Republic of Mahabad

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Komara Kurdistan
کۆماری مەهاباد
Republic of Kurdistan
1946
Flags of the Kurds
Coat of arms of the Kurdistan region
flag coat of arms
Official language Kurdish
capital city Mahabad
Head of state President Qazi Mohammed
Head of government Hajji Baba Sheikh
surface 37,437 km²
founding January 22, 1946
resolution December 16, 1946
National anthem Ey Reqîb
National holiday March 21st or 22nd ( Newroz )
Time zone UTC + 3: 30
Republic of mahabad and iranian azerbaijan 1945 1946.png
Template: Infobox State / Maintenance / NAME-GERMAN

The Republic of Mahabad (officially the Republic of Kurdistan , Kurdish Komara Kurdistan , Persian جمهوری مهاباد), also known as the People's Republic of Mahabad , was one of three Kurdish states in the 20th century. It existed for 11 months in northwest Persia. With the Republic of Ararat there was already an attempt in eastern Turkey 15 years earlier that was never internationally recognized.

The Republic of Kurdistan was founded in the far northwest of Iran , which was partly occupied by Great Britain and partly by the Soviet Union , and existed from January 22 to December 16, 1946. The epithets of the state, which are particularly widespread in Europe, refer to its capital Mahabad .

story

During the Second World War , the west of neutral Iran was occupied by the Soviet Union and Great Britain in 1941 ( Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran ). This was intended to create supply routes to the Soviet Union. The occupation was also supposed to prevent Reza Shah Pahlavi from taking the side of the Axis powers .

The Soviet Union wanted to exert influence in this region and sought people among Azerbaijanis and Kurds who could use it for themselves. For example, the Kurds were asked to found a new party and ultimately to proclaim an autonomous republic . The Azerbaijanis did the same. This event also went down in history as the Iran crisis and marked the beginning of the Cold War .

On December 15, 1945, the People's Republic of Kurdistan was proclaimed in Mahabad by President Qazi Mohammed on Chahar-Cheragh-Platz (Four Lamps Square). The People's Republic of Kurdistan was founded three days after the Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan was founded . The national territory was an elongated strip of Iranian territory that stretched along the borders with Iraq and Turkey in the north to the Soviet Union. Ey Reqîb became the hymn of the new state .

Around the same time, more than 3,000 Barzanis tribal warriors came to Mahabad from Iraq. They fled the Iraqi army after a suppressed uprising. They joined the republic and formed its army. Their leader Molla Mustafa Barzani was appointed general .

The main tasks of the republic were the establishment and development of an educational system and the maintenance of the Kurdish language and culture. The Kurdistan-Iran Democratic Party , chaired by Qazi Mohammed, provided the government of the state. A parliament with 13 members was formed. As early as April and May, there were several skirmishes between the Kurds and the Iranian army . However, these were initially ended by a ceasefire. So it came to negotiations between the Iranian government and the Kurds with the participation of Great Britain. The negotiations did not lead to any result, so that finally Iranian troops attacked the positions of the Barzanis again. After the withdrawal of the Soviet army, the Republic of Kurdistan was conquered by Iran on December 16, 1946. The region is now part of the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan .

The result of the war was the smashing of the Kurdish republic and the elimination of its ruling class. President Qazi Mohammed was sentenced to death for “riot” and “high treason”. At dawn on March 30, 1947, the representatives were executed. The Kurdish culture was suppressed in the period that followed. The Barzanis fled to the USSR via Iraq .

To this day, the Republic of Kurdistan is seen and idealized in all parts of Kurdistan as a model for Kurdish self-government. However, according to Archibald Roosevelt (son of US President Theodore Roosevelt ) , the republic failed because the Kurds were dependent on the protection of the USSR. They lacked the necessary material to assert themselves, even if there were plans to supply the Kurds with the necessary military goods. But it was precisely these close ties to the USSR that ensured that there was great opposition to the republic within the tribes. This aversion and fear caused some Kurdish tribes to side with the Iranian army and fight the republic.

government

Qazi Muhammad.jpg
Qazi Muhammad

banner

The flag of the republic consisted - from bottom to top - of the colors green, white and red. In the middle was a quill as an emblem , which stood for culture and science, between two sheaves of wheat, which stood for production and work, and in the background the sun as a symbol of freedom. The flag of the republic is similar to the official flag of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region ( Kurdish هه‌رێمی کوردستان Herema Kurdistan ).

A legend about the flag of the republic is that Qazi Mohammed gave the flag to Molla Mustafa Barzani before his death . He asked Barzani to continue fighting for the flag, and Barzani took it with him on his "Long March" to the USSR. The flag is still owned by the Barzani family to this day.

See also

literature

  • Масуд Барзани: Мустафа Барзани и курдское освободительное движение (1931–1961 гг.). Наука, St. Petersburg, 2005, ISBN 5-02-027042-3 .
  • Borhanedin A. Yassin: Vision or reality? The Kurds in the policy of the great powers, 1941-1947 (= Lund Studies in international History. Volume 32). Lund University Press, Lund 1995, ISBN 91-7966-315-X .
  • William Eagleton, Jr .: The Kurdish Republic of 1946 (= Middle Eastern Monographs. Vol. 5, ZDB -ID 415745-x ). Oxford University Press, London et al. 1963.
  • Moradi Golmorad: One year of autonomous government in Kurdistan, the Mahabad Republic 1946–1947. In: Golmorad Moradi: One year of autonomous government in Kurdistan. The Mahabad Republic 1946–1947. History of the Kurdish uprising movements from the Arab-Islamic invasion to the Mahabad Republic (= Kurdistan. Vol. 1). Hochschule Bremen, Bremen 1992, ISBN 3-929089-00-9 (At the same time: Heidelberg, Universität, Dissertation, 1991).
  • Kurdistan Republic of Mahabad. In: Encyclopedia of the Orient. June 2, 2021(English).;
  • Worlds Apart: The Roots of Regional Conflicts - The Kurds: People without a country: Timeline. In: Encyclopedia Britannica . 1999, archived from the original on April 16, 2009 .;
  • Susan Meiselas : Kurdistan. In the Shadow of History. Random House, New York, 1997, ISBN 0-679-42389-3 .
  • M. Khoubrouy-Pak: Une république éphémère au Kurdistan. L'Harmattan, Paris et al. 2002, ISBN 2-7475-2803-0 .
  • Михаил Семенович Лазарев: Курдистан и курдский вопрос. (1923-1945). Издательская фирма "Восточная литература" РАН, Moscow, 2005, ISBN 5-02-018311-3 .
  • Михаил Семенович Лазарева, Ш. Х. Мгои (Ed.): История Курдистана. наук, Moscow, 1999.
  • David McDowall: A modern History of the Kurds. IB Tauris, New York et al. 1997, ISBN 1-86064-185-7 .
  • The Republic of Kurdistan. Fifty Years Later (= International Journal of Kurdish Studies. Vol. 11, 1997, No. 1 & 2, ISSN  1073-6697 ). Society for the Advancement of Kurdish Studies, New York NY 1997.
  • Archie Roosevelt, Jr .: The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad. In: Middle East Journal. Vol. 1, July 1947, ISSN  0026-3141 , pp. 247-269.
  • William Linn Westermann : Kurdish Independence and Russian Expansion. In: Foreign Affairs . Vol. 24, 1945-1946, pp. 675-686.
  • Муртаза Зарбахт: От Иракского Курдистана до другого берега реки Аракс. Ист. переход Муллы Мустафы Барзани (весна 1326/1947 г.). Янус, Moscow and others 2003, ISBN 5-9276-0031-X .
  • Ольга Ивановна Жигалина: Национальное движение курдов в Иране (1918–1947 гг.). наук, Moscow, 1988.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kristen Blake: The US-Soviet confrontation in Iran, 1945–1962 . University Press of America, 2009, p. 33.
  2. ^ Ian MacDonald, TF Mills, Ben Cahoon: Mahabad Republic (Iran, January – December 1946). In: “Flags of the World” website. July 30, 2020, accessed on August 25, 2021 (English, flag of the Republic of Mahabad).