{"id":19971,"date":"2010-06-22T09:58:30","date_gmt":"2010-06-22T07:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=19971"},"modified":"2023-04-07T08:39:04","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T05:39:04","slug":"mula-mustafa-barzani-was-a-kgb-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/06\/22\/mula-mustafa-barzani-was-a-kgb-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"Mula Mustafa Barzani was a KGB agent"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr.Kamal Said Qadir<\/p>\n

Vienna-Austria<\/div>\n
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Mula Mustafa Barzani, the legendary Kurdish leader was a KGB-agent, codenamed “RAIS“, \u00a0and the Kurdish armed revolution started by Barzani Sep.11,1961 was in reality a KGB\u00a0cover action to destabilize Western interests in the Middle East and put additional\u00a0pressure on the Kassem government of Iraq.<\/div>\n
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Whoever dares to mention these facts publicly in Kurdistan, his fate will be surely\u00a0unknown. The least punishment he may receive would be enforced disappearance or even\u00a0murder by sophisticated means, and the whole story of KGB-Barzani ties will be dismissed\u00a0as a reckless defamation by the ruling Barzani family. Unfortunately for Barzani family,\u00a0these facts are not a creation of some individuals, but contents of KGB-documents became\u00a0recently accessible for scholars and public, or found their way to the West with defected\u00a0KGB-officers after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There are two main documentary\u00a0sources on KGB-Barzani ties, this paper relies on. The first are the archives of the\u00a0Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which also contain the\u00a0correspondence between KGB and the Central Committee. The most important documents\u00a0mentioned here in this article goes back to 1961, the peak of the cold war.<\/div>\n
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And the second sources are the so called “Mitrokhin archives“, which were smuggled to\u00a0the West by the defected KGB-officer Mitrokhin after the collapse of the Soviet Union.\u00a0In addition to the KGB-archives, this paper also relies on the memoirs written by former\u00a0KGB-officers, where references also being made to Barzani and the Kurdish conflict. Here\u00a0are the memoirs of the former KGB-general Sudoplatov, who was the head of the “SMERSH“,\u00a0a special department within the Soviet Security Services, responsible for special<\/div>\n
operations broad, of great importance.<\/div>\n
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There are also some scholars who conducted valuable research on KGB history using\u00a0publicly accessible KGB-archives. The most important research paper I was able to find\u00a0in this connection was the research paper delivered by Vladislav M. Zubok, a visiting\u00a0scholar of the National Security Archives in Washington D.C. This paper is accessible\u00a0online under HYPERLINK:<\/div>\n
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The aim of the current paper on Barzani-KGB ties is simply the search for the truth in\u00a0the public interest. The Barzani family has established a brutal and corrupt feudal\u00a0political system in Iraqi-Kurdistan under the pretext that this family had led the\u00a0Kurdish revolution. It is simply time to tell them the truth and remember them that the\u00a0Kurds are freedom loving people and will never accept feudal rule. The Barzani family\u00a0has misused the trust of Kurdish people and became increasingly an oligarchic family,\u00a0the main aim of which is self-enrichment by illegal means and the monopoly of power by\u00a0the members of this family. Murder, torture, abductions and intimidation are among the<\/div>\n
main methods of the family to silence the opponents by of the family. But apparently,\u00a0such methods do not work well anymore in the new Iraq. My own abduction by the Parastin,\u00a0the secret service of the Barzani family Oct. 26, 2005 in Erbil-Kurdistan for publishing\u00a0some articles criticising the corrupt rule of the Barzani family and my subsequent\u00a0release under international pressure is a further evidence that the arbitrary powers\u00a0of the family are decreasing.<\/div>\n
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The great international support for my case was based on the simple fact that the truth\u00a0should not be silenced.<\/div>\n
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And therefore I see it as my duty to continue searching for the truth.Barzani and KGB,\u00a0Old Relations After the collapse of the Kurdish republic of Mahabad Dec.1946, Mustafa\u00a0Barsani made his way to the Soviet borders with several hundred of his men. After\u00a0arriving in the Soviet Union he received a great attention by the Soviet leadership\u00a0and Soviet security services, who wanted to use the Kurds for their own ends. The first\u00a0period of Barzani life in the Soviet Union and his political activities would have\u00a0probably remained secret without the memoirs of the KGB-general Pavel Sudolatov, who\u00a0later became the head of the “SMERSH“. Sudoplatov writes that he had met Barzani for<\/div>\n
the first time in Baku, shortly after the arrival of Barzani in the Soviet Union in\u00a01947, with the aim to study the opportunities to use him to destabilize Western interests\u00a0in the Middle East. Barzani and his men were to receive arms and military training in\u00a0order to be sent back to Iraq for this purpose, writes Sudoplatov. Mula Mustafa Barzani\u00a0must have been of extra ordinary importance for the Soviet leadership and Soviet security\u00a0services, as he was cultivated by P. Sudoplatov, one of the most important figures within<\/div>\n
the Soviet Secret Services. Sudoplatov mentions in his memoirs that he has been\u00a0responsible for assassination of Trotsky on Stalin\u2019s order and for Soviet atomic\u00a0espionage, which led to the building of the Soviet atom bomb.<\/div>\n
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Charging Sudoplatov with negotiations with Mustafa Barzani is an evidence of the great\u00a0expectation the Soviet leadership had from Barzani. But Sudoplatov was apparently not\u00a0the only Soviet secret service officer to deal with Barzani. Sudoplatov mentions other\u00a0officers, who succeeded him in dealing with Barzani. Sudoplatov meets Barzani for the\u00a0second time in 1952 to negotiate with him on military training without mentioning any\u00a0agreement reached among them. But Sudoplatov meets Barzani in 1953 in a military academy<\/div>\n
in Moscow, where both of them, Sudopatov and Barzani undergo military training. Barzani\u00a0was apparently being prepared for a special task abroad. Sudoplatov reveals in his\u00a0memoirs that Barzani told him then that the ties between his family and Russia are\u00a0hundred years old and that his family had appealed to Russia for help before and\u00a0received arms and ammunition from Russia sixty times. There are indeed other confidential\u00a0reports on a visit to Russia made by the Sheikh Abdul Salam, the Sheikh of Barzan before\u00a0the First World War There are no further reports available to me about the Barzani\u00a0Russian ties before the WWI.<\/div>\n
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The nature of relations between Mustafa Barzani and Soviet secret services during the\u00a0period of 1947-1958 remains till now widely secret with the exception of the Sudoplatov\u00a0memoirs. Also Mitrokhin archives and the publicly accessible KGB-archives make no mention\u00a0of this period, but do deliver essential inform on the Barzani-KGB ties after 1958.\u00a0From Mitrokhin archives we learn that the KGB has given Barzani the codename “RAIS“,<\/div>\n
and both of the archives, the Mitrokhin archives and the KGB-archives of the Central\u00a0Committee of the CPSU reveal the big secret behind the Kurdish September revolution of\u00a01961 led by Mustafa Barsani. According to these archives, this revolution was in\u00a0reality not a real revolution but one of cover actions of KGB to destabilize Western\u00a0interests in the Middle East.<\/div>\n
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Shelepin, the KGB-chief in the 1960s, sent in 1961 a memorandum to Khrushchev containing\u00a0plans “to cause uncertainty in government circles of the USA, England, Turkey, and Iran\u00a0about the stability of their positions in the Middle and Near East.” \u00a0He offered to use\u00a0old KGB connections with the chairman of Democratic party of Kurdistan, Mulla Mustafa\u00a0Barzani, “to activate the movement of the Kurdish population of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey<\/div>\n
for creation of an independent Kurdistan that would include the provinces of<\/div>\n
aforementioned countries.” \u00a0Barzani was to be provided with necessary aid in arms and\u00a0money. \u00a0“Given propitious developments,” noted Shelepin with foresight, “it would\u00a0become advisable to express the solidarity of Soviet people with this movement of the\u00a0Kurds.”<\/div>\n
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“The movement for the creation of Kurdistan,” he predicted, “will evoke serious\u00a0concern among Western powers and first of all in England regarding [their access to] oil\u00a0in Iraq and Iran, and in the United States regarding its military bases in Turkey. \u00a0All\u00a0that will create also difficulties for [Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abdul Karim] KASSIM\u00a0who has begun to conduct a pro-Western policy, especially in recent time.” Shelepin also\u00a0proposed an initiative to entice Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser, a Third World\u00a0leader avidly courted by both East and West, into throwing his support behind the Kurds.<\/div>\n
Shelepin suggested informing Nasser “through unofficial channels” that, in the event of\u00a0a Kurdish victory, Moscow “might take a benign look at the integration of the non-Kurdish\u00a0part of Iraqi territory with the UAR”–the United Arab Republic, a short-lived union of\u00a0Egypt and Syria reflecting Nasser’s pan-Arab nationalism–“on the condition of NASSER’s\u00a0support for the creation of an independent Kurdistan.” ( Shelepin to Khrushchev, 29 July<\/div>\n
1961, in St.-191\/75gc, 1 August 1961, TsKhSD, fond 4, opis 13, delo 81, ll. 131-32) (see\u00a0Zubok, 21).<\/div>\n
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When a Kurdish rebellion indeed broke out in Iraqi Kurdistan in September 1961, the KGB\u00a0quickly responded with additional proposals to exploit the situation. \u00a0KGB Deputy\u00a0Chairman Peter Ivashutin proposed–“In accord with the decision of the CC CPSU…of 1\u00a0August 1961 on the implementation of measures favouring the distraction of the attention\u00a0and forces of the USA and her allies from West Berlin, and in view of the armed uprisings\u00a0of the Kurdish tribes that have begun in the North of Iraq”–to: 1) use the KGB to\u00a0organize pro-Kurdish and anti-Kassim protests in India, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Guinea,\u00a0and other countries; 2) have the KGB meet with Barzani to urge him to “seize the\u00a0leadership of the Kurdish movements in his hands and to lead it along the democratic\u00a0road,” and to advise him to “keep a low profile in the course of this activity so that\u00a0the West did not have a pretext to blame the USSR in meddling into the internal affairs\u00a0of Iraq”; and 3) assign the KGB to recruit and train a “special armed detachment\u00a0(500-700 men)” drawn from Kurds living in the USSR in the event that Moscow might need\u00a0to send Barzani “various military experts (Artillerymen, radio operators, demolition<\/div>\n
squads, etc.)” to support the Kurdish uprising. ( P. Ivashutin to CC CPSU, 27 September\u00a01961, St.-199\/10c, 3 October 1961, TsKhSD, fond 4, opis 13, delo 85, ll. 1-4). (see\u00a0Zubok,21)What Ivashutin did not know, was the fact that the West already had information\u00a0on Barzani special ties with the Soviet Union. The U.S. officials had noted with concern\u00a0the possibility “that Barzani might be useful to Moscow.<\/div>\n
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In an October 1958 cable to the State Department three months after a military coup\u00a0brought Kassim to power, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Waldemar J. Gallman, stated that\u00a0“Communists also have potential for attack [on Iraqi Prime Minister Kassim-ed.] on\u00a0another point through returned Kurdish leader Mulla Mustafa Barzani. \u00a0He spent last\u00a0eleven years in exile in Soviet Union. \u00a0His appeal to majority of Iraqi Kurds is strong\u00a0and his ability [to] disrupt stability almost endless. \u00a0Thus we believe that today\u00a0greatest potential threat to stability and even existence of Qassim’s [Kassim’s]<\/div>\n
regime lies in hands of Communists.” \u00a0See Gallman to Department of State, 14 October\u00a01958, in U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958-1960,\u00a0Vol. XII (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1993), 344-46 (see Zubok, 21).\u00a0So became the Kurdish conflict an instrument in the hands of Moscow to exercise pressure\u00a0on successive Iraqi regimes.<\/div>\n
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According to Mitrokhin archives, the KGB sent Yevgeni Primakov, codenamed “MAKS“ to\u00a0Iraq in the 1960s under the cover of a journalist. Yevgeni Primakov was to play later\u00a0a leading role in the Kurdish question, especially in the conclusion of the autonomy\u00a0agreement between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Iraqi regime March 1970. The<\/div>\n
Baath regime has to accept the Soviet conditions in return for the mediation, since\u00a0the Iraqi army was completely exhausted by fighting with the Kurds. Iraqi regime has\u00a0to ease pressure on the Iraqi Communist Party and establish close ties with the Soviet\u00a0Union.After the March agreement the Iraqi regime gained strength with Soviet support\u00a0and began to obstruct the implementation of the March agreement. And the Soviet Union,\u00a0having successfully used the Kurdish card to influence the Iraqi foreign policy, turned\u00a0its back to the Kurds. Barzani in return moved closer to CIA, Mossad and Savakis. The\u00a0Iraqi-Soviet honey moon lasted till the collapse of the Kurdish uprising after it was\u00a0betrayed by the Western allies and Iran in 1975. After this date, the Iraqi regime\u00a0resumed its oppressive politics towards the Iraqi Communist Party and began to come\u00a0closer to the West. And the Soviet Union resumed its use for the Kurdish card.<\/div>\n
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Since that time the history has repeated itself several times and the Barzani family\u00a0has often changed the fronts between, KGB, CIA and Mossad. The drama is continuing.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
, August 23, 2006<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr.Kamal Said Qadir Vienna-Austria Mula Mustafa Barzani, the legendary Kurdish leader was a KGB-agent, codenamed “RAIS“, \u00a0and the Kurdish armed revolution started by Barzani Sep.11,1961 was in reality a KGB\u00a0cover action to destabilize Western interests in the Middle East and put additional\u00a0pressure on the Kassem government of Iraq. Whoever dares to mention these facts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":30672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,148,2938],"tags":[386,3174,3173],"class_list":["post-19971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iraq","category-israel","category-middle-east-middle-east-regions","tag-barzani","tag-kgb","tag-mula-mustafa-barzani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}