Kurdistan House Speaker Adnan Mufti brings shame to Kurdish martyrs of the past
Kurdishaspect.com - By Aman Suleyman
Last week, Iranians in the Iraqi Kurdistan region openly celebrated an anniversary date of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The Iranian celebration took place in Hewler - Erbil - the Kurdistan capital, and organizers invited Kurdish officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to join them. The Kurdistan House Speaker, Dr. Adnan Mufti (YNK), gladly accepted the invitation and gave a speech on behalf of the Kurdistan region. Ironically, and much to the shame and disappointment of many Kurds, not only was an Islamic Revolution that brought a new wave of oppression to Kurdish people in Iranian-occupied Kurdistan celebrated in the only free part of Kurdistan - in Iraq - but the celebration took place at a hall named after one of the most revered Kurdish leaders of all time, Peshewa Qazi Muhammad.
For Kurds, it is highly inexcusable alone that the KRG that is supposed to represent their national interests has allowed a celebration of this nature to take place in the only free part of Kurdistan. Even more shame is allowing such a celebration to take place at the hall of a leader - Peshewa Qazi Muhammad - who sacrificed his life to keep the national Kurdish struggle for freedom alive. After one short and successful year of the free Kurdistan Republic in Iran, the republic under the leadership of President Qazi Muhammad was under the imminent threat of a military invasion by the Iranian central government that had just become freed from Soviet occupation. Knowing that a resistance by the newly-founded Kurdish Peshmerga army to the Iranian invasion would not be successful, President Qazi Muhammad gave orders to the Peshmerga generals - including General Mustafa Barzani - to flee the region and resume the armed struggle in other parts of Kurdistan where they were more likely to succeed. President Qazi Muhammad gave such orders knowing he would be arrested and executed shortly after for "separatist" crimes.
On March 30, 1947, the Iranian military court sentenced President Qazi Muhammad and some of his associates to death, and he was hanged in Chiwar Chira Square in the center of the city of Mahabad. His body was left there to hang for several days to serve as a warning to other Kurdish nationalists who wished to revive the Kurdish national struggle for rights and freedom.
Peshewa Qazi Muhammad is remembered by Kurds all across the Middle East for his bravery and his sacrifice for the Kurdish nation. He is remembered as one of the greatest martyrs, and even today, halls and mosques throughout the only free part of Kurdistan, situated in Iraq, are named after him. In the city of Sulemani, Peshewa Qazi's picture is located high above the streets in the downtown area, and down the street, a mosque is named after him. In Hewler, halls carry his name as a sign of respect and remembrance.
The open praise of the late martyr is a deep contrast to the mention of his name in Iran. Except for the Kurds in Iran who also remember Peshewa Qazi for his great sacrifice, most people in Iran do not even know who Qazi Muhammad is. This is because the Iranian government regards him as a long lost "terrorist" and nothing more than a "separatist" of decades prior. Furthermore, any mention of the name "Qazi Muhammad" by a citizen in Iran might even land them in jail. In the past, Kurds in Iran have been arrested and punished for simply having possession of Kurdish flags or pictures of the late Kurdish martyr in their homes.
So why did Iranians in Iraqi Kurdistan specifically rent a hall named after Peshewa Qazi Muhammad in order to celebrate the anniversary of their own leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, who once called Kurds "children of the devils" (jinns)? The obvious answer is a simple and straightforward sign of disrespect to the Kurdish people. When Khomeini took power in 1979, one of his first orders was the arrest of hundreds of Kurds in Iran who advocated Kurdish rights. Khomeini made hundreds of more martyrs from these Kurds who were either tortured to death or simply executed. In addition, Khomeini publicly declared a "jihad" against the Kurdish people in Iran, declaring them "children of the devils", and the "duty of muslims" to attack them. It was then that Khomeini ordered the bombings of several cities in Eastern Kurdistan (Iran) including the central Kurdish city of Sina (Sanandaj). Although life under the Shah of Iran was an oppressed one for Kurds, the mullahs who took power in 1979 sought to sustain and perhaps increase the oppression.
It is for these reasons that Kurdish officials who have allowed such a celebration to take place in Kurdistan, and let alone, at the hall named after the late Kurdish leader, Peshewa Qazi Muhammad, have brought shame to the Kurdish people. During the celebration, Speaker of the Kurdistan House, Adnan Mufti, went a step further and praised the Ayatollah Khomeini at the Peshewa Qazi Muhammad hall falsely stating that the Islamic Republic founder helped Kurds. For Kurds, such a day was deep and dark and such simple words from the leader of a Kurdish political institution can be viewed a black page in Kurdish history.
Like the leader of Iraq and head of one of two Kurdish parties, Jalal Talabani, who had visited Turkey earlier this year and praised Ataturk (another leader who was directly responsible for the executions of Kurdish activists), Adnan Mufti has followed suit in bringing shame to the martyrs of the Kurdish past. While the Kurdish public is indeed outraged by both Kurdish leaders' comments and contributions to Kurdish oppression through their words, in other nations around the world, the public may have been calling for the resignation of Jalal Talabani and Adnan Mufti. But perhaps Kurds are too forgiving, and perhaps Mufti and Talabani simply reflect that nature of Kurds.
Regardless, I cannot help but think in sadness that past Kurdish martyrs, like Sheikh Said and Peshewa Qazi Muhammad, may have turned in their graves more than once this year.
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June 9, 2008
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