Nawshirwan Mustafa

Nawshirwan Mustafa
Nawshirwan
Former - Deputy Secretary General PUK
In office March 1, 1975 – December 5, 2006
Preceded by	Jalal Talabani
Succeeded by	Jalal Talabani
Personal details
Born	1944 Sulaimaniyah, Iraq
Political party	Movement for Change
Residence(s)	Sulaimaniyah, Iraq
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Historian
Website	http://www.wusha.net

Nawshirwan Mustafa (Kurdish: Newşîrwan Mistefa) (born 1944) is a prominent Kurdish politician, media proprietor, strategist, author and historian. The co-founder and until December 2006 the deputy secretary general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two leading political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq in general, and currently head's the main opposition power in Kurdistan, Movement for Change

Biography

Nawshirwan Mustafa was born in 1944 in the Old Quarter of Sulaimaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Nawshirwan has attended the University of Baghdad and the University of Vienna. He studied Political Science and International Law. While at university he was very active in the student union, particularly in organizing movements to further Kurdish interests. Apart from his native Kurdish, he speaks fluent English, German, Arabic and Persian, and has some command of Turkish.

Nawshirwan began his political career in Sulaimaniyah in 1961 by joining the KDP aged 16 but soon left because he was disillusioned with its leadership, he went on to found a secret society named Komala (society) with a number of other Kurdish intellectuals, during this period he gave underground lectures on the future role of the Kurds in the Iraqi state. Nawshirwan purchased a publishing house which formerly printed the newspaper JIN (life) and started to publish a monthly journal called "Rizgary" (Kurdish for Salvation) under his ownership it publicized the ideas of his secret organization. The journal gained popularity among all segments of Kurdish society particularly the young. As a result of its popularity, it also gained the attention of the central government which closed down the journal and launched a crackdown on Nawshirwan's Komala society which culminated in the Revolutionary Court in Baghdad sentencing him to death in 1970. Nawshirwan went into exile in Austria. His time in the Viennese capital would deeply influence the rest of his life, as would his numerous trips to European capitals during his time as a student.

Political and Military role 1975-1992

Mustafa was in his final year of studies at Vienna University when the Barzani rebellion collapsed, after talks with Jalal Talabani, they decided that a new Kurdish movement needed to be organized to fill the vacuum. He made his way to Damascus where a number of meetings between prominent Kurdish politicians about the future of the Kurdish resistance were taking place. The result of these meetings was the foundation of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, an umbrella organization. At the meeting it was announced that Jalal Talabani would become the Secretary General and Nawshirwan the deputy Secretary General. In an understanding between the two leaders it was decided that Nawshirwan would lead and organize the movement in Kurdistan while Talabani would publicize and champion the cause.

Following his return, Mustafa soon took over the leadership of the Komalai Ranjdaran party becoming its Secretary General, which he placed in the Patriotic Union. Jalal Talabani who led Shoresh Garan also placed his party in the Patriotic Union and a number of smaller parties followed suit. This move by them echoed the agreement which they had formulated in exile, thus leading to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. However, these party's would continue to act largely autonomously within the PUK and it was only in 1991 that they fully integrated into one single party, when Nawshirwan resigned from his post as Secretary General of Komala while still retaining the post of deputy secretary general of the PUK, and dissolved the Komalai Ranjdaran (which compiled over 100% of the PUK membership) to increase the unity within the PUK and allow for the transition of power from the Peshmerga (the military wing of the PUK) to the civilian population.

Between 1976 and 1992 , Nawshirwan was the PUKs chief strategist as well as its Chief negotiator. Alongside his political role, Nawshirwan was the Commander in Chief of all Peshmerga forces under the control of the PUK, earning the respect of the Kurdish people for his years of servitude, courage and tactical prowess in battle against the Ba'thist forces of Saddam. However, he is also responsible for the death of more than 328 communist Peshmerga, of both Kurdish and Arabic origin, in Pishtashan (Kurdistan) in 1983. Mustafa personally oversaw the cold-blooded killing, barbarically rapes and torture. Some Kurdish and Arabic Peshmerga of the ICP were arrested and they are the eyewitnesses for the massacre.

But he is more notable for his role in the Kurdish Uprising of March 1991 Raparin which he and small number of his inner circle planned, organized and executed. This uprising led to the creation of the safe haven in Iraqi Kurdistan and its subsequent autonomy from the Iraqi government. Nawshirwan, because of his leadership of the Uprising, is accredited with being known in Kurdish circles as the “architect" of Raparin. This Uprising was also very important because it was the first time since the creation of Iraq that all of southern Kurdistan including Kirkuk, Khanaqin and Kurdish areas around Mosul were liberated and under direct Kurdish rule. For this achievement alone Nawshirwan has taken his place in Kurdish history along side other organizers of great Kurdish uprisings Sheikh Mahmoud Barzinji (1919), Sheikh Said Piran (1925) and Sheikh Ubeydullah (1880s).

After the Kurdish elections in 1992 which resulted in a power sharing agreement, Nawshirwan argued that instead the PUK should go to parliament as the opposition party because power sharing may cause tensions between the PUK and KDP. Nawshirwan, after 1992, took a backseat role in Kurdish politics and returned to writing though he still wielded so much influence that he "could ignite Kirkuk with a single telephone call" according to The New Yorker.

Political role 1992-2002

After 1992, Nawshirwan limited his involvement in Kurdish politics to matters of national importance. He refrained from interfering in the day to day running of the region, which he considered solely the job of the Kurdistan Regional Government. However he was involved in the appointment of various Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers as well as their dismissals. Nawshirwan left Iraqi Kurdistan briefly and lived in London where he focused on writing about Kurdish political history, but soon returned after the PUK and KDP became entangled in a civil war, he attempted to reconcile Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani over meditations in Washington, Dublin, Ankara and Tehran. After the 1998 peace accord, Nawshirwan remained resident in Kurdistan and gradually began to return to public political life and resume full official duties of the deputy secretary general. However due to differences between Nawshirwan and Talabani over the management of the PUK he left public political life in 2006 to setup a media organisation.

Political role 2002-2006

Nawshirwan welcomed the US led coalition which toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, seeing it as an opportunity to redraw the role of Kurds in Iraq. As soon as the old regime had been removed, he ordered the establishment of a PUK office in Baghdad. He assumed the role of Chief Kurdish negotiator on Transitional Administrative Law which was established under the governing council and the CPA. He designed Article 58 which addressed the issue of normalizing Arabised areas of Kurdistan and threatened that if this article was not included, Kurds would no longer be a part of Iraq. Although this demand was met, he returned to Kurdistan stating the Kurds had seceded on too many of their initial demands and had not been given their fair share.

Nawshirwan returned again as the Chief Kurdish negotiator during the drafting of the permanent constitution and to insure the inclusion of Article 140 which was an amended version of the TALs Article 58 and another Article which provided the Kurds with veto power. He again returned and stated that the Kurds had not received what they were entitled to. Nawshirwan in 2005 turned his attention to domestic politics of the Kurdistan region and began to call for administrative reform, saying that bad governance was crippling the region and damaging Kurdish national interests. He launched a campaign of reform which was ultimately blocked by the leadership of both the PUK and KDP. This resulted in Nawshirwan's surprise resignation on 5th of December 2006 as deputy Secretary General during a politburo meeting, where he stated “irreconcilable differences" in the areas of policy and methods of governance for his decision.

Nawshirwan has backing from the strategically important Hamewand tribe, whose leaders, among others, have publicly announced their support for his reform movement.

He is known for his strong stance on the implementation of the rule of law and his plans to modernize the Kurdish economy in a free market fashion.

Current Affairs

Nawshirwan Mustafa headed the Gorran list that won 25 seats of the kurdistan parliament's 100 seats

Nawshirwan, in March 2007, established the Wusha Corporation in the Sulaimaniyah. The Wusha Corp operates a media branch which consists of a newspaper which is in circulation, a radio called the Voice of Change, a website which was launched in late 2007 and an international satellite channel called KNN. In response to a question as to why he had established such as vast media outlet, Nawshirwan stated, "we have attempted to change Kurdish politics from the inside, now let us attempt it from the outside". Nawshirwan has had a long history of pushing for a free media in the region in an interview with the London based Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 31 May 2003, he stated Iraq and Kurdistan need to "enact news laws that live up to the spirit of the age and are in line with the principles of human rights and civil society." The company's newspaper, Rozhnama;heavily criticized Jalal Talabani for deciding in March 2008 to sack party members from the PUK for speaking out against politicians in the press.

2009 Kurdistan parliamentary elections

See also: Iraqi Kurdistan legislative election, 2009

Nawshirwan was the head of the main opposition list, Movement for Change, in the Iraqi Kurdistan legislative election, 2009.. The Change List is a broad coalition which consists of independents, members of the PUK and KDP, and elements from many established parties in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Change List won the support of more than %51 of the Silêmanî voters. Change will participate in the upcoming Iraqi parliamnetary elections hoping for gaining the support of the voters especially from Kirkuk and Diyala.

Books

• "Kurds and Ejams"

A political history of Iranian Kurds

Published in: 1992

• "From the Danaube shore to the Nawzang valley

political events in Iraq Kurdistan from (1975-1978)

Published in: 1997

• "The fingers which break each other."

Political events in Iraqi Kurdistan (1978-1983)

Published in: 1997

Discusses the often treacherous nature of contemporary Kurdish politics.

• "Going around in circles."

The inside story of events in Iraqi Kurdistan (1984-1988)

Published in: 1998
An account of the diplomacy of the Kurdish liberation movement in the 1980s. A period in which Saddam Hussein launched the genocidal Anfal campaign against the Kurds. ISBN 3980614034

• "The Government of Kurdistan" (22 January - 17 December 1946)

Kurd's in the Soviet game.

Published in: 1993
A historical account of the short lived Kurdish republic of Mehabad. ISBN 9090063560

• "The emirate of Baban between the grinding stones of the Persians and Turks"

Published in: 1998
A historical account of the early Kurdish principality of Baban (1500-1850), A frontier principality between the Ottoman and Safavid empires, which was a microcosm of the power struggles of the great Middle Eastern empires.

• "Xulanewe le naw bazneda: dîwî nawewey rûdawekanî Kurdistanî ʻIrāq, 1984-1988"

Published in: 1999

• "Kurdistanî ʻÊraq: serdemî qełem u muraceʻat, 1928-1931"

Published in: 2000

• "Kêşey Partî û Yekêtî"

Published in: 1995

• "Çend lapereyek le mêjûy rojnamewaniy Kurdî, 1938-1958: rojnamewaniy nihênî"

Published in: 2004

• "Ême û Ewan"

Published in: 2009

See also

• Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
• Jalal Talabani
• Barham Salih
• Massoud Barzani
• Mustafa Barzani

References

[2] Awene newspaper. Nawshirwan Msutafa resigns from the PUK http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=13685

• LE MONDE, L'amer souvenir du soulèvement kurde après la guerre de libération du Koweït en 1991,

http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/797862.html

• USA Today, Officials certify vote,

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-02-17-iraq-election_x.htm

• International Herald Tribune, Attacks after Shiites pick candidate,

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/02/23/news/baghdad.php

• MSNBC, Iraq's secular Kurds to play bigger role - Conflict in Iraq,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6969687/

• Wall Street Journal Online, Iraqis Call the Powell Timeline,

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB106493933769880800.html?mod=googlewsj

• Al Jazeera English, Iraqi Kurds form new party

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/05/2009522232888728.html