SUMMARY
The Kurdish Democratic Party of Iraq-Provisional Command (KDP-QM), also known as Al-hizb al dimuqraati al-kurid - Qiyada Muvaqqata, was a Kurdish armed group that splintered from the KDP in 1975. Like KDP, the KDP-QM sought to achieve greater autonomy for the Kurdish areas within Iraq. However, when the KDP relinquished its armed struggle and its leadership fled into exile in March 1975, the KDP-QM emerged out of the remnants that wished to continue its armed pursuit. It maintained its armed operations until formally rejoining the KDP at the ninth KDP congress in December 1979, when the leaders of KDP-QM took over the leadership of KDP as well.
The KDP-QM was based in Iran and many of its members had strong personal ties to the Barzani family, who had led its parent group, the KDP. Most KDP-QM supporters were from the Kurmanji-speaking northern parts of Iraqi Kurdistan as opposed to the Sorani-speaking areas, which were drawn to fellow and rival Kurdish group PUK. In 1977 and 1978, KDP-QM had a troop size of 7000.
KDP-QM was led by a three-person leadership team: Masoud Barzani, Idris Barzani and Muhammad Mahmud ‘Abd al-Rahman, commonly known as Sami. Half-brothers Idris (1944-87) and Masou'ud Barzani were the sons of KDP’s leader, Mullah Mustafa Barzani, whilst Sami had joined KDP in 1960 and been a close associate of their father. Internal clashes between authoritarian and strict conservative Idris Barzani and the more progressive Sami, led to Sami leaving to form the Democratic People’s Party of Kurdistan splinter group in 1979. The rejoining of KDP-QM with KDP occurred due to the death of Mullah Mustafa Barzani in March 1979, which triggered the transfer of leadership authority for the KDP to the Barzani brothers.
Despite an inter-Kurd feud, KDP-QM and PUK occasionally cooperated with each other. KDP-QM aligned itself with the Iranian government while PUK, more specific forms of support are not known to have been given during the existence of the group. KDP-QM received logistics support from an unspecified Turkish Kurdistan group in 1976, when KDP-QM fighters operated in Turkish-Iraqi border areas.
