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Iran confirms shelling Kurdish PEJAK
militants in Iraqi Kurdistan
23.9.2007
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September
23, 2007
TEHRAN, -- Iran has confirmed for the first
time it has been firing artillery shells on camps of
Kurdish militants inside autonomous Kurdistan region
'northern Iraq', saying the local authorities had
not listened to its warnings.
The militant Kurdish separatist group PEJAK --
linked to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) -- has been behind a string of deadly attacks
on Iranian security forces in northwestern Iran in
recent months.
"Some of their bases are 10 kilometres (six miles)
deep inside Iraqi territory so this is part of our
natural right to secure our borders," said General
Yayha Rahim Safavi, military adviser to the supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Of course we issued warnings to the Iraqi
government and told them to take them (the rebels)
away from the border and respect its obligations,"
Safavi said in an interview with Iran's English
language channel Press TV late Saturday.
"But unfortunately the Kurdistan region, the
northern part of Iraq, did not listen, so we feel
entitled to target military bases of PEJAK and they
have been under our artillery fire," he added,
according to the channel's English translation.
Safavi, the former head of the elite Revolutionary
Guards, gave no details of when the firing had taken
place or if it was continuing.
Iraqi Kurdish officials said last month that
hundreds of Iraqi
Kurds had fled remote mountain
villages near the country's eastern
frontier after Iranian gunners targeted separatist
guerrilla bases.
But Vice Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi vehemently
denied on September 3 that Iran had shelled rebel
bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Safavi said that "groups of four to five" Kurdish
militants from PEJAK (Party of Free Life of
Kurdistan) at a time moved across the border from
their bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to carry out attacks
in mainly Kurdish western Iran (Iranian Kurdistan).
PEJAK, took up
arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdistan
province northwestern of Iran. Half the members of
PEJAK are women.
PEJAK is not labeled as 'terrorist' organisation,
while PKK labled as "terrorist organisation" by
Turkey, USA and the European Union.
"They set off bombs and they create insecurity. And
I think it is part of our natural right to fight
such rogue counter-revolutionary armed groups as
they are creating insecurity."
Earlier this month, seven members of the Iranian
security forces were killed in a shootout with
"rebels" in the western province Kermanshah, which
has a substantial Kurdish population.
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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