Forgotten Voices: Ibrahim Ahmed and the Kurdish Nationalist Movement.

Ibrahim Ahmed was one of the original founders of the Kurdish Democratic Pary (KDP) in Iraq in the 1940s. Despite being a seminal political figure and thinker, Kurdish historians and political analysts have tended to overlook his contributions. Because of his efforts to attach to the Kurdish nationalist struggle in Iraq both class and ethnic/nationalist concerns, he was effectively marginalized from the KDP by its more traditionally minded elements. The results were something of a disaster for the Kurdish people in Iraq, who, since the loss of Ahmed, have been led by traditional elites that have tended to place their narrow interests above those of Iraqi Kurdistan?s most marginalized elements. The paper will seek to explore the significance of Ahmed's position in modern Kurdish history by drawing on his written work which called for Arab and Kurdish unity in Iraq, along with interview material among his family members and others that were actively involved in the Kurdish nationalist movement during its beginning. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]