Seventy - third anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad

ARK News: On December 10, the Democratic Party took control of East Azerbaijan Province from Iranian government forces, forming the Azerbaijan People's Government. Qazi Muhammad decided to do likewise, and on December 15, the Kurdish People's Government was founded in Mahabad. On January 22, 1946, Qazi Muhammad announced the formation of the Republic of Mahabad. Some of the aims mentioned in the manifesto include:

1. Autonomy for the Iranian Kurds within the Iranian state.
2. The use of Kurdish as the medium of education and administration.
3. The election of a provincial council for Kurdistan to supervise state and social matters.
4. All state officials to be of local origin.
5. Unity and fraternity with the Azerbaijani people.
6. The establishment of a single law for both peasants and notables.

The Republic of Mahabad depended on Soviet support. Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr., grandson of the former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, wrote in "The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad" that the main problem of the People's Republic of Mahabad was that the Kurds needed the assistance of the USSR; only with the Red Army did they have a chance. However, its close relationship to the USSR alienated the republic from most Western powers, causing them to side with Iran. Qazi Muhammad did not deny that his republic was funded and supplied by the Soviets, but did deny that the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) was a communist party. He claimed that this was a lie fabricated by the Iranian military authorities, and added that his ideas were very different from the Soviets'.


The Soviets were however generally ambivalent towards the Kurdish administration. They did not maintain a garrison near Mahabad and also did not have any civil agent of sufficient standing to exercise any great influence. They encouraged Qazi's administration by practical benevolent operations such as providing motor transport, keeping out the Iranian army, and buying the whole of the tobacco crop. On the other hand, the Soviets initially did not like the Kurdish administration's refusal to be absorbed into the larger Democratic Republic of (Persian) Azerbaijan and discouraged the formation of an independent Kurdish state. Following the fall of Mahabad, they, however, allowed for the safe passage of Mustafa Barzani and his followers into the Soviet Union.

On this day, 22 January 1946, 73 years ago, President Qazi Muhammad, President of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad, announced with the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Kurdistan, Khalid Mullah Mustafa Barzani, the Republic of Mahabad in Char Chira Square in the city of Mahabad,

Every day of the year, on the twenty-second of January, the Kurds remember the great historical day that gave birth to a great republic that generations proudly remember in the hope of another republic where the Kurds will regain their full rights and entitlements to live within an independent Kurdistan that has fought and struggled throughout history. In order to reach their full rights.

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