Kill Them; They are Secessionists

Armed clashes between the armed forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Kurdish group PJAK, along with the shelling by Iranian artillery which according to the editor of hardline Kayhan newspaper has taken place deep inside the “Kurdish regional government”, continue in their third week. Kurdish provincial government is a reference to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Conflicting numbers are given on the number of dead and wounded among the military and no independent source has presented any detailed information on the extent of human loss in these clashes. What is apparent however is that there seems to be an undeclared war going on in the region.

Military men on both sides are killed on a daily basis and according to the International Red Cross, 160 families from the villages in Iraqi Kurdistan have been forced to evacuate their homes. In short: they have been turned into homeless refugees. Members of the Iraqi regional government estimate the number of refugees to be over 1,000 people. According to medical sources in the region, at least 5 civilians have been killed or wounded. Last year, three people were reported to have been killed as a result of similar armed clashes.

Shelling of the Kurdish border areas between Iran and Iraq is not a new development in the region. What does make it unusual is the direct ground involvement of the IRGC force, in addition to the previous demands that the border areas be vacated. These which signal a completely new and different situation which is why Kurdish and non-Kurdish activists have raised unusual alarms. All groups, ranging from human rights advocates to media activists including regional women’s groups, have condemned this militarization and the military attacks of the Iran-Iraq Kurdish border areas by the Islamic republic of Iran.

At the same time, when the armed clashes began, particularly after the protests by the head of the Kurdish provincial government and the prior warning by the IRGC regarding clashes with PJAK, this news was headlined in the Persian language media outside Iran. After the passage of a few days however, the news moved from headline front page coverage to brief news bulletins in other pages.

On the other hand after Kurdish activists launched a wave of protests over  what they called were relative media and human rights boycotts, a number of political and civil activists not only refrained from declaring their protests to the events in the social media on the grounds that this was “an armed Group” or that it was “secessionist”, akin to Jondollah armed group but in sense allowed the formal war launched by the Islamic republic of Iran appear to be “legitimate.”

It should be noted that the swift translation of any Kurdish protest to be labeled secessionist is not a new phenomena. For over thirty years now the propaganda machinery of the Islamic republic of Iran, and even that of its predecessor the Pahlavi monarchy, has been vigorous in portraying such an image. 

Aside the fact that contrary to common view PJAK is not a secessionist organization[1] and the goal of this article is not to examine the role of this party and justify its political mistakes in recent years[2] the key question that these events is that what is the goal of the artillery shelling of Iran’s military.

Leaders of some Kurdish groups have in recent days stressed that the ultimate goal of these attacks by the Islamic republic is not PJAK, but the subjugation of the whole Kurdish protest movement. This is precisely what it has been doing all these years, instead of  addressing the calls and needs of people of this region. Some Kurdish activists point out that although PJAK has been the target of military attacks by the Islamic republic in recent years, the ultimate goal is the larger issue.

These recent events are reminiscent of the war that the Islamic republic waged against the Komele and the Kurdish Democratic Party in the  beginning of the 1979 revolution. At that time while most people in Iran were intoxicated with the idea of revolution, people and political groups in Kurdistan were calling for a secular regime that would recognize the rights of the country’s ethnic minorities. That war was launched against the Kurdish people by the direct orders of ayatollah Khomeini on August 19, 1979.

What is similar to the events of those days is the silence over the killings and war against the Kurds At that time too the Islamic republic convinced the public that Sunni Kurds were against the territorial integrity of the country, that they were secessionists and were targeting the unity of the country.

Today, thirty years after that blood war and conflict, the Kurdish people are still demanding their rights. They are present in all aspects of society and their negation is rejection the existence of the issue. So it must be clear that the continuation of these attacks is neither in the interest of Iran nor beneficial for the growth of the civil and peaceful struggles of the Iranian people, including the Kurds.

In the last two years, and with the birth of the Green Movement, an unprecedented cooperation among Kurdish groups and others around the country. More than any other factor, it is the efforts of the new generation in Iran to understand what is going on independent of what the Islamic republic has been propagating.

Under these circumstances, the dual approach to this issue, i.e., the attacks by the Islamic republic of Iran on the border areas with Iraq, and the killing of military men on both sides and the killing of innocent civilians in Iraqi Kurdistan is clearly the minimum cost that will be imposed on everybody.

Kurdish activists too must realize that if the condemnations of the Islamic republic of Iran for its attacks are not followed up with a critical review of the activities of PJAK, and other Kurdish parties, the efforts that these groups are making will be interpreted as emotional, un-strategic and blind support for a particular political party.

[1] According to the charter of the group, this organization was created with the goal of “limiting and modifying the role and authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran and to democratize it in the context of four fundamental reforms in the government, people, society and citizen,” with the desire to resolve the Kurdish problem within the “democratic confederation of Kurdish people without a change in the official borders” of the country.  

[2] PJAK was created in 2005 and unlike other Kurdish parties, did not negate armed conflict within the context of “legitimate defense.” This party has been the target of Iranian shelling for years and according to Iraqi Kurdish media has been almost continuously under this barrage since 2007 and has only launched five unilateral armed attacks against military bases. While there are also allegations about this party’s affiliations with the Kurdish Workers  Party in Turkey, the group itself denies this. Despite this, even the slightest military operations inside Iran have resulted in further curtailment of the narrow civil society sphere in Kurdistan, brought about criticism from rival political group and critics inside the civil society.