November 25, 2009
The leader of the outlawed Free
Life Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PJAK) has accused
the Obama administration of thwarting negotiations
among Iranian pro-democracy groups that were on the
verge of creating a united opposition front that
could have led to the collapse of the Islamic regime
during this summer’s post-election turmoil.
That leader, Rahman Haj Ahmadi, contends that Iran
was able to suppress the pro-democracy movement well
before this summer’s protests because they lacked a
united leadership and a strategic nerve center.
In an exclusive interview, Ahmadi told Newsmax that
the decision by the Treasury Department to designate
his party as an international terrorist organization
on Feb. 4, 2009 "directly benefited the Iranian
regime."
Efforts by PJAK and others to forge a common front
with a wide variety of Iranian pro-democracy groups
over the past year came to an abrupt halt as a
result of the U.S. action in February. “We were very
close to success in bringing these groups together,”
Ahmadi said. But the Treasury action “made the other
groups afraid to work with us, for fear of U.S.
government reprisals.”
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Since
2004 the PJAK took up arms for self-rule in Kurdistan province northwestern of
Iran (Iranian Kurdistan, Eastern Kurdistan). Half the members of PJAK
are women. The PJAK has about 3,000 armed
militiamen.
Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey all have significant
ethnic Kurdish minorities. Estimate to 12 million
Kurds live in Iran. |
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The
Treasury Department explained its actions by
labeling PJAK “a splinter group” of the PKK, a
Kurdish organization that has been fighting for
Kurdish rights in Turkey for the past 25 years. Tens
of thousands have died on both sides over that time.
Both the Iranian and the Turkish governments
welcomed the Treasury order to freeze PJAK assets in
the United States. The Treasury Department order
also prohibits U.S. persons from conducting any
financial transactions with the group. But lawyers
for PJAK say that the Treasury Department violated
U.S. law by making the designation without any prior
consultation with PJAK or allowing the group to
counter the allegations against it.
The Obama administration failed to take into
consideration a recent German court decision that
rejected a similar effort by the German government
to designate PJAK as a terrorist organization.
The German court “found no factual basis for this
terrorism determination,” PJAK counsel Morton Sklar
wrote to theTreasury in March.
Sklar is a well-known human rights lawyer who
chaired the Helsinki Watch Committee in the late
1970s to monitor human rights abuses behind the Iron
Curtain,www.ekurd.netat
a time when most human rights organizations were
turning a blind eye to Soviet abuses.
In his interview with Newsmax, Ahmadi extended a
hand to other Iranian opposition groups to
coordinate their efforts against the Iranian regime.
“We as Kurds cannot overthrow the regime by
ourselves. Neither can the Persians, or the Azeris,
or the Balouch. If we want to get rid of this
regime, we must work together. We must unite. The
only reason this regime has stayed in power for 30
years is that they have managed to sow hatred among
Iran’s minorities and false rivalries among Iranian
political parties. It is time for that to end.”
PJAK operates several camps in the Qandil mountains
of Kurdistan region of Iraq, where it also trains
activists as “self-defense” fighters. Newsmax
visited the PJAK camps in October 2007 and found no
evidence of a PKK presence.
Ahmadi refered to the camps as “our university,”
because of the intense political, social, and
economic classes PJAK activists take in addition to
receiving rudimentary military training. For more,
read “Kurdish Rebels: ‘We’re Not Terrorists.'”
PJAK activists insist that what differentiates them
from other Kurdish groups that are based on tribal
loyalties is their dedication to “changing the
feudal and tribal culture” of Iranian Kurdistan.
PJAK activists played key roles in the post-election
protests this summer, organizing demonstrations at
Tehran University and at other universities across
the country.
“We lost a lot of our people” when the regime
cracked down, Ahmadi said. The Kurdish leader said
that his group will continue to defend Kurdish
rights in Iran and to work with other groups to
promote a secular Iranian republic no matter what
the Obama administration does.
“We have many common interests with the United
States,” he said. “First and foremost is our stance
against political Islam. Americans need to
understand that Iranian nuclear weapons are not as
dangerous as political Islam. This is the No. 1
danger, not just for the region, or the United
States, but for the whole world.”
Ahmadi said that there was no evidence "that PJAK
ever committed a single terrorist act anywhere . . .
It does not exist."
Instead of designating PJAK as a terrorist group,
the Iranian opposition leader said the U.S. should
be concerned about the growing strategic alliance
among Iran, Turkey, and Syria. “If the
Iran-Turkey-Syria alliance continues, U.S. policies
will fail in the region,” he warned.
Lots of governments in the region work with the
United States. But in most cases, the people in
those countries oppose their governments and oppose
the United States,www.ekurd.netAhmadi
argued. “If the U.S. were to follow a
democratization policy in the region, we could be
the closest and most valuable friend of the United
States. The only people in the region that is a
friend to the U.S. is the Kurdish people.”
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