#Fréderike Geerdink#

The #PJAK# (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) is the Kurdish party that advocates for democracy in Iran and in Rojhilat (Kurdistan in Iran). Founded in 2005, it is a relatively young party among Kurdish opposition parties in Iran. How does the PJAK assess the demonstrations in the country that started in September last year? And does it want to forge an alliance with other Rojhilati opposition parties? Fréderike Geerdink asked Ahwen Chiyako, board member and EU representative of the PJAK, who was visiting the Netherlands. Chiyako: “Our contacts with other Rojhilati parties have intensified.”

The interview stopped at the question of whether Chiyako had met with Cemil Bayık or Besê Hozat during his last visit to Kurdistan, around half a year ago. Bayık and Hozat are the co-leaders of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union), the umbrella organisation under which the PJAK (and also the PKK, YPG/J and others) functions. “I can’t say anything about that”, he smiled. Understandable of course. It’s already quite something that he admitted having travelled to Kurdistan, more accurately Qandil, the region close to the Iranian border where the KCK has its head quarters, that recently. Kurds who are active in the movement, also those who live in Europe, as Chiyako does since 2013, always have to balance being open and being covert.

Ahwen Chiyako is leading the European diplomacy efforts of the PJAK. A position that is, of course but let’s make it explicit, unarmed. He outlines, together with many others, the strategy when it comes to organizing Kurds, especially those from Rojhilat, in (mainly) Europe, helps plan demonstrations, maintains contacts with other Rojhilati opposition parties and other groups that share the struggle for peace and democracy in Kurdistan and the wider region. His visit to the Netherlands was just to ‘visit comrades’, he said when he was asked if he was meeting here with representatives of, for example, KDPI. “But our contacts with several other parties have intensifed”, he added. “Especially the last four months.”

The PJAK was founded in 2004, as the latest branche at the KCK tree of organisations that struggle for a democracy that is in line with the ideology of PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan. This means they are not fighting for an independent Kurdish state, but for a system of bottom-up democracy on a local level, trying to do justice to the ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity of the people living on the lands.

This paradigm, called democratic confederalism, hadn’t been developed yet in the years that Ahwen Chiyako started to get interested in the political Kurdish struggle, back in the late 1990s when he was still living in Rojhilat, both in Merivan and Kamyaran, while also spending time in Tehran. Even though he’s been living in Europe for a decade, he still has many contacts in Rojhilat and they are among the ones who keep him and his comrades posted about developments. “It’s true”, he said, “that it is a bit more quiet now when it comes to protests, but that in no way means it’s over.”

From what I see on social media, the protests are the most visible in Balochistan in the southeast of Iran, not in Kurdistan in the northwest, while it all started in Kurdistan in September. How do you explain this?

Ahwen Chiyako: “In Balochistan people take to the streets on Fridays, the day that people are gathering anyway for prayers. This is a very good strategy because it keeps the movement alive. Kurdistan is much more secular than Balochistan, so this way of demonstrating after Friday prayers doesn’t fit the conditions in Kurdistan. In Kurdistan, there is a longer history of organized resistance, so people use different ways to protest. There is civil disobedience, like women refusing to cover their hair, and people are organizing and mobilizing covertly. Also, people are busy with the wounded”, he said, referring to the doctors, nurses and volunteers who patch up the people who were wounded by the regime in the demonstrations and who couldn’t go to hospital for treatment out of fear to get arrested.

About Balochistan, Chiyako said: “The Balochi people have caught up with the resistance very quickly. They have caught up on twenty years in only six months. Before, they were mainly demanding religious rights *) but now they also demand ethnic rights. This progress serves the women in the community too, as they have been out on the streets more than before to make their voices heard. Balochistan and Kurdistan have a different dynamic, but what they have in common, also with the other nations in Iran, is that the fear of the regime is broken. This fear will not come back.”
*) Balochi people are, like Kurds, Sunni Muslims, while the regime is Shia, so both Balochi and Kurdish people are discriminated against by the regime on both ethnic and religious grounds.

What is the PJAK currently doing in Rojhilat?

Ahwen Chiyako: “We are well prepared to continue the revolution, both in an organizational and ideological way, and yes, militarily too. We have been working on this for a long time, and we have laid a foundation for this struggle based on the slogan Jin, Jiyan, Azadi, which has now become the slogan of the movement in the whole of Iran. You know that our struggle is a women’s struggle, and the words Life and Free are in the name of our party.

That our ideology is at the root of this, gives us a great responsibility and we have to deal with that wisely. We struggle against the regime, but we also know the regime very well and we know they can do the most horrific things. Look at what they have started to do to the women now, poisoning them. So we don’t want to be adventurous and irresponsible, but meticulous and responsible. Inside Rojhilat, we organize and I dare to say we are present everywhere and in all sections of society. We think the resistance will become more visible again during Newroz [21 March].”

Last week, there was an interview with KDPI leader Mustafa Hijri at BBC World. He suggested that there is an understanding between different Rojhilati opposition parties like KDPI and Komala, and from what I understand, PJAK would be part of that. Is this true?

Ahwen Chiyako: “There is no agreement, but we are in touch and there is a dialogue. It has intensified in the last four months. We would like to have an alliance with them, we are prepared to spread our arms and welcome alliances in the interest of the Kurdish people and the larger society. But there are also forces that don’t want the Kurds of Iran to unite. The first is of course the Islamic Republic, then the Centralists [read: supporters of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah], and then the Barzanis [of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the strongest party in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq].

None of these forces influence us, but other Rojhilati parties are influenced by them. We hope that groups that feel that they are under pressure of any of these forces dare to liberate themselves, so they can move towards Kurdish unity. We work on encouraging the other parties to dare this, and hope for results.”

You say that you are not under influence of any of these forces who don’t want Kurds to unite, but the others might say that you are under influence of the Iranian regime. After all, the PKK reportedly has ties with it, and the PKK operates under the same umbrella as PJAK.

Ahwen Chiyako: “PJAK takes its decisions independently from PKK. We share an ideology, but we are a separate organisation.”

You can say that, but the other Rojhilati parties may not fully trust you.

“That is exactly the psychological warfare that the forces trying to divide Kurds are involved in. The intelligence services of Iran and Turkey are leading this war. Iran does this because the regime is hated by the international community, and tries to make us look suspicious to cleanse itself from its actions. [Turkey’s intelligence service] MIT wants to frame PJAK as terrorist, just like it does with the PKK, to justify its war.”

Iran has bombed KDPI and Komala, but not PJAK, while you are all based in Başur (Kurdistan in Iraq).

Ahwen Chiyako: “Our situation is completely different than that of KDPI and Komala. They have an address, they have known locations where they also live with their families. The PJAK is a guerrilla movement, we have no address where rockets can be sent to, and no civilians that we live close to or live with. We have suffered some losses though. Iran shares intelligence with Turkey, and then Turkey attacks us with its drones, which are technologically more advanced than Iran's weapons.”

It seems that Reza Pahlavi is gathering quite a few supporters, even though it’s not clear how strong his support is in real life, outside online campaigns. But imagine he would come to PJAK for talks, would PJAK be interested?
Ahwen Chiyako: “I would tell the son of the Shah that we would be ready to meet him if he accepts that the Kurds are a nation, that Iran has many nations and that all these nations have rights that have to be respected. He doesn’t accept that, we know that already. So it’s no use to talk to him.”

Are you afraid that the protests that started half a year ago will lead to the end of the Islamic Republic only to be replaced by a new regime, for example Pahlavi, that still doesn’t respect the rights of all people in Iran?

Ahwen Chiyako: “No, we are not afraid. We know they are not an alternative because in their vision, Kurdistan and Balochistan have no place. These people manage to get a lot of media attention in the west, but inside Iran they are not so important. Even if the whole world is behind Pahlavi, he will never have the strength in Kurdistan that we have. And also not in the Balochi community, or in the Arab and Azeri communities, and all the other nations inside Iran. Reza Pahlavi’s father and grandfather have murdered the people of these nations. Whoever sees him as an alternative, is shooting with a blank.”

When is the last time you have been in Kurdistan?

Ahwen Chiyako: “I came back some five months ago.”

Have you met with Cemil Bayık or Besê Hozat?

“Sorry, I can’t say anything about that.”[1]