Mustafa Barzani
Every year in March, people across Kurdistan plant trees in honor of their beloved revolutionary leader, Mullah Mustafa Barzani. In addition, people come from all over Kurdistan and the world from March 1-14 to visit Barzani's tomb in Barzan to commemorate his death and birth. Barzani, a larger-than-life Kurdish leader, is regarded as "immortal" by Kurds for his contributions to the Kurdish cause during his lifetime.
His name has become synonymous with the fight for Kurdish independence, and his family, the Barzani, has been at the heart of the Kurdish nationalist movement for more than a century. Revolution and armed conflict, in Mustafa Barzani's view, were not powerplays, but necessary actions to fight for the rights and dignity of his people and reverse the catastrophic damage done by past enemies of the Kurds.
As a leader, Barzani brought together Kurds from across the political spectrum.
He founded the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), still the largest Kurdish party today, and is the father of the current KDP leader and former Kurdistan Region president Masoud Barzani, as well as the grandfather of current president Nechirvan Barzani and prime minister Masrour Barzani.
“He was a man of majestic appearance, and the greatest thing about him was his sharp eyes, which added to the strength and expression of the firm lines of a stern and watchful face,” said the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser after meeting with Barzani in Cairo in 1958.
Early life
Mustafa Barzani was born on March 14, 1903, in Barzan, a village on the eastern shores of the Great Zab in Erbil province. He was the youngest son of Sheikh Mohammad Barzani and his mother Khaton. When the people of Barzan rose up in 1907 against the Ottoman Empire to demand better treatment and the right to practice their culture and heritage, he was only four years old. The uprisings were met with a bloody massacre by the Ottoman military, who had been ordered to put them down because of the empire's aggressive policy.
Barzani and his mother were detained and imprisoned in an Ottoman jail in Mosul. Still a child at the time, he was detained for nearly nine months before both were released. He never met his father, who died in 1903, the same year he was born. His mother was a brave and strong woman who didn't have time to mourn her husband's death. Instead, she showed her son love and care and most importantly taught him honesty, bravery, and determination.
By the time he was 12 years old, living conditions throughout Kurdistan, particularly in the Barzan area, had reached a crisis point. Until its final days, the Ottomans used every means possible to oppress the people and silence opposition. Meanwhile, Barzani joined the Barzan uprising at a young age, demonstrating a natural ability for leadership and military strategy.The most momentous and significant period of the Kurdish struggle
In 1931, Barzani followed in the footsteps of his older brother, the Barzani Chieftain Sheikh Ahmed Barzani, who participated in leading the Kurdish revolutionary movement to demand national rights for the Kurds. However, the royal authority in Iraq aided by the British occupying forces suppressed this movement, and the Barzan village was bombed by British planes, resulting in more than one thousand Kurdish military and civilians deaths. After these events, the Barzanis including Sheikh Ahmed Barzani emigrated to Turkey, but Mullah Mustafa Barzani stayed on and made the mountains of Kurdistan his home.
The 1932 Barzan-Kurdish revolt was a milestone for the recognition of Kurdish identity, as H.E. Masoud Barzani argued that “the events between 1931-1961 were the most momentous and significant period of the Kurdish struggle. The reason for this milestone was that, at last, the Kurdish demands from the different regions of Iraqi Kurdistan were finally incorporated into a unified cause under an organized leadership.”
Thus, Mustafa Barzani was able to win the support of the wider Kurdish population, not just the members of the Barzani tribe. With this, a new era for Kurdistan began.
“Barzani's virtues are of the old type of bravery, and one admires their highness to a great extent. He lived his life leading a revolution using the methods of a veteran leader driven by pride and independence,” the prominent Egyptian thinker and journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal remarked.
Earning the recognition of Kurdish rights
As the emerging leader of the Kurdish revolution, he saw the growing need for a unified armed force to coincide with Kurdish patriotism and succeeded in uniting the disparate Kurdish tribes under the banner of the peshmerga, the Kurdish freedom fighters.
Mustafa Barzani's leadership abilities were put to the test when he joined Iran's Mahabad Republic. In December 1945, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran Qazi Muhammad established the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in Mahabad (northwestern Iran), which was under Soviet military control.
Barzani was appointed Minister of Defense and commander of the Kurdish army in the Republic of Kurdistan. As Iranian forces clashed with the forces of the Republic of Mahabad, Barzani quickly established himself as a capable commander, inflicting defeats on Iranian divisions and being one of the few who did not surrender or defect to the advancing Iranian forces.
Barzani’s largest and longest revolution was the September Revolution, which broke out in 1961 after negotiations between the Kurds and Baghdad did not bear fruit. Thereafter, the Iraqi government launched a military campaign against the Kurdish resistance.
After a decade of armed conflict, the Iraqi government agreed to grant autonomy to the Kurds on March 11, 1970, a decision that was never implemented on the ground. The Iraqi army attacked the Kurds once more in 1974. The revolution came to an end with the 1975 Algiers agreement between Iran and Iraq, which ended Iran's support for the Kurdish revolution.
In his 1973 book The Kurdish Revolt, British military analyst Edgar O'Ballance wrote: "Barzani was able to extract the first legal recognition of the rights of the Kurds in Iraq, which is the first regional recognition of the demands of the Kurdish people and the beginning of the recognition of the legitimacy and rights of the Kurdish people by others."
A legacy that will live on
On March 1st, 1979, Barzani passed away at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington DC, and his body was laid to rest in the Kurdish-Iranian city of Shino (Oshnavieh).
In 1993, his remains were returned to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in a grand ceremony. He was laid to rest in Barzan next to his son Idris Barzani, the father of the current president of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani.
"Among all the martyrs and heroes of the Kurdish movement, Barzani has a special place in the heart of Kurds everywhere. He is considered by many as the father of Kurdish revolution, with his pictures found hanging in the homes of Kurdish families throughout Kurdistan including in the former Soviet states and in places where famous journalists are located in Washington DC, who liken him to a legend because of his tremendous achievements achieved on the battlefield," René Maurice, Director of the Press Office of the former French President François Mitterrand said.
Barzani helped the Kurds achieve a great deal; his name and legacy will live on among his people, and his philosophy will be passed down to future generations.
‘’I knew Barzani was a fighter, never afraid to stand up for his people. Through sacrifice and suffering, Barzani inspired others to serve something greater than himself, so please, serve well under his name’’. John McCain (1936 – 2018) Former United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018.
Awat Mustafa is a board member of the Barzani Charity Foundation and is the researcher and author of The Soul of the Mountains: The Principles and Values of Mustafa Barzani. He holds a master's degree in International Development from Newcastle/Northumbria University in the United Kingdom.
