1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran

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. Also, in March 1979, the KDP-I formulated and publicly announced an eight-point plan for Kurdish independence.[6] This led to opposition from some other Kurdish leaders, such as Ahmad Moftizadeh, who announced their aversion to militarism and separatism.[12]

The uprising began in mid-March 1979 when Kurdish factions took over control of police headquarters, army bases, and parts of army barracks in Sanandaj.[2] The militants demanded the surrender of the army barracks in Sanandaj, resulting in the killing of 21 soldiers.[16] According to the BBC, the revolt began when Kurdish tribesmen overpowered Iranian militias in the town of Paveh.[17] Allegedly, unrest then spread to other Kurdish-dominated regions as the Kurds took over towns and army garrisons trying to keep out the Iranian army,[2] namely to the towns of Divan Darreh, Saqqez and Mahabad.[17] Many Kurdish leaders went into hiding after Khomeini ordered their arrest and execution.[17] Iranian newspaper reports at this stage put the number killed at about 600.[17] Two committees formed in Sanandaj at this time as well, one led by Moftizadeh and another by the head of the city's Hosseiniyah, named Safdari.[16] The Iranian government tried to resolve the conflict peacefully at this point, sending a delegation to Sanandaj and negotiating with all militant groups present there. The negotiations resulted in an agreement to halt hostilities. Following this, Brayim Younisi was temporarily appointed as the governor of Kurdistan province by the interior ministry. Various Kurdish groups rejected his appointment, causing the agreement to fall apart.[16]

In April 1979, armed conflict broke once again out between 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).[18] By late April, fighting also broke out between Kurdish militants and government-aligned Azerbaijani factions in the area, resulting in the death of hundreds of Azeris and Kurds. One of the primary Azeri tribes involved in the fighting was the Qarapapaq tribe.[2]

In mid-August, without sufficient preparations and regardless of the army's advice, the Revolutionary Guard marched on the town of Paveh, falling into a major ambush, and resulting in the encirclement of a portion of the Iranian forces there.[2][19] The situation prompted Khomeini to approach the heads of the army and the government. As a result, Khomeini, in his statement on August 17, 1979, declared a jihad against Kurdish separatists, and key Kurdish nationalist figures were declared "enemies of the state", like Ghassemlou.[6] The government then began a three-week campaign to clear out rebel strongholds, mainly Saqqez and Mahabad. A week after it partially fell, the city of Paveh was fully recaptured by IRGC forces following a Kurdish withdrawal, marking the beginning of the Iranian counteroffensive.[19]

By August 20, 1979, the Iranian army had begun besieging Mahabad. By August 30 it was reported they had managed to completely surround the city and three days of negotiations started. After this failed, Iranian forces attacked the city on September 3[20] backed by F-4 fighter jets, artillery, and over 100 tanks.[21] They managed to seize control of the town after just several hours of fighting. The defeat in Mahabad was a major blow to the Iranian Kurdish factions, and afterwards Iranian forces continued their offensive, marching on the smaller town of Baneh.[20] Over 500 people were killed during the siege.[21]

The defenders were overwhelmed by the power of the Iranian offensive, using heavy artillery, tanks, and air cover, but managed some effective resistance. Despite the heavy casualties, the bulk of Kurdish Peshmerga evaded capture and death, and retreated into the mountains.[2] Iranian forces managed to retake the cities of Marivan, Bastam, Baneh, Sardasht, Mahabad, Bukan and Saqqez by the end of the operation. The Kurds resumed their offensive six weeks later, returning to Mahabad and combating the armored forces of Iran with Molotov cocktails and RPGs.[2] At the end of November, Kurds also attacked Sanandaj, Saqqez, and other Kurdish cities and towns.[2] The Kurdish offensive continued, as the Iranian government was distracted by other events in the country, such as the American Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

In a speech on 17 December 1979, Khomeini called the concept of ethnic minorities contrary to Islamic doctrines. He also accused those who do not wish Muslim countries to be united of creating the issue of nationalism among minorities. His views were shared by many in the clerical leadership.[22]

In late January 1980, After the new Iranian administration of President Banisadr took office, Revolutionary Guard units and government-aligned Kurds unsuccessfully battled rebels in the region, resulting in a stalemate that lasted until spring. By May 1980, Kurds still controlled much of the regions' roads, rural areas and held once again the city of Mahabad as their capital. The KDPI claimed to have over 7,000 fighters at the time.

In the spring of 1980, government forces under the command of President Abolhassan Banisadr once again retook most of the Kurdish cities through a huge military campaign, sending in mechanized military divisions to Kurdish cities including Sanandaj, Pawe, and Marivan.[23] Neighbourhoods of some villages and towns were destroyed as a result of the fighting between Kurdish rebels and Government forces .[24] Ayatollah Khalkhali sentenced thousands of men to execution after summary trials. The Kurds however continued to hold Mahabad as the summer fighting diminished, while Iranian-Iraqi tensions grew, amid Iraqi attacks on Qasr-e Shirin and Sarpol-e Zahab which led to Iran moving its army to the border.[2][25][26]

Kurdish force continued to hold Mahabad for five more months, as the Province of Kurdistan became a theater of the Iran–Iraq War. Although Iranian President Banisadr ordered a cease-fire with the Kurds following the Iraqi invasion, the IRGC ignored him, continuing their campaigns.[2]

The confrontation between Tehran and the Kurds intensified sharply when the Iran–Iraq War broke out, as Iran faced Iraqi support to the Kurdish insurgency in Iran while waging its own campaign to encourage the uprising of various groups within Iraq.[6] It was initially assumed that Iraqi and Iranian Kurds would cooperate to exploit weaknesses on both sides. Unsurprisingly, 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.[6]

Before June of 1980, the fighting had driven Ghassemlou's KDPI to request an official alliance with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which resulted in the signing of a seven-point agreement in Kirkuk. According to Ghassemlou, Iraq provided them with ammunition and anti-aircraft missiles, as they already had captured weapons from the Iranian army and did not need more of them.[27] Despite his alliance with Iraq, however, Ghassemlou pursued a policy of neutrality towards Iraqi Kurdish factions, such as the KDP and PUK, and aided negotiations between them and Baghdad.[28]

The policy of pursuing relations with Baghdad caused splits within the party, and in late May 1980, Ghani Bulurian and six others from the party's central committee renounced their party membership, alongside publishing Ghassemlou's private correspondences with the Iraqis, including information about a meeting between him and Iraqi vice president Taha Yasin Ramadan.[29]

In January 1981, the Iraqi army successfully established a supply line to KDPI strongholds through Nowdesheh and Qasr-e Shirin, and began sending military equipment their way. This allowed the KDPI to cut off the Baghdad-Tehran highway, denying Iranian forces its use for some time. However, by late 1981, Iranian forces went on a counteroffensive and pushed Iraqi forces back over the border, debilitating the KDPI and rendering them a marginal military factor for the remainder of the war.[30] More than 10,000 Kurdish forces were allegedly killed during these battles.[31]

While the KDPI had been militarily defeated by the end of 1981, armed remnants of the group continued to shelter in northern Iraq.[32] Small groups of KDPI soldiers continued to engage in low-level campaigns against Iranian forces up until 1983, as more Iranian forces were diverted to the Iraqi front amid escalation of the Iran-Iraq war.[17] Komala militants also moved their military bases to Iraqi Kurdistan following Iranian operations on the border.[12]

On 27 August 1979, in Sanandaj, Iran, 11 Kurdish prisoners were executed by a firing squad following a 30-minute trial under chief justice Sadegh Khalkhali.[33] Jahangir Razmi, a photographer for Iran's independent Ettela’at newspaper, captured the execution on film.[33]

Within hours an anonymous photo of the execution ran across 6 columns of the paper. On September 8, the newspaper was seized by the Foundation for the Disinherited, a state-owned holding company.[33] 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.[33]

In 2014, a film by the name of Che was produced detailing the experiences of Mostafa Chamran Save'ei during the battle for the city of Paveh, part of the 1979 conflict in Kurdistan province.[34] It won a number of awards, including two Crystal Simorghs in the fields of best editing and best visual effects.[35]