Republic of Mahabad

Flag of the Republic of Kurdistan

File:QaziMoahmmed.jpg

Qazi Mohammad president of the Republic of Kurdistan

File:Republic of Kurdistan in Mehabad.png

Republic of Kurdistan, Mehabad 1946

The Republic of Mahabad (also Republic of Kurdistan), established in Iranian Kurdistan, was the second independent Kurdish state of the 20th century after the Republic of Ararat in Turkey. Its capital was the Kurdish city of Mahabad in northwestern Iran.

The republic was led by President Qazi Muhammad and Minister of Defense Mustafa Barzani. Prime Minister was Hadschi Baba Scheich. The Republic of Mahabad declared independence on January 22, 1946, but the movement was defeated a year later by the army of the central government of Iran. [1]. After the collapse of the republic in 1947, Qazi Muhammad was hanged in public in Chuwarchira Square in the center of Mahabad.

Massoud Barzani, the current President of Iraqi Kurdistan, was born in Mahabad when his father, the late General Mustafa Barzani, was chief of the military of Mahabad declared in Iranian Kurdistan [2].

References

1. "The Republic of Kurdistan: Fifty Years Later," International Journal of Kurdish Studies, 11, no. 1 & 2, (1997).
2. The Kurdish Republic of 1946, William Eagleton, Jr. (London: Oxford University Press, 1963)
3. Archie Roosevelt, Jr., "The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad" ,Middle East Journal, no. 1 (July 1947), pp. 247-69.
4. Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, Encyclopedia of the Orient. [3]
5. The Kurds: People without a country, Encyclopedia Britannica [4]

See also

• Republic of Ararat
• Kurdish Autonomous Region
• Ethnic minorities in Iran

External links

• Mahabad Republic at Britanica encyclopedia
• Kurds at the crossroad
• The Encyclopedia of World History
• The kurdish Republic of Mahabad at PDKI-Canada