The Rezgari Party or Razkari Party (; ) is a Lebanese-Kurdish political group that was established on 3 April 1975 by Faysal Fakhru, due to disagreement with the policies of the Kurdish Democratic Party – Lebanon (KDP-L) under Jamil Mihhu. The three main points of disagreement that led to the formation of the Rezgari Party were the KDP-L's failure to appeal to non-

Kurmanji Kurmanji (, ), also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions. It is the ...

-speaking Kurds, its support for the Iraqi government's proposals in the

Iraqi–Kurdish conflict The Iraqi–Kurdish conflict consists of a series of wars, rebellions and disputes between the Kurds and the central authority of Iraq starting in the 20th century shortly after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Some put the marki ...

, and accusations of

nepotism Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...

within the party's leadership. The Rezgari Party continued to exist following the end of the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

, becoming the only political party to represent Lebanon's estimated 100,000 Kurds, and aligning itself with

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

and the

March 8 Alliance The March 8 Alliance () is a loose coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon formed in 2005 that are united by their pro- Ba'athist Syria stance and their opposition to the former March 14 Alliance. It was the ruling coalition ...

Lebanese Civil War

Shortly following the formation of the Rezgari Party, it declared, via its official bulletin Xebat (), its neutrality in the 1975-76 Lebanese Civil War. Thereafter, it aligned itself with the Front of Patriotic and National Parties, which was in favor of neither the

Lebanese National Movement The Lebanese National Movement (LNM; , ''Al-Harakat al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya'') was a front of Leftist, pan-Arabist and Syrian nationalist parties and organizations active during the early years of the Lebanese Civil War, which supported ...

, nor the

Lebanese Front The Lebanese Front was a coalition of mainly right-wing Lebanese Nationalist parties formed in 1976 by majority Christian groups during the Lebanese Civil War. It was intended to act as a reaction force to the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) ...

. Although the Rezgari Party supported the Kurdish rebel forces fighting against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, on 4 December 1976 the Rezgari Party joined forces with the rival pro-Iraqi KDP-L to form (, , also known as the Progressive Kurdish Front). The goals of the new front were to unify Kurdish factions during the Lebanese civil war, improve the sociopolitical status of Kurds in Lebanon, and uphold their rights in employment and citizenship. The unified front only lasted a year, as KDP-L leader Jamil Mihhu was arrested by

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

authorities in 1977.

Rezgari II

The brief alliance with the KDP-L led to the separation of a portion of the Rezgari Party to a splinter group known as the Leftist Rezgari or Rezgari II, led by Abdi Ibrahim, an ally of

Hafez al-Assad Hafez al-Assad (6 October 193010 June 2000) was a Syrian politician and military officer who was the president of Syria from 1971 until Death and state funeral of Hafez al-Assad, his death in 2000. He was previously the Prime Minister of Syria ...

's Syria. This group rejected the formation of the Progressive Kurdish Front because it included the leadership of Jamil Mihhu, the leader of the KDP-L, who was deemed by them to be right-wing. They accused the Rezgari Party's secretary-general, Faysal Fakhru, of being pro-Iraqi and not inclusive enough to all Kurds. The splinter faction continued to function until the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, when its secretary-general Abdi Ibrahim fled to Syria. Soon after Abdi Ibrahim's flight, one high-ranking member of the party, Jamil Hasan, broke away from the splinter organization to form the Lebanese Socialist Rezgari Party. Jamil Hasan was later expelled from the party that he had formed after reconciling with Fakhru and declaring the merger of the Lebanese Socialist Rezgari Party with the original Rezgari Party in late 1984. The Lebanese Socialist Rezgari Party ceased to exist in 1985.

After the Civil War

In 2009, the then-secretary-general of the Rezgari Party, Mahmud Khidr Fattah Ahmad, met with a delegation from Hezbollah, a group they have close ties to. As of 2015,

Rudaw Rudaw Media Network () is a media broadcaster in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq. The network is headquartered in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region. It delivers content in multiple languages, including English, Kurdish, Arabic, and Turki ...

reported that the Rezgari Party, at that point the only political organization representing the Kurds of Lebanon, was suffering from financial difficulties, with some believing that it would not survive much longer. On 5 October 2020, it was announced that the Rezgari Party's then-secretary-general, Mahmud Khidr Fattah Ahmad, had died at the age of 73. The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria sent their condolences to the Rezgari Party on the occasion.

Notes

References

{{Kurdish organisations Factions in the Lebanese Civil War Kurdish nationalist political parties Political parties established in 1975 Political parties in Lebanon Political parties of minorities in Lebanon

Lebanese Civil War

Rezgari II

After the Civil War

See also

Notes

References