It is important to underline that the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government and the two ruling political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan are free to have a bilateral relationship with Iran that serves their interests and does not hurt the interests of Kurdish movement in Iranian Kurdistan without any political or moral judgment from our party.

Regarding the decision to commemorate Ayatollah Khomeini in the Qazi Muhammed Conference Centre, I personally understand that this decision has angered many people, especially after the outrage it created last year. People that I have spoken to would have preferred that the two ruling parties in Iraqi Kurdistan would have chosen another venue to host the event.

For people that feel that it is not suitable to host such an event in the mentioned conference centre, I would recommend that you contact the KRG and express your opinion.

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.

The issue of Kurdish “separatism” has since our party was established in 1945, and even before that, been used as an excuse not to grant the Kurdish people their national rights. It is true that our party established the Kurdistan Republic in 1945, after that the Allied Forces took control over Iran as punishment for Iran’s alliance with Hitler’s Nazi Germany. And it is also true that our party sees the Kurdish people in all parts of Kurdistan (Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria) as one nation that has been forcefully divided. And like any other nation, we believe that the Kurdish people have the right to self-determination and the right to create an independent state.

During the rule of the two Pahlavi Shah’s (father and son) it was claimed that all citizens of Iran were “Iranians” with a common Aryan ancestry, hence there were no need for one “group” of Iranians to be granted any “special” rights. Under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei all the citizens of Iran became Muslims, thus talk about “special” rights for one “group” of Muslims is blasphemy and against Islam.

But what is strange is that the Kurdish people, both as “Iranians” under the monarchy and as “Muslims” under the theocracy, have never been equals to the ruling “group”. The monarchy waged war against the Kurdish people based on claims that the Kurdish people were backward seeking “tribes”. Ayatollah Khomeini declared “holy war” against the Kurdish people and labelled our party as the party of “Satan”. The Kurdish people have always been economically, socially and culturally discriminated, oppressed and mistreated. We have been denied basic rights like studying our own language in schools, denied adequate housing, food, water, and proper education and standard health services. And yet we are suppose to be grateful and loyal to rulers that subjects our people to this?

We do not think that if the Kurdish people in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria would in the future decide to create an independent state that this would constitute as separatism, but rather as the unification of the Kurdish nation.

What is very worrisome is that even some individual Iranians and organizations that our party has helped and given sanctuary in so many different ways, often forgets this and as soon as they do not need our help anymore they portray us as enemies of Iran.

For example, when the current regime in Iran, after that they managed to take control of large parts of Iran, started to purge, execute and force different leftist groups out of Iran, which all supported Ayatollah Khomeini’s anti Americanism. Many of these groups sought sanctuary in Kurdistan with the help of our party, but as soon as they felt that they didn’t need our support anymore they acted in the same chauvinistic manner as the current regime and previous regime does/did. Also, during the last couple of years we have helped several Iranian writers, journalists and human rights activists to flee from the Islamic Republic, some of these individuals ironically started to attack our party as soon as they stopped needing our sanctuary and help.

With that said, our party does not seek an independent Kurdish state, but we rather promote the establishment of a democratic and federal Iran in which the Kurdish people are granted their national rights in Iranian Kurdistan. But for this to be feasible, the Kurdish nation and all of the other nations in Iran must be granted equal rights in all spheres of life.

The time when the Kurdish people and the Kurdish national freedom movement needed to pledge their loyalty to an imaginary notion of Iran has passed, anyone that fears Kurdish “separatism” should instead help fight for the Kurdish peoples rights and work to create an democratic and progressive Iran in which the Kurdish people feels part of and not express paranoid sentiments that will only widen the gap between the different nations of Iran.

Below are some questions that I have received during the last two weeks:

Q: The U.S. has intensified its efforts to solve the nuclear crises with Iran and, as it seems by media reports, Iran has responded positively. Do you think that the outcome of the negotiations will be positive?

A: Our party has welcomed the efforts by the U.S. and other countries to solve their conflict with Iran through dialogue. We have this position partly due to the fact that we think that conflicts should be solved politically, and partly because this new approach has pushed the regime in Tehran in to a corner.

However, the likelihood of Iran agreeing to halt its attempts to acquire nuclear weapons altogether is very low. This is the case despite the fact that Iran is taking part in the negotiations with P5+1. Iran has its own reasons to negotiate that have nothing to do with its willingness to halt its nuclear program.

There are several explanations for why Iran is taking part in these negotiations. One explanation is naturally that the regime would like to prevent new sanctions. Another explanation is that the regime fears that it could push China and Russia closer to the U.S. if it doesn’t take any steps that would give the Russians and Chinese a pretext to refuse to go along with any hard line against Iran. A third explanation, and the most reasonable one, is that the regime is attempting to defuse internal tensions by preventing the Western powers to lend support its opposition; negotiations is a perfect opportunity to shift both domestic and international focus away from the internal conflicts.

As for the possibility of the negotiations leading to a “positive” outcome, it all depends on what we appraise as a positive outcome. Is it a positive outcome if Iran, hypothetically, agrees to send a large portion of its uranium to Russia and France to be enriched? The natural question that arises is: who will be able to prevent Iran from continuing to secretly develop its nuclear program when it feels strong enough to do so? Even if we disregard this risk, it is highly unlikely that the negotiations will stop Iran from expanding its role as a regional power by waging proxy wars through different terrorist groups. Furthermore, Iran has studied the negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea, and they have learnt all of the tricks to buy time and prolong negotiations. A resent sign of this is Iran’s sudden objection to France being part of the negotiations.

The West needs to realize that the Islamic Republic derives the justification for its existence from an antagonistic and conflictual relationship with the U.S. and the West. The regime needs to portray the U.S. and Israel as external enemies. For that reason, it cannot develop normal relations with the international community.

Iran fears, above all, two things. The first is a military attack, which is highly improbable. The second thing, and its greatest fear, is that the West empowers and supports the democratic and secular opposition, which would lead to an end of the regime. Other “problems” are seen by the regime as only small obstacles to its quest for regional supremacy.

Q: Do you think that the Kurdish initiative in Turkey will bring about peace and what is the PDKI’s position on the matter?

A: Our party has expressed cautious optimism about recent developments in Turkey with regard to the Kurdish issue. The mere fact that the current government in Turkey has presented what they now call the “Democratic initiative” (which they called the Kurdish initiative at first) is in itself a positive move. But whether this initiative will lead to peace depends on several factors, and no one should expect peace to be achieved over night.

First and foremost the Turkish government needs to prepare the Turkish public for the necessary compromises that needs to be made for peace to be possible. One important point in this regard is to change the mentality of large parts of the Turkish people regarding their perception of the Kurdish people and the Kurdish political parties, especially the PKK (which is the dominant party in the Turkish part of Kurdistan.) Successive Turkish governments have worked hard to make “terrorism” synonymous with organized struggle for Kurdish rights.

Changing attitudes like these will be hard but pivotal to achieve lasting peace and a just settlement. Furthermore, the Turkish government needs to accept the Kurdish political parties as their counterpart and take their demands seriously and be ready to make necessary compromises.

I believe that the Kurdish political parties, especially the PKK, have shown that they are ready to end this conflict and that they are ready to make compromises. It is now up to the government of Turkey to respond in an appropriate manner and resist the pressure from radical nationalist groups. These groups, if given to much space, will endanger the long-term interests of Turkey. And the Kurdish nation, in all parts of Kurdistan, follows the developments in Turkey and is expecting democratic change and peace.

Q: Following the killing of several Revolutionary Guard members by Jundullah, Western media outlets have written about the situation in Sistan- Balouchistan. Does an ethnic conflict exist in Iran or is it a conflict between Sunnis a Shiites?

A: One cannot speak of the existence of “ethnic conflict” in Iran in the sense that the country’s national and religious groups are antagonistic toward each other as in some other parts of the world where there are “ethnic conflicts.” However, in spite of the fact that Iran is a multinational country, one ethnic group or nation, the Persians, are privileged in the sense that only the Persian language is the official language of the country, only Persian history is thought in the schools and their religion is state religion etc.

At the same time, Kurds, Arabs, Turks, Baluchs and so on are discriminated and systematically oppressed by the state. So the Islamic Republic is actually engaged in undeclared “ethnic conflicts” with Iran’s non-Persian nations and religious groups. For example, Jundullah said in a statement that the bombing attack against the Revolutionary Guards was a response to the “crimes of the Iranian regime against the Baluchi people; the unarmed and oppressed, who everyday loses a number of its children to the crimes of this regime, which just during the last year murdered hundreds of young [Baluchi] men […] These crimes left the Baluchi people no other choice except resistance and to use the same methods as the Iranian regime.”

Thus, the incident in Baluchistan is a result of the policies that the Islamic Republic pursues against Iran’s different nations and religious groups. Our party believes that Iran’s nations and religious groups don’t have “conflicts” with each other. However, the Islamic regime is systematically working to bring about “ethnic conflicts” in Iran. Even if the regime succeeds in creating ethnic conflicts in Iran, we believe that the only solution to such conflicts is democracy and federal arrangements, not war.