1.
Republic of Mahabad
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The Republic of Mahabad was a short-lived self-governing state in present-day Iran. The Republic of Mahabad arose alongside the Azerbaijan Peoples Government, a similarly short-lived state, the capital of Republic of Mahabad was the city of Mahabad, in northwestern Iran. The state encompassed a small territory, including Mahabad and the adjacent cities of Bukan, Piranshahr, the republics foundation and demise was a part of the Iran crisis during the opening stages of the Cold War. Iran was invaded by the Allies in late August 1941, with the Soviets controlling the north, in the absence of a central government, the Soviets attempted to attach northwestern Iran to the Soviet Union, and promoted Kurdish nationalism. From these factors resulted a Kurdish manifesto that above all sought autonomy, in the town of Mahabad, inhabited mostly by Kurds, a committee of middle-class people supported by tribal chiefs took over the local administration. A political party called the Society for the Revival of Kurdistan was formed, Qazi Muhammad, head of a family of religious jurists, was elected as chairman of the party. Although the republic was not declared until December 1945, Qazis committee administered the area for more than five years until the fall of the republic. In September 1945, Qazi Muhammad and other Kurdish leaders visited Tabriz to seek the backing of a Soviet consul to found a new republic, there, they learned that the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan was planning to take control of Iranian Azerbaijan. On December 10, the Democratic Party took control of East Azerbaijan Province from Iranian government forces, Qazi Muhammad decided to do likewise, and on December 15, the Kurdish Peoples Government was founded in Mahabad. On January 22,1946, Qazi Muhammad announced the formation of the Republic of Mahabad, some of the aims mentioned in the manifesto include, Autonomy for the Iranian Kurds within the Iranian state. The use of Kurdish as the medium of education and administration, the election of a provincial council for Kurdistan to supervise state and social matters. All state officials to be of local origin, unity and fraternity with the Azerbaijani people. The establishment of a law for both peasants and notables. The Republic of Mahabad depended on Soviet support, archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr. grandson of the former U. S. However, its close relationship to the USSR alienated the republic from most Western powers, causing them to side with Iran. Qazi Muhammad did not deny that his republic was funded and supplied by the Soviets and he claimed that this was a lie fabricated by the Iranian military authorities, and added that his ideals were very different from the Soviets. Following the fall of Mahabad, the Soviets allowed for the passage of Mustafa Barzani. Both contemporary friends and foes tended to exaggerate the Soviet role in the Republic of Mahabad and this notion was also widespread amongst Kurdish tribal leaders, many of whom disagreed with Qazis leadership. The Soviets were however generally ambivalent towards the Kurdish administration and they did not maintain a garrison near Mahabad and also did not have any civil agent of sufficient standing to exercise any great influence
2.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
3.
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
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The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, also known as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, is a militant leftist ethnic party of Kurds in Iran, exiled in northern Iraq. It is banned in Iran and thus not able to operate openly and it calls for self-determination of Kurdish people and has been described as seeking either separatism or autonomy within a federal system. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials have called the party a terrorist organization, hyeran Jo of Texas A&M University classifies KDPI as compliant rebels, i. e. rebels that kill fewer than 100 and refrain from killing for more than half of their operating years. Qazi Muhammad founded the PDKI in Mahabad, Iran, on 16 August 1945, on 22 January 1946, Qazi Muhammad declared a Kurdish Republic of Kurdistan, of which he formally became president. The Republic lasted less than a year, after the USSR retreated from the area, after the fall of the Republic, many of the PDKI leaders were arrested and executed, effectively ending the party. In 1958, the PDKI was on the verge of unifying with the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party, but was then dismantled by the SAVAK secret police. The remains of the PDKI continued to support the KDP, but this changed as the Shah started aiding the KDP, in return for the Shahs aid, the KDP decerased its support for the PDKI. The Committee began a revolution in March 1967, ending after 18 months. After reforms by a new leader, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the PDKI fought alongside Islamic and Marxist movements against the Shah, khomeinis new Islamic regime, however, refused the Kurdish demands, suppressing the PDKI and other Kurdish parties. The PDKI continued its activities in exile, hoping to achieve Kurdish national rights within a federal republic of Iran. The highest PDKI organ is the Central Committee, composed of 21 permanent and 10 substitute members, the Central Committee elects 7 of its members for the executive Political Bureau, which also includes the Secretary-General. The current Secretary-General is Mustafa Hijri, sadeq Sharafkandis murder became an international incident between Germany and Iran. On 17 September 1992, PDKI leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany. In the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi, an Iranian national who worked as a grocer in Berlin, two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. The PDKI has held fifteen congresses and these occurred in 1945,1964,1971,1980,1982,1984,1985,1988,1992,1995,1997,2000,2004,2008,2012. During the 20th Congress of the Socialist International, held at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, in 2005, the PDKIs membership was elevated to consultative status. Qazi Muhammad Ahmad Tofiq Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou Sadegh Sharafkandi Abdullah Hasanzadeh Mustafa Hijri The PDKI English language homepage
4.
Kurdish language
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Kurdish is a continuum of Northwestern Iranian languages spoken by the Kurds in Western Asia. Kurdish forms three dialect groups known as Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, and Southern Kurdish, a separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages, the Zaza–Gorani languages, are also spoken by several million Kurds. Recent studies estimate between 8 to 20 million native Kurdish speakers in Turkey, the majority of the Kurds speak Northern Kurdish. The literary output in Kurdish was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century, today, there are two principal written Kurdish dialects, namely Northern Kurdish in the northern parts of the geographical region of Kurdistan and Central Kurdish further east and south. Central Kurdish is, along with Arabic, one of the two languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as Kurdish. The Kurdish languages belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family and they are generally classified as Northwestern Iranian languages, or by some scholars as intermediate between Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian. Martin van Bruinessen notes that Kurdish has a strong south-western Iranian element, whereas Zaza, windfuhr identified Kurdish dialects as Parthian, albeit with a Median substratum. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the territory of the Kurds remains D. N. Mackenzies theory. He has tried to reconstruct the alleged Persian-Kurdish-Baluchi linguistic unity presumably in the parts of Iran. Kurdish is divided into three groups, where dialects from different groups are not mutually intelligible without acquired bilingualism, Northern Kurdish is the largest dialect group, spoken by an estimated 15 to 20 million Kurds in Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran. Central Kurdish is spoken by an estimated 6 to 7 million Kurds in much of Iraqi Kurdistan, Sorani is a written standard of Central Kurdish developed in the 1920s and was later adopted as the standard orthography of Kurdish as an official language of Iraq. Southern Kurdish is spoken by about 3 million Kurds in Kermanshah and Ilam provinces of Iran, in historical evolution terms, Kurmanji is less modified than Sorani and Pehlewani in both phonetic and morphological structure. The Kermanshahi group has influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to Persian. Philip G. Kreyenbroek, a writing in 1992, says. Sorani is normally written in a form of the Arabic script. Reasons for describing Kurmanji and Sorani as dialects of one language are their common origin, for example, Sorani has neither gender nor case-endings, whereas Kurmanji has both. Differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are not as great as between German and English, but they are still considerable, according to Encyclopaedia of Islam, although Kurdish is not a unified language, its many dialects are interrelated and at the same time distinguishable from other Western Iranian languages. The same source classifies different Kurdish dialects as two groups, northern and central
5.
Kurdish separatism in Iran
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The Soviet supported attempt to establish a Kurdish state in Western Iran failed. More than a later, peripheral tribal uprisings, launched with KDPI support through 1966–7. In the most violent episode of the conflict, more than 30,000 Kurds died starting with the 1979 rebellion, though KDPIs armed struggle ended in late 1996, another Kurdish armed organization emerged in Iran by the early 2000s. Insurrection led by PJAK in Western Iran started in 2004 and is ongoing to this day, the government of Iran has never employed the same level of brutality against its Kurds as did Turkey or Iraq, but it has always been implacably opposed to any suggestion of Kurdish separatism. Unlike in other Middle Eastern countries with Kurdish populations, there are strong ethnolinguistical and cultural ties between Kurds and Persians as Iranian peoples. Kreyenbroek claims many Kurds in Iran have shown no interest in Kurdish nationalism, especially Shia Kurds, Iranian national identity is questioned mainly in the peripheral Kurdish Sunni regions. Simko Shikak revolt refers to an armed Ottoman-backed tribal Kurdish uprising against the Qajar dynasty of Iran from 1918-1922 and it lacked any kind of administrative organization and Simko was primary interesting in plunder. Government forces and non-Kurds were not the ones to suffer in the attacks. Simkos men do not appear to have any sense of unity or solidarity with fellow Kurds. Still, Kurdish ethnicists today revere Simko as a hero of independence, by 1926, Simko had regained control of his tribe and begun another outright rebellion against the state. When the army engaged him, half of his troops defected to the previous leader. Jafar Sultan of Hewraman region took control of the region between Marivan and north of Halabja and remained independent until 1925, despite the attempts to subdue him under the central rule, the tribal leader revolted in 1929, but was effectively crushed. Hama Rashid revolt refers to an uprising in Pahlavi Iran, during the Second World War. It is considered one of the factors to lead to the establishment of the Kurdish political independence movement in 1945-6, the danger of fragmentation in modern Iran became evident shortly after Second World War when Soviet Unions refused to relinquish occupied North Western Iranian territory. Iran crisis of 1946 included a separatist attempt of KDP-I and communist groups to establish the Soviet puppet government and it arose along with Azerbaijan Peoples Government, another Soviet puppet state. As a result, when the Soviets withdrew from Iran in December 1946, some 1,000 died during the crisis. Iran crisis of 1946 included an attempt of the KDPI to establish an independent Kurdish-dominated Republic of Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan, in mid-1960s a series of Kurdish tribal disturbances erupted in Western Iran, fed up by the revival of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran. In 1967-8 Iranian government troops suppressed a Kurdish revolt in Western Iran, the rebellion ended in December 1982, with 10,000 killed and 200,000 displaced
6.
Pahlavi dynasty
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The Pahlavi dynasty was the ruling house of Iran from 1925 until 1979, when the monarchy was overthrown and abolished as a result of the Iranian Revolution. He was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, at the death of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi on 27 July 1980, his son Reza Pahlavi became the head of the Pahlavi royal family. His successor, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, announced in 1959 that both Persia and Iran were acceptable and could be used interchangeably, Rezā Shāh tried to avoid involvement with Britain and the Soviet Union. Though many of his development projects required foreign expertise, he avoided awarding contracts to British. This created problems for Iran after 1939, when Germany and Britain became enemies in World War II, Rezā Shāh proclaimed Iran as a neutral country, but Britain insisted that German engineers and technicians in Iran were spies with missions to sabotage British oil facilities in southwestern Iran. Britain demanded that Iran expel all German citizens, but Rezā Shāh refused, on 13 September 1943 the Allies reassured the Iranians that all foreign troops would leave by 2 March 1946. At the time, the Tudeh Party of Iran, a communist party that was influential and had parliamentary representation, was becoming increasingly militant. This promoted actions from the side of the government, including attempts of the Iranian armed forces to order in the Northern provinces. While the Tudeh headquarters in Tehran were occupied and the Isfahan branch crushed, thus, by November 1945 Azerbaijan had become an autonomous state helped by the Tudeh party. This puppet government of the Soviet Union only lasted until November 1946, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi replaced his father on the throne on 16 September 1941. In 1951, the Majlis named Mohammad Mossadegh as new minister by a vote of 79–12. Mossadegh was opposed by the Shah who feared a resulting oil embargo imposed by the West would leave Iran in economic ruin, the Shah fled Iran but returned when the United Kingdom and United States staged a coup against Mossadegh in August 1953. Mossadegh was then arrested by pro-Shah army forces, the Shahs government suppressed its opponents with the help of Irans security and intelligence secret police, SAVAK. Such opponents included members of the Communist Tudeh party, by the mid-1970s, relying on increased oil revenues, Mohammad Reza began a series of even more ambitious and bolder plans for the progress of his country and the march toward the White Revolution. But his socioeconomic advances increasingly irritated the clergy, the Pahlavi regime collapsed following widespread uprisings in 1978 and 1979. The Islamic Revolution dissolved the SAVAK and replaced it with the SAVAMA, Mohammad Reza fled the country, seeking medical treatment in Egypt, Mexico, the United States, and Panama, and finally resettled with his family in Egypt as a guest of Anwar Sadat. On his death, his son Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi succeeded him in absentia as heir apparent to the Pahlavi dynasty, Reza Pahlavi and his wife live in the United States in Potomac, Maryland with three daughters. Under the Qajar dynasty the Persian character of Iran was not very explicit, the Pahlavi rule was instrumental in Irans nationalisation in line with Persian culture and language which, amongst other ways, was achieved through the official ban on the use of the Azeri language
7.
Iraqi Kurdistan
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Iraqi Kurdistan, officially called the Kurdistan Region by the Iraqi constitution, is located in the north of Iraq and constitutes the countrys only autonomous region. The region is governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government, with the capital being Erbil. Kurdistan is a democracy with its own regional Parliament that consists of 111 seats. Masoud Barzani, who was elected as president in 2005, was re-elected in 2009. In August 2013 the parliament extended his presidency for two years. His presidency concluded on 19 August 2015 after the parties failed to reach an agreement over extending his term. The new Constitution of Iraq defines the Kurdistan Region as an entity of Iraq. The four governorates of Duhok, Hawler, Silemani, and Halabja comprise around 41,710 square kilometres and have a population of 5.5 million. In 2014, during the 2014 Iraq Crisis, Iraqi Kurdistans forces also took much of the disputed territories of Northern Iraq. The establishment of the Kurdistan Region dates back to the March 1970 autonomy agreement between the Kurdish opposition and the Iraqi government after years of heavy fighting, further, the 1980–88 Iran–Iraq War, especially the Iraqi Armys Al-Anfal Campaign, devastated the population and environment of Iraqi Kurdistan. As Kurds continued to fight government troops, Iraqi forces finally left Kurdistan in October 1991, in 1992, the major political parties in the region, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, established the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent political changes led to the ratification of a new constitution in 2005, the name Kurdistan literally means Land of the Kurds. The suffix -stan is Iranian for place of or country, in English translations of the Constitution of Iraq, it is called Kurdistan, four times in the phrase region of Kurdistan and once in the phrase Kurdistan region. The regional government calls it the Kurdistan Region, the full name of the government is the Kurdistan Regional Government, abbreviated KRG. Kurds also refer to the region as Başûrê Kurdistanê or Başûrî Kurdistan, during the Baath Party administration in the 1970s and 1980s, the region was called the Kurdish Autonomous Region. The Kurdistan Region is largely mountainous, with the highest point being a 3,611 m point known locally as Cheekha Dar, the mountains are part of the larger Zagros mountain range which also extends into Iran. There are many rivers running through the region, which is distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, the Great Zab and the Little Zab flow from the east to the west in the region. The Tigris river enters Iraqi Kurdistan from Turkish Kurdistan, the mountainous nature of Iraqi Kurdistan, the difference of temperatures in its various parts, and its wealth of waters make it a land of agriculture and tourism
8.
Mustafa Barzani
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Mustafa Barzani, also known as Mullah Mustafa, was a Kurdish nationalist leader, and the most prominent political figure in modern Kurdish politics. In 1946, he was chosen as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party to lead the Kurdish revolution against Iraqi regimes, Barzani was the primary political and military leader of the Kurdish revolution until his death in March 1979. He led campaigns of armed struggle against both the Iraqi and Iranian governments, Mustafa Barzani was born in 1903 in Barzan, a village in northern Iraqi Kurdistan. Following an insurrection launched by his tribe, he, his mother and the rest of his family were imprisoned and his father, grandfather, and a brother were later executed by the Ottoman authorities for other insurrections. At an early age he joined other tribal fighters in aiding Sheikh Mahmud Barzanjis revolt against the British in Iraq. In 1931 he followed his brother, the Barzani chieftain Ahmed Barzani. Iraq received help from its British allies, who engaged in warfare against territories in rebellion. On the advice of Sheikh Ahmed, Mustafa Barzani surrendered to Iraq, Mustafa Barzani was kept under surveillance until 1943, when he again broke free from his exile in Sulaymaniyah as Iraq underwent the effects of World War II. Despite differences between Qazi Muhammad and Mustafa Barzani, the arrival of Barzanis forces gave a boost to the ability of the nationalists to assert control over the region. In December 1945 the Kurdish Republic of Kurdistan was declared by Qazi Muhammad, Barzani was appointed as the Minister of Defense and commander of the Kurdish army in the Republic of Kurdistan. In May 1946 the Soviet troops were withdrawn from Iran and all support for the Republic of Kurdistan was cut, Barzani and his followers arrived in the Armenian SSR and were put in a camp near Nakhchevan. After appealing to the Soviet Union to help them, Barzani and his followers were transferred to the Azerbaijani SSR, kept in camps near, Barzani met with Azerbaijan Communist Party officials, who under orders from Moscow were told to help the Kurds. In November 1947, Barzani met for the first time Mir Jafar Baghirov, Barzanis followers were organized into a military regiment and received training in military tactics and politics, as well as education to learn to read and write Kurdish. On January 19,1948, a conference was held gathering Kurds from Iraq and Iran in Baku and this prompted Iran to again demand that the Soviet Union extradite Barzani and his followers to Iran to stand trial, which the Soviet Union rejected. Barzani however fast ran into problems with Baghirov due to differences and stances towards the Kurdish movement, Barzani and the others were transferred to the Uzbek SSR in August 1948, but Baghriovs disputes with Barzani were not forgotten. For the following three years, Barzani was separated from his followers, prompting them to engage in sit-ins and strikes demanding they be reunited, Barzani sent numerous letters to Moscow, addressing them to Joseph Stalin himself, requesting that he and his followers be treated better and reunited. Only one of these reached the Kremlin and shortly afterwards on March 1951, Soviet officials began investigations to address the concerns of Barzani. All of them were provided with jobs, education, training, Barzani would later meet with Soviet figures like Georgy Malenkov and Nikita Khrushchev in May 1953 after the death of Stalin to ensure that the Soviets would continue helping him and his followers
9.
Chahar Cheragh Square
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Chahar Cheragh or Chuar-chira Square, is a public square in the centre of the city of Mahabad. It is now officially called Shahrdari Square and this square is one of the oldest places of Mahabad city. At this place, the Russian-backed Qazi Muhammad proclaimed the Republic of Mahabad in 1946, here, after restoring Iranian authority and chasing the Russian-backed elements away in 1947, Qazi Muhammad, and other political leaders of the Republic of Mahabad were executed by the Iranian state
10.
Kurds
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The Kurds are culturally and linguistically closely related to the Iranian peoples and, as a result, are often themselves classified as an Iranian people. A recent Kurdish diaspora has also developed in Western countries, primarily in Germany, the Kurdish language refers collectively to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, the Kurdish languages belong to the northwestern sub‑group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. According to Mackenzie, there are few features that all Kurdish dialects have in common. And the fact that this reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds. The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at close to 30 million, Kurds comprise anywhere from 18% to 20% of the population in Turkey, possibly as high as 25%,15 to 20% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 9% in Syria. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria. Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries and this groups population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990. The land of Karda is mentioned on a Sumerian clay-tablet dated to the 3rd millennium B. C. This land was inhabited by the people of Su who dwelt in the regions of Lake Van. Other Sumerian clay-tables referred the people, who lived in the land of Karda, as the Qarduchi and the Qurti. Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, the claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem, We are the children of the Medes and Kai Khosrow. The Kurdish languages form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian languages like Median, some researchers consider the independent Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds. The term Kurd, however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century, the Kurds have ethnically diverse origins. During the Sassanid era, in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, after initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, Ardavan V, the usage of the term Kurd during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group
11.
Letter bomb
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They have been used in Israeli targeted killings and in terrorist attacks such as those of the Unabomber. Some countries have agencies whose duties include the interdiction of letter bombs, the letter bomb may have been in use for nearly as long as the common postal service has been in existence, as far back as 1764. Letter bombs are designed to explode immediately on opening, with the intention of seriously injuring or killing the recipient. A related threat is mail containing unidentified powders or chemicals, as in the 2001 anthrax attacks, one of the worlds first mailbombs is mentioned in the 18th century diary of Danish official and historian Bolle Willum Luxdorph. His diary mainly consists of references to news from Denmark. In the entry for January 19,1764 he writes the following, when he opens it, therein is to be found gunpowder and a firelock which sets fire unto it, so he became very injured. The entry for February 15 same year says, Colonel Poulsen receives a letter in German and it is referring to the dose of gunpowder in the box. In a later reference Luxdorph has found a mention of a bomb being used, also in 1764. June 1889, Edward White, formerly an artist at Madame Tussauds, was alleged to have sent a parcel bomb to John Theodore Tussaud after being dismissed, August 20,1904, A Swedish man named Martin Ekenberg sent a mailbomb to businessman Karl Fredrik Lundin in Stockholm. It was a box loaded with bullets and explosives, in 1915, Vice President of the United States Thomas R. Marshall was the target of an assassination attempt by letter bomb. In 1946, several British high officials, including Sir Stafford Cripps, Ernest Bevin, in 1947, several letter bombs were sent to President Harry Truman in the White House. They were intercepted by White House mail room workers, who were on alert because of the bombs to British officials. These also were claimed by the Stern Gang, August 30,1958, A parcel bomb sent by Ngo Dinh Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, failed to kill King Sihanouk of Cambodia. In 1961 the Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner received a bomb that caused the loss of an eye. In 1980 another letter bomb cost him the fingers of his left hand, two Damascus postal workers were killed. The senders are unknown but some suspect the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, several terrorist organizations in Argentina such as Montoneros and ERP included letter bombs into their weaponry. On 28 December 1977, in Malta, Karen Grech, age 15, was killed when she opened a letterbomb addressed to her father Edwin Grech, on the same day, another bomb was sent to Labour MP Dr. Paul Chetcuti Caruana, but it did not detonate. Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, killed three and injured 23 in a series of mailbombings in the United States from the late 1970s to the early 1990s
12.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
13.
Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou
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Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou was a Kurdish political leader. Ghassemlou was the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran from 1973 until his assassination in 1989 by individuals suspected of being agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran. As the secretary general of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran he led the Kurdish nationalist struggle for Kurdish autonomy in Iran, born in Urmia, West Azerbaijan, Iran to a wealthy feudal family, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou was instructed in a Quranic school. His father was Mohammad Vesugh Ghassemlou, a landowning Kurdish nationalist Agha and his mother was Nana Jan Timsar, also known as Fatima, was an Assyrian Christian, who converted to Islam. His father was an adviser to the Shah of Iran, who gave him the title Wussuq-e Divan and he completed his early education in Urmia and then on Tehran. He witnessed the Republic of Mahabad and became a member of the youth wing of KDP-I at the age of 15. Ghassemlou moved to France to continue his studies at Sorbonne and he meet his wife Helen Krulich in Czechoslovakia. They had two daughters together, Mina and Hewa, abd-al-Raḥmān Qāsemlu was fluent in 8 languages Kurdish, Persian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, French, English, Czech, Russian. He was also familiar with German, Ghassemlou went back to Kurdistan in 1952 after completing his studies. He then spent several years as a militant in the Kurdish military fields. In 1973, during the Third Congress of the PDKI, he was elected to the position of general of the party. In 1979, his party supported the revolution ended in the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Khomeini considered their last hour participation in the revolution as opportunistic, militants belonging to the party had overtaken the military compounds in the Kurdish areas. Khomeini demanded all armed groups to become part of one revolutionary organization, ghasemlou demanded autonomy for Kurds and refused to lay down weapons. The party boycotted the referendum for the new constitution which was adopted by overwhelming majority, following two bloody confrontation between Kurds and forces loyal to Khomeini the Kurdish rebellion turned into a war. Shortly, after the beginning of the armed Kurdish rebellion, Ayatollah Khomeini declared a war on the PDKI. Thousands of executions happened in Kurdistan during the rebellion, the armed conflict continued up to 1984 in the middle of Iran-Iraq war where both countries supported the separatists in each others territory. Kurdistan and Kurd is a book on the history of Kurds and their land written by Ghassemlou and published in 1964 in Slovaki,1965 in English,1967 in Arabic,1969 in Polish, and 1973 in Kurdish
14.
Sadegh Sharafkandi
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Sadegh Sharafkandi was a Kurdish political activist and the Secretary-General of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran. Sharafkandi was born on 1 January 1938, in Bukan, West Azerbaijan, Iran and he spent two years of his elementary studies in his native village, then his family moved to Mahabad, where he completed his primary and secondary education. In 1959, he received his degree in chemistry at the Institute of Higher Education in Teheran, after graduation, up to 1965, Sharafkandi taught chemistry in the Kurdish towns of Bukan and Mahabad. In 1972, he went to France to study at the University of Paris VI, while studying in Paris in 1973, he met Dr. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the Secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, and joined the Party. Upon his retum to Iran, he became Ghassemlou’s representative in his country, in 1976, he went back to Iran to teach at the Teachers’ Higher Training College in Teheran. In February 1979, after the fall of the Shah’s regime, Dr. Sharafkandi was elected alternate member of the Central Committee and appointed as the Party’s official in Teheran. During the summer of 1979, he became a permanent Party cadre and in 1980, during the following Congress, he acceded to the Political Bureau. From then onwards, up to the assassination in July 1989 in Vienna of Dr. Ghassemlou by Iranian emissaries, he was regularly re-elected, in 1986, he also took office as assistant Secretary-general of PDKI. After Ghassemlou’s assassination, he took over the Party’s leadership until December 1991. Sharafkandi was murdered in the Mykonos restaurant assassinations, in the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi, an Iranian national who worked as a grocer in Berlin, and Lebanese Abbas Rhayel, guilty of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder, in a 2004 letter to Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad objected to the commemorative plaque in front of the restaurant, calling it an insult to Iran. Sharafkandi married and had three children, aside from Kurdish, he spoke Persian, Arabic, Azeri and French. Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Mahabad Republic Qazi Muhammad Dr. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou
15.
Simko Shikak
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Simko Shikak was a Kurdish chieftain of the Shakak tribe. He was born into a prominent Kurdish feudal family based in Chihriq castle located near the Baranduz river in the Urmia region of northwestern Iran, by 1920 parts of Iranian Azerbaijan located west of Lake Urmia were under his control. He led Kurdish farmers into battle and defeated the Iranian army on several occasions, the Iranian government had him assassinated in 1930. Simko took part in the massacre of the Assyrians of Khoy and his family was one of the most prominent and politically active Kurdish families throughout Qajar reign from the late 18th to early 20th century. Sadiq Khan Shikak was one of the generals and governors in the Agha Muhammad Khans early Qajar state and was commanding a force of 10,000 soldiers, however, he was soon fell out of favor and Qajar monarch attempted to murder him. Sadiq Khan has been accused of taking part in the assassination of Qajar king in the town of Shusha in 1797. Among other prominent members of the family are Ismail Khan The Great and his son Ali Khan, Muhammad Pasha son of Ali Khan, many members of the family were murdered by the Qajar state such as Cewer Agha who was killed at Tabriz by the order of governor general. In 1905, the Qajar monarch Mozafar-al-Din Shah appointed Husein Qulikhan Nizamul-saltana as the governor of Azerbaijan. According to Iranian historian Ahmad Kasravi, Nizamul-saltana officially invited Cewer Agha to Tabriz in order to him on the border issues between Iran and the Ottoman Empire. Once Cewer Agha arrived in Tabriz, Nizamul-saltana ordered Muhammad Hussein Khan Zargham to invite Cewer Agha to his own residence, Cewer Agha was accompanied by seven of his guards including one of his uncles. Muhammad Ali Mirza, the Iranian Crown Prince, ordered his murder via telegraph sent to Nizamul-saltana, five of Cewer Aghas guards managed to escape from the murder plot in Tabriz in a ferocious battle and return to Chari castle. Cewers father, Muhammad Agha, sought help from Sultan Abdulhamid II in Istanbul to avenge the murder of his son, however Iranian envoy in Ottoman court managed to counter his efforts and according to some sources, Muhammad Agha was assassinated in a Qajar conspiracy in Istanbul. Murder of Cewer Agha caused outrage among the Kurds, moreover, many Iranian intellectuals and constitutionalists in Tabriz and Tehran condemned his assassination. There are different and conflicting views about Simko among Kurdish historians, after the murder of Cewer Agha, Simko became the head of Shikak forces. At this time, Iranian government was trying to assassinate him like the members of his family. In 1919, Mukarramul-Molk, the governor of Azerbaijan, with the help of Armenians, although the plot failed, but it revealed the intentions of the Iranian government, and propelled Simko into a turbulent period of political and military confrontation with Iran. Simko was in contact with other Kurdish nationalists such as Abdurrazaq Badrkhan, Seyyed Taha was a Kurdish nationalist who was conducting propaganda among the Iranian Kurds for the union of Iranian Kurdistan and Turkish Kurdistan in an independent state. He was also aware of the geopolitics and modern nationalism
16.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
17.
Dagens Nyheter
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Dagens Nyheter, abbreviated DN, is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, Dagens Nyheter was founded by Rudolf Wall in December 1864. The first issue was published on 23 December 1864, during its initial period the paper was published in the morning. In 1874 the paper became a joint stock company and its circulation in 1880 was 15,000 copies. In the 1890s, Wall left Dagens Nyheter and soon after, from 1946 to 1959 Herbert Tingsten was the executive editor. The newspaper is owned by the Bonnier Group, Dagens Nyheter operates from the so-called DN-skrapan in Sweden. This was completed in 1964 and was designed by the architect Paul Hedqvist and it is 84 metres tall and has 27 floors, none of which are underground. In 1996, the enterprise moved to its current location on Gjörwellsgatan. The newspaper Expressen, also owned by the Bonnier Group, is located in building as well. Opinion leaders often choose Dagens Nyheter as the venue for publishing major opinion editorials, the stated position of the editorial page is independently liberal. However, it left its alliance with the liberal establishment in the country in 1972. In the 1960s the circulation of Dagens Nyheter was much higher than that of other Swedish dailies, in 2001 its circulation was 361,000 copies. The 2004 circulation of the paper was 363,000 copies, the circulation of the paper was 363,100 copies in weekdays in 2005 and had dropped to 292,300 copies in 2010. In 2013, the print edition of Dagens Nyheter had a circulation of 282,800 copies, the web edition, dn. se, had on average roughly 1.5 million unique visitors per week during 2013. List of newspapers in Sweden Official website in Swedish
18.
Svenska Dagbladet
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Svenska Dagbladet, abbreviated SvD, is a daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. The first issue of Svenska Dagbladet appeared on 18 December 1884, ivar Anderson is among its former editors-in-chief who assumed the post in 1940. The paper is published in Stockholm and provides coverage of national and international news as well as coverage of the Greater Stockholm region. Its subscribers are concentrated in the capital, but it is distributed in most of Sweden, during the beginning of the 1900s the paper was one of the right-wing publications in Stockholm. Svenska Dagbladet is owned by Schibsted which purchased it in the late 1990s, the stated position of the editorial page is independently moderate, which means it is independent but adheres to the liberal conservatism of the Moderate Party. On the other hand, the paper is regarded as conservative. In November 2000 Svenska Dagbladet changed its format from broadsheet to tabloid, in 2005 the paper started a Web portal for business news as a joint venture with Aftonbladet. Since 1925 Svenska Dagbladet has awarded an individual sportsperson or a team the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal at the end of each year, the circulation of Svenska Dagbladet was 185,000 copies in 2003. The paper had a circulation of 187,100 copies on weekdays in 2005, among Swedish morning newspapers Svenska Dagbladet had the third largest circulation with 195,200 copies in 2007 after Dagens Nyheter and Göteborgs-Posten. In 2008 Svenska Dagbladet had a circulation of 123,383 copies, the circulation of the paper was 185,600 copies in 2011. It was 159,600 copies in 2012 and 143,400 copies in 2013, gunilla Asker, in 2009 appointed CEO of Svenska Dagbladet. Cordelia Edvardson, Jerusalem correspondent for Svenska Dagbladet from 1977 to 2006, list of Swedish newspapers Svenska Utlandstidningen Merrill, John C. and Harold A. Fisher. The worlds great dailies, profiles of fifty newspapers pp 308–13 Official website of Svenska Dagbladet
