Kurdish Republic
* Your excellent coverage of the current plight of the Kurds includes some useful historical background. Their struggles have not always been futile. For one year (1946), with the formation of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, the Kurds achieved both autonomy and nationhood.
Our perceptions of the Kurds as primitive mountain tribesmen might be altered by knowing that the leader of this evanescent nation, Qazi Mohammad, was a multilingual man of deep convictions who hoped to make Mahabad the center of a resurgent Kurdish culture. Among the first activities of the republic--in the face of severe problems, including a shortage of paper--was publication of two magazines devoted to poetry and literature.
The Iranian army overthrew the republic. On March 31, 1947, Qazi Mohammad and other leaders of the Mahabad Republic were hanged.
EDWARD C. BRESSLER
Los Angeles
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