Remembering Nawshirwan Mustafa: Eight Years Since His Passing

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Nawshirwan Mustafa.

Today, Sunday 19 May 2025, marks the eighth anniversary of the passing of Nawshirwan Mustafa, a prominent Kurdish political leader, co-founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and the founding leader of the Change Movement (Gorran).

Born in Sulaymaniyah in 1944, Nawshirwan Mustafa was deeply involved in the Kurdish liberation movement from the early 1960s. He joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1967, later becoming a founding member of the PUK in 1975 alongside President Jalal Talabani and other key figures. He served as Deputy Secretary-General and played a central role in the armed resistance against Saddam Hussein’s regime, as well as in promoting the Kurdish cause on the international stage.

Following his resignation from the PUK in 2006, Nawshirwan Mustafa established the Wsha media organisation, which laid the foundation for the Gorran Movement. In 2009, Gorran emerged as a powerful opposition force in the Kurdistan Region, advocating for reform and transparency in governance.

A fluent speaker of Arabic, Persian, German, and English, Nawshirwan Mustafa was also a respected intellectual, writer, and journalist, publishing extensively on politics, history, and literature. He passed away in Sulaymaniyah on 19 May 2017 at the age of 73, shortly after returning from medical treatment abroad.



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