Iraqi Kurdistan leader Nawshirwan Mustafa laid to rest in Sulaimani

Iraqi Kurdistan leader Nawshirwan Mustafa laid to rest in Sulaimani.

SULAIMANI, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— The Kurdish leader Nawshirwan Mustafa, the head of the Change Movement (Gorran), was laid to rest in Sulaimani city of Saturday.

Mustafa, 73, passed away on Friday after a long illness. Thousands of mourners are in the streets to pay their respects, many carrying signs saying, “Farewell to the leader of half a century of the Kurdish struggle.”

Representatives of the major five Kurdish parties, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Change Movement (Gorran), Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal) delivered messages on Zargata Hill where the Gorran headquarters is located in downtown Sulaimani.

The local government in Sulaimani declared two days of mourning in the city and lowered the Kurdistan flag to half-mast on the government buildings to pay tribute to the deceased Gorran leader.

Speaking during the funeral of the Gorran leader in Sulaimani on Saturday (May 20), PUK Politburo member Qadir Hama Jan said that the PUK hopes and believes that they will make Mustafa’s dream of fulfilling the agreement between the two parties come true.

Qadir Hama Jan, member of the PUK politburo, read a message on behalf of the party, saying that “the Kurdish nation lost a great leader.” He praised Mustafa as the engineer of the 1991 Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein’s Baath regime.

In light of Mustafa’s death, he added, the PUK is determined to implement their landmark cooperation agreement with Gorran, which was signed in presence of the late Mustafa and the ailing PUK leader Jalal Talabani one year ago.

“We work to implement the Gorran-PUK agreement all the way to the reunification of the PUK and Gorran,” said Jan.

Kurdish leader Nawshirwan Mustafa being laid to rest in Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan, May 20, 2017. Photo: Screenshot/Rudaw TV

Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) General-Secretary, Salahudin Bahadin, said during the ceremony that Mustafa’s death would create a “big gap” in the Kurdistan Region.

The Kurdistan Islamic Group’s (KIG), Ali Bapir also said no one should think of leading this country alone, adding that they must take the country out of lawlessness.

Meanwhile, Gorran Spokesman Shorish Haji said the Change Movement is determined to carry on Mustafa’s message, adding they would never quit the values and messages Mustafa struggled and stood for.

Mustafa, who has been battling illness, traveled to Germany for medical treatment in September 2015. After his stay in Germany, he went to the U.K. for a “medical follow-up.”

Gorran enjoys wide support in Kurdistan region and the Movement now has 24 seats in Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament, and comes second to the ruling KDP.

Mustafa, who was fighting against corruption and dictatorship of KDP and PUK in Iraqi Kurdistan, left PUK in December 2006, he formed the Change Movement in 2009 as a rival to the ruling PUK and the KDP.

Massoud Barzani nor his nephew Nechirvan have not attended the funeral. Massoud Barzani’s term as Kurdistan President ended on August 20, 2015 but refused to step down and remains unofficially in office.

Qadir Hama Jan, member of the PUK politburo, read a message on behalf of the party, saying that “the Kurdish nation lost a great leader.” He praised Mustafa as the engineer of the 1991 Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein’s Baath regime.

In light of Mustafa’s death, he added, the PUK is determined to implement their landmark cooperation agreement with Gorran, which was signed in presence of the late Mustafa and the ailing PUK leader Jalal Talabani one year ago.

“We work to implement the Gorran-PUK agreement all the way to the reunification of the PUK and Gorran,” said Jan.

A crying man at the burial of Kurdish leader Nawshirwan Mustafa in Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan, May 20, 2017. Photo: screenshot/NRT TV

The leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and head of the Shiite National Alliance in the Iraqi parliament, Ammar al-Hakim, attended the burial procession and hailed the deceased Gorran leader as “an effective Kurdish and Iraqi leader.”

Nawshirwan Mustafa was born in 1944 in the city of Sulaimani and graduated from the Political Science College at the University of Baghdad in 1967.

He was a co-founder of the PUK in 1975 and remained a PUK official until 2006 as the party’s Deputy Secretary General.

On July 25, 2009 he founded the Gorran party. His party came in second place by winning 24 seats in the Kurdistan Parliament in the 2013 general elections.

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