Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan

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Secretary-General
  
Mustafa Hijri

Membership  (2008)
  
1,200–1,800

Founder
  
Qazi Muhammad

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan

Founded
  
August 16, 1945; 71 years ago (1945-08-16)

Headquarters
  
Koy Sanjaq, Iraqi Kurdistan Mahabad, Iran (historic)

Ideology
  
Kurdish nationalism Socialism Social democracy Progressivism Secularism Historic: Anti-imperialism Conservative traditionalism

The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI; Kurdish: Hîzbî Dêmukratî Kurdistanî Êran‎, HDKA; Persian: حزب دموکرات کردستان ایران‎, Ḥezb-e Demokrāt-e Kordestān-e Īrān‎), also known as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), is a militant socialist ethnic party of Kurds in Iran, exiled in northern Iraq.

Contents

It calls for self-determination of Kurdish people and has been described as seeking either separatism or autonomy within a federal system.

Since 1979, KDPI has waged a persistent yet thus far unsuccessful guerrilla war against the Government of Islamic Republic of Iran, during 1979–1983 Kurdish insurgency, its 1989–1996 insurgency and recent clashes in 2016. Hyeran Jo of Texas A&M University classifies KDPI as "compliant rebels", i.e. rebels that kill fewer than 100 and refrain from killing for more than half of their operating years. In order to gain domestic and international legitimacy, the party has denounced use of violence against civilians, claimed commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Geneva Convention Article 3, and as of 2007 is one of the signatories to the Geneva Call's ban on anti-personnel mines.

History

Qazi Muhammad founded the PDKI in Mahabad, Iran, on 16 August 1945. On 22 January 1946, Qazi Muhammad declared a Kurdish Republic of Kurdistan, of which he formally became president. The Republic lasted less than a year: after the USSR retreated from the area, the Imperial Iranian army first reclaimed Iranian Azerbaijan, followed by Mahabad on 15 December 1946. After the fall of the Republic, many of the PDKI leaders were arrested and executed, effectively ending the party.

The PDKI cooperated with the Tudeh party and saw a short revival under the anti-Shah administration of Mohammad Mosaddegh (1951–53), but this ended after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took full control again in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état. In 1958, the PDKI was on the verge of unifying with the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), but was then dismantled by the SAVAK secret police. The remains of the PDKI continued to support the KDP, but this changed as the Shah started aiding the KDP, which fought against the Iraqi regime that had overthrown the royal Hashemite dynasty. In return for the Shah's aid, the KDP decerased its support for the PDKI.

The PDKI reorganised itself, marginalising its pro-KDP leader Abd-Allah Ishaqi (also known as Ahmad Tawfiq), adding new communist and nationalist members, and forming the Revolutionary Committee to continue the struggle against the Iranian regime. The Committee began an unsuccessful revolution in March 1967, ending after 18 months.

After reforms by a new leader, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the PDKI fought alongside Islamic and Marxist movements against the Shah, culminating in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Khomeini's new Islamic regime, however, refused the Kurdish demands, suppressing the PDKI and other Kurdish parties. The PDKI continued its activities in exile, hoping to achieve "Kurdish national rights within a democratic federal republic of Iran".

In 1997, the party's call for abstaining the presidential election remained largely ignored by Kurdish citizens in Iran and amid a high turnout in Kurdistan Province, a large number voted for Mohammad Khatami.

The highest PDKI organ is the Central Committee, composed of 21 permanent and 10 substitute members, elected in PDKI Congresses. The Central Committee elects 7 of its members for the executive Political Bureau, which also includes the Secretary-General. The current Secretary-General is Mustafa Hijri.

Mykonos restaurant assassinations

Sadeq Sharafkandi's murder became an international incident between Germany and Iran. On 17 September 1992, PDKI leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany. In the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi, an Iranian national who worked as a grocer in Berlin, and Lebanese Abbas Rhayel, guilty of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. In its 10 April 1997 ruling, the court issued an international arrest warrant for Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-Islam Ali Fallahian after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with knowledge of Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ayatollah Rafsanjani.

PDKI congresses

The PDKI has held fifteen congresses. These occurred in 1945, 1964, 1971, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012.

During the 20th Congress of the Socialist International, held at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City (9–11 September 1996), the PDKI was given the status of observer member. In 2005, the PDKI's membership was elevated to consultative status.

Secretaries-General

  • Qazi Muhammad (1945–1947)
  • (vacant) Ahmad Tofiq (1947–1973)
  • Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (1973–1989)
  • Sadegh Sharafkandi (1989–1992)
  • Mustafa Hijri (2004–)
  • References

    Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Wikipedia