Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq
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| Kurdistan Democratic Party Partiya Demokrata Kurdistanê پارتیا دەمۆکراتا کوردستانێ الحزب الديمقراطي الكردستاني |
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| Founded | 16 August 1946 |
| Headquarters | Arbil |
| Ideology | Kurdish nationalism, Social Democracy, (Party charter: Democratic Socialism) |
| International affiliation | Alliance of Democrats |
| Official colours | Yellow & Red |
| Website | |
| www.kdp.pp.se | |
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) (Kurdish: Partîya Demokrata Kurdistan (PDK)) is one of the main notable Kurdish parties in Iraq, by the Kurds called South Kurdistan. It was founded in 1946 in Suleimaiyah, and immediately elected Mustafa Barzani, a Kurdish nationalist who fought numerous revolts against Baghdad, as its president in absentium.
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[edit] History
A party called KDP was established in Eastern Kurdistan in 1946 upon the creation of the Kurdistan Republic of Mahabad, which lasted for less than a year. On the same day, 16 August 1946, a party with the same name was created in the Iraqi city of Suleimaniyah. The Iranian party has since been called the KDP-I. In the founding congress the KDP stated that the political and economic situation of the Kurds in Iraq was different from that of Iran. It demanded autonomy for the Kurds of Iraq. Although he was not present Mulla Mustafa Barzani was elected as the president of the party, Kaka Ziad and Sheikh Latif were appointed as vice presidents. Hamza Abdullah was elected its Secretary-General.
Hamza Abdallah was expelled in January 1953 and established a party called the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Progressive Front. He and his followers were allowed to return to KDP in 1956.[1]
In 1961 the KDP launched its first armed rebellion against Iraq, which ended in 1961. A second war started in 1974, which resulted in Jalal Talebani and Nawshirwan Mustafa splitting from the organisation to create the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan which launched its own anti-Iraqi insurgency. On 1979 Mustafa Barzani died and his son Massoud Barzani took over as the groups leader, continuing the Kurdish insurgency until after the 1991 uprisings in Iraq in aftermath of the Gulf War. By October 1991 the KDP's Peshmerga (fighters), were able to operate with relative impunity in the no-fly zone of northern Iraq, creating a de facto independent Kurdish state in Northern Iraq.
The KDP won the most votes in the Kurdish Elections of 1992, winning 45% of the vote and 51 out of 104 seats, however they gave 1 seat to the PUK so they both had 50. The two parties established the Kurdistan Regional Government, which collapsed in 1994 sparking a Kurdish Civil War.
In May 1994, supporters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) clashed with supporters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), leaving 300 people dead. Relations among the groups soured in March 1995 when the KDP backed out of an attack on Saddam's front lines led by Iraqi National Congress. Over the next year the PUK and KDP fought several more times, eventually devolving into a state of civil war. In August 1996, leaders of the KDP asked the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to intervene in the war. Hussein sent at least 30,000 troops into the UN-protected Kurdish region, capturing the PUK stronghold of Irbil. The KDP was immediately installed in power.[citation needed] The U.S. responded with two missile strikes against southern Iraq, but in early September Iraq again helped KDP fighters, this time taking the PUK stronghold of As Sulaymaniyah. After Saddam's move against them in 1996, about 700 Iraqi National Congress activists and fighters were evacuated to the US, along with 6,000 pro-Western Iraqi Kurds.
The fighting left over a thousand persons dead and forced thousands of civilians from their homes. A ceasefire established on 24 November 1997, ended the fighting for the remainder of the year, albeit with a few sporadic clashes. The cease-fire resulted in the establishment of two Kurdish governments, a KDP-led administration in Arbil with Massoud Barzani as President and his son Nechervan Barzani as Prime Minister and a PUK-led administration in al-Suleimaniyah with Jalal Talebani as President and Barham Salih as Prime Minister.[2]
Both Kurdish groups fought alongside the Coalition of the Willing in the 2003 invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein's regime. In 2005, the KDP and PUK united to form a joint administration and a joint list in the elections (toghet with several smaller factions), the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, under which it contested the January 2005 Iraqi elections, the 2005 Iraqi governorate elections the December 2005 Iraqi Elections and the 2005 Kurdish Elections. DPAK became the biggest list in Kurdistan and second biggest in Iraq. After this Barzani became President of the Kurdistan Autonomous Republic and Talebani became President of Iraq.[1]
The party has alliances in other parts of the Middle East as well such as the KDPI (KDP-Iran, which functions autonomously from the KDP), in Syria (al-Party), in Turkey (PDK/Bakur) and even in Lebanon.
The KDP, alongside with the PUK, has had a number of members criticized for personally using a large amount of money and property that was set aside for government purposes.[citation needed]
An article written by a Kurdish Austrian citizen caused a state of panic within the classes of the party, talking about the past of Mustafa Barzani, claiming he was a KGB agent, and accusing the KDP of corruption and crime. The KDP jailed the writer once he visited Kurdish Iraq in October 2005.[3]. After criticism and pressure from Austria, he was released on January 2006.[4]
On May 13, 2007, a car bomber drove into the local offices of the KDP in the city of Makhmur in Northern Iraq, killing at least 50 people and wounding at least 70. The attack was thought to come in response to an oil-sharing deal that gave Kurds a substantial amount of the oil revenue of the country.[5]
In 2009 the KDP and PUK's joint list ran in the Iraqi Governorate Elections winning 12 seats in Ninawa and 6 in Diyala. For the 2009 Kurdistan Election the DPAK collapsed and a new list was established, the Kurdistan List, which included only the KDP and PUK. After the defection of Nawshirwan Mustafa and his supporters from the PUK, the PUK was heavily weakened, making the KDP the biggest party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdistan alliance still won a 59 seat majority in the 111 seat parliament.[6]
[edit] Political Ideology
The KDP ranges from centrist to a centre-left position. Most of the members are Social Liberals, Social Democrats, and a smaller number of Democratic Socialists. The KDP is a member of the Alliance of Democrats, and participates in some meetings of the Socialist International.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ McDowall, David. Modern History of the Kurds. London: I.B. Tauris, 1997. p. 296-297, 300
- ^ "KDP's profile on GlobalSecurity.org". http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/kdp.htm/.
- ^ "K-D-P Critic Jailed In Iraq". http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/archive/2006-01/2006-01-06-voa2.cfm.
- ^ http://www.antiwar.com/orig/qadir.php?articleid=9629
- ^ Car bomb kills 50 in northern Iraq Al-Jazeera, May 13th, 2007.
- ^ http://pukmedia.com/News/7-8-2009/news29.html
[edit] External links
- Official site
- The Iraqi Actors in the North of Iraq
- Kurdish Predicament in Iraq
- German-kurdish homepage for politics and culture
- The Kurds and the KGB - The secret history of the Barzani dynasty by Dr. Kamal Said Qadir, AntiWar.com, August 31, 2006
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