Kurdistan's Transitory Independence and the Beginning of the Cold War "Great Game"

It's not true to say that the Kurds have never had their own state. On the 22nd of January, 1946, the Kurds in the North Eastern corner of Iran declared "independence" and set up their own state with its flag, stamps, etc., and of course its name -- The Republic of Mahabad. It did not last long obviously, as few people have even heard of it. Before the end of the year it had been crushed and reincorporated into Iran. This is because the Kurds are a weak and disunited people located in a region that serves as a rocky frontier between more united and powerful groups, namely Turks, Iranians, and, yes, even the Arabs. The struggles of the Republic of Mahabad are a historical footnote and are indeed trivial on their own merits, but they nevertheless reflect some interesting light on the main struggle of the 20th century, the Cold War, as well as the West's troubled relationship with Iran.

In WWII Iran served as a vital land link to the Soviet Union. The possibility that the Germans or people sympathetic to the Axis powers -- including the country's pro-German ruler the Shah -- would block the route was taken seriously enough to prompt the British and Soviets to occupy the country, overthrow the Shah, and replace him with his more amenable son Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the same monarch who ruled continuously until the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The Soviet leader Stalin was also deeply interested in the country because it bordered the Caucasus region, which the Soviets, early on in WWII, had decided was the most vital region of their country due to its oil wealth and Germany's severe lack of this resource (See "The First Oil War"). But, as a Georgian, Stalin also had strong personal or ethnic reasons for taking an interest in the affairs of a country so close to his own.

Following the end of WWII he was keen to bolster Soviet influence in Iran as in other countries occupied by the Red Army. But he also realised that the British and Americans would be unlikely to allow him to control the whole country. Indeed, in 1942, after the country had been occupied by the British and the Soviets, both countries had signed the Tripartite Treaty (the third party being Iran), which promised that all foreign troops would leave after the war (a final date of 2nd March 1946 was finally agreed). But before this happened, Stalin hoped to bolster Soviet interests and influence by playing on Iran's ethnic divisions. He focused his efforts in the North East, a area dominated by Kurds and Azeris rather than the country's majority Persians.

Accordingly, in the months following the end of WWII, two new republics were set up with Soviet assistance. These were the Republic of Mahabad representing the Kurds (founded 22nd January, 1946) and the Azerbaijan People's Government (founded two month's earlier).

The two republics were the result of deliberate Soviet policy, as revealed by an internal Communist Party document titled "Measures to Carry Out Special Assignments Throughout Southern [i.e. Iranian] Azerbaijan and the Northern Provinces of Iran" dated the 14th of July 1945.

A key part of the document reads:

IV. The Organization of the Separatist Movement

1. Organize work to develop a separatist movement to create: an Azerbaijani Autonomous District [and] a Kurdish Autonomous District with broad powers.

In Gorgan, Gilan, Mazandaran, and Khorasan provinces organize the separatist movement along local [korennyye] questions, in particular:

in Gilan Province:
The organization of public services and amenities in the cities of Rasht [and] Pahlavi, leaving no less than 50% of the tax proceeds collected from the province for this purpose;

in Gorgan Province:
Study in the native Turkmen language in the schools; replacement of the local organization, gendarmerie, and police with Turkomans, leaving no less than 50% of the tax proceeds collected from the province for public services, amenities, and health in Gonbad-e-Kavus, Gorgan, and Bandar Shah.

in Mazandaran and Khorasan
1. Return of land to small and average landowners taken by Reza Shah (amlyak lands).
2. Leaving no less than 50% of tax proceeds collected from the province for public services and amenities of the cities of Sari, Shah, Mashhad, and New Quchan.
Additionally, bring to light locally such questions so as to organize a separatist movement in the above provinces.
Raise the demand to conduct land reform not only in Southern Azerbaijan but in [regions] regions of the northern provinces of Iran.

Through an appeal to ethnic grievance and land greed, the Soviets attempted to engineer popular uprisings that Communist cadres trained in the Soviet Union could steer. Even without an occupying army the Soviets would be in control, at least according to the plan. Major efforts were made to arm the rebels. In the period from October 1945 through January 1946 the following weapons were sent to partisan detachments in Iran according to Soviet documents:

• 11,516 “Mauser” rifles, Iranian models
• 350 “Brno” light machineguns
• 87 other machineguns  -
• 1,086 pistols
• 2,000 hand grenades
• 2,654,500 rifle cartridges
• 96,916 Pistol rounds

Even more weapons were on their way.

The Russian plan met with initial success. But perhaps it was too successful because it rang alarm bells and led to the Americans waking up to the dangers of Communism. One important diplomat was George Kennan, the American Charge and later ambassador in Moscow. Russian actions in Iran spurred him to write the Long Telegram, which later became the basis for an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine that then became the cornerstone of the US's geopolitical strategy in the Cold War.

"Whenever it is considered timely and promising, efforts will be made to advance official limits of Soviet power," Kennan warned. "For the moment, these efforts are restricted to certain neighboring points conceived of here as being of immediate strategic necessity, such as Northern Iran, Turkey, possibly Bornholm. However, other points may at any time come into question, if and as Soviet political power is extended to new areas. Thus a 'friendly' Persian Government might be asked to grant Russia a port on the Persian Gulf."

Kennan also pointed out that the Communist parries in the two republics were mere puppets of the Soviet Union, but said that the Soviets would easily withdraw if confronted. This was true, as the Soviet Union was still three years away from having its own atomic bomb.

Ahmad Qavam outfoxed Stalin

With a strong grip on North Eastern Iran, however, Stalin refused to back down, continuing to demand "autonomy" for the region, while also adding a fresh demand for an oil concession.

Iran's Prime Minister Ahmad Qavam, however, proved his match. Demanding Soviet troop withdrawal, in return he granted Stalin an oil concession. But he made it contingent on the approval of the Majlis (Iran's national legislative body) following elections.

Confident that his stooges were strong enough to maintain control, Stalin pulled the Red Army out. But, as soon the Soviets were gone, the Majlis, under Qavam's instructions, immediately voted against the proposed Soviet oil concession, then troops were sent into Azerbaijan and the Kurdish region.

On December the 9th 1946 a Russian agent in Tabriz, the capital of the Azerbaijan People's Government, reported to Mir Jafar Bagirov, the leader of Soviet Azerbaijan, on what had happened. He was  clearly shocked ny Qavam's "treachery":

As you know, after the return of our representatives from Tehran, right-wing and reactionary circles of Tehran sent troops into Azerbaijan with the objective of eliminating our liberty and destroying our democratic achievements.

Qavam-es-Saltaneh, initially concealing this with the pretext of maintaining order during the elections, in his telegrams and declarations finally admitted officially before the world his intention to unleash an attack against us under the undisguised slogans of eliminating the Azerbaijani movement and destroying its leaders.

As is known, this was not limited to words and letters...

Now it is evident that he did not intend to fulfill his official promises given to representatives of Soviet authority, who at his invitation were intermediaries in the matter of achieving the agreement; that is, the matter of a peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani question.

In such a case, for the Azerbaijani people there remains only a single path, the defense of their liberty, relying on the power of their weapons and the heroism of their youth.

The Iranian forces, facing less resistance than expected, made rapid progress, and the Azerbaijani government collapsed, which of course exposed the Kurdish state. Here too resistance was weak. In particular there were resentments by tribal groups caused by premature attempts at "de-tribalisation," as well as tensions between Iranian Kurds and Iraqi Kurds who occupied high positions in the government and army of the Republic of Mahabad.

On December 15th, 1946, the Iranian forces took Mahabad, effectively ending the state. It's leader Qazi Muhammad was captured and later hanged, after the Americans had asked the Shah not to shoot him.

The fall out from this was that the Americans had a taste of victory. Their diplomatic and military support had ensured the triumph of their proxy, Iran. The Cold War policy advocated by Kennan seemed to be the right one and became fixed policy for the next few decades. The US government was also convinced that Iran should be particularly grateful to it. When it wasn't and later tried to steer a more independent course under Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953, a CIA coup was the result.

This was a seed of bitterness that was to fester and rankle over the following decades, resulting finally in the overthrow of the Shah and the rise of a strongly anti-American regime. 

But a Soviet proxy Kurdish state opposed by a US-backed Iran also presents an extremely interesting contrast with today.

Now it is the US -- constrained by its blanket support for Israel -- that backs a feeble Kurdish entity in the region (Northern Syria), while it is Russia who back a powerful Iranian state. One reason America did so well in it initial confrontation with the Soviet Union -- apart from having a monopoly on the atom bomb -- was because it sided with the naturally stronger side in this proxy war, while the Soviet Union picked the weaker one.