Foreign Relations of the September (Eylul) Kurdish Revolution in Iraq 1961-1968

Abstract

The 11 September 1961 Kurdish armed revolution which is known in the Kurdish political memory as the Eylul Revolution (hereafter the Eylul Revolution) in the Kurdish areas of Iraq represents a milestone in the history of the Kurdish national liberation movements. The Revolution can be said to represent the first Kurdish armed movement that prioritized building foreign relations for the achievement of several interconnected foreign policy goals.

These relations targeted regional and international powers, regional and international organizations, both governmental and non-governmental as well as a variety of non-state actors in pursuit of several foreign policy goals. This research seeks to answer the following questions: Which states or organizations were targeted, and why? What was the aim of building those foreign relations? And, more importantly, what were the instruments that were used to first build foreign relations? and subsequently, did the Kurdish national liberation movement have a pre-designed foreign policy? Through analysis of the foreign relations of the main case study of this research- the Kurdish national liberation movement in Iraq- this research argues that not only the Kurdish national liberation movement could pursue foreign policy and conduct foreign relations, but they also ought to build foreign relations for the achievement of their foreign goals in a complex geopolitical environment.