35 Facts About Mustafa Barzani

Mustafa Barzani, known as Mullah Mustafa, was a Kurdish nationalist leader and one of the most prominent political figures in modern Kurdish politics.

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

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

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

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

In November 1947, Mustafa 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.

Mustafa 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 Mustafa Barzani outlined a plan for the Kurdish movement.

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

Rumors spread that Mustafa Barzani was given a rank in the Red Army, which appears to have been false.

Mustafa Barzani, following his return to Iraq in 1958, would engage in numerous insurgencies against Baghdad, often seeking and gaining support from the KGB, CIA, Mossad, MI6 and SAVAK, as well as support from Syria and Jordan depending on which country was opposed to the government in Baghdad at the time, taking advantage of the complexities of the Cold War in the Middle-East.

Following, several Kurds were appointed into high military ranks and Mustafa Barzani was invited to return to Iraq.

Mustafa Barzani faced similar challenges within the KDP, with divisions rising over land reform, political position, and alliances with other parties in Iraq such as the Iraqi Communist Party.

Mustafa Barzani quickly asserted control over the KDP, ousting the General-Secretary Ibrahim Ahmad and replacing him with the pro-Communist Hamza Abdullah in January 1959 and cementing ties with the ICP.

Mustafa Barzani severed ties with the party and restored Ibrahim Ahmad to his original position and elevated Jalal Talabani to the politburo during the KDP's fourth Congress in October 1959, ending the KDP's cooperation with the ICP.

Qasim suspected Mustafa Barzani of being a potential avenue for the British to frustrate his take over of Kuwait and increased arms to pro-government tribes to keep Mustafa Barzani from becoming any stronger.

Mustafa Barzani attempted to gain support from the United States, alienating many Iraqi progressives and the ICP, who felt that such a move was a betrayal for everything the KDP stood for.

Mustafa Barzani however managed to lead the peshmerga effectively, inflicting casualties on the military to the point that Qasim offered peace twice in November 1961 and in March 1962, both times rejected by Mustafa Barzani who raised autonomy requests.

Soon, the political divisions evolved into one that saw Mustafa Barzani leading tribal and conservative elements of Kurdish society on one end with Talabani and Ahmad leading progressive minded leftist intellectual Kurds on the other.

Mustafa Barzani however benefited from his agreement with Arif, which secured him funds and arms from Baghdad to assert his position.

The move was successful and saw Mustafa Barzani's opposition flee into Iran, allowing him uncontested control of the KDP.

Mustafa Barzani accepted Arif's offer of a truce, recognizing the toll the war had taken on the Kurdish people by that point.

Mustafa Barzani continued to consolidate his power in Iraqi Kurdistan, which had mostly fallen out of control from Baghdad by that point.

Mustafa Barzani's increasing position in the region would plague Baghdad, tying up much of its forces during the Six Day War.

The Ba'ath initially hoped to seek an agreement with the Talabani-Ahmad faction to bypass Mustafa Barzani, prompting Mustafa Barzani to enter into hostilities with the government again, shelling Kirkuk in March 1969.

Mustafa Barzani demanded that the Ba'ath sever ties with pro-government Kurds and the Ahmad-Talabani faction, and recognize him as the sole power within the KDP, as well as terms of autonomy was discussed.

However relations quickly began to deteriorate as Mustafa Barzani accused Iraq of continuing Arabification to decrease Kurdish standings in contested cities such as Kirkuk and in not being committed to a genuine autonomous zone.

The explosion did not kill Mustafa Barzani but killed others participating in the meeting, and in the confusion Peshmerga guards rushed in and killed the clerics.

Israel increased support to Mustafa Barzani hoping to frustrate the Ba'ath in Iraq.

Ahmad and Talabani, along with their supporters, later established the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in June 1975, criticizing Mustafa Barzani and KDP for what they described as "the inability of the feudalist, tribalist, bourgeois, rightist and capitulationist Kurdish leadership".

Mustafa Barzani lived to witness significant geopolitical changes, including the overthrow of the Shah, the departure of Henry Kissinger after Gerald Ford's defeat in the 1976 US presidential elections, and the death of Algerian President Houari Boumediene, all of which influenced the Kurdish struggle.

Mustafa Barzani was buried in Iranian Kurdistan in Oshnavieh after his body was flown back from the United States.

In October 1993, Mustafa Barzani's remains were brought across the border from Iran to Iraqi Kurdistan, to be reburied in his hometown of Barzan.