Loghman H. Ahmedi

I am going to answer some frequently asked questions about whether our party has any relationship with Israel and our position on armed struggle.

Regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. Our party has traditionally supported the Palestinian peoples right to self-determination and we believe that a two-state-solution would bring about the end to some of the political and military tension in the Middle East.

Regarding the Kurdish peoples/organisations relationship with Israel, most of what is being claimed is conspiracy theories and manufactures rumours for political purposes. But it is important to underline that there are over 60 000 Kurdish Jews living in Israel, and it is natural that they have a close relationship with Kurds in Kurdistan and the Diaspora. Furthermore, the Kurdish people, unlike some other nations in the region, have never had any animosity against the Jewish people or the state of Israel, on the contrary the Kurdish Jews are highly respected and loved by their fellow Kurds.

But the notion that the Kurdish people (or some Kurdish organizations) and the state of Israel is conspiring against some or all of the states in the region is just ridiculous. Our party certainly does not receive any military or financial support from Israel.

Regarding our position on armed struggle. We do not reject armed struggle, but as a political principal we believe that all conflicts should be solved peacefully. Unfortunately, the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan, and other parts of Kurdistan, have been forced to take up arms against different regimes that have oppressed and subjected the Kurdish people to all kinds of violence.

Our party has since its establishment in 1945 believed that it is the Kurdish peoples natural right to have an armed force to protect the Kurdish people from both external and internal enemies, and this belief was the main reason why our party was the first Kurdish political party to establish the Kurdistan Peshmerga Forces in 1945.

Since then our Peshmerga Forces have fought for the rights of the Kurdish people and will continue to do so in the future. But it is important to underline that the Peshmerga Forces have never engaged in military attacks against any military or political entity outside of Kurdistan, our Peshmerga Forces have only responded militarily when the Kurdish people have been attacked.

For example, the Peshmerga Forces have never attacked any military positions in Iran, despite the fact that the Peshmerga Forces could easily have done this in the past and could do so in the future. The war against the Islamic Republic only began when Ayatollah Khomeini declared a “Holy War” against the Kurdish people and sent almost a quarter of a million armed soldiers and paramilitary forces to suppress the Kurdish peoples desire to attain autonomy and democracy.

With that said, we would restart an armed struggle if we believed that it was in the interests of our people, but at the moment we think that there are other opportunities that are less costly in terms of human lives that are worth pursuing.