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Iranian forces, PJAK Kurdish guerrillas
clash on Iraq-Iran border
13.7.2007
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July 13, 2007
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --
Iranian artillery shelled near Iraqi Kurd villages
Thursday as Iranian troops clashed with Kurdish
guerrillas making an incursion across the border,
officials in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan said.
It was the third day of shelling in two areas along
the border in northern Iraq, said Jabbar Yawer,
spokesman for the Kurdistan protection forces, or
Peshmerga. Residents of the areas said the
bombardment had not caused casualties but had killed
farm animals and started a fire on a mountain.
Iranian shelling in the Peshdar region, 100
kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Sulaimaniyah, hit
areas as far as 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the
border, said the regional governor Hussein Ahmed. He
said many of the areas 1,000 families had fled for
protection.
"There was fighting between PJAK and Iranian forces
and there was steady bombardment by Iranians in the
Sardul area in Bashdar region," Bashir Ahmed,
district administrator of Bashdar, on the Iranian
border.
PEJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) , took up
arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdistan
province northwestern of Iran. Half the members of
PEJAK are Kurdish women.
"It is true. But we do not support the PKK or PJAK.
We oppose using Kurdish land to hit any country and
also demand that our regions should not be hit,"
Yawar said. |
PEJAK Kurdish woman fighter, (PEJAK - Party for a
Free Life in Kurdistan), PEJAK fights against the
Iran regime for self-rule in the country's
mainly Kurdistan province northwestern of Iran AP |
The other region hit by shelling lay further north,
near the Hajji Umran border crossing, 110 kilometers
(66 miles) north of Kurdistan capital city of Erbil,
Yawer said. He said the shelling began with an
incursion by Kurdish guerrillas into Iran on Tuesday
that sparked clashes with Iran's Revolutionary
Guards.
"We are not with either side, and we will not allow
the lands of Iraqi Kurdistan to become a battlefield
in which civilians in Kurdish villages are the
victims," he said.
The Free Life Party PEJAK is a breakaway faction of
the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, also known
as PKK, which is dominated by Turkish Kurds but also
had Iranian Kurd branches. Its fighters have sparked
Iranian shelling into Iraq several times over the
past two years, most recently in June.
Turkey has increasingly threatened to take action in
northern Iraq, complaining that the Kurdistan
government and U.S. forces are not doing enough to
stop PKK fighters carrying out attacks on Turkish
soil.
AP | AFP
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Īranź or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatź
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
The present leader of the organisation is Haji
Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the
members of PEJAK are women, many of them still in
their teens, and one of the female members of the
leadership council is Gulistan Dugan, a psychology
graduate from the University of Tehran. This is due
primarily to the fact that PJAK is strongly
supportive of women's rights. PJAK believes that
women must have a strong role in government and must
be on an equal level with men in leadership
positions.
More about PEJAK- Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan
KDPI
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran in Kurdish
(Hīzbī Dźmokiratī Kurdistanī Źran) is a Kurdish
opposition group in Iranian Kurdistan which seeks
the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a
democratic federal republic of Iran.
The current
General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan is Mustafa Hijri
More about KDPI- Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
** The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan ( Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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