Re: [Marxism] Re: Mahabad Republic

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

David Walters wrote:
> I take Sancar's post from someone who is cynical about criticism of the
> USSR. Someone who will tolerate 'some' criticism but only within limits.
> It seems to me that someone who is so cynical about history shouldn't be
> discussing it at all. It's too bad, too, since much of the meat of
> Sancar's critique *of* the Mahabad Republic is actually quite fascinating,
> and all aspects of this history should be expanded upon. But Sancar
> declares criticism of the USSR off limits...why is this? To declare it off
> limits means he wants to excise this history from the history of the
> post-WWII period. Why in the world, Sancar, would you want to that?

I myself think it is wrong to superimpose the standard Trotskyist
boilerplate about Stalinist betrayal on the Mahabad Republic. To begin
with, it only existed because Iran was divided between the USSR and Great
Britain during WWII in order to preempt the Nazis. With Soviet support, the
Kurds declared a republic. In 1947, at the beginning of the Cold War, the
USSR withdrew its troops as did the West. With the absence of Soviet
troops, Tehran was able to overrun the infant republic. Also, the politics
of this do not fit into the neat categories familiar from the Greek Civil
War, which did involve conscious *betrayal* of the revolutionary movement.
The Kurds were led by Mustafa Barzani, who went into exile in the USSR
after the collapse of the Mahabad Republic. Just to make sure that comrades
have no confusion about what this means politically, Barzani--like most
Kurdish leaders--switched horses when it was deemed expedient. In his final
years, he was effusive in his praise for the USA.

Honestly, I think that a definitive Marxist analysis of the Kurdish issue
remains to be written. When I wrote my piece for swans, it was mainly an
effort to educate myself. I would urge comrades like Andy to take NPR with
a grain of salt. There is no substitute for reading more scholarly
material. I recommend James Ciment's "The Kurds: State and Minority in
Turkey, Iraq and Iran" very highly. Ciment is something of a Marxist, but
the book might be hard to track down. I also recommend Washington Post
reporter Jonathan C. Randal's "After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness".
Even though he is a partisan of Kurdish nationalism, Randal's frustration
with the fecklessness of Kurd leaders is practically palpable. The book
also has the advantage of being relatively easy to track down.

Finally, I recommend "The Kurdish Experience," an article by Amir
Hassanpour that appeared originally in the 1994 MERIP. Fortunately, it is
available online at:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/kurdish/htdocs/lib/kurdish_ex.html. It is a very
good introduction.



Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism