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Iran accuses US of supporting Kurdish
rebel PEJAK groups
7.9.2007
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September 7, 2007
TEHRAN, -- Iran on Thursday accused the
United States of supporting separatist rebel groups
in its border regions to carry out acts of sabotage,
including blowing up oil pipelines.
Iran's top national security official Ali Larijani
said that Washington was backing groups like Pejak,
a Kurdish separatist group believed to be linked to
Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
that has carried out a spate of attacks in Kurdish
northwestern of Iran.
PEJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) , Since
2004 PEJAK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdistan province northwestern of
Iran. Half the members of PEJAK are women.
"The United States has become so weak that it is
trying to strengthen groups like Pejak and other
groups to carry out actions like blowing up oil
pipelines in Iran," the official news agency IRNA
quoted Larijani as saying.
His comments came the day after seven members of the
Iranian security forces were
killed in a shootout with "rebels" in
the western Kermanshah province. Kermanshah, which
has a large Iranian Kurdish population, lies south
of the province of Kurdistan, where clashes with
separatist guerrillas occasionally take place.
Last month, six members of Iran's elite
Revolutionary
Guards were killed in a
helicopter crash near the Iraqi
border which the authorities said was due to bad
weather, but Kurdish rebels said was due to the
chopper being shot down. |
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 |
In August, Rahman Haj-Ahmadi,
president of the three-year-old PEJAK, who lives in
Germany, said that the Iranian regime faced a
growing internal challenge to its power from the
Kurds, Azeris and other restive minority groups. he
said,
"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."
Iran has repeatedly accused the United States of
aiding banned militant groups in a bid to stir
tensions in sensitive regions with ethnic minority
populations on its borders with Iraq, Pakistan and
Turkey.
Tehran has said that the United States is aiding the
Sunni militant group Jundallah which has been behind
attacks and abductions in its restive southeastern
Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Washington and Tehran are at loggerheads over Iran's
nuclear programme and its alleged meddling in Iraq
and the United States has never ruled out possible
military action against the Islamic republic.
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"
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