards in March 1951, Soviet officials began investigations to address the concerns of Barzani and his followers.

Barzani was the primary political and military leader of the Kurdish revolution until his death in March 1979.

He led campaigns of armed insurgency against both the Iraqi and Iranian governments.