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Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan

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This article is about the Kurdish Islamic emirate. For other ones, see Islamic emirate (disambiguation).
Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan
میرنشینی ئیسلامی کوردستان
1994-2003
Flag of
Flag
Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan (dark grey)
Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan (dark grey)
StatusPart of the Kurdistan Region (1994-2001)
Unrecognized independent state (2001–2003)
CapitalByara
Largest cityHalabja
Official languagesKurdish
Religion
Salafism
GovernmentIslamic emirate
Emir 
• 2001–2003
Mullah Krekar
Deputies 
• 2001-2003
Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i
• 2001-2003
Ali Bapir
History 
• Established
1994
March 30, 2003
CurrencyIranian rial, Iraqi dinar (de facto)
Today part ofIraqi Kurdistan

The Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan (Kurdish: میرنشینی ئیسلامیی کوردستان), was an unrecognized Kurdish Islamic state located in the Halabja Governorate. It had been outside the control of the Iraqi government since 1991, and was a self-governing entity within the Kurdistan Region in 1994, and officially declared independence in 2001. It ceased to exist after Operation Viking Hammer.

History

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Background

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The 1991 Iraqi uprisings included the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (IMK), which rebelled against the Iraqi government and established the Kurdistan Region. The IMK continued to have a significant presence in the Kurdistan Region. Later, the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War erupted between the KDP and PUK. Osman Abdulaziz presented the IMK as an alternative to the corruption of the KDP and PUK. The IMK and the KDP were allies, although they clashed occasionally. As part of the agreements, control of the Kurdistan Region was divided into three sections. The KDP was given Duhok Governorate and Erbil Governorate, the PUK was given Sulaymaniyah Governorate, and the IMK was given Halabja Governorate. The emirate was a part of the Kurdistan Region, although not under the jurisdiction of the Kurdistan Regional Government. When the IMK was incorporated into the KRG, some left the IMK and formed their own groups, which continued to operate in the emirate.[1][2][3][4] Among the groups were Islah led by Mullah Krekar, the Kurdistan Justice Group led by Ali Bapir, and Jund al-Islam (a merger of the Tawhid Islamic Front, the Islamic Resistance Movement, and the Second Soran Unit) led by Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i.[5] Early during the 1991 Iraqi uprisings, the Kurds belonging to the IMK visited Osama bin Laden and told him about the atrocities that Saddam Hussein was committing against Kurds. After al-Qaeda relocated to Sudan in 1991, a senior al-Qaeda instructor visited Iraqi Kurdistan to train the IMK in 1992.[6] Mullah Krekar was the military commander of the IMK from 1991 until he left to form Islah in 2001.[7] In 2001, Mullah Krekar seized control of the unstable emirate and declared independence, and stated his intentions of expanding the Islamic emirate to include all of Greater Kurdistan. Mullah Krekar presented the Islamic emirate as an independent Kurdish state and claimed that it would not expand past Kurdistan.[8][9][10][11] In the Islamic emirate, Islah and Jund al-Islam merged to form Ansar al-Islam, which acted as the military of the Islamic emirate.[5]

Mullah Krekar, leader of Ansar al-Islam, was the Emir of the Emirate, while Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i and Ali Bapir were his deputies. With the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan under a de facto embargo from all sides, Kurdish jihadists from Iran gave crucial support and set up networks that illegally smuggled to the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan.[12][13][14][15][16]

Life under the Islamic Emirate

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Like Mullah Krekar, many Ansar al-Islam fighters and leaders also held nationalist views and treated the new emirate as a victory of the Kurdish independence movement. They were also traditionalists who promoted the Kurdish culture socially. However, elements of nationalism which contradicted Islam were abandoned.[17][9][10][11] It was also reported that Ansar al-Islam enforced strict Sharia law, committed atrocities against the Yarsani minority, and harshly persecuted Sufis.[18][19][20] The Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan had diplomatic relations with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under Mullah Omar, and would send Kurds to Afghanistan to receive training from the Taliban or Al-Qaeda.[21] They also sent delegations to Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.[22] The IRGC were accused of being reckless about what was happening at their borders.[14] Mullah Krekar and Ansar al-Islam treated the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan as a Kurdish state under Islamic law, rather than an Islamic state composed of Kurds.[23]

After the September 11 attacks, al-Qaeda sought to use the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan as a base for future operations. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi left Afghanistan and was smuggled into the emirate with the help of Kurds from Iran and Europe. He briefly stayed in the emirate, and eventually relocated to Al-Anbar, where he became much more notorious.[24] Foreign fighters mostly included Afghan Arabs, although most fighters were local Kurds. At its peak in 2002, Ansar al-Islam had over 700 fighters, over 90% being Kurds.[25]

Saddam Hussein was aware of the Islamic Emirate, and considered Ansar al-Islam a separatist threat, and attempted to gather intelligence against them. This was confirmed by the Senate Report on Iraqi WMD Intelligence in 2004, and the Select Committee on Intelligence in September 2006. Mullah Krekar had threatened to personally kill Saddam Hussein if Iraq tried anything against the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan.[26][27][23]

Collapse

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After launching the invasion of Iraq, the government of Bülent Ecevit denied the United States permission to enter Iraq from Turkish territory. The United States launched Operation Viking Hammer in 2003. After the loss of the Emirate, most of Ansar al-Islam gathered at the Iran–Iraq border, where they were smuggled into Iran by Iranian Kurds.[28] The KDP and PUK disagreed on how to fight Ansar al-Islam, and some KDP officials even refused to intervene, claiming that the PUK had to face the consequences of allowing Ansar al-Islam to gain such power.[29]

After the collapse of the emirate, Ansar al-Islam dissolved. Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i founded escaped the Kurdistan Region and founded Jamaat Ansar al-Sunna and fought against in the Iraqi insurgency, while Mullah Krekar left for Norway and founded Rawti Shax before his arrest in 2015.[30][31][32] Ali Bapir reconciled with the Kurdistan Regional Government, and registered his group as a legal political party.[33][34]

Mullah Krekar questioned the nationalism of the PUK, claiming that no Kurdish nationalist would invite the United States to defeat the only Kurdish state. Mullah Krekar also refused to join the Iraqi insurgency, since many Iraqi jihadists were former Ba'athist officers. He also claimed that an Ansar al-Islam invasion of Turkey was imminent if the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan had not been captured.[11]

Jama'at Ansar al-Islam was founded in 2007, although Mullah Krekar claimed that it had no relations to him or the original Ansar al-Islam. Jama'at Ansar al-Islam was also mostly Kurdish, but was not nationalist like the original Ansar al-Islam. The group participated in the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives and was incorporated into the Syrian Ministry of Defense in January 2025.[35]

In late 2016, around the 15th anniversary of the emirate, Mullah Krekar said that "I hope we separate from Iraq as soon as possible. I would support it wholeheartedly. We were annexed to the Iraqi state under force in 1921, a state that is a failed state in every sense. The first time Iraq purchased aircraft, they bombed the Kingdom of Kurdistan and Sulaymaniyah. If a tiny part of Kurdistan is separated from Iraq and declares independence, I will endorse it fully. When Mauritania declared independence, they didn't even have a building to wave their flag upon, but still they declared independence." He also claimed that he no longer held resentment towards Kurdish government officials. Hoshyar Zebari confirmed that the Kurdish government made peace with Krekar.[36]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Islamist Threat from Iraqi Kurdistan | The Washington Institute". www.washingtoninstitute.org. Retrieved 2024-12-06.
  2. ^ Faleh A. Jabar and Hosham Dawod, The Kurds: nationalism and politics (London: Saqi), 203-230.
  3. ^ Iraqi Kurdistan: Political Development and Emergent Democracy, Gareth R. V. Stansfield, 2003, pp. 97, ISBN:9781134414161, 1134414161
  4. ^ The A to Z of the Kurds, Michael M. Gunter, 2009, pp. 88, ISBN:9780810863347, 0810863340
  5. ^ a b "Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan." Human Rights Watch, Date unknown. Web. 18 October 2010.
  6. ^ Beyond Iraq: The Future of World Order, 2011, pp. 114, ISBN:9789814324878, 9814324876
  7. ^ ”Mullah Krekar”, Society for Recognition of Famous People, Date unknown. Web. 27 July 2015; Romano, David. "An Outline of Kurdish Islamist Groups in Iraq." The Jamestown Foundation, September 2007. Web. 27 July 2015.
  8. ^ Gade, Tine; Palani, Kamaran (22 May 2022). "The hybridisation of religion and nationalism in Iraqi Kurdistan: The case of Kurdish Islam". Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal. 5 (3–6): 221–241. doi:10.1080/23802014.2022.2070269. hdl:11250/2999460. S2CID 249036504.
  9. ^ a b "Does Kurdish jihadist group threaten Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in north Syria? - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East". http://www.al-monitor.com. 20 June 2021. Archived from the original on 5 May 2022. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  10. ^ a b Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi (11 May 2014). "Key Updates on Iraq's Sunni Insurgent Groups". Brown Moses Blog. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  11. ^ a b c "Kurdish group incorporated into Syrian Ministry of Defense". Zagros Media. February 6, 2024.
  12. ^ "Komal should 'shed' Islamic label: party leader". www.rudaw.net. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
  13. ^ "How ISIS Infiltrated Iranian Kurdistan". iranwire.com.
  14. ^ a b "Journey to jihad: Iran's Sunni Kurds fighting a holy war in Idlib". www.rudaw.net. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
  15. ^ "Iraqi political groupings and individuals". middleeastreference.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2007-03-05.
  16. ^ Ram, Sunil (April 2003). "The Enemy of My Enemy: The odd link between Ansar al-Islam, Iraq and Iran" (PDF). The Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2004. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  17. ^ Gade, Tine; Palani, Kamaran (22 May 2022). "The hybridisation of religion and nationalism in Iraqi Kurdistan: The case of Kurdish Islam". Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal. 5 (3–6): 221–241. doi:10.1080/23802014.2022.2070269. hdl:11250/2999460. S2CID 249036504.
  18. ^ "Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan (Human Rights Watch Backgrounder, )". www.hrw.org.
  19. ^ "Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  20. ^ Brynjar, Lia. Understanding Jihadi Proto-States - JSTOR. JSTOR 26297412.
  21. ^ "Journey to jihad: Iran's Sunni Kurds fighting a holy war in Idlib". www.rudaw.net. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
  22. ^ Schanzer, Jonathan (January 2004) "Ansar al-Islam: Back in Iraq :: Middle East Quarterly". Middle East Quarterly. Archived from the original on 2016-11-29. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  23. ^ a b "Kurdish group incorporated into Syrian Ministry of Defense". Zagros Media. February 6, 2024.
  24. ^ The Islamic State: A Comparative History of Jihadist Warfare, Anthony Celso, 2018, pp. 74, ISBN:9781498569798, 149856979X
  25. ^ The Kurds: A People in Search of Their Homeland, Kevin Mckiernan, 2006, pp. 213, ISBN: 9780312325466, 0312325460
  26. ^ "Senate Intelligence Committee Report p.92-93" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 21, 2006.
  27. ^ "Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Postwar Findings About Iraq's WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How They Compare with Prewar Assessments. 109th Congress, 2nd Session" (PDF). Senate Report on Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq. 8 September 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2015.(See III.G, Conclusions 5 and 6, p.109.)
  28. ^ "The rise and fall of Ansar al-Islam". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  29. ^ The Kurds: A People in Search of Their Homeland, Kevin Mckiernan, 2006, pp. 214-215, ISBN:9780312325466, 0312325460
  30. ^ "16 ISIS-Linked Suspects Held in Europe-Wide Sweep: Italy Officials". NBC News. 12 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  31. ^ "Italy announces swoop on 'jihadist network'". The Local. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  32. ^ "Kurdish group incorporated into Syrian Ministry of Defense". Zagros Media. February 6, 2024.
  33. ^ Obeid, Adel Ahmad.'L'islamisme en mutation : Une étude pluridisciplinaire sur la mouvance islamiste kurde, pp. 22-23
  34. ^ Obeid, Adel Ahmad.'L'islamisme en mutation : Une étude pluridisciplinaire sur la mouvance islamiste kurde, pp. 80-83
  35. ^ "Kurdish group incorporated into Syrian Ministry of Defense". Zagros Media. February 6, 2024.
  36. ^ Mahmud Yasin Kurdi (29 September 2016). "Time has come to break from Iraq, says radical Kurdish cleric Mulla Krekar". rudaw.net. Archived from the original on 29 November 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
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