By Nasir Piroti
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The chairman of the leftist Iranian Komala Party of Kurdistan, Omar Ilkhanizadeh, believes cooperation among parties and civil struggle are now a necessity to achieve Kurdish rights in Iran, but did not rule out taking up arms once more.
“What’s more important is cooperation among the parties. However, the armed forces are still important for the Kurds. I hope political struggle will dominate the arena of the Kurdish parties and of our enemies, but weapons remain important,” he said.
“Hence, Kurdish parties must have weapons and fighters, but for now we will depend on civil struggle with all our power,” he told Rudaw in an interview from his exile in Iraqi Kurdistan.
He said that Kurdish fighters can obtain enough weapons “once we decide to resume fighting.”
“(We can get the weapons) from east Kurdistan (Iranian Kurdistan). There are many big military bases there. We were able to control those military bases during the 1979 revolution. We can do it again if we want to,” he claimed.
Asked if his group would agree to lay down weapons if demanded by his hosts in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Ilkhanizadeh said: “I do not think there will be a request of that sort. But, if they made that request, then it means we have to leave the Kurdistan Region.”
Answering a question about whether the group could return to bases in the Qandil mountains that lie on the Iraq-Iran border to resume armed struggle, Ikhanizade said that “neither the KRG nor the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has tried to stop us. But it is not logical to have our bases near Sulaimani (in Iraqi Kurdistan) and Koye (in Turkish Kurdistan) and send our Peshmarga fighters there every day. Doing so will cause a headache for the KRG.”
He underscored the importance of the new situation facing the Kurds in the Middle East, following turmoil in Iraq, where the KRG has declared its intention to proceed with an independence referendum.
“We can see the situation in the region and the world has changed in favor of the Kurds. The Kurds have been recognized in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The Iranians will eventually accept the Kurds as a different nation and recognize their rights,” he said.
Iranian Kurds enjoy less rights than other Kurdish communities in the Middle East.
Previous to the election of moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who made conciliatory campaign statements in favor of the Kurds, Iranian Kurds had some hope of gaining greater rights. But their hopes were swept away, after hard-line opponents of Rouhani began a crackdown on the Kurds.
“The Kurds will not get permission to form a Kurdish party unless they agree to trample over all the rights of the Kurdish nation and please the Iranian regime. If there is such an inclination, then they will get rejected by the people,” warned the Komala leader.
He called for the unification of Iran’s Kurdish political parties as a way to strengthen the position of Kurds in the Islamic Republic.
“The Kurdish political parties must be strong and united. If the Kurds can muster this strength, then no one can deny them their rights,” he said.
Komala had split in 2007 into two parties, with frequent negotiations over the years. But Ilkhanizadeh said “disagreements and differences become more visible… our vision about Kurdistan is also different... but we are determined to unite.
“I am still hopeful that the two parties will unite by next summer, but the issues I mentioned might slow us down,” he said.
He acknowledged that Iranian Kurdish groups have lost political power in Iraqi Kurdistan, the only Kurdish region which enjoys autonomy and has more influence in the international arena and also among Kurds.
“The Kurdish National Congress (KNC) took the political parties of East Kurdistan lightly. East Kurdistan is being underrated. Eastern Kurds are invisible in the Kurdish movements and we have to admit this,” he said.
The KNC is an umbrella political organization established in 1985.
“We cannot pressure South Kurdistan without having a force of our own. Unity among the leaders of South and East Kurdistan were previously a pressure card against the Iranian regime, but this does not exist anymore,” Ilkhanizadeh said.
“The leaders of South Kurdistan do not want to create a headache for themselves by meeting with the Kurdish leaders of East Kurdistan,” he added.
