Komarî Kurdistan le Salî 1946

Nêwerok

Pêșekî / 5
Kurd û Kurdistan / 11
Rêkxirawî Komeleyî Azadî Kurdistan / 22
Rêkxirqwî Komeleyî Jêkaf / 31
Damezrandinî Komele Hîzbî Dîmokratî Kurdistan / 54
Barzaniyekan û Komarî Kurdistan / 62
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PÊȘEKÎ

Zor le mêj bû, salatêkî dirêj, watay ew welamey le xêndinge be mamostakem dawe, nemdezanî! Ew lêyî pirsî bom bawkit peçî xerîke? Welamî ew pirsiyare wișeyek bû, kotim: Gîrawe, zîndanî ye! Bawkim du caran le girtûxanekanî rijêmî Pehlewî divay maweyekî fire zor ke be dîlî gîrabû ...

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INTRODUCTION

Hitoshi Suzuki*

I. Several Backgrounds

The Kurdistan, or the Mahabad, Republic, which is the subject of the present work. was the first and only independent Kurdish State to be established in modem history, although it was in existence for only eleven months between 22 January and December 1946. After the collapse or that Republic, its President Qazî Muhammad was hanged along with two of his colleagues in Meidan-e Chwar-chera, the central square of Mahabad.

To sum up the historical background of the Republic. which has been already been discussed in several studies available to English' and Japanese" readers. Iran's control over the area that would become the Republic was extremely weakened after the forced retirement of Reza Shah in 1941, then in the aftermath of World War II. Iranian Kurdistan became the object of political maneuvering among the Iranian government, Britain and Russia, in December 1945 Russia lent its support to the leftist Democratic Party for the independence of Azerbaijan, while the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) look matters into its own hands through the proclamation of an independent republic by KDP chairman Qazî Muhammad on 22 January 1946.

Although the Kurdistan Republic geographically covered only the northern part of Iranian Kurdistan, it received Strong. support from armed tribesmen led by Molla Mostafa Barzanî and his elder brother Sheikh Ahmed. However, when the Russian army withdrew from its territory after being grandest an oil concession by Iran. the Republic was forced to face alone its enemies from both within and without. Finally after heavy fighting and the fall of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Iranian army entered the city of Mahabad on 15 December without major battle and Republic President Qazî Muhammad immediately surrendered. After two military trials were held, Qazî Muhammad and several others were hanged."
Thereafter, Mostafa Barzanî and his select corps of about 500 troops fought their way toward the Russian border and gained entry into the USSR, where they remained in exile for twelve years, before returning to Iraq in 1958 following General Karim Ghasem's coup d'état as the heroes of Kurdistan.

A contemporary estimation about the failure of the Kurdistan Republic by American intelligence officer, Archibald Roosevelt, who observed the incidents first hand, contain statements such as "Like previous attempts it failed largely because of disunity among the Kurds themselves...: and "The principal immediately reason for the collapse of the republic was the failure of Soviet support to materialize."

While in a Ph. D. dissertation submitted by Wadie Jwaideh in early 1960 and recently published for the first time after his death, he states the following about the general feeling among the Kurds at that time. "Despite the fact that no promises were given to the Kurds during ...

* Research Fellow. the Toyo Bunko; Senior Researcher, the Institute of Developing Economies, JETRO.