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Iran: Kurdish leader seeks U.S. help to
topple the Islamic regime
4.8.2007
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August 4, 2007
The exiled president of Iran's largest Kurdish
opposition group appealed for U.S. political and
military support for its campaign to topple Iran's
Islamic regime and create a new democratic, federal
government in Tehran.
In his first visit to Washington, Rahman Haj-Ahmadi,
president of the three-year-old Kurdistan Free Life
Party, said that the Iranian regime faced a growing
internal challenge to its power from the Kurds,
Azeris and other restive minority groups.
Mr. Haj-Ahmadi, who lives in Germany, said his
movement, known by its Kurdish acronym PJAK, was
forced to take up arms and retreat to the rugged
highlands along the Iran-Iraq border in self-defense
against the central government.
"We certainly would not take to the mountains and
live such a difficult existence if the regime
allowed us to pursue our struggle politically," said
Mr. Haj-Ahmadi, speaking through an interpreter, in
an interview Wednesday.
PJAK, he said, has only limited contact with the
U.S. government, but he appealed to Washington to
push Iran harder on its human rights record and said
his party would welcome American military and
financial aid to carry on its fight.
"We obviously cannot topple the government with the
ammunition and the weapons we have now," he said.
"Any financial or military help that would speed the
path to a true Iranian democracy, we would very much
welcome, particularly from the United States." |
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 |
But the question of the Kurds, a stateless people
with significant communities in Iran, Iraq, Turkey
and Syria, is one of the most delicate facing the
Bush administration.
Iraq's Kurds were key U.S. allies in the campaign to
oust Saddam Hussein and establish a stable Iraq. But
Turkey, also a key U.S. ally in the region, has
fought a long, bloody war against Kurdish
separatists to the north and watches with increasing
anger signs that Iraq's Kurds are moving to de facto
autonomy.
The Kurdish independence movement in Turkey, known
as the PKK, was officially designated a terrorist
organization by the State Department. Chris Zambelis,
a terrorism analyst with the Washington-based
Jamestown Foundation, said there are multiple
reports of operational and logistical links between
the PKK and PJAK.
PJAK officials traveling with Mr. Haj-Ahmadi said
they tried to set up meetings with the State
Department and other administration officials, but
received "no answer" to their requests. Mr.
Haj-Ahmadi said PJAK had good relations with other
Kurdish movements in the region, but insisted his
party was a "completely independent organization"
from the PKK.
Iran's leaders, including President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, accused the United States of secretly
funding PJAK and other minority resistance movements
as part of a campaign to undermine their regime.
Mr. Haj-Ahmadi dismissed questions of whether PJAK
was part of a master plan to create new "Greater
Kurdistan" in the region.
"Right now, for us, democracy inside Iran is the
issue," he said. "We will work with whoever we can
to establish a just, democratic federal government
to replace the Islamic regime."
If and when democracy takes hold in Iran and
throughout the region, "we would then lean toward
the idea of a greater Kurdistan as an aspiration,"
he said.
The PJAK president acknowledged that his group did
not have the numbers or the military might to
challenge the Iranian regime on its own.
"But I guarantee you, anyone who wants to do
something about Iran needs to reach out to us," he
said. "We are working hard to make ourselves known
to other ethnic minorities in Iran. Without PJAK,
you will not get anywhere."
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.
washingtontimes com
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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