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The Political Development of the Kurds in Iran Pastoral Nationalism Farideh Koohi-Kamali The Political Development of the Kurds in Iran This page intentionally left blank The Political Development of the Kurds in Iran Pastoral Nationalism Farideh Koohi-Kamali Department of Social Sciences, New School University, New York Q Farideh Koohi-Kamali 2003 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. MacmillanT is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 0–333–73169–7 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Koohi-Kamali, Farideh, 1949– The political development of the Kurds in Iran: pastoral nationalism/ Farideh Koohi-Kamali. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-333-73169-7 1. Kurds–Iran–History–20th century. 2. Kurds–Political activity. 3. Kurdistan–Politics and government. I. Title DS269.K87K66 2003 955’.00491591–dc21 2003053648 10987654321 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne To Robert & Feri This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Tables ix List of Maps x Preface xi Maps xii Introduction 1 1 The Kurds and Kurdistan 24 Introduction 24 A brief background to Kurdish national history 28 The Kurds in Iran 31 2 The Political Economy of Kurdish Tribalism 44 Introduction 44 Kurdish tribes in the early decades of the twentieth century 45 Why tribes settle 49 Sedentarization 50 The economic impact 53 Sedentarization in Iranian Kurdistan 55 Change 58 Differentiation and new groups 59 Continuity 62 Conclusion 65 3 Nationalism or Tribalism? Simko’s Revolt 66 Introduction 66 Tribes and the state in Iran 67 Kurdish tribal development up to the twentieth century 69 Tribes and the non-tribal population 70 Emergence of Pan-Islamism and nationalism in the region 71 Simko’s revolt 74 What were Simko’s motives and goals? 82 Simko’s limitations as a nationalist leader 83 Conclusion 88 vii viii 4 The Kurdish Republic in Mahabad 89 Introduction 89 The situation in Iranian Kurdistan during the early 1940s 91 The Kurdish issue and the Great Powers 94 The Kurdish Republic: the factors which made it a national movement 97 Political preparations 99 The achievements of the Republic 111 The downfall of the Republic 116 The story of the Barzanis 121 Conclusion 122 5 The Political Economy of Kurdish Nationalism 126 Introduction 126 Transition to a national community 129 Inequality within Kurdistan 142 Inequality between Kurdistan and Iran 156 Conclusion 162 6 Kurdistan from the 1946 Republic to the 1979 Revolution and the Islamic Republic 165 Introduction 165 The situation in Iranian Kurdistan between 1946 and 1979 168 Kurdish nationalism on the eve of the 1979 revolution 171 Pastoral nationalism vis-a`-vis Kurdish communism: the KDPI and Komala 173 The demands for Kurdish autonomy and the Islamic Republic of Iran 184 The Iran–Iraq war 190 The situation of the KDPI since the Iran–Iraq war 192 Conclusion 193 Conclusion 197 Epilogue: the Situation of the Kurds in Iran and Neighboring Countries, 2002 210 Notes 221 Bibliography 237 Index 245 List of Tables 1.1 Population 27 2.1 Herd growth in western Sudan, 1974 54 2.2 Village population in Kurdish towns in Iran, 1851–1951 56 5.1 Agents’ purchase of peasants’ produce 130 5.2 Sale of peasants’ produce by method of sale 130 5.3 Distribution of migration of landless and landholding peasants 132 5.4 Distribution of landlesss and shareholding peasants 133 5.5 Birthplaces of heads of households and their fathers 135 5.6 Geographic mobility of heads of households 135 5.7 Occupation mobility among peasant households 136 5.8 Occupations of heads of landless households whose fathers were farmers 137 5.9 Urban and rural population, 1955–93 138 5.10 Distribution of landless laborers, by preferred type of radio program 141 5.11 Distribution of landholding peasants by preferred type of radio program 141 5.12 Land owned by peasant families after the Land Reform 144 5.13 Distribution of types of peasant families by size of land ownership 146 5.14 Household size in relation to household income 147 5.15 Distribution of heads of landless households and their fathers, by occupational category 150 5.16 Distribution of heads of peasant households, by occupation 152 5.17 Distribution of sampled rural households by annual expenditure, Kurdistan and all Iran 154 5.18 Distribution of sampled urban households by annual expenditure, Kurdistan and all Iran 155 5.19 Ranking of provinces by average food share, 1983–84 159 5.20 Ranking and distribution of illiterate urban population 6 years of age and over by province, 1981–82 161 ix List of Maps 1 Kurdistan: principal districts and locations xii 2 Distribution of Kurds across Turkey, Iran and Iraq xiii 3 Principal Kurdish tribes xiv 4 Kurdish languages xv x Preface This book examines the links between the structural changes in the Kurdish economy and its political demands, namely Kurdish national- ism in Iran. I argue that the transition of the nomadic/tribal society of Kurdistan to an agrarian village society was the beginning of a process whereby the Kurds saw themselves as a community of homogeneous ethnic identity. I discuss the political movements of the Kurds in Iran to argue that the different phases of economic development of Kurdish society played a great role in determining the way the Kurds expressed their political demands for independence. I divide the political history of Kurdistan in Iran, and incidentally its economic development, from the First World War to the present into three periods. The first corresponds to tribal consciousness, during which the typical economic activity is herding, exchange relationships are based on barter, and social and political relationships are based, predominantly, on tribal ‘face-to-face’ contact within the community. Simko’s uprising is discussed to illustrate the political counterpart of this period. The second period corresponds to the reign of Reza Shah and his tribal policies. This is the period of national consciousness among the Kurdish leaders in Iran, illustrated by the establishment of the Kurdish Republic in Mahabad in 1946. The third period begins with the Shah’s land reform program. I analyze the Kurdish participa- tion in the 1979 revolution in Iran to illustrate the further develop- ment of the Kurdish nationalist movement since the demise of the Republic in 1947, and I examine the differences and similarities of the two main Kurdish nationalist organizations at the eve of the 1979 revolution and later. In the economic sections, I examine a number of economic and demographic factors which contributed to the disintegration of the nomadic/tribal society of Kurdistan (change), those which contributed to the cohesion and solidarity within Kurdistan (continuity), and those indicators of inequality between Kurdistan and Iran as the final pre- condition of the development of a unified nationalist consciousness/ identity among the Kurds. I would like to thank I. B. Tauris and David McDowall for permission to reproduce the maps of Kurdistan, which appeared in A Modern History of the Kurds (1996). xi xii Source: David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London, 1996). xiii Source: David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London, 1996). xiv Source: David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London, 1996). xv Source: David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London, 1996). This page intentionally left blank Introduction In the modern age, nationalism can be seen as a universal phenom- enon, a component of the development of our modern history, part of a process which originated in Western Europe and the Americas, and one which was copied by other groups in later stages. The models of nationalism, when transferred to a variety of societies, foster different forms of nationalism. Perhaps the most significant realization for the communities pursuing nationalism is that to model oneself on the West means pursuing the idea of the nation-state. Human history is passing through a phase, a key characteristic of which is that individ- uals feel the need to belong to a nation-state in order to obtain secur- ity and to ensure that their communities receive security, legitimacy and recognition. Those who feel the need of such recognition have before them examples of those who have achieved such recognition. Those communities who are currently driven to espouse nationalism against an existing state feel threatened by those states. Hence they demand a state of their own, not only to achieve development, but also to be dealt with on a more equal basis.

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