The peaceful situation in South Kurdistan, as agreed upon on March 11, 1970, did not last long, and the Baghdad government gradually broke its promises and the leadership of the revolution became more desperate than ever before. Matters reached the outbreak of war again between the two sides in the year 1974. It is certain that this situation had a major impact on the work of the mass organizations of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, especially the Kurdistan Students Union, as its organizational activities covered most parts of Iraq.
After the convening of the 7th Congress of the Kurdistan Students Union, and due to the unfavorable conditions, and as it was scheduled to hold the annual congress, but the goal was not achieved. This situation became more complicated after the Algiers Agreement on March 6, 1975, and the setback of the September national revolution, where local party organizations in South Kurdistan were completely disrupted and large numbers of Iraqi Kurds took refuge in neighboring countries, especially to Iran.
Despite the Algiers Agreement and the setback of the revolution, the efforts to revive the Kurdistan Students Union did not stop. On December 16, 1975, the first secret organization of the Kurdistan Students Union was re-established by Rebar Mulla Hussein Afdal in Zakho. This secret organization was able to develop its activity in a short time and turn into a platform to deliver the voice of the revolution to the people of South Kurdistan, and this secret organization ended after it was uncovered and Rebar Mulla Hussein Afdal was executed on April 23, 1976(1).
The activities of the Kurdistan Students Union were very limited due to the strict censorship imposed on refugees in Iran until the fall of the monarchy in the year 1979 and the Islamic Republic of Iran took its place. This change in the Iranian government gave the refugees some freedom of action, and on May 17, 1979, they held a meeting in the city of Karaj in Iran, under the name of the Kurdistan Students Union, in which a new secretariat for the Kurdistan Students Union was elected, including: Dilshad Barzani, Zakaria Akreyi, Sherko Burhan Dizayi, Helmat Ali Abdullah, Saif al-Din Rashid Sindi, Taha Abdul Rahman Barwari, and Haji Abdul Rahman Darwish(2).
After this expanded meeting, in the year 1979, the Kurdistan Students Union organization issued two magazines: Dengi Qutabi (Voice of the Students) in the Kurdish language and Sedaye Danesh-amuz (Dengi Qutabi) in the Persian language(3).
This meeting paved the way for holding the Kurdistan Students Union congress in the year 1981. The congress was held in the city of Karaj in the presence of 67 members and the refugee branch of the Kurdistan Students Union was established. (Dengi Qutabian) became the mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Students Union organization, refugee branch in Iran(4), and the responsible and working members were elected by voting as follows:
1- Haji Abdul Rahman Darwish - Branch responsible
2- Taha Abdul Rahman Barwari - Branch working member
3- Zannun Yunis Rozbayani - Branch working member
4- Haji Ramadan Akreyi - Branch working member(5)
After the establishment of the refugee branch of the Kurdistan Students Union, its organizations expanded and became very active, and the branch held its second congress in 1982 and its third congress in 1983(6).
After this congress, and until the year 1986, the situation of the Kurdistan Students Union organizations did not change much, although the organizations of the refugee branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Youth Union and even its branches in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Kirkuk became active after 1983, and played an influential role with the Kurdistan Students Union organizations in 1986, therefore, and due to the convergence of their struggle, the party leadership and the secretariat of the two organizations decided in 1986 to merge and hold a joint congress for the two organizations(7).
Holding the Congress:
The joint congress of the Kurdistan Students Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Youth Union was held from August 28 to 30, 1986, in the village of Khanira, Erbil Governorate, under the slogan (Towards unity to overthrow the regime and end the war so that we can study in peace and democracy). Its proceedings began in the presence of 77 members, and the goal of this congress was to unify the Kurdistan Students Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Youth Union into one organization(8).
In the beginning, the speech of the committee supervising the congress was read, and then the telegram of President Masoud Barzani, the speech of the Political Bureau of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and the message of the Kurdish Nationalist Free People (KOK) and the Rizgari secretariat(9).
A body of 15 members was elected for the Executive Committee of the Kurdistan Students and Youth Union as follows:
1- Christophe Yalda Turhan, known as Rêbwar Yalda, as Secretary.
2- Kurdistan Birdawd Qadir
3- Haji Abdul Rahman
4- Ibrahim Mustafa
5- Abdullah Khalo Ali
6- Ismail Ibrahim Fattah, known as Samko Amidi
7- Faryad Shafiq Muhammad, known as Faryad Barzani
8- Tayar Salim
9- Ahmed Mulla Qasim
10- Adil Ali
11- Azad Faiq Ghafur, known as Dzhwar Faiq
12- Nawzad Muhammad Najib
13- Rifat Saeed Muhammad Amin
14- Ihsan Abdullah Qasim, known as Ihsan Amidi
15- Rizgar Kumki, known as Rizgar Kurdistani(11).
Reserve members of the Executive Committee:
1- Ahmed Dzhkri
2- Nabi Ahmed
3- Hassan Muhammad Hassan, known as Hassan Shabiba(10).
In the first meeting of the Executive Committee held on September 20, 1986, at the headquarters of the Political Bureau of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in the presence of Comrades Idris Barzani and Fazel Mirani, members of the Political Bureau, the Secretariat Bureau of the Kurdistan Students and Youth Union was chosen as follows:
1- Rêbwar Yalda - Secretary.
2- Haji Abdul Rahman - Member of the Secretariat Bureau
3- Ibrahim Mustafa Muhammad - Member of the Secretariat Bureau
4- Faryad Barzani - Member of the Secretariat Bureau
5- Abdullah Khalo - Member of the Secretariat Bureau
Branch responsibles were also chosen from among the members of the Executive Committee as follows:
1- Adil Ali - Erbil Branch responsible
2- Dzhwar Faiq - Kirkuk Branch responsible
3- Nawzad Muhammad Najib - Sulaymaniyah Branch responsible
4- Rifat Saeed Muhammad Amin - Refugee Branch responsible
5- Samko Amidi - Duhok-Nineveh Branch responsible(12)
The congress issued a number of decisions, including:
Issuing the magazine Pêşkewtin (Progress), where the first issue of the magazine was published in January 1987 in 16 pages, and the last issue of the magazine in the mountain struggle phase was issued, which is the 22nd issue on November 3, 1990(13). As a prelude to merging the Kurdistan Students Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Youth Union, broadcasting articles and activities on the Voice of Kurdistan radio. Supporting the Gulan Revolution and the Democratic National Front (JWD) and opposing the policy of Arabization in South Kurdistan(14).
Among the most important political activities in this phase was the issuance of a statement of support by the World Federation of Democratic Youth at the Havana Congress in the year 1987 for the Kurdish cause and the Kurdistan Students and Youth Union, and the Union was active in 127 countries and regions, and they also participated in July 1989 in the Pyongyang Congress organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth(15).
In the field of education and training, and for the first time in Kurdish history, they took responsibility for establishing schools and providing teachers and educational materials in the liberated areas in Kurdistan.
Sources and footnotes
1- Sasan Awni, Yekîtiya Qutabiyani Kurdistan: Chand Layenekî Tekoşan u Mêjû, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press - 1998), p. 70.
2- Luqman Gharib, Martyr Haji Abdulrahman: A Stage Full of Giving in the History of the Kurdistan Student and Youth Movement, (Erbil - Roshinbiri Press - 2003 AD), p. 68.
3- Musa Ahmed, Journalism of the Kurdistan Students Union, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press - 1998), pp. 31-32.
4- Sasan Awni, previous source, p. 75.
5- Luqman Gharib, previous source, 68.
6- Sasan Awni, previous source, p. 78.
7- Irfan Aziz Aziz, Congresses and Conferences of the Kurdistan Students Union, first edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2012), p. 87.
8- Greetings to the Eighth Anniversary of the August Conference, August 28-30, 1986, Brayati Newspaper, organ of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Unified, No. 2030, (Erbil, Monday, August 29, 1994), p. 8.
9- Sirwan Osman, A Shining History and an Uninterrupted Caravan, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Press - 2014), p. 15.
10- Irfan Aziz, previous source, pp. 89-90.
11- Same source, p. 90.
12- Sasan Awni, previous source, p. 118.
13- Musa Ahmed, pp. 4-6.
14- Irfan Aziz, previous source, pp. 91-92.
15- Sasan Awni, previous source, p. 122.
16- Same source, pp. 26, 29.