Kurds' Autonomy Cries Rekindle Ethnic Flashpoint in Iran: Kurds' Autonomy Cries Rekindle Ethnic F... By Jon ath an C. R.an dal. Wash i.n gton Post F orei.gn Servi.ce The W ashington Post (1974 Currentfii ); Mar 2, 1979; ProQu.est Histori.cal Newspapers: The Washin.gton Post (1. 877 1994) pg A13 Kurds' By Jonathan C. Randal Washin L n Pcst Foreign Service MAHABAD, Iran, March 1- The single-story elementary school here houses the nearest thing to sc1f gov- ernment that Iran's traditionally na- tionalistic Kurds have known for more than 30 years. With the collapse of the centralizing and ethnically re- pressive Pahiavi rule, and with the weak Tehran revolutionary govern- rhent's writ far from universally re- spected, the Kurds in western Iran are pressing their claims for auton- omy with new vigor. “Democracy for Iran, autonomy for Kurdistan” is their slogan, A federal Iran is their professed goal. Threat of armed secessionist uprising is their of- ficially discouraged but nonetheless real threat if negotiations with Teh- ran fail, However commonplace that combi- nation may appear, in Middle East terms it is a potential prescription for long-term violence and fighting that could tear apart Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and involve the Soviet Union and perhaps the West. At stake are not just the ethnically artificial bor- ders of these states, but policy deci- sions for the Soviets and the West if fighting in Iranian Kurdistan kindled wider violence. When Shah Moham mad Reza Pah- lavi was still in power, the Kurds' separatist yearnings were a constant nightmare. For Iran's minorities— Arabs, Azerbaijanis, Turkomans and Baluchis as well as the Kurds—proba- bly come close to equaling the Per- sian-speaking population of the Iranian heartland. Iran's Arabs wei-e the original i.nliab- itants of Khuzestan, the center of the oil industry bordering on Iraq and long claimed by the Baghdad govern- ment. Azerhaijanis, ethnic Turks in northern Iran, also have grievances, especially demands for cultural auton- omy. Iranian Baluchistan, in the south- east, borders on a similarly named province of Pakistan, where secession- isis have long threatened the wobb.ly central government of Mohammed Zia u l-Haq. The perhaps 16 million Kurds— spread out in unequal, but descending order in contiguous communities in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and the So- viet Union—have a history of fighting, -losing and fighting again for their freedom, Iran's 2 million Kurcis are no exception, Thirty three years ago, this city of 60,000 Inhabitants was the capital of the so-called Mahabad Republic, an ill-fated, Soviet-backed seccessionist state crushed by the young shah's army after just 11 months. Mulla Mustafa Barzãni, now over 80 and living in exile in the United States, made his first major appear- ance in that endeavor. The swash- buckling Kurdish leader dominated two more serious but eventually disastrous secessionist efforts—guer- rilla wars against Iraq's governments from 1950 to 1965 and then again f.rom 1970 to 1975. But given Iran's troubles, almost as inevitable as Kurdish men's baggy trousers, the women's bright dresses and the spectacular mountain scen- ery has been the Kurds' inclination to try their luck again. Once again, Mahabad is the political center of Iranian Kurdistan, the only area in the country not controlled by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's other wise all-pervasive committees- Except in the city of Kermanshah in southern urdistan, Kurdish national- ists are running their own show politi- eallyThey have flexed their muscles enough to: have taken over the local brigade-sized army camp, threatened three others nearer the Iraqi border and effectively prevented the army command from sending in reinforce- m ents. it was the takeover of the Mahabad garrison early last week — and the wounding of its commanding general, I hsan Pezeshpour—that prompted Khomeini and his government to dis- patch Labor Minister Dariush Forou- bar at the h . ad of.a mission to investi- gate the situation. The envoys were confronted with a hastily chosen delegation representing all Kurdish towns. It swore that separ atism was taboo but noted that the government mission had not been in- vited into its territory. Mostl.y members of the long-banned Kurdisli Democratic Party, the nation- alists presented Forouhar with an eight-point programS that pledged sup- port for Khomeini's revolution, but otherwise was a list of demands in- volving the Kurds' “basic rights,” They demanded Kurdish “self-deter- min tion within the framework” of Iran, joint control of military installa- tions in Kurdistan, a government boy- cott of the remnants of Barzani's ill- fated organization and sole represent- ation in any negotiations for Sheik Ez- zedine Hosseini, It was Hosseini who negotiated with the Forouhar mission that stayed here two days early last week, ft listened, pleaded that the government had higher priorities, promised redress on some points, but basically stalled. The tougher demands—especially self-determination—would be dis- cussed, Forouhar has said, by the con- sti.tuent assembly. That assembly, which is to appi-ove a new constitm tion, is not expected to meet for sev- eral months, The nationali ts are in a hurry to extract maximum concessions now. Hosseini, a clergyman of the Sunni sect of Islam, which most Kurcis pro- fess, said he hopes informal contacts with Tehran will prove fruitful and 1- low him to head a large delegation to negotiate soon with the goveimment or Khomeini himself. “%%TC are not separatists,” the 57- year-old bearded cleric said in his school headquarters. “But the Balu- chis, Arabs, Azerbaijanis and Kurcis aIl want a certain autonomy,” In .Kurdish nationalist terms a fed- eration, possibly along /Vest German, Swiss, Yugoslav or American lines, See KiJR .DS, A14, Ccl. 2 By Dove Cook—The Washington Poob
Kurds' Autonomy Cries Rekindle Ethnic Flashpoint KURDS, From A13 would empower the central govern- ment to handle defense, banking, all but lo.cal taxes and big economic proj- ects. Local Kurdish authorities would be responsible for schools, the now suppressed teaching of the Kurdish language and cultural life. But as Abdul Rahman Ghassexnlou, a leftist nationalist who has recently returned from 20 years of exile in Czechoslovakia and France, put it: “It is important for us not only to have Kurdish schools and economic devel- opment, but most important, Kurdish people must feel they govern them- selves.” Hosseini, however, expressed doubt that the government would agree to federate. - Reflecting the nationalists' desire to avoid being tarred with the separatist brush, Hosseini, Ghasseinlou and other officials denied contacts with other minorities in Iran or with Kurds in Iraq and Turkey. Young Kurdish nationalists, how- ever, openly offered to take visiting newsmen across the snow-covered Ghandil Mountains into nearby Iraq to meet with leftist leader Jalal Talabani, an Iraqi Kurd said to head as many as 3,000 soldiers. And Hosselni acknowledged, “We support any revolutionary movement in Kurdistan or anywhere else.” He dismissed Iraq's program for cultural autonomy for Kurds as ‘verbal prom- ises.” The Mahabad leadership is deter- mined to flatter the Tehran govern- ment into being generous and thus it shies away from any open advocacy of armed struggle. If the Tehran authori- ties reject the Kurd's demands, 1-los- semi said, “We will find some other way to obtain our rights with the other peoples of Iran.” “As far as possible we will not take up arms,” he said. “We will seek peaceful means.” Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.