LUND STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL HISTORY 32 Editors: Bengt Ankarloo, Sven Tägil and Eva Österberg Vision or Reality? The Kurds in the Policy of the Great Powers, 1941-1947 Borhanedin A. Yassin Lund University Press Lund University Press Box 141 S-221 00 Lund Sweden © 1995 Borhanedin A. Yassin Art nr 20368 ISSN 0519-9700 ISBN 91-7966-315-X Lund University Press ISBN 0-86238-389-7 Chartwell-Bratt Ltd Printed in Sweden Team Offset Malmö CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS 15 ACKNOLEDGEMENTS 16 INTRODUCTION 17 The Context and Aim of the Study 17 Theory and Method 20 Concepts and Definitions 25 Previous Research and Material 28 THE KURDS: A GENERAL BACKGROUND 33 The Kurds and Kurdistan 33 Kurds within the Ottoman Empire 39 Kurdish Nationalism 40 THE KURDS IN IRAN UNTIL 1941 47 The Kurds in Iran Prior to the Anglo-Soviet Occupation 47 The Anglo-Soviet Occupation of Iran 51 German Activities and the Kurds in Occupied Iran 55 The Kurds in Iran After the Occupation 57 THE GREAT POWERS AND THE KURDS: THE FIRST PHASE 1941–1943 62 Great Britain’s Kurdish Policy 62 The Soviet Union’s Kurdish Policy 62 Kurds, Iranians, and the Great Powers 70 The Kurds and the Relations among the Great Powers 78 THE GREAT POWERS AND THE KURDS: THE SECOND PHASE 1944–1945 82 The Origins of the Cold War 82 US Policy in Iran and the Kurds 84 The Irano-Soviet Oil Crisis 88 The Soviet Union’s Kurdish Policy 90 Kurds, Iranians, and the Great Powers 92 THE KURDISH QUESTION IN IRAQ DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR 93 The Kurds in Iraq Prior to the Second World War 93 During the Second World War 96 The Mulla Mustafa Uprisising 1943–1945 98 Further Negotiations with Mulla Mustafa 100 American Concerns 104 Political Options 107 Great Britain’s Cautious Kurdish Policy 109 Negotiations with Sherif Pasha 111 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KURDISTAN 1946 113 The Path to the Establishment of the People’s Republic of Kurdistan 113 The Formation of Political Organisations 113 The Soviet Connection 119 The Proclamation of the Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan 124 The Establishment of the People’s Republic of Kurdistan 125 Relations with the Central Government 133 The People’s Republic of Kurdistan and the Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan 134 The Policy of the Great Powers vis-à-vis the People’s Republic of Kurdistan 136 THE DEMISE OF THE REPUBLIC 145 The Internal and Iranian Connections 146 The Iranian Diplomacy and the International Connections 149 The Aftermath 163 CONCLUSIONS 169 NOTES 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY 228 ABBREVIATIONS ADP Azerbaijan Democratic Party ANA Azerbaijan National Assembly ARA Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan DSDF Department of State’s Decimal File FO Foreign Office FRUS Foreign Relations of the United States KDP Kurdistan Democratic Party-[Iran] KDP-I Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iraq Komala Komala-y Zhianawa-y Kurd [ Association for the Resurrection of the Kurds] MEI Division of the Middle Eastern and Indian Affairs, The Department of State NA National Archives, Washington, D.C. NE Division of the Near Eastern Affairs, The Department of State NEA Office of the Near Easterns Affairs, the Department of State PCP Persian Communist Party PGSC Persian Gulf Service Command PRK People’s Republic of Kurdistan PRO Public Record Office, London RAF Royal Air Force UN United Nations US United States of America USFME United States Army Forces in the Middle East USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics SC Security Council of the United Nations 15 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The road of this research has been long. Many people have helped me along the way. I am very much indebted to my supervising Professor, Sven Tägil. He has guided me throughout the work of this dissertation. He has provided me with indispensable comments on different versions of my manuscript. He has been admirably patient in connection with this study. Indeed, without his guidance, encouragement and support this dissertation would be impossible to be accomplished. Professor Bengt Ankarloo, Eva Österberg, Dr. Othman A. ’Ali and Ph. D. Candidate Khalid Salih have read my manuscript, and have all given constructive suggestions. Their criticism and valuable insight are thankfully achnowledged. I am also especially grateful to my colleague Jasmine Aimaq, who was reviewed my English and therewith improved my manuscript. The final manuscript has been transformed into a book with the help of Viking Mattsson, to whom I am very much indebted. I am likewise grateful to Tomas Tägil for drawing up the maps. Thanks also go to my many teachers and colleagues who, guided, advised, supported, and encouraged me over the years. I also wish to acknowledge that during the last three years of my research, I have received great moral support from my wife Awat H. Afandi. Lund, February 1995 Borhanedin A. Yassin 16 Chapter One INTRODUCTION The Context and Aim of the Study The Kurdish question is one of the most complex and explosive issues presently confronting the Middle East, and ranks prominently among the many ethno-national problems of the post-war era. A solution to the Kurdish dilemma was in reach after the end of the First World War and immediately after the Second World War. Yet today, the Kurds remain the largest ethnic group in the Middle East not yet to have achieved any form of recognised statehood.1 The Kurds have sought control of their own destiny for several decades. Uprisings erupted in Turkey’s Kurdistan2 in 1925, 1927, 1928–1930 and 1937. Similar upheavals took place in Iraq. In 1919, Shaikh Mahmud Barzinji rose against the British. The Barzani tribe’s revolt against the British and the Iraqi rulers in 1932 was followed by upheavals in 1943 and 1945. Each of these uprisings was suppressed. Certain scholars have focused on the social and economic aspects of the Kurdish question, while others have stressed the ethno-political nature of the issue.3 Although both of these dimensions are significant, the Kurdish question can best be illuminated by studying a variety of factors, some within the framework of the Kurdish community itself, others lying outside of it, i.e. in the policy of the states which confront the Kurdish question and in the wider international arena. The period 1941–1947 offers an interesting field of study, revealing a strong interactive relationship 17 between a number of factors with an emphasis on the international dimension.4 The Kurdish question has drawn increasing attention from the academic community since the close of the Second World War. This study seeks to place the history of the Kurds, particularly those of Iran, into the greater patterns of contemporary Middle East history as well as to link the Kurds to major developments in the period 1941–1947. The study will involve the local, national and international levels, with particular emphasis on the policy of the Great Powers towards the Kurds. Mehrdad Izady has claimed that the Kurds and their political fate in our century should be understood within the context of power politics.5 Similarly, George Lenczowski has concluded that the question of Great Powers activities among the Kurds during the Second World War warrants a specific study.6 W. J. Argyle has applied the Weberian concept of “objective possibi- lities” to the subject of nationalist movements.7 According to Argyle, it is not the absolute size and scale of a particular nationalist movement which determines the degree of its success in attaining its objectives. Rather, a movement may have more or less potential to succeed in relation to particular circumstances that exist at the time, and which either impede or facilitate the success of a nationalist movement. In particular circumstances, the movement may culminate in the formation of a nation- state. In other words, the criteria for the success of the movement lie largely in conditions outside of the movement itself, or in the “objective possibilities” found in the circumstances at a specific point in time. Thus, a nationalist movement may in a specific historical milieu achieve a degree of success which may otherwise have been difficult to reach, independently of the size and scope of the movement itself. For instance, there are cur- rently several independent sovereign states comprising populations of less than one million, and some less than half a million. The period under study should in fact be viewed as a specific historical milieu which entailed an “objective possibility” for the Kurdish nationalist movement, particularly that in Iran, to achieve a certain degree of success. In the circumstances of the time, the Kurdish nationalist movement found itself before an unprecedented opportunity to express itself and to attain some important, albeit temporary, achievements. This dissertation will provide a general introduction on the Kurds and Kurdistan as well as a discussion on the Kurdish question in Iraq, although the main focus of the investigation will be on the Kurds in Iran. Iran was the sole country in which the Allied military forces had met as early as 1941–1942, and this prompted the involvement of the Great Powers into Kurdish affairs. Iran became a test case both for relations 18 between the Big Three and for the United Nations (UN). In January 1946, the Kurds in Iran succeeded in establishing their own republic in the city of Mahabad, the People’s Republic of Kurdistan (PRK)8, which was to survive for about one year. The UN sought an arrangement that would satisfy Iranian ambitions to retain integrity, and neglected the future of the Kurds and the fate of their republic. In addition, Iran had long attracted the attention of the Great Powers from the strategic and economic perspectives.