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1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran
Part of the Kurdish–Iranian conflict and Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution
Date April 1979-1980/1983 Location Iranian Kordestan Result Iranian victory Major casualties for Kurdish and Iranian forces Most of Iranian attention diverted to the Iran-Iraq War arena since 1980 Mass executions of Kurdish political prisoners Pockets of PDKI resistance remain until 1983
Belligerents
Government of Iran Islamic Republic of Iran Army Revolutionary Guards Islamic Republican Party militia Government supporters	KDP-I Komalah Fedayan Mujahedin e-Kalq Protesters Anti-government tribes
Commanders and leaders
Ruhollah Khomeini Abulhassan Banisadr Mohsen Rezaee Ali Sayad Shirazi	Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou Ahmad Moftizadeh Ashraf Dehghani Massoud Rajavi
Casualties and losses
1,200 Kurdish prisoners executed Total 10,000 killed

1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran erupted in April 1979, some two months after the completion of the Iranian Revolution, and became the largest among the nation-wide uprisings in Iran against the new regime. While at first, Kurdish militants, primarily of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, made some territorial gains in the area of Mahabad and ousted the Iranian troops from the region, a large scale offensive in spring 1980 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard reversed the course of the rebellion. Following the eruption of Iran-Iraq War, in September 1980, an even greater effort was made by the Iranian regime to crush the Kurdish rebellion, which was the only one of the 1979 uprisings to still go on (Arab, Baluchi and Turkmen uprisings had already been subdued by that time). By late 1980, the Iranian regular forces and the Revolutionary Guard ousted the Kurdish rebels from their strongholds, but pockets of Kurdish rebels kept executing sporadic attacks. The clashes in the area went on as late as 1983. Some 10,000 people were killed in the course of the rebellion, with 1,200 of them being Kurdish political prisoners, executed in the last phases of the rebellion.

Background

With traumatic experience of the Pahlavi rule in Iran and two major failed rebellions in 1946 and 1962, Kurdish political organizations were enthusiastic supporters of the revolution against the Shah, which brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power in February 1979. The Shah had shown himself to be no friend of Kurdish aspirations for greater autonomy and a loosening of Tehran's control over their affairs. From the early days of the revolution, relations between the central government and Kurdish organizations have been fraught with difficulties.

The Kurds, with their different language and traditions and their cross-border alliances, were seen as vulnerable to exploitation by foreign powers who wished to destabilize the young republic. Sunni Kurds, unlike the overwhelming majority of their countrymen, abstained from voting to endorse the creation of an Islamic republic in April 1979. That referendum institutionalized Shia primacy and made no provision for regional autonomy.

The crisis deepened after Kurds were denied seats in the assembly of experts gathering in 1979, which were responsible for writing the new constitution. Ayatollah Khomeini prevented Dr. Ghassemlou, the elected representative of the region, to participate in the assembly of experts’ first meeting. Kurds were therefore deprived of their political rights under the new Iranian constitution, since the majority of them belonged to the Sunni branch of Islam.

The rebellion

Eruption

As the wave of nationalism engulfed eastern Kurdistan after the fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty in line with a series of anti-revolutionary revolts across the country (in Khuzestan, Iranian Balochistan and other parts of Iran), a full scale rebellion was imminent. Since April 1979 armed conflict broke out between armed Kurdish factions and the Iranian revolutionary government's security forces. The Kurdish forces included primarily the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) and the leftist Komala (Revolutionary Organization of Kurdish Toilers).

The revolt began, when Kurdish tribesmen overpowered Iranian soldiers in the town of Paveh. The fighting later spread to the towns of Divan Darreh, Saqqez and Mahabad. Many Kurdish leaders went into hiding, after Ayatollah Khomeini ordered their arrest. Iranian newspaper reports at this stage did put the number killed at about 600.

Fighting camapaigns and politics

The new Iranian Islamic leadership had little patience for Kurdish demands and opted for crushing unrest through military means. As a result Ayatollah Khomeini, the new religious leader of Iran, declared a jihad (holy war) against separatism in Iranian Kurdistan, declared in his statement on August 17, 1979.

In a speech on December 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini called the concept of ethnic minority contrary to Islamic doctrines. He also accused those who do not wish Muslim countries to be united in creating the issue of nationalism among minorities. His views were shared by many in the clerical leadership.

Spring 1980 Iranian offensive

In the spring of 1980, government forces under the command of President Abolhassan Banisadr take back most of the Kurdish cities through a huge military campaign, sending in mechanized military divisions to Kurdish cities including Mahabad, Sanandaj, Pawe, and Marivan. Entire villages and towns were destroyed to force Kurds into submission.. Ayatollah Khalkhali, sentenced thousands of men to execution after summary trials.

Autumn 1980 Iranian operations

The confrontation between Tehran and the Kurds intensified sharply when the Iran-Iraq War broke out. It was assumed that Iraqi Kurds and their Iranian brothers would cooperate to exploit weaknesses on both sides. Past divisions within the Kurdish communities were temporarily shelved in pursuit of the long-cherished goal of an independent state. Not surprisingly, neither Baghdad nor Tehran was willing to accept that outcome. Rather, both sides insisted on organizing special loyalist Kurdish military units to participate in the war and to demonstrate allegiance to their respective states.

Final stages

As the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps fought to reestablish government control in the Kurdish regions, more than 10,000 Kurds were killed during this process.

Pockets of PDKI insurgents continued to engage in low level fighting up until 1983, as the Iranian forces were diverted to the Iraqi front, with the escalation of the Iran-Iraq War.

Aftermath

While most of its military and political activity in Iran was greatly overpowered after the 1979 rebellion, Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran had continued its opposition activities through 1980s. In early 1990s, the KDPI renewed its military activities, among which most notable was the 1990 incident, in which some 300 Iranian soldiers were killed.

Since 1996, following an effective political and military crackdown, the conflict of KDPI against the Iranian regime shifted to the political opposition abroad.

Renewed insurgency in Iranian Kurdistan was undertaken since 2004 by another Kurdish militant organization - the PJAK, an Iranian branch of PKK.

Conflict parties

• Islamic Republic of Iran
• PDKI
• Komala (Komala-ye Shureshgari-ye Zahmat Keshan-e Kordestan-e Iran, or Komala, or Committee of the Revolutionary Toilers of Iranian Kordestan)
• Kurdish branch of the Fadayan
• National Council of Resistance of Iran

In media

On 27 August 1979, in Sanandaj, Iran, 11 Kurdish prisoners were executed by a firing squad following a 30 minute trial under Shiite cleric Sadegh Khalkhali. Jahangir Razmi, a photographer for Iran’s independent Ettela’at newspaper, captured the execution on film. Within hours an anonymous photo of the execution ran across 6 columns of the paper. On Sep 8 the newspaper was seized by the Foundation for the Disinherited, a state-owned holding company. On April 14, 1980, the photo won a Pulitzer Prize. In 2006 Razmi made public 27 images from the execution that he had kept hidden.

See also

• List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Notes

1. ^
2. Ali Reza Nourizadeh (Persian - Arabic - English)
3. D. and in khorasan . McDowall,A Modern History of the Kurds, 1996, Chapter 13, "Subjects of the Shi'i Republic," pp. 261-287.
4. ^
5. http://www.itnet.org/kurds_today.html
6. Ayatollah Khomeini's Speech, Radio Tehran, December 17, 1979. Quoted in David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London: I.B. Tauris, 1996, p. 271
7. rev6
9. Are Kurds a pariah minority? | Social Research | Find Articles at BNET.com
10. ^

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