Mustafa Barzani
Mustafa Barzani ( born March 14, 1903 in Barzan, then Ottoman Empire, † March 3, 1979 in Washington, DC), father of Massoud Barzani, was from 1946 until his death, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party ( KDP) in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Childhood and youth
At the age of a few months, the home village of Barzan Hamidiye the riders was a made up of Kurdish tribal warriors and commanders of the army of the Ottoman Empire, invaded and he deported with his family to Diyarbakir, where he was detained a long time in prison. At age 12, he saw his older brother Abdulselaam, who had rebelled against the Ottoman governor, was hanged in Mosul. In 1919, he participated as a boy in the rebellion of Sheikh Mahmud Berzenci against the British. As an ambassador of his brother Sheikh Ahmed Barzani he was in contact with Sheikh Said. After a failed rebellion of his brother Ahmed Barzani in 1931, he had to go into exile in southern Iraq.
Political career
His political career began in 1939 when he entered into contact with the Kurdish national Hiwa - party, who had an interest in working with Barzani, to gain influence on the traditional tribal milieu. 1943 rose Barzani, who was now official leader of his Eşirets, against the Iraqi central government. At the foundation of the KDP 1946 he was elected president of the party.
After Mustafa Barzani was forced to withdraw in the same year into exile in Iran, he was there with the establishment of the short-lived Republic of Mahabad Mahabad and was a general in the Army. After the crackdown, he fled first to Iraq. From there he fled with 500 of his followers in the legendary " long march " through Turkey and Iran to the Soviet Union, where he lived until the 1958 revolution in Iraq eleven years. He lived there as a laborer and was the Soviet government under Stalin persuaded to teach him and many of his men military. He attained the rank of General in the academy. In 1958, the monarchy in Iraq was overthrown and the new ruler Abd al - Karim Qasim Barzani called back to Iraq. Barzani left on July 21, 1958 Moscow and returned to Romania, Czechoslovakia and Egypt to Iraq back. He landed on October 6, 1958 in Baghdad. Barzani enjoyed by Qasim privileges, received a villa in Baghdad and a limousine. Qasim tried to win in the Kurdish tribes against pro- monarchist tribal leaders, Arab nationalists and Ba'athist supporters for itself.
For the crisis in relations between Barzani and Qasim came when Barzani demanded that the Kurdish language in the Kurdish regions should be first official language and that police and army units in these areas should consist solely of Kurds. The crisis developed into a hostility and reached its climax when the Iraqi Air Force in September and October 1961 and 1270 Barzan attacked Kurdish villages burnt down.
Barzani had taken the lead in the civil war-like uprisings 1961-1970.
On his return flared up within the KDP power struggles. Although Barzani was able to prevail initially led the intra-party disputes and the collapse of the Kurdish resistance due to the Algiers Agreement in 1975 to split the KDP, from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK ) under the leadership of today's Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a proirakischer KDP wing under Hashim Aqrawi and Barzani's eldest son Ubaidullah Barzani and the Kurdish Revolutionary Party under Abd as- Sattar Sharif emerged.
Mullah Mustafa Barzani was from various quarters, not least from Talabani, accused the national movement of Iraqi Kurdistan too closely linked to tribal structures and only acted for his own gain power. Due to his charisma and unyielding but he is considered by many Kurds as a prominent figure of the Kurdish independence movement.
Last years
1975 at his lung cancer was found. To his treatment, he flew to the United States. The Americans did not see him as a welcome guest, because they were afraid that he would tell the public about the role of the CIA and the government. For before the Algiers Agreements, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Americans moved to support the Kurds. With the agreement, the Americans withdrew. After his treatment Barzani flew in 1975 in Iran, where he was under house arrest. However, he soon returned to the United States. After his death in March 1979, his sons Masud and Idris Barzani took over the leadership of the KDP. His body was buried at Mahabad in Iran on March 5. He was then transferred to his village in 1993, where he is buried next to his son Idris Barzani.