Kurdistan and The Kurds A Divided Homeland and a Nation without ...

and after one month from the start of war operations the
Kurdish leadership saw the formation of a liberation army
consisting of more than 20 thousand “Peshmarga”
fighters. This led to the withdrawal of the Iraqi army in
October 1961 from a large part of the regions they had
occupied.
In the spring of 1961 the Iraqi government started a
new and large attack on Kurdistan, but this attack ended
in total failure as the revolution managed to repel it and
carry out counterattacks.
On 8 February 1963 the Baath Party carried out a
military coup and overthrew the rule of Abdulkarim
Qasem. On 10th of June 1963 the Baathists restarted the
war against the Kurdish people. However, the military
faction of Abdulsalam Arif took the opportunity of the
internal clashes of the Baath Party’s leadership and carried
out another coup on 18 November 1963. After several
failed attempts to break the will of the Kurdish people
the government was forced to make an agreement with
the leadership of the Kurdish revolution on 10 February
1964 regarding a ceasefire instead of fulfilling the demands
of the Kurdish people. The temporary constitution issued
by the government on 4th May 1964 stopped at declaring
the equal rights for all ethnicities in a vague unclear
manner. As usual after a period of rest the Iraqi
government restarted the war. This time the fighting
was commenced by the attack of Iraqi army on 4th April
1965 and the fighting continued until the government of
Abdulrahman Al-Bazzaz declared a program for a
peaceful solution of the Kurdish question within the Iraqi
Republic in his announcement, which was broadcasted
on 29 June 1966. This happened after the failure of the
Iraqi military attempts, especially after their profound
- 133 -