Word: barzanis
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Dates: during 1952-1952
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...North Korea were poised to jump across the 38th parallel, there was a similar force in the Russian part of Kurdistan, ready to jump, too. It was Russian-trained and Russian-equipped. But it wasn't Russian. It was entirely Kurdish and led by a Kurd, Mustafa Barzani, a onetime mullah (teacher of Islam) whom the Russians turned into a general...
...Barzani's army stood poised to strike for three months. Then, after it had become amply clear that the U.S. would resist aggression in Korea and elsewhere, the Russians withdrew Barzani from the frontier. But his army still lurks just across the border, poised and ready to strike at a word from the Kremlin. U.S. military observers describe it as a first-class fighting outfit, with its own tactical air group manned by Soviet-trained Kurdish pilots...
...Barzani's army is the result of years of careful, dogged Communist organization among the Kurds, begun almost immediately after the Russian Revolution. On the eve of World War II, G.P.U. agents were busily signing dozens of secret treaties with Kurdish chieftains. In 1942 after the Russians had occupied northern Iran, the Reds went to work on a plan for an "independent" Kurdish nation. They took a group of Kurdish 'chieftains from Iran and Iraq to Baku for a royal round of banquets and ballets. A Russian agent got wind of a secret patriotic organization called the Committee...
...puppet state was squashed within a year by the Persian army, which marched into Mehabad and hanged its president to a flagpole. But the "People's Republic" left several legacies, including General Barzani, who had headed the puppet state's army and managed to fight his way back to Russia. I asked a Kurdish officer serving in the Iraq army what would happen if Barzani's men came down across the border, calling on the Kurds to arise and unite. He answered: "Any Kurd-and I am proud to call myself one-would have a hard time...