Mala Bakhtiyar

Hikmat Muhammad Karim (born August 20, 1954), known as Mala Bakhtiyar or Mala Bakhtiar (Template:Lang-ku), is a revolutionary leader and a Senior Iraqi Kurdish politician. He is a military supervisor and General of the Kurdish PUK Peshmerga forces and considered as one of the influential and active senior members of PUK [1]. He is now Joint leader of the Supreme political council of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan alongside Kosrat rasul ali.

Mala bakhtiar is one of the most powerful people in Iraqi Kurdistan [2]. His power is on the rise after the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan held its 4th congress on the 19th of December 2019 [3]. Mala bakhtiar is considered the Mastermind of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [4].

consecutive political positions held since 1975 [5]

• In 1975, he became member of Marx-Lenin Association Leadership.
• In 1976, he was assigned as member of PUK Leadership.
• In 1978, he was the commander and chief of Halabja Regional Zone.
• In 1982, he was the chief of PUK Organizational Center- Sulaimani Office.
• In 1984, he was a member of Kurdish negotiation group with Iraqi regime.
• In 1991, he was of the leaders of the Kurdish revolution against Saddam`s hussain [6]
• In 1992, he attended the conference of the Iraqi opposition political parties in Vienna.
• In 1992, he was elected as a member of the Kurdistan Region's Parliament.
• In 1993, he was the chief of PUK Democratic Organizations Office.
• In 1995, he is the head of Kurdistan Olympics Committee.
• In 1999, he attended the conference of Iraqi opposition parties in New Work.
• In 2001, he was promoted to become a member of PUK Political Bureau.
• In 2009, he became member of Executive Body of PUK Political Bureau.
• In 2010, he became the chief of Executive Body of PUK Political Bureau.
• 2019 joint Leader of the supreme political council of the Patriotic union of Kurdistan.
• Editor-in- chief of Medaniyat, or civic in English, magazine.
• Editor –in-chief of Chawder, a weekly paper.His first political forum was arranged in 1991 in Shaqlawa, Erbil.
• His first forum on secularism against Salafism was arranged in 1994.
• He was the first politician who had expected the ISIS attacks.[7]

Early life [8]

He was born in 1954 in Khanaqin. Returned to the town of Khanaqin in 1975 along with many of his colleagues up on the command of Marx-Lenin Association, following the collapse of Aylul Revolution in 1975 due to the Algiers Agreement signed.[9]

Arabization process [10]

As a result, Kurdish people suffered from expulsion and forced resettlement in a campaign known as Arabization, a campaign to drive Kurds out of their original places and replace them with Arab settlers.[11]

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [12]

After the announcement of establishing Patriotic Union of Kurdistan on June 1st , 1975, PUK witnessed a popular flourishing and established a wide organization among all Kurdish constituents. In the mid 1976, the PUK started to form Peshmarga forces according to a plan to re-launch armed struggle across the Kurdistan region. This struggle was initially based on a hit-and-run approach, a tactic that later became widespread and Hikmat Karim was assigned to play a vital role in re-organizing the armed groups by coordinating between the cities and the Peshmarga, eventually he joined the armed struggle.[13]

Marx-Lenin Association [14]

Soon after realizing these organized campaigns, the leadership of Marx-Lenin Association re-organized their groups in a bid to counterattack those campaigns. Thus, the Iraqi authorities launched a new campaign to chase and arrest the leaders of Marx-Lenin Association. He was one of the wanted leaders by the Iraqi regime but they failed to arrest him. Later, he became the chief of all secret cells of Marx-Lenin Association based inside the cities. He moved back and forth secretly among Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Kirkuk, Kalar, Samawah, Diywaniyah, Fallujah, Mosul, Sulaimani and Erbil, aiming at preparations of the cells to re-launch armed struggles.[15]

Books and publications [16]

• "Kurdish Revolution and Modern Changes" , published in 1992.
• "Becoming Rebellious to History", Second Edition in 1998.
• "At service of Literature", 1998.
• "Democracy after Cold War", published in 1999.
• "Collection of Some Topics", published in 1999.
• "Democracy between Modernism and Post-modernism", published in 2000.
• "Rational Freedom and Civil Society" in 2001.
• "Democracy and its Enemies" First Edition in 2006, and second edition in 2014.
• "A Bunch of History of Kurdistan Toilers Party, or Komala in 2012.
• "Spiritual Totalitarianism and Duties of Modern Enlightenment, A Response to Secretary General of Kurdistan Islamic Union’s Report in 2013.
• "Anaka Discourse and Turning of Contemporary of Kurdish Struggle", booklet, in 2013.
• A Group of Essays on 38th anniversary of PUK.
• "Intersection of Democracy and Salafism" , first edition, 2014.
• "Modern Political Roadmap in Middle East", in 2014.
• "Kurdistan Revolutions and Modern Changes", in 2015.
• Kurdistan, HDP and Turkey, Towards Which Political Harbor?
• ISIS, Expectations of its Emergence and Its Risks.

External links

• Mala Bakhtiar account page on Facebook