April Glaspie, the American ambassador to Iraq:
Who could recall this fine gentleman without a smile? Somehow, he was able to push aside, however briefly, the vast difficulties he was facing every day. Burdened as he was with the well-being— the fate—of his besieged people, he was always a delightful companion, and the best-dressed revolutionary I ever met. Ghassemlou had immense charm; even the way he smoked was memorable.
Carol Prunhuber, Dreaming Kurdistan: The Life and Death of Kurdish Leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (New York: Peter Lang, Kindle edition), 7.
Chris Kutschera, the well-known French journalist, researcher, writer, and specialist on the Middle East:
“Ghassemlou never considered himself merely a spokesperson for Eastern Kurdistan (in Iran); on the contrary, whenever he spoke with Europeans, he spoke of the twenty-five million Kurds as a whole.”
Taimour Mustafayi, “واقیعبیی ÛŒ سیایس Ùˆ گرینگی بەنێونەتەوەییکردن ÛŒ پریس کورد [Political Realism and the importance of the Internationalization of the Kurdish Issue]” in Ù„Û• :Ed. Ali Bedaghi (Kurdistan ,]In the Light of Ghassemlou’s Thought[ ژێر سابان ÛŒ قاسملوودا The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s Publication Center, 2023), 209.
Bernard Kouchner, Former French Secretary of State for Humanitarian Action:
.jpg)
"Dr. Ghassemlou wanted to speak with Khomeini’s successors. That is why he went to Vienna, despite warnings, to make peace in the name of the Kurds. They were afraid of this message of peace, so they killed the messenger.”
Bernard Kouchner, in his eulogy at the Funeral Service of Dr. Ghassemlou:
“You were the man of the Third World that I admired the most. Both guerrilla and liberal, faithful to a strategy, . . . If only all the leaders of the Third World had been as democratic as you, how many thousands of deaths would have been avoided!”
Mouloud Swara, comp., In Tribute to Dr. A. R. Ghassemlou (Cologne, Germany: Tishk, the Center for Kurdish Studies, 2024), 6
Carol Prunhuber, the writer of Dreaming Kurdistan: The Life and Death of Kurdish Leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou:
“In the eyes and the words of Dr. Bernard Kouchner, former French minister of foreign affairs, Ghassemlou was the only Kurd with an international perspective.”
Carol Prunhuber, Dreaming Kurdistan: The Life and Death of Kurdish Leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (New York: Peter Lang, Kindle edition), xvi.
“One thing is very certain: throughout his life, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou never limited himself to being simply an Iranian party chief. He lived as a farsighted leader and, above all, as a Kurd who held a dream for his homeland and an overarching love for his people. In the end, he gave up his life while reaching for that dream. His unwavering spirit and light live on in the hearts and rugged mountains of a nation called Kurdistan.”
Carol Prunhuber, Dreaming Kurdistan: The Life and Death of Kurdish Leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (New York: Peter Lang, Kindle edition), xviii.
Dr. Frédéric Tissot, the first French consulate general in Erbil, Kurdistan:
Dr. Tissot hails his first meeting with Dr. Ghassemlou in 1981 as a big event that not only resulted in him “discovering the heart and spirit of a man who represented the fabulous history of this part of the Middle East”, but also played a part in the opening of the French consulate general along with “more than thirty other diplomatic representations” in a part of Kurdistan.
Mouloud Swara, comp., In Tribute to Dr. A. R. Ghassemlou (Cologne, Germany: Tishk, the Center for Kurdish Studies, 2024), 8-9
David McDowall, the British author specializing in Middle Eastern History:
“The assassination of Ghassemlou was a profound blow to Kurdish hopes. Many who knew him personally considered him the most skillful politician in the whole of Kurdistan.”
David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds, (London, New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2007), p 277.
Jonathan Randal, a foreign correspondent for publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post:
Dr. Ghassemlou was “the only Kurd with enough moxie to cut a decent deal with all comers. His understanding of the world's workings and his friendships and ties with politicians, journalists, and academics in Europe and beyond gave him a pragmatic dimension that Barzani, Öcalan, Talabani, or Turkey’s fledgling Kurdish parliamentarians lacked. Some Kurds swore that had he survived, he would have furthered the political agenda for all Kurds. Now he was just another Kurdish martyr.”
Jonathan Randal, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters with Kurdistan (London: Taylor & Francis, Kindle edition), 317-319.
