| Party of Free Life of Kurdistan Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê, (PJAK) |
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| Dates of operation | 2004–2011 |
| Leader | Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi |
| Motives | To establish semiautonomous regional entities or Kurdish federal states in Iran, Turkey and Syria similar to the Kurdistan Regional Government.[1] |
| Active region(s) | Iraq, Turkey and Iran |
| Ideology | Kurdish nationalism Feminism |
| Status | Dissolved |
The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan[2][3] (Kurdish: پارتی ژیانی ئازادی کوردستان or Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê or PJAK, also known in English as Free Life Party of Kurdistan,[4][5] Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan,[6][7][8][9] and sometimes referred to as PEJAK), is a militant Kurdish nationalist group with bases in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq,[10] which has been carrying out numerous attacks in western Iran, southern Turkey and the northeastern parts of Syria where the Kurdish populations live.[10]
Most experts describe PJAK as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).[11] According to the New York Times, the PJAK shares the same leadership and logistics of the PKK militants in Turkey, as well as allegiance to its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, but unlike the PKK fights Iranian government forces rather than the Turkish government ones.
[12] Both groups are members of Kurdistan Democratic Confederation (Koma Civakên Kurdistan or KCK), an umbrella group of insurgent Kurdish groups.[13][14] The PJAK (and the PKK), has been designated a terrorist organization by a number of states and international organizations;[15][16].
The PJAK'S estimated 3,000 members come from Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and the Kurdish diaspora.[17]
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The present leader of the organisation is Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the members of PJAK are women, many of them still in their teens.[18] The group actively recruits female guerrillas and boasts that its "cruelest and fiercest fighters" are women drawn to the movement's "radical feminism".[19]
PJAK is a member of the PKK (Koma Civakên Kurdistan or KCK), which is an alliance of outlawed Kurdish groups and divisions led by an elected Executive Council. The KCK is in charge of a number of decisions under the movement, and often, release press statements on behalf of its members. PJAK also has sub-divisions. PJAK's armed-wing has been named by the organization as the East Kurdistan Defence Forces (Hêzên Rojhilata Kurdistan or HRK). PJAK also has a women's branch, dedicated to serving women's interests within the group and women interests in general, called Yerjerika.[20]
The PKK is also a member of KCK,[14][21] and according to the New York Times, the PJAK and PKK "appear to a large extent to be one and the same, and share the same goal: fighting campaigns to win new autonomy and rights for Kurds. The only difference is that the PJAK fights in Iran, and PKK fights in Turkey. They share leadership, logistics and allegiance to Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK leader currently imprisoned in Turkey."[12] Both the PJAK and PKK, are designated as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and supranational organizations, including the USA, NATO and the EU,[15][16][22]
Like the present PKK goals in Turkey, PJAK leaders say their long-term goals are to establish an autonomous Kurdish region within the Iranian state.[1] PJAK leadership claims that the group's goals are mainly focused on replacing Iran's theocracy with a "democratic and federal government", where "self-rule is granted to all ethnic minorities of Iran, including Arabs, Azeris, and Kurds".[23]
Istanbul's Cihan News Agency claimed that over 120 members of the Iranian security forces were killed by PJAK during 2005.[24]
PJAK killed 24 members of Iranian security forces on the April 3, 2006, in retaliation for the killing of 10 Kurds demonstrating in Maku by Iranian security forces.[18] On April 10, 2006, seven PJAK members were arrested in Iran, on suspicion that they had killed three Iranian security force personnel. PJAK set off a bomb on 8 May 2006 in Kermanshah, wounding five people at a government building.[25]
As early as mid-2006, the Iranian security forces have confronted PJAK guerrillas in many different occasions along the border inside Iran. Since then, the US news channel MSNBC claims that the Iranian military has begun bombardments of Kurdish villages in Iraq along the Iranian border while claiming that their primary targets have been PJAK militants. A number of civilians have died.[26] PJAK claims its guerrillas fight inside Iran, and in August 2007, managed to destroy an Iranian military helicopter that was conducting a forward operation of bombardment by Iranian forces.[27]
On April 24, 2009, PJAK rebels attacked a police station in Kermanshah province. According to Iranian government sources, 48 policemen and 4 rebels were killed in a fierce gun battle.[28] Iran responded a week later by attacking Kurdish villages in the boder area of Panjwin inside Iraq using helicopter gunships. According to Iraqi border guards officials, the area attacked by Iran was not considered a stronghold of PJAK , that appeared to have been the target of the raid. According to the ICRC, more than 800 Iraqi Kurds have been forced from their homes by the recent cross-border violence.[29]
On 16 July 2011 the Iranian army launched a major offensive against PJAK compounds in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq. According to the Revolutionary Guards dozens of rebels have been killed.[30][31] According to the state-run IRNA news agency on 26 July, PJAK militants were killed in clashes in several towns in West Azerbaijan province. Kurdish media reported that at least five Revolutionary Guards were killed.[32] The Iranian government blames the PJAK for sabotage attacks on gas pipelines and ambushing its troops, according to Reuters, aid agencies say shelling by the Revolutionary Guard has "killed some civilians and forced hundreds to flee their homes" in the area. The Revolutionary Guard denies the charge.[31]
On August 8, 2011, during a lull for Ramadan in the Pasdaran offensive, PJAK leader Haji Ahmadi, told an interviewer his group is prepared to negotiate with Iran and maintained that Kurdish issues need to be solved through “peaceful means”. Haji Ahmadi acknowledged that in some cases compromise is inevitable and indicated that PJAK is willing to lay down its arms. He said fighting may not help Kurds secure political and cultural rights in Iran.[33] However, the Guards resumed their offensive on September 2 and rejected any ceasefire call by PJAK, saying the Kurdish rebels have no choice but to lay down arms or leave the border areas. On 19 September Iran's ground forces commander, Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, told the Vatan-e-Emrooz newspaper his forces would finish off armed Kurdish Iraqi-based rebels in the "coming days."[34]
In September 2011, PJAK announced it had reached a cease-fire with the Iranian government, brokered by members of Iraq's Kurdish regional government. As of early November 2011, the cease-fire was still in effect, and refugees created by Iranian shelling inside Iraq were hoping they might be able to return to their villages in time for winter.[35]
According to Iranian PressTV new agency, in early August 2011 US military officials met in Iraq with members of PJAK and promised them with weapons and financial aid.[36] Iranian officials have stated that PJAK attacks come "with the support of America and the Zionist regime".[31]
On April 18, 2006, US Congressman, Dennis Kucinich sent a letter to US president George W. Bush in which he expressed his judgment that the US is likely to be supporting and coordinating PJAK, since PJAK operates and is based in Iraqi territory, which is under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government.[37]
In November 2006, journalist Seymour Hersh writing in The New Yorker, supported this claim, stating that the US military and the Israelis are giving the group equipment, training, and targeting information in order to create internal pressures in Iran.[38] According to French journalist Thierry Meyssan, author of 9/11: The Big Lie, American support for PJAK is a part of the US strategy to reshape the greater middle east.[39]
The United States government and PJAK officially deny cooperation. In one of the first actions of the Obama administration, PJAK was declared a terrorist organization, freezing any assets the PJAK has under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting American citizens from doing business with the organization.[40]
In an interview with Slate magazine in June 2006, when PJAK spokesman Ihsan Warya was paraphrased as stating that he "nevertheless points out that PJAK really does wish it were an agent of the United States, and that [PJAK is] disappointed that Washington hasn't made contact." The Slate article continues stating that the PJAK wishes to be supported by and work with the United States in overthrowing the government of Iran in a similar way to the US eventually cooperated with Kurdish organisations in Iraq in overthrowing the government of Iraq during the most recent Iraq war.[41]
In August 2007, the leader of PJAK visited Washington, DC in order to seek more open support from the US both politically and militarily[42] but it was later said that he only made limited contacts with officials in Washington.[26] One of the top officials in the PKK made a statement in late 2006, that "If the US is interested in PJAK, then it has to be interested in the PKK as well" referring to the alliance between the two groups and their memberships in the Kurdistan Democratic Confederation (KCK).[43]
In March 2010 the leader of PJAK, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, was arrested at his residence in Germany by German Police. Haji Ahmadi, however was released shortly afterward without the German government giving any details about the reason he was arrested or released.[44]
Before his release, the Iranian government asked Germany to extradite the leader to Iran. Germany turned down Iran's request saying Haji Ahmadi is a German citizen.[44]
Families of individuals killed by the PJAK in Iran demonstrated in front of the German Embassy in Tehran after his arrest, asking for the extradition and punishment of the group leader.
Iran became angry about the Germans' decision to free Haji Ahmadi, considering that the group had caused unrest in towns near the Iran-Iraq border and had killed civilians in those regions.Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference in Tehran "The European countries, despite chanting the slogan of defending human rights, are practically supporting terrorism," and "There are many clues showing that Europe has become a safe haven for terrorists."[44]
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