Kurdistan Parliament honors Mustafa Barzani on anniversary of his death

Every year on Mar. 1, crowds gather in Barzan, in Erbil province, where Barzani is buried, and in other cities in the Kurdistan Region to honor the revolutionary Kurdish leader.
The Kurdistan parliament on Tuesday gathered for the 43rd anniversary of the death of Mullah Mustafa Barzani (Photo: Kurdistan Parliament)
The Kurdistan parliament on Tuesday gathered for the 43rd anniversary of the death of Mullah Mustafa Barzani (Photo: Kurdistan Parliament)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Kurdistan Parliament on Tuesday gathered to mark the 43rd anniversary of the death of the legendary Kurdish leader and revolutionary Mullah Mustafa Barzani. 

The Kurdistan Parliament, in a tweet, said its presidency, MPs, and staff gathered “for the 43-year commemoration of the death of Mala Mustafa Barzani, the father & leader of the Kurdish Liberation Movement, to honor his decades of struggle.”

Every year on Mar. 1, crowds gather in Barzan, in Erbil province, where Barzani is buried, and in other cities in the Kurdistan Region to honor the revolutionary Kurdish leader.

 
 
 
 
 
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Mustafa Barzani was born on March 14, 1903. He joined the Kurdish liberation movement against the Iraqi and Iranian governments to fight for the rights of the people of Kurdistan.

On June 12, 1943, Barzani, alongside thousands of Peshmerga forces, went to Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) to support the establishment of the first Kurdistan Republic in Mahabad declared by Qazi Muhammed in 1945. Barzani was the chief commander of the Republic army.

In 1961, after negotiations failed with Baghdad and the Iraqi government started military action against the people of the Kurdistan Region, Barzani led an armed struggle called the “Aylul Revolution” against the Iraqi forces that resulted in the March 11 Agreement in 1970 between Iraq and Kurds.

In 1975, the Iraqi government refused the autonomy agreement with the Kurds and signed a deal with Iran that led to the collapse of the Kurdish ‘revolution.’

Read More: The exodus of Mustafa Barzani and his companions to the Soviet Union kept Kurdish freedom alive

Mustafa Barzani died on March 1, 1979, in Washington DC during surgery for lung cancer.