After implementing the recommendations of the Second Congress by the temporary central committee of the Party regarding the program, internal regulations, and the situation that had occurred to the Party due to the split of the faction of Hamza Abdullah, the temporary central committee of the Party urgently moved to hold the Third Congress.
After full preparations, on January 26, 1953, with the presence of 35 to 40 representatives from the Party's organizations and the presence of the old and new leadership of the Party, in a difficult and severe security situation, the Third Congress of the Party was held secretly at the house of Ra'is Awal Fatih Jabari in the Shatrlu neighborhood of Kirkuk city.
After reading the congress report and its approval by the attendees, the work moved to the decision of changing the name of the Party and amending the program and internal regulations. Thus, the name of the Party was changed from the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq to the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Iraq, and a plan was drawn up to change the program and regulations of the Party; this task was left for after the designation of the members of the central committee of the Party. Later, by the members of the congress, the new central committee was elected, which consisted of:
- Mustafa Barzani , President
- Ibrahim Ahmad, Secretary General
- Dr. Jaafar Muhammad Karim
- Mirhaj Ahmad Akrayi
- Nuri Shaways
- Ali Abdullah
- Nuri Ahmad Taha
- Jalal Talabani
- Omar Mustafa
- Ali Hamdi Bedohi
- Rashid Abdulqadir
- Muhammad Amin Maruf
- Jalil Hoshyar
Later, four members were designated for the political bureau, which consisted of Ibrahim Ahmad، Nuri Shaways، Ali Abdullah and Omar Mustafa.
In this congress, the name of the president is mentioned explicitly, as stated in the twenty-ninth article of its internal regulations: the President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Iraq, the hero of the liberation of Kurdistan, General Mustafa Barzani is the President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Iraq, and for the first time in the history of the Party, the term Secretary General was used.
The most important decisions of the congress were:
- Changing the name of the Party from (Kurdistan Democratic Party) to (Kurdistan Democratic Party - Iraq).
- Marxist-Leninist thought was designated as the ideology of the Party.
- The name of the Party organ was changed from Rizgari to Khabat.
- Establishing the organizations of the Kurdistan Students Union, the Kurdistan Democratic Youth Union, and the Kurdistan Women's Union.
- Permanent expulsion of Hamza Abdullah from the ranks of the Party.
- Not accepting Awni Yousef as a representative of the congress on the charge of ignoring the decisions of the temporary leadership of the Second Congress.
The structure of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Iraq, based on the internal regulations of the Third Congress, was organized as follows (cell, district committee, branch committee, central committee, political bureau, Secretary General of the Party, President).
Adopting the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, although it did not align with the beliefs of a nationalist party and was against the desire of most of the cadres and members of the Party, it seemed that despite it being the prevailing belief of that era, the reason for it might have been the competition with the Communist Party, which led to a large number of communist and Marxist sympathizers in Kurdistan joining the Party.
In terms of the Party's media and publications, after the Third Congress, in addition to the newspaper Rizgari, whose name was changed to Khabat and was the organ of the Party, the newspaper (Nida Kurdistan) began to be printed in Arabic, and two other publications were published in Kurdish under the names Rêgay Nwê (New Path) dedicated to intellectuals and youth, and Nrkey Jutyar (Farmer's Cry) dedicated to farmers.
Sources:- Letter of Jalal Talabani (Pirot) to: Leader General Mustafa Barzani and dear friend Mirhaj Ahmad, (5/10/1955 – Beijing), Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, 1931-1958, Volume One, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press - 2004), Document No. 7.
- Habib Muhammad Karim, History of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Iraq (In Key Stations) 1946 - 1993, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998).
- Ali Abdullah, History of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Iraq until the holding of the Third Congress, (Location unknown - 1968).
- Text of the internal regulations of the Third Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Iraq.
- History of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Congresses and Conferences (Program and Internal Regulations), Volume One and Two, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2021)