Nawshirwan Mustafa | |
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Nawshirwan Mustafa in 2015.
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General coordinator of the Movement for Change (Gorran) | |
Assumed office 1 April 2009 |
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Deputy Secretary General of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan | |
In office 1 November 1976 – 30 November 2006 |
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Preceded by | Kosrat Rasul Ali |
Komala | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1944 Sulaymaniyah, Iraq |
Political party | Movement for Change |
Residence | Sulaymaniyah, Iraq |
Occupation | Politician |
Profession | Historian, Author, Scholar, Revolutionary, Peshmerga (Guerilla) Commander |
Religion | Sunni Islam |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Patriotic Union of Kurdistan |
Service/branch | Peshmerga |
Battles/wars |
Nawshirwan Mustafa (Kurdish: Newşîrwan Mistefa) is the General Coordinator (رێکخەری گشتی / rêkxerî giştî) of the Movement for Change (Kurdish: Bizûtinewey Gorran بزووتنەوەی گۆڕان ) and the leader of the official opposition in the Kurdistan Region.
Nawshirwan Mustafa was born in the old quarter of Sulaymaniyah, Iraq 1944, the eldest of two sons of Mustafa Émin. Mustafa's grandfather Émin Khider was a financier of the Kingdom of Kurdistan and its government according to the newspaper Pêşkewtin. Nawshirwan whose name means the immortal soul, was named by his father after the twentieth Sassanid Emperor Khusro I Anōšīravān (dadgar). Silemani has been the seat of the Mustafa family since the city was founded in 1784. Unlike Kurdistan's other prominent political leaders Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, Mustafa hails from a city not a village and is not a member of a tribe.
Mustafa joined the KDP in 1960 where he was very active in the youth branch. He allied himself with Barzani's opponents in the politburo and resigned from the party before the KDP split.
Mustafa attended the Royal King Faisal school at Silemani and was also taught foreign languages by private tutors at an early age. He went on to study political science at Baghdad University.