About Nawshirwan Mustafa Nawshirwan Mustafa (Kurdish: Newşîrwan Mistefa) (born 1944) is a prominent Kurdish politician, media proprietor, strategist, author and historian. The co-founder and until December 2006 the deputy secretary general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two leading political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq in general.Biography Nawshirwan Mustafa was born in in the Old Quarter of Sulaimaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan. Nawshirwan has attended the University of Baghdad and the University of Vienna. He studied Political Science and International Law. While at university he was very active in the student union, particularly in organizing movements to further Kurdish interests. Apart from his native Kurdish, he speaks fluent English, German, Arabic and Persian, and has some command of Turkish. Nawshirwan began his political career in Sulaimaniyah in 1961 by joining the KDP aged 16 but soon left because he was disillusioned with its leadership, he went on to found a secret society named Komala (society) with a number of other Kurdish intellectuals, during this period he gave underground lectures on the future role of the Kurds in the Iraqi state. Nawshirwan purchased a publishing house which formerly printed the newspaper JIN (life) and started to publish a monthly journal called "Rizgary" (Kurdish for Salvation) under his ownership it publicized the ideas of his secret organization. The journal gained popularity among all segments of Kurdish society particularly the young. As a result of its popularity, it also gained the attention of the central government which closed down the journal and launched a crackdown on Nawshirwan's Komala society which culminated in the Revolutionary Court in Baghdad sentencing him to death in 1970. Nawshirwan went into exile in Austria. His time in the Viennese capital would deeply influence the rest of his life, as would his numerous trips to European capitals during his time as a student.