(December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989) 1

Kurdish political leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989)

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou 2 (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989)

Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou ,عەبدولڕەحامن قاسملوو :Kurdish) Ebdurehman Qasimlú) (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989) was a Kurdish political leader. Ghassemlou was the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Partiya/حیزبی دیموکڕاتی کوردستان - حدک) Demokrata Kurdistana - PDK) from 1973 to 1989, when he was killed by individuals thought to be agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Arly and private life Born in , West Azarbaijan, Iran, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou was instructed in a Quranic school. He was the son of Mohammad Vesugh, a wealthy landowning Kurdish Ahga. Ghassemlou started his university studies in , and pursued them in , where he met his wife Helen Krulich. They had two daughters together, Mina (1953) and Hewa (1955). He was fluent in 8 languages including his mother tongue. He could read and write and speak and understand Kurdish, Kurmanji Kurdish, Persian, , Azerbaijani, French, English, Czech, Russian, and was familiar with German andSlovakian.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989) 3

Political life Ghassemlou went back to Kurdistan in 1952, after completing his studies. He then spent several years as an active militant in the Kurdish political field. In 1973, during the Third Congress of the PDKI, he was elected to the position of Secretary General of the party, a position to which he was re-elected several times until his assassination. In 1979, his party supported the revolution which ended in the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. However, the party boycotted the referendum for the new constitution. This was the start of confrontation of the party and the new regime, which ended in a military suppression of the party by the central government. Shortly, after the beginning of the armed Kurdish rebellion, Ayatollah Khomeini declared a «holy war» on the separationist . Thousands of executions followed in Kurdistan, which were continued up to 1984 in the middle of Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988). Assassination and funerals In 1988, after the war had ended, the Iranian government decided to meet with him. Several meetings followed in , on December 28, December 30 and

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou 4 (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989)

January 20. Another meeting was set up for July 13, again in Vienna. The delegation was as before, namely Mohammed Jafar Sahraroudi and Hadji Moustafawi, except that this time there was also a third member: Amir Mansur Bozorgian whose function was that of bodyguard. The Kurds also had a three-man delegation: Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, his aide Abdullah Ghaderi- Azar (member of the PDKI Central Committee) and Fadhil Rassoul, an Iraqi university professor who had acted as a mediator. The next day, 13 July 1989, in the very room where the negotiation took place, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou was killed by three bullets fired at very close range. His assistant Abdullah Ghaderi-Azar was hit by eleven bullets and Fadhil Rassoul by five. Hadji Moustafawi succeeded in escaping. Mohammad Jafar Sahraroudi received minor injuries and was taken to hospital, questioned and allowed to go. Amir Mansur Bozorgian was released after 24 hours in police custody and took refuge in the Iranian Embassy. The PDKI Deputy Secretary General, , succeeded Ghassemlou as Secretary General (he was assassinated on September 17, 1992). Abdullah Ghaderi Azar and Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou were buried on July 20 inParis at Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989) 5

Investigation According to the pdki.org website In late November 1989 the Austrian courts issued a warrant for the arrest of the three Iranian representatives and the Austrian Government expressly accused the Iranian Government as having instigated the attack on Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou and the two other Kurds. The three Iranian representatives in the negotiations with the Kurdish leaders could return to Iran as free people, one of them had never been in custody, one was escorted to the Vienna airport nine days after the crime by Austrian police and the third, after one night of arrest, spent a few months in the Iranian embassy in Vienna before he disappeared from . Warrants for their arrest were not issued before November 1989. 20 years after the triple assessination they have not been executed, still. Contrary to the German Mykonos-trial after the murder of Ghassemlou›s successor Dr. Sadegh Sharafkandi in the crime in Vienna was never clarified by any court. The Mykonos verdict of April 10, 1997 clearly states the responsibility of the then Iranian government for the murders in Berlin and in Vienna

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou 6 (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989)

Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou charming, and charismatic Middle Eastern leader of millions of Kurds in Iran. Ghassemlou spoke eight languagesKurdistan Democratic Party with (KDP-IRAN) ease. Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org —from The Passion and Death of Rahman the Kurd Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989) 7 several years. In the next decade he split his time between Europe and Kurdistan working in double harness : his université career and his repeated missions to Kurdistan.

In 1959, the regional context appeared to He went to université in and later be more hopeful : in neighbouring Iraq, the Czechoslovakia, had a Doctorate in monarchy had been overthrown and Molla économics and was an associate professor, Mostafa Barzani (leader of the Democratic having taught in Prague and Paris. In 1941, Party of Iraqi Kurdistan) had returned to the Allies invaded Iran in a ‹bridge of his country after eleven years of exile in victory» opération that inevitably brought USSR. In 196869- armed conflict was rife about the downfall of Reza Shah because in and the period ended of his relations with the Axis powers. A in a bath of blood with the massacre of major political change was to take shape the Kurdish leaders - and yet, even then, in the country. In Iranian Kurdistan the Kurdish résistance managed to raise its national movement came back to life and head again. the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, CIle government in Bagdad accepted founded on 16 August 1945, attracted the principle of autonomy for the Kurdish young people in their masses. One of them population of Iraq. Was the Kurdish identity was Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou - not yet at last to be recognised ? On the other side 15 years old. of the frontier, the Kurdistan Democratic party steeled itself to renew the struggle. On 22 January 1946 the Kurdish Republic The vice-like grip in which the Shah›s armies of Mahabad came into existence by were trying to hold it had to be broken. proclamation, but in December the same At the third Congress of the Kurdistan year the imperial army with the help of Democratic party (1973), Abdul Rahman the Anglo-American forces entered the city Ghassemlou was elected Secretary- and the kflling and arrests that followed General and at those that followed he was were as cruel as they were indiscriminate. invariably returned to office. The Republic had fallen. Its President, Qazi During the years that followed, the prestige Mohammad, and his close followers were of the Pahlavi monarchy continued to wane. taken prisoner and then put to death on The White Revolution was questioned by 30 March 1947.Little by little the Kurdish experts in international affairs, the greedy people re-gathered its strength : the demands and extravagant behaviour of may have been the court were criticised in the press and the short-lived but in the collective memory SAVAK was active throughout the country, it did not die. Running unlimited risks, the no social class being spared its baneful Kurdish leaders set about the vast task of attentions. Clearly - and sooner rather than protecting, educating and organising the later - the regime was doomed. If that population. Back from Europe in 1952, happened, what should be the position of Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou devoted his the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan ? energies to these clandestine activities for In view of the complex nature of the

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre —from The Passion and Death of Rahman the Kurd www.kdppress.org Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou 8 (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989) problems in the region that position had it is necessary to establish a system to be clearcut. The Party had to reply providing free éducation of uniform quality unambiguously to a number of questions throughout the country. A special effort about its identity, its allegiances, its should be made in the peripheral areas aspirations and its options. Abdul Rahman (Kurdistan, for example) that are clearly a Ghassemlou and his aides drew up as long way behind. coherent and realistic a programme as they - No attempt to leave poverty behind will could which may be summarised, in essence, succeed without the active participation of as follows : the people themselves. To feel concerned - so we believe - they have to feel free. - We are Kurds, we belong to a people Freedom of movement for goods and that the vicissitudes of history have persons, freedom of association and scattered over five states. A bond of freedom to form political parties or unions brotherhood binds us, and will continue to and to belong to such organisations are the bind us, to all other Kurds, wherever they indispensable preconditions for economic live. and cultural development. - We are the descendants of one of the - For there to be trust between the oldest Indo-European civilisations. Our population and the central authority, large- identity is defined by the fact that we have scale décentralisation is necessary. our own language and our own culture. - In Kurdistan›s case, that décentralisation - We are the citizens of a country called has to comprise a charter of autonomy for Iran - on the same basis of the other the region whose boundaries would need peoples living on Iranian territory : the to be precisely defined. Within this Kurdish Baluchs, Persians, Azeris, Arabs, Turkmens space, the administrative languages should and so on. be Kurdish and Farsi, which would both be - We are ardent defenders of the official languages of the regional and local Declaration of Human Rights and the authorities. Primary éducation should be in right of peoples as defined by the United Kurdish whereas the two official languages Nations. should be routine practice in secondary - We are for the freedom of worship and school. Lastly, after so many years of we respect all religions practiced by our violence, the Kurdish people could not co-citizens. accept a police force that was not manned Faith is an inviolable right. by Kurds. It is only on these conditions However, being resolutely modern in that there would be any chance of lasting our outlook, we feel that a séparation peace in Iranian Kurdistan. between the religious institutions and the - Lstly, the «kurdification» of the state is desirable. A lay state is not, on that administrative and ‹production structures account, opposed to the faith or to those would demand major investment in the that serve it. training of senior officials and staff - For the living conditions of all to be and also - it goes without sayitig - a improved, customs from long ages past multidisciplinary université on Kurdish land. condemning women to a state of inferiority In other words, what the leaders of the to be ended. Kurdistan Democratic party demand is - To accelerate development in our contry, genuine and effective autonomy.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989) 9 Unfortunately, as everyone knows, because it was the fruit of long and dictatorships hide behind pyramid- profound thought about the world political shape structures excluding all horizontal context following World War Il. The communication. Feeling themselves Kurdish leaders took the view that major perpetually threatened (as indeed they changes to frontiers were ruled out and are), they seek the support of foreign that the general trend was towards the powers which, in the end, become their formation of large groupings rather that masters. Dictators are not free and they the fragmentation of existing units. abuse the freedom of others. So the In any case, once peace was restored, it autonomy of Iranian Kurdistan would be would surely be natural for countries with utopian unless Iran made the change to common borders to seek to develop trade democracy. Without democracy in Iran and cultural exchange. In the long term, there could be no guarantee for autonomy therefore, the existence of big Kurdish in Kurdistan. communities in various parts of the Middle Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou saw that these East could be a positive factor in inter- two concepts were inseparable and so they régional relations. Everyone would stand to became the watchword of the Democratic gain. It is well known that the big exporting Party of Iranian Kurdistan: Democracy for countries pay considérable attention to Iran, autonomy for Kurdistan. the ethnic minorities, which often act as bridgeheads or relay stations in campaigns This policy statement in which chauvinism to win a foothold in new markets. and sectarianism had no part won the In short, the Kurdish thinkers Kurdistan Democratic party the firm concluded that only the short-sighted could friendship of Third World countries and see ethnic, linguistic or religious diversity as modern democracies alike. During his many an obstacle to development. In the future trips abroad, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou the big middle-eastern house would derive was always sure of a warm welcome. Many its energy from the many different elements humanitarian organisations offered him of which it was built. This pattern was help, eminent figures on the world stage in particularly true of Iran itself with its 45 political and university life thought highly of million inhabitants of which only 40 % were him and human rights and religions militants of Persian origin.(Today Iran has over sixty encouraged him throughout his life. It was million inhabitants). At that time, towards thanks to him that the Iranian Kurds were 1975, this type of thinking sounded at least able to emerge from their isolation and advanced, not to say fanciful. The Kurds make their voice heard in the international were still under the heel of the Shah. But fora. Some of these sympathisers were nothing is eternal, dictators included. surprised that the Iranian Kurds had «such One day in February 1979 Reza Pahlavi modest» demands after such a bitter finally gave up the throne. At that time struggle. «It is really autonomy you want the Kurdistan Democratic party had a - nothing more ?» was a not uncommon solid base and a real impact in Iranian reaction. Kurdistan. However, to run the territory properly and control its administration the No secret clause was ever planned or police had to be removed and the army hidden in this blueprint for autonomy thrown out down to the very last man.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou 10 (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989) This was the task of the «peshmergas» or the fighting was at its fiercest. They were partisans, who attacked army barracks and accused, too, of being anti-patriotic : seized large stocks of arms and ammunition. their settlements were destroyed and the Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou was then able people living there reduced to a wandering to claim that, in a large part of Kurdistan, existence. The ultimate purpose of these the Kurds were their own masters. crimes against humanity was obvious : to It was reasonable to hope that the Iranian use the war as an excuse for exterminating révolution would have brought men to a people whose authenticity was denied as power able to realise that the interests of strongly as it was proclaimed by the Kurds. the central authority and those of the Kurds Iran came out of the war with Iraq were compatible. Elections were planned exhausted and the Imam at death›s door. and a new constitution was being written The facts had to be faced and Tehran for the country. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou had to find a compromise in Kurdistan. For was elected to the Assembly of experts his part, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou had and made ready to carry to the capital the been saying for years that the fighting had message of the Kurds - a simple message: been imposed on him, that neither side there is room for all in this country where would ever lose or win and that, sooner everything needs doing or re-doing. or later, the Kurdish problem would have Imam Khomeini, unfortunately, saw things to be solved across the negotiating table. differently, he labelled the newly elected After flying a few kites, Tehran issued a representative of the Kurds an «enemy concrete proposal for a meeting in Vienna of God» and declared a «holy war» on on 28 December 1988 and the Kurdistan Kurdistan. Democratic party accepted.

This was in 1979. Sudden though it was, The talks lasted two days, 28 and 30 this call to arms was, in restrospect, not December and the results must have been surprising. How, after all, could this grim promising because it was agreed to hold gerontocrat with the cruelty of another age another meeting the following January. On be prepared to give his attention to the 20 January, at the end of the first round of history and wants of the Kurds ? How could negotiations, the representatives of Tehran Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou be expected to were fully acquainted with the Kurdish stay silent at the hostagetaking, occupation demands. The principle of autonomy of foreign embassies and other terrorist seemed to have been agreed. The details activities launched in 1979 by an Imam of how it was to be put into effect had yet who had recently returned from Neauphle- to be defined. le-Château to sow the seeds of hate and Six months later, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou insanity. returned to Europe to attend a congress The Gulf War broke out the following of the Socialist International. Tehran tried September. to contact him again in order, he was Perhaps these unsubdued Kurds would be told, to pursue the negotiations that had forgotten during this conflict between Iran begun the previous winter. The Kurdistan and Iraq (198088-). On the contrary. In Democratic party accepted the offer sent fact, it cost them dearly, for their villages to it. The meeting took place on 12 July lay on either side of the frontier where 1989 in Vienna. Tbe Tehran delegation

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (December 22, 1930 – July 13, 1989) 11 was as before, namely Mohammed Jafar has a doctorate in industrial chemistry Sahraroudi and Hadji Moustafawi, except from Paris University. Up to the death of that this time there was also a third member Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou he was Deputy : Amir Mansur Bozorgian whose function Secretary-General of the party. was that of bodyguard. The Kurds also had a three-man delegation : Abdul Rahman The two murdered men of the Kurdistan Ghassemlou, his aide Abdullah Ghaderi- Democratic party were buried on 20 July Azar (member of the Kurdistan Democratic in Paris in the presence of a throng of some party Central Committee) and Fadhil two thousand people from all parts : Kurds Rassoul, an Iraqi university professor who and Armenians, Azeris and Turks, Persians had acted as a mediator. and Europeans, poets and doctors, ministers and workpeople, representatives of The next day, 13 July 1989, in the very humanitarian organisations and members of room where the negotiation took place parliament. Leading the funeral procession, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou was killed by the peshmergas in their Kurdish résistance three bullets fired at very close range. fighters› uniform advanced with difficulty in His assistant Abdullah Ghaderi-Azar was the torrid heat of the Parisian summer. hit by eleven bullets and Fadhil Rassoul by five. Hadji Moustafawi succeeded in They were all there, all that had been escaping. Mohammad Jafar Sahraroudi able to travel on their crutches and in received minor injuries and was taken to their wheelchairs, having come from the hospital, questioned and allowed to go. various capitals of Europe where they Amir Mansur Bozorgian was released after were recovering, as best they could, from 24 hours in police custody and took refuge the wounds received in the conflict. Tehran in the Iranian Embassy.Indignation was at its denied all connection with this triple murder height. and told Austria to look for clues in other How, in this age, in the heart of Europe, directions than Iran. But the findings of could it happen for the representatives of the ballistics experts were conclusive. In a member country of the United Nations late November 1989 the Austrian courts to open fire at point blank range on the issued a warrant for the arrest of the three représentatives of a country with whom it Iranian representatives and the Austrian was at war and had entered into peace Government expressly accused the Iranian negotiations ‹.? Goverinnent as having instigated the attack on Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou and the two On 19 July two representatives of the other Kurds. political bureau of the Democratic Party Thus died this man who was no warmonger of Iranian Kurdistan came to Paris to but a man of letters, master of several attend the funeral. At a press conference languages and persuasive speaker. they announced, among other things, that Overflowing with enthusiasm and energy, the higher authorities of the Kurdistan he was an intellectual of his time, this end of Democratic party had appointed Sadegh the twenthieth centu Charafkandi to perform the duties of Secretary General. Sadegh Charafkandi is in his fifties and

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre www.kdppress.org Kurdistan Iran, Meeting in Mahabad,1958 Ghasmlu speak to the people of Mahabad

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-IRAN) Abroad Committee Media Centre

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