|
 |
Biography
Dr.
Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the leader the Democratic Party
of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), was born on 22 December
1930 in the Ghassemlou valley near the Kurdish city of
Ûrmiyeh. He went to primary school in Ûrmiyeh and
continued his Secondary school in Tehran.
Dr. Ghassemlou’s involvement in politics started early
in life, and at the age of 15 he co-founded the
Democratic Youth Union of Iranian Kurdistan. Due to
political and national oppression in Kurdistan, his
political activities mostly took a clandestine form.
Ghassemlou attended university in Paris, and later in
Prague. In Prague, he meets Helen Krulich whom he later
married and they had two daughters together, Mina (1953)
and Hiwa (1955).
He earned a Ph.D. Degree in Economics and was an
Associate Professor in both Paris and Prague. He was
teaching International Economics at the Vysoká s´kola
ekonomická ("Prague School of Economics"), and
thereafter Kurdish studies at Sorbonne University in
Paris.
 Dr.
Ghassemlou authored several books, book-chapters and
articles about politics and economics, and some of them
have been translated into a number of different
languages. His oft-cited work Kurdistan and the Kurds
(1965) has been until present days consensually
recognized as a valuable source, especially regarding
the political geography of Kurdistan, the political
history of the Kurds and traditional socio-economic
relations in Kurdish society.
Besides being an acknowledged scholar and one of the
greatest leaders of the Kurds, Dr. Ghassemlou’s
excellent diplomatic skills earned him an international
reputation, especially in Europe.
Those who knew and worked with him closely during his
academic and political carrier, Kurds as well as
Westerners, recall him as a man of quick wit and a
person with a great sense of humour.
After several decades of political activity, and as the
leader of the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan, Dr.
Ghassemlou was assassinated in Vienna by the agents of
the Islamic Republic of Iran on July 13, 1989. Dr.
Ghassemlou was in Austria to negotiate with Iranian
representatives on Kurdish rights and self-government
for Iranian Kurdistan.
Dr. Ghassemlou, a resolute advocate of the rights of his
people and a determined leader who did not rule out
guerrilla warfare, was also a man of peace and gave it a
chance whenever possible. He went to the negotiating
table in good faith. However, by assassinating the
Kurdish leader, the Iranian regime lived up to the
entrenched view among the Kurdish nation that it is not
trustworthy, and that assassination is part and parcel
of its political mindset and practice.
|
|
|
 |
