Kurdish separatism in Iran

Kurdish separatism in Iran

PJAK fighters in 2012
Date1918 (1918)present
(106 years)[9][10]
(main phase 1943[11]present[12])
Location
Iran, Iran-Iraqi Kurdistan border areas
For a map, see here
Status

Ongoing

  • Several tribal revolts during 1918–1943
  • 1946 failed attempt to establish the Republic of Mahabad
  • Political crackdown on Kurdish political associations in Iran[13]
  • Ceasefire between Iran and PJAK established in September 2011, but fighting resumed in 2013
  • Renewed clashes between KDPI and Iranian military erupt in 2015
  • In 2022, after the merger of the two democratic parties and the two Komale parties, and at the same time as the Kurdish opposition parties supported Iran's nationwide protests, a new round of conflicts began, which led to the bombing of the bases of the Kurdish parties by the Iranian government.
Belligerents
Shekak tribesmen
Supported by:
 Ottoman Empire[1]
Iran Imperial State of Iran (1925–79)
Supported by:
 Soviet Union[2]

Interim Government and
Council of the Islamic Revolution (1979)


Supported by:

1979–96

Supported by:


2004–11


2016–22


2022–

Supported by:

Commanders and leaders

Ahmad Shah Qajar (1918−25)


Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi (1925−41)
Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (MIA) (1941−79)


Iran Ruhollah Khomeini # (1979−89)
Iran Ali Khamenei (1981−present)
Iran Ebrahim Raisi (2021−)
Iran Hassan Rouhani (2013−2021)
Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005−2013)
Iran Mohammad Khatami (1997−2005)
Iran Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989−1997) Iran Mohammad-Ali Rajai  (1981−1981)
Iran Abolhassan Banisadr (MIA) (1980−1981)

Iran Qasem Soleimani  (2020)

Simko Shikak (1918–1930)


Qazi Muhammad Executed
Mustafa Barzani
Jafar Sultan
Ahmed Barzani
Soviet Union Salahuddin Kazimov


Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou
Foad Mostafa Soltani
Sedigh Kamangar
Abdullah Mohtadi


Haji Ahmadi (2004–2011)
Majid Kavian 


Mustafa Hijri
Siamand Moeini
Zilan Vejin
Hussein Yazdanpanah


Mustafa Hijri
Khalid Azizi
Abdullah Mohtadi
Omar Ilkhanizade
Ibrahim Alizade
Siamand Moeini
Zilan Vejin
Hussein Yazdanpanah
Casualties and losses
23,000 killed (1979–1996)[14](according to the KDPI) 5,000 killed (1979–1996)[14](according to the KDPI)
30,000 civilians killed (1980–2000)(according to the KDPI)[15]
15,000+ individuals killed (1946–present)[16]

Kurdish separatism in Iran[17] or the Kurdish–Iranian conflict[18][19] is an ongoing,[9][12][17][20] long-running, separatist dispute between the Kurdish opposition in Western Iran and the governments of Iran,[17] lasting since the emergence of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1918.[9]

The earliest Kurdish separatist activities in modern times refer to tribal revolts in today's West Azerbaijan Province of the Imperial State of Iran, which began between the two World Wars – the largest of these were led by Simko Shikak, Jafar Sultan and Hama Rashid. Many however, put the starting point of the organized Kurdish political-nationalist separatism at 1943,[12] when Komala (shortly afterwards the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) began their political activities in Iran, aiming to gain partial or complete self-rule in the Kurdish regions. Transformation from tribal to Kurdish political struggle in Iran took place in the aftermath of World War II, with the KDPI establishing the Republic of Mahabad during the 1946 Iran crisis.[12] The USSR-supported attempt to establish a Kurdish state in Western Iran failed.[12][21] More than a decade later, peripheral tribal uprisings,[12] launched with KDPI support through 1966–7. In the most violent episode of the conflict, more than 30,000 Kurds died in the 1979 rebellion and the consequent KDPI insurgency.[15] Though the KDPI's armed struggle ended in late 1996, another Kurdish armed organization emerged in Iran by the early 2000s. The ongoing Iran-PJAK conflict started in 2004.[22]

Iran never employed the same level of brutality against its own Kurdish population, but has always been staunchly opposed to Kurdish separatism.[23]

  1. ^ Bruinessen, Martin (2006). "Chapter 5: A Kurdish warlord on the Turkish-Persian frontier in the early Twentieth century: Isma'il Aqa Simko". In Atabaki, Touraj (ed.). Iran and the First World War: Battleground of the Great Powers. Library of modern Middle East studies, 43. London; New York: I.B. Tauris. pp. 18–21. ISBN 9781860649646. OCLC 56455579.
  2. ^ a b Belgin San-Akca (2016). States in Disguise: Causes of State Support for Rebel. Oxford University Press. p. 95. ISBN 9780190250904.
  3. ^ Entessar, Nader (2010). Kurdish Politics in the Middle East. Lanham: Lexington Books. p. 48. ISBN 9780739140390. OCLC 430736528.
  4. ^ Shireen Hunter (2010). Iran's Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era: Resisting the New International Order. ABC-CLIO. p. 276. ISBN 9780313381942.
  5. ^ "Iranian Kurds Return to Arms". Stratfor. 29 July 2016. Archived from the original on 30 July 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  6. ^ Reese Erlich, Robert Scheer (2016). Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis. Routledge. p. 133. ISBN 978-1317257370. Morteza Esfandiari, the KDPI representative in the U.S., told me that KDPI had applied to get some of the 85 million dollars allocated to "promote democracy" in Iran in order to improve its satellite TV station. "We are friends with the United States. What other friends can we find in the world, other than the United States?"
  7. ^ "Iran Says Busted 'Mossad-Linked' Sabotage Team Are Kurdish Separatists". Iran International. 27 July 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  8. ^ "Iran Blasts Iraq Over Kurdish Opposition Groups At Ceremony". Iran International. 14 May 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  9. ^ a b c Smith, Benjamin, "The Kurds of Iran: Opportunistic and Failed Resistance, 1918-" (PDF), Land and Rebellion: Kurdish Separatism in Comparative Perspective, Cornell, p. 10, archived from the original (PDF) on 15 June 2012
  10. ^ AYLIN ÜNVER NOI. The Arab Spring – its effects on the Kurds and the approaches of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq on the Kurdish issue. Gloria Center. 1 July 2012. "There is a long history of tension between the Kurds and the government in Iran. This began with Reza Shah Pahlavi recapturing the lands that Kurdish leaders had gained control of between 1918 and 1922."; "Iran fears that the creation of a semi-autonomous state in northern Iraq might motivate its own Kurdish minority to press for greater independence. However, Iran’s concern about Kurdish separatism does not approach the level of Turkey’s concern. Still, there have been repeated clashes between Kurds and Iranian security forces" [1] Archived 17 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Database - Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP)". Archived from the original on 19 July 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  12. ^ a b c d e f University of Arkansas. Political Science department. Iran/Kurds (1943–present). Retrieved 9 September 2012. [2] Archived 25 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Iran: Freedom of Expression and Association in the Kurdish Regions. 2009. "This 42 page report documents how Iranian authorities use security laws, press laws, and other legislation to arrest and prosecute Iranian Kurds solely for trying to exercise their right to freedom of expression and association. The use of these laws to suppress basic rights, while not new, has greatly intensified since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in August 2005." [3] Archived 26 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ a b "KDPI leadership urges support for 'mountain struggle'". Rudaw. Archived from the original on 7 October 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  15. ^ a b Hicks, Neil (April 2000), The human rights of Kurds in the Islamic Republic of Iran (PDF), American, archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2011
  16. ^ "Iran/Kurds (1943–present)". Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  17. ^ a b c Habeeb, William Mark; Frankel, Rafael D.; Al-Oraibi, Mina (2012). The Middle East in Turmoil: Conflict, Revolution, and Change. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-313-33914-1. OCLC 753913763. Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  18. ^ Bhutani, Surendra (1980), Contemporary Gulf, Academic Press, p. 32
  19. ^ Near East, North Africa report, 1994
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference elling was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ The Kurdish Warrior Tradition and the Importance of the Peshmerga (PDF), pp. 27–28, archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2013
  22. ^ Shifrinson, Itzkowitz JR, The Kurds and Regional Security: An Evaluation of Developments since the Iraq War (PDF), MIT, archived (PDF) from the original on 12 May 2013, retrieved 5 March 2014, More indicative of the PKK's growing power was its 2004 establishment of the Party for a Free Life in Iranian Kurdistan (PEJAK or PJAK) as a sister organization with the goal of fomenting Kurdish separatism in Iran by fostering Kurdish nationalism therein.
  23. ^ Kreyenbroek, Philip G.; Sperl, Stefan (1992). The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. London; New York: Routledge. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-415-07265-6. OCLC 24247652.

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