Mahabad

Kurdish town lying in a fertile valley south of Lake Urmia, in the province of Azerbaijan, west Iran; population (1991) 82,000. It formed the centre of a short-lived Kurdish republic (January-December 1946) before being reoccupied by the Iranians. In the 1980s Mahabad was the focal point of resistance by Iranian Kurds against the Islamic republic, and is still a centre of Kurdish nationalism.

History In December 1945, a Kurdish government was formed in Mahabad with the tacit approval of Soviet occupying forces, and in January 1946, the Kurdish leader Qazi Muhammad declared an independent People's Republic of Mahabad, with himself as president. The fledgling republic survived less than a year, falling to the Iranian army after the USSR withdrew its troops in return for access to the country's oil fields. Qazi Muhammad was arrested in December 1946 and later hanged with 13 other Kurdish leaders.

The town has road links with Tabriz and Orumiyeh, as well as with Mosul in Iraq.