Iran's Kurdish Threat: PJAK
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| PJAK's official logo, as shown on their website. |
As Iran faces international pressure over its nuclear program, Tehran is growing increasingly concerned by the internal threat posed by a resurgent Kurdish national movement led by the Party for Freedom and Life in Kurdistan (PJAK). In 2005, according to the Iranian government, PJAK killed at least 120 Iranian soldiers in Iran. In 2006, PJAK may exceed this total. Already, it has launched dozens of attacks both from its camps in Iraqi Kurdistan and from its underground cells in Iran itself. In one of its latest attacks, PJAK troops killed four Iranian soldiers on May 27 in a clash near the town of Mako in Iranian Kurdistan, the PKK's Roj TV reported. PJAK, however, regards its military operations as merely complementing its wider effort to build a new Kurdish national identity among the four million Kurds who make up seven percent of Iran's population. PJAK has around 3,000 troops based in northern Iraq, but claims tens of thousands of activists working inside Iran to promote a Kurdish identity, democracy and women's rights [1].
As the confrontation between Iran and the West escalates, international attention has increasingly focused on Tehran's internal vulnerability. In particular, analysts point out that Iran's "imperial" past has resulted in ethnic Persians—who make up scarcely half of Iran's 80 million people—holding disproportionate power, wealth and influence. If the crisis with Iran escalates further, Iran's neglected and often resentful Kurdish, Azeri and Arab minorities may increasingly play a key role in global events. At the forefront will likely be Iran's Kurds, and chief among them PJAK, which for nearly a decade has worked to replace Iran's theocratic government with a federal and democratic system, respectful of human rights, sexual equality and freedom of expression.
As the confrontation between Iran and the West escalates, international attention has increasingly focused on Tehran's internal vulnerability. In particular, analysts point out that Iran's "imperial" past has resulted in ethnic Persians—who make up scarcely half of Iran's 80 million people—holding disproportionate power, wealth and influence. If the crisis with Iran escalates further, Iran's neglected and often resentful Kurdish, Azeri and Arab minorities may increasingly play a key role in global events. At the forefront will likely be Iran's Kurds, and chief among them PJAK, which for nearly a decade has worked to replace Iran's theocratic government with a federal and democratic system, respectful of human rights, sexual equality and freedom of expression.
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