The Republic of Mahabad (also Republic of Kurdistan), established in Iranian Kurdistan, was the second independent Kurdish state of the 20th century after the Republic of Ararat in Turkey. Its capital was the Kurdish city of Mahabad in northwestern Iran. The Republic was part of the Iran crisis a conflict between the United States and USSR.
The republic was led by President Qazi Muhammad and Minister of Defense Mustafa Barzani. Prime Minister was Hadschi Baba Scheich. The Republic of Mahabad declared independence on January 22, 1946, but the movement was defeated a year later by the army of the central government of Iran. [1] Archived 2006-03-03 at the Wayback Machine. After the collapse of the republic in 1947, Qazi Muhammad was hanged in public in Chuwarchira Square in the center of Mahabad.
Massoud Barzani, the current President of Iraqi Kurdistan, was born in Mahabad when his father, the late General Mustafa Barzani, was chief of the military of Mahabad declared in Iranian Kurdistan [2] Archived 2006-02-05 at the Wayback Machine.
Archibald Roosevelt son of the former US-President Theodore Roosevelt, wrote in "The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad", that a main problem of the peoples Republic of Mahabad, was the Kurds needed the power of the USSR. Only with the Red army they had a chance. But these close relationship to Stalin and the USSR let many Kurdish tribes to be in opposition with this Kurdish state.