Ibrahim Ahmed

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Ibrahim Ahmed or Ibrahim Ahmad (1914-2000) was an Iraqi-Kurdish author; One of the founders and Secretary-General of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, from 1947-58. He was living in England after 1975.

Coined the term Peshmerga into the modern Kurdish language.

Ibrahim Ahmed was one of those who organized the famous demonstration against the then colonial power of Great Britain in Iraq, in front of the City Hall in the city Suleimani in 1930. Many people were wounded or killed when the Iraqi police opened fire against the peaceful protest demonstration. That day is now known as “Black 6th of September” in Kurdish history. In 1931, he went to Baghdad to intermediate school and after that to secondary school as there were none operating at the time in Suleimani. He consequently studied law at Baghdad’s faculty of law and reorganized a Kurdish youth organization in order to expand it. He managed to do so with the help of some of his friends, stretching its activities beyond the simple borders of Iraqi Kurdistan, and attempted to reunite Kurdish writers from all parts of the Kurdish homelands. He made this organization more efficient and prosperous than ever before. They also started a Kurdish publishing firm and a printing work that published a Kurdish political calendar and other publications.

1937, he wrote a pamphlet called “Arabs and Kurds” in Arabic. This publication was a cry for solidarity between Arabs and Kurds, and an explanation of the fact that Kurds and Arabs alike had rights, since neither at this time had an independent state of their own. The rights declared were for both people to have a country of their own, since even Iraq was ruled over by the British at that time. This pamphlet had a large impact on political opinion in Iraq. After that, Ibrahim Ahmed was marked as a Marxist and was regularly persecuted by the authorities.

In 1944 he became responsible of the J.K. (Komeley Jianewey Kurdistan) alliance’s branch in Suleimani, even though it had been originally established in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. Subsequently, this branch evolved to serve the entirety of southern Kurdistan, ie Iraqi Kurdistan. When the J.K. changed its name on the 16th of July 1945, to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (K.D.P.), Ibrahim Ahmed became chairman in Iraqi Kurdistan. This branch of the K.D.P. published a magazine “Dengi Rasti” with Ibrahim Ahmed as editor.

After the decomposition of the Mahabad Republic, in December 1946, the different branches of the KDP that existed in Iraq joined forces, and KDP Iraq was founded. An earlier attempt had taken place, without success, however, in August 1946. At the earlier attempt, Ibrahim Ahmed had been present at a secret meeting in Baghdad as an observer for the Southern Kurdistan branch of the KDP, that had been established (1945) in Iran. When the KDP in Iraq was finally officially founded, Ibrahim Ahmed became responsible for its organization in the city of Suleimani.

In 1951 the second of the KDP’s secret conferences was held in Baghdad and Ibrahim Ahmad was chosen as a of its temporary Central Committee and given the responsibilities of a general secretary, even though a general secretary had been chosen. Iraqi authorities had expelled Dr. Jafar Karim to Iran, however, so Ibrahim Ahmed stood in the latter's stead. 1953 the KDP’s third conference was held in secrecy, this time in Kirkuk and Ibrahim Ahmad was chosen as the new general secretary in the party. The KDP’s newspaper between 1949-1956 was named “Rizgari” with Ibrahim Ahmad as its editor. After 1956, the party’s newspaper was named “Khabati Kurdistan” with once again Ibrahim Ahmad as editor. In 1959, the party’s newspaper became legal and changed name to “Khabat” with Ibrahim Ahmad as editor and publisher.

In 1960, Ibrahim Ahmed was sentenced to prison because of an article in Khabat which was a critic against the Iraqi Government and demanded autonomy for Kurdistan as promised in the Iraqi constitution. Ibrahim Ahmad remained in hiding until the armed opposition began in Iraqi Kurdistan, in September 1961, under the leadership of the party, when he went to the mountains and established his headquarters in a cave in the Suleimani area known as “Malooma”.