ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Bryar Gabar, a prominent member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and one of the founders of its Iranian affiliate the Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), has left the party and taken up residence in Erbil.
An informed source from the PKK’s Qandil Mountain base in the Kurdistan Region told Rudaw that Gabar left the guerrillas in mid-October and has been living in Erbil ever since.
Gabar was one of the delegates of the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) and took part for the past several months in the preparatory meetings for the Kurdish National Congress, an official date for which has still not been announced.
KCK is the supreme authority body of the PKK that supervises the group’s political, ideological, military, socio-economic activities, as well as its female fronts. In addition, KCK is the parent party of PJAK in Iranian Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PCDK) in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Democratic Union Party in Syria, known as PYD.
Gabar was born in 1971 in the city of Sanandaj in Iran’s Kurdistan province. He joined the ranks of the PKK in 1999 and was elected member of KCK’s leadership council in 2010. He was also in charge of the KCK’s civil organizations.
According to Rudaw sources, Gabar had a close relationship to former acting PKK leader Murat Karayilan, who was replaced last July by Cemil Bayik, the PKK current PKK commander.
After the KCK convention last July, Gabar became a member of the leadership Divan of the People’s Congress, an organization run by Remzi Kartal that operates mostly in Europe.
Gabar was also a founding member of PJAK, when it was established in 2003. PJAK is regarded as the PKK’s offshoot in Iranian Kurdistan.
After a change in the PKK’s leadership and inauguration of Bayik as the new leader, Gabar felt he was marginalized and had some ideological differences with the new leadership.
Gabar’s sister and mother live in very modest conditions in Sulaimani. He recently authored a book that is to be launched in the current year. The preface of the book, “Aweney Yeketi Neteweyi Kurd (Kurdish National Unity Mirror),” was written by Bayik.
According to information obtained by Rudaw, the PKK will soon issue a communique regarding Gabar’s departure from the group.
