Kurdistan Free Life Party
The Kurdistan Free Life Party, or PJAK (Kurdish: Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê), is a Kurdish leftist anti-Islamic Republic of Iran armed militant group.[2] It has waged an intermittent armed struggle since 2004 against the Iranian Government, seeking self-determination through some degree of autonomy for Kurds in Iran (also known as "Eastern Kurdistan" or "Rojhelat").[3][4][5]
Kurdistan Free Life Party Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê (PJAK)
پارتی ژیانی ئازادی کوردستان
پارتی ژیانی ئازادی کوردستان
2004
Eastern Kurdistan Units (YRK)
Women's Defence Forces (HPJ)
The PJAK is aligned with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) through the Kurdistan Communities Union, an umbrella group of Kurdish political and insurgent groups in Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq.[6][7][8]
PJAK spokespersons have repeatedly told visiting media that its armed wing, the Eastern Kurdistan Units (YRK), has approximately 3,000 active members - half of them women - however estimates from academic specialists over the years point to more conservative figures such as 1,000.[9] However, PJAK's capabilities to inflict significant damage on Islamic Republic of Iran forces in Kurdish areas of Iran has by some accounts been significantly weakened over the past decade, firstly due to a relatively large-scale 2011 cross-border campaign that killed potentially hundreds of PJAK fighters, secondly to due to recent increased Turkish-Iranian cooperation through sharing intel (satellite, drone footage) on PKK and PJAK movements in their Qandil Mountains bases.[10][11] On the other hand, a recent uptick in Iranian Government repression, imprisonment, executions, and extra-judicial killings of Kurdist activists have allegedly caused an increase in recruits to PJAK and the other clandestine anti-IRI Kurdish rebel groups Komala, KDPI, and PAK.[12][13]
PJAK has been designated as a terrorist organisation by Iran,[14] Turkey,[15] and since 2009, by the United States.[2][16]
Members of the PKK from Iranian Kurdistan founded the PJAK in 2004 as an Iranian equivalent to their leftist-nationalist insurgency against the Turkish government.[17] It is assumed that the present leader of the organization is Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, who is said to reside in Germany.[18] According to the Washington Times, half the members of PJAK are women, many of them still in their teens.[19] The group actively recruits female guerrillas and states that its "cruelest and fiercest fighters" are women drawn to the movement's "radical feminism".[20]
The PJAK is a member of the Kurdistan Communities Union or KCK (Kurdish: Koma Civakên Kurdistan), which is an alliance of Kurdish groups and divisions led by an elected Executive Council. The KCK is in charge of a number of decisions, and often releases press statements on behalf of its members.
The PJAK also has sub-divisions:[21]
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."[24] About half of its militants are women.[18]
The PJAK leadership claims that the group's goals are principally focused on replacing Iran's theocracy with a federal and democratic government which accepts an autonomy for ethnic minorities in Iran.[18]
Pjak has undergone several divisions so far. The first split took place in Pjak in 2005, and members of the split, such as (Osman Jafari, Shiva Kargar, Habib Tahmasabi, Yusuf Hatami and....,) founded the Democratic Union of Kurdistan.
Eastern Kurdistan Units
Yekîneyên Rojhilatê Kurdistan (YRK)
2004–Present
To establish autonomous regional entities or Kurdish federal states in Iran, Turkey and Syria,[25] and establish a democratic confederalist system as theorised by Abdullah Öcalan.
Active
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
PJAK and the United States[edit]
Both the United States and PJAK have always denied any form of ties. Since February 2009, the PJAK is classified as a terrorist organization by the US government, freezing any assets the PJAK has under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting American citizens from doing business with the organization. Officials have cited PJAK's connections to the PKK as the basis for this designation[43]—the US has proscribed the PKK as a "Foreign Terrorist Organisation" since 1997 in support of Turkey, a regional ally of the US and fellow NATO member.[2] Iranian media and government figures have frequently charged that PJAK is covertly supported by the United States and its allies in order to undermine Iranian "state power". Iranian officials have also claimed that PJAK attacks come "with the support of America and the Zionist regime" (Israel).[7]
On April 18, 2006, Congressman Dennis Kucinich sent a letter to President George W. Bush in which he expressed his judgment that the U.S. is likely to be supporting and coordinating PJAK, since PJAK operates and is based in Iraqi territory, which is under the control of the U.S. supported Kurdistan Regional Government.[44]
From November 2006 to June 2008, journalist Seymour Hersh maintained that the Bush administration was gearing up for war with Iran, and in November 2006 he wrote in The New Yorker that the US military and Israel are giving PJAK equipment, training, and targeting information in order to create internal pressures in Iran. An Israeli spokesperson immediately denied the claims.[45] Likewise, Ross Wilson, the US ambassador to Turkey at the time, quickly issued an official denial of any kind of American assistance to PJAK in an effort to quell the uproar in Turkey[46] Wilson also sent a classified cable to Washington in December 2007 (which was later leaked) in which he strongly urged the US government to officially blacklist PJAK.[47]
In the wake of this incident, high-ranking PKK commander Cemil Bayık asserted in an interview with Agence France-Presse that while US officials had made contact with PJAK, America had provided no support whatsoever to the insurgent group. Maintaining that the PKK was the founder and only real supporter of PJAK, Bayık further stated that "if the US is interested in PJAK, then it has to be interested in the PKK as well", which would contradict the established hostility of the US toward the PKK.[46]
In 2007, the Washington Times claimed that Haji Ahmadi, the leader of PJAK, visited Washington, DC in August 2007 in order to seek political and military backing from the US,[48] but only made limited contact with officials and failed to obtain any such support.[28] However, in a statement released on 18 October 2008, PJAK accused the US of having passed intelligence to Turkish and Iranian forces as they conducted intensified bombing campaigns and cross-border attacks against PJAK and PKK bases in the Qandil region.[49]
On 4 February 2009, United States Department of the Treasury designated PJAK as a terrorist organization.[50] Moreover, the former PJAK leader Haji Ahmadi has accused the US of fighting the Kurdish rebels alongside Turkey and Iran.[18]