Iran–Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan conflict
Encyclopedia
The Iran–Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan conflict was an armed conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the ethnic
secession
ist Kurdish guerrilla group Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan
(PJAK). The group had been carrying out attacks in the Kurdistan Province
of Iran
and other Kurdish-inhabited areas, and is closely affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party
operating against Turkey.
Like the present PKK goals in Turkey, PJAK leaders say their long-term goals are to establish an autonomous Kurdish region within the Iranian state. It is mainly focused on replacing Iran's theocracy
with a democratic and federal government, where self-rule is granted to all ethnic minorities of Iran, including Sunni, Arabs, Azeris, and Kurds.
The Kurdish-Iranian conflict erupted once again in 2004, invlolving the Kurdish PJAK guerilla movement, founded by former PKK members.
's Cihan News Agency
claimed that over 120 members of the Iranian security forces were killed by PJAK during 2005.
, performed in retaliation for the killing of 10 Kurds demonstrating in Maku
by Iranian security forces. On April 10, 2006, seven PJAK members were arrested in Iran, on suspicion that they killed three Iranian security force personnel. PJAK set off a bomb on 8 May 2006 in Kermanshah
, wounding five people at a government building. Since those events, the US news channel MSNBC
claimed that the Iranian military begun bombardments of Kurdish villages in US-occupied Iraq along the Iranian border while claiming that their primary targets were PJAK militants. A number of civilians died. On September 28, 2006, Iran said that two members of the PKK (which Iran regularly confuses with the closely affiliated PJAK) blew up a gas pipeline to Turkey near the town of Bazargan
in West Azerbaijan province.
, killing 13 soldiers, including several members of the elite Revolutionary Guards and Said Qahari, the head of the Iranian army's 3rd Corps. PJAK quickly claimed to have shot down the helicopter using a shoulder-launched missile, killing 20 soldiers, including several senior officers, during an hour-long battle. Iran, however, blamed the crash on bad weather. After that, Iran launched a counter-offensive against the group in the northeast of Iran's West Azerbaijan province, near the Turkish border. According to Iran's state news agencies as many as 47 Kurdish rebels and 17 Iranian soldiers were killed in the violence between February 25 and March 1, 2007. In August 2007, PJAK claimed it managed to down another Iranian military helicopter that was conducting a forward operation of bombardment by Iranian forces.
According to Kurdish officials, Iranian troops raided northern Iraq on August 23, 2007, attacking several villages.
killed four Kurdish guerrillas in a clash close to the Iraqi border.
In August 2008, under Iranian pressure, one of Iraqi Kurdistan's ruling parties, the PUK
, launched an offensive against PJAK forces. KDP-leader and President of Iraqi Kurdistan
, Massoud Barzani
condmened PJAK operations against Iran multiple times.
province. According to updated reports 18 policemen and 8 rebels were killed in a fierce gun battle. According to Iranian government sources, the attack resulted in 10 policemen and 10 rebels killed. According to Hiedelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, the attack, which occurred on April 24 and 25, involved PJAK attacks on two police stations in the cities of Ravansar in northern Kermanshah province and in Sanandaj, the capital of Kordestan province, killing eleven police officers, with more than ten PJAK members reportedly killed.
Iran responded a week later by attacking Kurdish
villages in the boder area of Panjwin inside Iraq
using helicopter gunships. According to Iraq
i border guards officials, the area attacked by Iran
was not considered a stronghold of PJAK, that appeared to have been the target of the raid. According to the ICRC, more than 800 Iraqi Kurds have been forced from their homes by the recent cross-border violence.
. Earlier in the year Iranian police arrested a suspect in the killing of a prosecutor in the same region during clashes with "Kurdish militants."
in Kurdistan Province
and on April 1 four border guards were killed and three others were wounded in an attack against a police station near the city of Marivan
. On April 4, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the perpetrators of the previous attacks in Sanandaj were killed.
Two Kurdish guerillas affiliated to PJAK were reported to had been killed and another wounded by the IRIB TV website on June 19th, 2011, in Iran's northwestern town of Chaldran in West Azerbajan province.
On 16 July 2011 the Iranian army launched a major offensive
against PJAK compounds in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq
. On July 17, the IRGC killed at last five PJAK members in a raid that destroyed one of the group's headquarters in northwestern Iran. PJAK claimed 21 Iranian soldiers were killed in the clashes. Iranian authorities on the other hand confirmed their casualties at 1 killed and 3 injured while claiming to have inflicted "heavy losses" on the rebels. They announced that they had captured three rebel bases, one of which was identified as Marvan and was said to be the leading PJAK camp in the region.
On July 20, PJAK killed 5 IRGC members and one IRGC commander while IRGC forces killed 35 PJAK fighters and captured several others during clashes on July 25. By July 26, more than 50 PJAK fighters and 8 Revolutionary Guards had been killed, and at least 100 PJAK fighters had been wounded according to Iranian sources, while over 800 people had been displaced by the fighting. At least 3 civilians were killed. During clashes in the Jasosan and Alotan heights the next day, Iranian forces claimed to have killed over 21 PJAK fighters, confirming that two IRGC forces had been killed and two had been injured during the clashes.
On July 29, suspected PJAK militants blew up the Iran-Turkey gas pipeline, which was repaired the next day. On August 1, Iranian forces killed 3 and arrested 4 of the militants said to be responsible for the attack, at least one of which was a Turkish citizen.
On August 5, the leader of Party of free Life for Kurdistan, Rahman Haj Ahmedi, said to Newsmax that more than 300 Iranian Revolutionary Guards had been killed in a series of ambushes, while acknowledging 16 loses. Iranian officials however, claimed to have killed over 150 PJAK forces during the operations, confirming the deaths of only 17 Revolutionary Guards.
On August 8 2011, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, the leader of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, said the armed rebel group is prepared to negotiate with Iran and maintained that Kurdish issues need to be solved through “peaceful means”.
In an exclusive interview with Rudaw, Haji Ahmadi acknowledged that in some cases compromise is inevitable and indicated that PJAK is willing to lay down its arms. He said fighting may not help Kurds secure political and cultural rights in Iran.
On August 8 2011, Murat Karayılan
, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) said they withdrew all PJAK fighters out of Iran and sent them to PKK camps in the Qandil mountains. He said they replaced PJAK forces on the Iranian border with PKK forces to prevent further clashes and called on Iran to end attacks because unlike the PJAK, the PKK was not at war with Iran. Karayılan released the following statement: “As the PKK, we have not declared any war against Iran. We do not wish to fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran either. Why? Because one of the aims of the international forces who seek to re-design the region is to besiege Iran. Currently, they are more preoccupied with Syria. If they just manage to work things out there as they wish, it will be Iran’s turn next. As Kurds, we do not think it quite right to be involved in a war with Iran at such a stage. You have no interest in targeting the PKK ... You must end this conflict. It is America that wants this conflict to go on. Because these attacks of yours serve America’s interests. They want both the PKK and Iran to grow weaker.”
On September 5, 2011, the IRGC rejected the cease-fire declared by the Kurdish rebel group PJAK, as meaningless, as long as PJAK forces remained on the borders of the Islamic Republic. Iran also said its troops had killed 30 PJAK fighters and wounded 40 in several days of fighting.
On September 29 2011, Iranian sources reported PJAK had officially surrendered after 180 deaths and 300 injured. According to another Iranian source, Iranian ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danaei-Far declared that they had cleared all areas of PJAK activities and that they had reached an agreement with the Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, in which they vowed to keep the border peaceful. According to Farsnews, IRGC ground commander General Abdollah Araqi declared that the conflict had ended after PJAK had accepted Iran's terms and withdrawn all it's forces from Iranian soil.
In late October, President of Iraqi Kurdistan
Massoud Barzani
said in a visit to Tehran that an agreement had been reached between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the PJAK in which the PJAK had agreed to end it's armed activities in the region and that the borders between Iran and the Kurdistan Region would now be safe.
sent a letter to US president George W. Bush
in which he expressed his judgment that the US is likely to be supporting and coordinating PJAK, since PJAK operates and is based in Iraqi territory, which is under the control of the U.S. supported Kurdistan Regional Government
.
In November 2006, journalist Seymour Hersh
writing in The New Yorker
, supported this claim, stating that the US military and the Israel
is are giving the group equipment, training, and targeting information in order to cause destruction in Iran.
This is denied officially by both the US and PJAK. In an interview with Slate magazine
in June 2006, when PJAK spokesman Ihsan Warya was paraphrased as stating that he "nevertheless points out that PJAK really does wish it were an agent of the United States, and that [PJAK is] disappointed that Washington hasn't made contact." The Slate article continues stating that the PJAK wishes to be supported by and work with the United States in overthrowing the government of Iran in a similar way to the US eventually cooperated with Kurdish organisations in Iraq in overthrowing the government of Iraq during the most recent Iraq war.
In August 2007, the leader of PJAK visited Washington, DC in order to seek more open support from the US both politically and militarily, but it was later said that he only made limited contacts with officials in Washington. One of the top officials in the PKK made a statement in late 2006, that "If the US is interested in PJAK, then it has to be interested in the PKK as well" referring to the alliance between the two groups and their memberships in the Kurdistan Democratic Confederation (KCK).
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations and the implied claim of ethnic essentialism, i.e...
secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
ist Kurdish guerrilla group Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan
Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan
The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan , is a militant Kurdish nationalist group with bases in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq, which has...
(PJAK). The group had been carrying out attacks in the Kurdistan Province
Kurdistan Province (Iran)
Kurdistan Province or Kordestan Province or Kurdestan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, not to be confused with the greater geographical area of Iranian Kurdistan. The province of Kurdistan is 28,817 km² in area which encompasses just one-fourth of the Kurdish inhabited areas of Iran or...
of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and other Kurdish-inhabited areas, and is closely affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
operating against Turkey.
Like the present PKK goals in Turkey, PJAK leaders say their long-term goals are to establish an autonomous Kurdish region within the Iranian state. It is mainly focused on replacing Iran's theocracy
Theocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
with a democratic and federal government, where self-rule is granted to all ethnic minorities of Iran, including Sunni, Arabs, Azeris, and Kurds.
Background
Since the Iranian Revolution, there has been an ongoing conflict between Iran’s central government and Kurdish political movements rooted in the predominantly Kurdish region of western Iran. The level of violence has ebbed and flowed with peaks of serious conflict in 1979, the early eighties and the early nineties. Kurdish casualties are estimated (by the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI)) at more than 30,000 civilian dead in addition to 4,000 Kurdish fighters. Along with the dead, there have been many other casualties; tens of thousands of people imprisoned; hundreds of villages destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. The local economy of an already under-developed region has been severely damaged by the conflict, as of course has the Iranian economy as a whole.The Kurdish-Iranian conflict erupted once again in 2004, invlolving the Kurdish PJAK guerilla movement, founded by former PKK members.
2004
Members of the PKK founded the PJAK in 2004 as an Iranian equivalent to their leftist-nationalist insurgency against the Turkish government.2005
IstanbulIstanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
's Cihan News Agency
Cihan News Agency
The Cihan News Agency is a Turkish news agency based in Istanbul.The agency, established in 1994, is part of Feza Media Corp, which also owns Zaman newspaper and AKSIYON, a weekly news magazine...
claimed that over 120 members of the Iranian security forces were killed by PJAK during 2005.
2006
PJAK killed 24 members of Iranian security forces on April 3, 2006 in a raidApril 2006 Iran-Iraq cross-border raids
April 2006 Iran-Iraq cross-border raids were three military cross-border attacks on Iran-Iraqi Kurdistan border, in which PJAK claimed to had killed 24 members of Iranian security forces in early April, 2006...
, performed in retaliation for the killing of 10 Kurds demonstrating in Maku
Maku, Iran
Maku is a city in the West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 41,865, in 10,428 families.It is situated from the Turkish border in a mountain gorge at an altitude of 1634 metres. The Zangmar River cuts through the city. The common languages in Maku are Kurdish and...
by Iranian security forces. On April 10, 2006, seven PJAK members were arrested in Iran, on suspicion that they killed three Iranian security force personnel. PJAK set off a bomb on 8 May 2006 in Kermanshah
Kermanshah
Kermanshah is a city in and the capital of Kermanshah Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 784,602, in 198,117 families.The overwhelming majority of Kermanshahi people are Shi'a Muslims...
, wounding five people at a government building. Since those events, the US news channel MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
claimed that the Iranian military begun bombardments of Kurdish villages in US-occupied Iraq along the Iranian border while claiming that their primary targets were PJAK militants. A number of civilians died. On September 28, 2006, Iran said that two members of the PKK (which Iran regularly confuses with the closely affiliated PJAK) blew up a gas pipeline to Turkey near the town of Bazargan
Bazargan
Bazargan can refer to:* Mehdi Bazargan* Bazargan, Afghanistan* Bazargan, Iran...
in West Azerbaijan province.
2007
On February 24, 2007 an Iranian helicopter crashed near the town of KhoyKhoy
Khoy is a city in and the capital of Khoy County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 178,708, in 45,090 families....
, killing 13 soldiers, including several members of the elite Revolutionary Guards and Said Qahari, the head of the Iranian army's 3rd Corps. PJAK quickly claimed to have shot down the helicopter using a shoulder-launched missile, killing 20 soldiers, including several senior officers, during an hour-long battle. Iran, however, blamed the crash on bad weather. After that, Iran launched a counter-offensive against the group in the northeast of Iran's West Azerbaijan province, near the Turkish border. According to Iran's state news agencies as many as 47 Kurdish rebels and 17 Iranian soldiers were killed in the violence between February 25 and March 1, 2007. In August 2007, PJAK claimed it managed to down another Iranian military helicopter that was conducting a forward operation of bombardment by Iranian forces.
According to Kurdish officials, Iranian troops raided northern Iraq on August 23, 2007, attacking several villages.
2008
The Iranian news agency IRNA reported on October 11, 2008 that members of the Iranian religious militia BasijBasij
The Basij is a paramilitary volunteer militia established in 1979 by order of the Islamic Revolution's leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The force consists of young Iranians who have volunteered, often in exchange for official benefits...
killed four Kurdish guerrillas in a clash close to the Iraqi border.
In August 2008, under Iranian pressure, one of Iraqi Kurdistan's ruling parties, the PUK
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a Kurdish political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was founded on June 1, 1975, by coordinations between Jalal Talabani and Nawshirwan Mustafa...
, launched an offensive against PJAK forces. KDP-leader and President of Iraqi Kurdistan
President of Iraqi Kurdistan
The President of Iraqi Kurdistan is the head of the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. He is part of the Kurdistan Presidency Council.-1992-2005:...
, Massoud Barzani
Massoud Barzani
Massoud Barzani is the current President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Barzani was born in Mahabad, Iran, during the rule of the Republic of Mahabad...
condmened PJAK operations against Iran multiple times.
2009
On April 24, 2009, PJAK rebels attacked a police station in KermanshahKermanshah Province
Kermanshah Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. The province was known from 1969 to 1986 as Kermanshahan and from 1986 to 1995 as Bakhtaran.-Counties:...
province. According to updated reports 18 policemen and 8 rebels were killed in a fierce gun battle. According to Iranian government sources, the attack resulted in 10 policemen and 10 rebels killed. According to Hiedelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, the attack, which occurred on April 24 and 25, involved PJAK attacks on two police stations in the cities of Ravansar in northern Kermanshah province and in Sanandaj, the capital of Kordestan province, killing eleven police officers, with more than ten PJAK members reportedly killed.
Iran responded a week later by attacking Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
villages in the boder area of Panjwin inside Iraq
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
using helicopter gunships. According to Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i border guards officials, the area attacked by Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
was not considered a stronghold of PJAK, that appeared to have been the target of the raid. According to the ICRC, more than 800 Iraqi Kurds have been forced from their homes by the recent cross-border violence.
2010
In 2010, PJAK claimed responsibility for the deaths of 3 IRGC soldiers in KhoyKhoy
Khoy is a city in and the capital of Khoy County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 178,708, in 45,090 families....
. Earlier in the year Iranian police arrested a suspect in the killing of a prosecutor in the same region during clashes with "Kurdish militants."
2011
On March 24, two Iranian police officers were killed and three others injured in two attacks in the city of SanandajSanandaj
Sanandaj , also Romanized as Senneh and Sinneh) is a city in and the capital of Kurdistan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 311,446, in 81,380 families....
in Kurdistan Province
Kurdistan Province
Kurdistan Province or Kordestan Province or Kurdestan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, not to be confused with the greater geographical area of Iranian Kurdistan. The province of Kurdistan is 28,817 km² in area which encompasses just one-fourth of the Kurdish inhabited areas of Iran or...
and on April 1 four border guards were killed and three others were wounded in an attack against a police station near the city of Marivan
Marivan
Marivan also known as Qal‘eh-ye Marīvān - "Fort Marivan"; formerly, Dez Shahpur , also Romanized as Dezh Shāhpūr and Dezh Shapoor) is a city in and capital of Marivan County, Kurdistan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 91,664, in 22,440 families...
. On April 4, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the perpetrators of the previous attacks in Sanandaj were killed.
Two Kurdish guerillas affiliated to PJAK were reported to had been killed and another wounded by the IRIB TV website on June 19th, 2011, in Iran's northwestern town of Chaldran in West Azerbajan province.
On 16 July 2011 the Iranian army launched a major offensive
2011 Iran-Iraq cross-border raids
2011 Iran-Iraq cross-border raids were a series of operations, performed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps , against the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan , a Kurdish rebel group...
against PJAK compounds in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. On July 17, the IRGC killed at last five PJAK members in a raid that destroyed one of the group's headquarters in northwestern Iran. PJAK claimed 21 Iranian soldiers were killed in the clashes. Iranian authorities on the other hand confirmed their casualties at 1 killed and 3 injured while claiming to have inflicted "heavy losses" on the rebels. They announced that they had captured three rebel bases, one of which was identified as Marvan and was said to be the leading PJAK camp in the region.
On July 20, PJAK killed 5 IRGC members and one IRGC commander while IRGC forces killed 35 PJAK fighters and captured several others during clashes on July 25. By July 26, more than 50 PJAK fighters and 8 Revolutionary Guards had been killed, and at least 100 PJAK fighters had been wounded according to Iranian sources, while over 800 people had been displaced by the fighting. At least 3 civilians were killed. During clashes in the Jasosan and Alotan heights the next day, Iranian forces claimed to have killed over 21 PJAK fighters, confirming that two IRGC forces had been killed and two had been injured during the clashes.
On July 29, suspected PJAK militants blew up the Iran-Turkey gas pipeline, which was repaired the next day. On August 1, Iranian forces killed 3 and arrested 4 of the militants said to be responsible for the attack, at least one of which was a Turkish citizen.
On August 5, the leader of Party of free Life for Kurdistan, Rahman Haj Ahmedi, said to Newsmax that more than 300 Iranian Revolutionary Guards had been killed in a series of ambushes, while acknowledging 16 loses. Iranian officials however, claimed to have killed over 150 PJAK forces during the operations, confirming the deaths of only 17 Revolutionary Guards.
On August 8 2011, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, the leader of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, said the armed rebel group is prepared to negotiate with Iran and maintained that Kurdish issues need to be solved through “peaceful means”.
In an exclusive interview with Rudaw, Haji Ahmadi acknowledged that in some cases compromise is inevitable and indicated that PJAK is willing to lay down its arms. He said fighting may not help Kurds secure political and cultural rights in Iran.
On August 8 2011, Murat Karayılan
Murat Karayilan
Murat Karayılan is the current acting leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party.He has been the PKK's acting leader ever since its original founder and leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was captured in 1999....
, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) said they withdrew all PJAK fighters out of Iran and sent them to PKK camps in the Qandil mountains. He said they replaced PJAK forces on the Iranian border with PKK forces to prevent further clashes and called on Iran to end attacks because unlike the PJAK, the PKK was not at war with Iran. Karayılan released the following statement: “As the PKK, we have not declared any war against Iran. We do not wish to fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran either. Why? Because one of the aims of the international forces who seek to re-design the region is to besiege Iran. Currently, they are more preoccupied with Syria. If they just manage to work things out there as they wish, it will be Iran’s turn next. As Kurds, we do not think it quite right to be involved in a war with Iran at such a stage. You have no interest in targeting the PKK ... You must end this conflict. It is America that wants this conflict to go on. Because these attacks of yours serve America’s interests. They want both the PKK and Iran to grow weaker.”
On September 5, 2011, the IRGC rejected the cease-fire declared by the Kurdish rebel group PJAK, as meaningless, as long as PJAK forces remained on the borders of the Islamic Republic. Iran also said its troops had killed 30 PJAK fighters and wounded 40 in several days of fighting.
On September 29 2011, Iranian sources reported PJAK had officially surrendered after 180 deaths and 300 injured. According to another Iranian source, Iranian ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danaei-Far declared that they had cleared all areas of PJAK activities and that they had reached an agreement with the Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, in which they vowed to keep the border peaceful. According to Farsnews, IRGC ground commander General Abdollah Araqi declared that the conflict had ended after PJAK had accepted Iran's terms and withdrawn all it's forces from Iranian soil.
In late October, President of Iraqi Kurdistan
President of Iraqi Kurdistan
The President of Iraqi Kurdistan is the head of the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. He is part of the Kurdistan Presidency Council.-1992-2005:...
Massoud Barzani
Massoud Barzani
Massoud Barzani is the current President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Barzani was born in Mahabad, Iran, during the rule of the Republic of Mahabad...
said in a visit to Tehran that an agreement had been reached between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the PJAK in which the PJAK had agreed to end it's armed activities in the region and that the borders between Iran and the Kurdistan Region would now be safe.
Relation to United States government and military structures
On April 18, 2006, US Congressman Dennis KucinichDennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....
sent a letter to US president George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
in which he expressed his judgment that the US is likely to be supporting and coordinating PJAK, since PJAK operates and is based in Iraqi territory, which is under the control of the U.S. supported Kurdistan Regional Government
Kurdistan Regional Government
The Kurdistan Regional Government , , is the official ruling body of the predominantly Kurds-populated Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq...
.
In November 2006, journalist Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh
Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
writing in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, supported this claim, stating that the US military and the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
is are giving the group equipment, training, and targeting information in order to cause destruction in Iran.
This is denied officially by both the US and PJAK. In an interview with Slate magazine
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
in June 2006, when PJAK spokesman Ihsan Warya was paraphrased as stating that he "nevertheless points out that PJAK really does wish it were an agent of the United States, and that [PJAK is] disappointed that Washington hasn't made contact." The Slate article continues stating that the PJAK wishes to be supported by and work with the United States in overthrowing the government of Iran in a similar way to the US eventually cooperated with Kurdish organisations in Iraq in overthrowing the government of Iraq during the most recent Iraq war.
In August 2007, the leader of PJAK visited Washington, DC in order to seek more open support from the US both politically and militarily, but it was later said that he only made limited contacts with officials in Washington. One of the top officials in the PKK made a statement in late 2006, that "If the US is interested in PJAK, then it has to be interested in the PKK as well" referring to the alliance between the two groups and their memberships in the Kurdistan Democratic Confederation (KCK).
See also
- Iranian KurdistanIranian KurdistanIranian Kurdistan is an unofficial name for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes Kurdistan Province, Kermanshah Province, Ilam Province and parts of West Azerbaijan province....
- Kurdish peopleKurdish peopleThe Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
- List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
- Turkey – Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict
External links
- PJAK website (in PersianPersian languagePersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, SoraniSoranîSoranî is the name of a Kurdish language that is spoken in Iran and Iraq. Soranî is one of the main Kurdish languages, which are a branch of the Iranian languages.- Name :...
and English) - Extract from article about Kurdish Iranian militants 28 June 2006