PDKI Officials Respond to Iranian Threats

Since PDKI embarked on a new phase in its liberation struggle in 2015, the Iranian regime has responded by militarizing eastern (Iranian) Kurdistan. In particular, Iran has massed thousands of troops along the border with southern (Iraqi) Kurdistan in close proximity to PDKI’s Peshmerga Forces. Iranian officials have threatened to attack them.

In response to PDKI’s reinvigorated struggle, known as Rasan in Kurdish, the Islamist regime in Tehran has increased its military activities in eastern Kurdistan. Iranian propaganda attempts to paint PDKI’s reinvigorated struggle as a “conspiracy” by the United States, Israel and the Gulf Arab countries against Iran.

However, Rasan —which means “standing up to one’s enemy with a vengeance” —is a response to the systematic and increased oppression of the Kurdish people by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Rasan is also a proactive strategy that combines armed struggle with civil resistance to liberate the Kurdish people.

Since 2015, PDKI’s Peshmerga Forces have fought bravely against Iranian forces. This summer, civilians in a number of cities in eastern Kurdistan staged peaceful demonstrations in response to the arbitrary killing of Kurdish workers by Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Lately, the Islamist regime in Iran has responded in two ways to the presence of PDKI’s Peshmerga Forces in eastern Kurdistan, the formation of urban Peshmerga units and civil resistance in the cities.

Iran has militarized eastern Kurdistan, massed thousands of troops along the border with southern Kurdistan and has reacted to peaceful protests in a number of Kurdish cities with massive and brutal violence.

Iranian military commanders have also threatened to launch a large scale ground offensive to attack PDKI’s Peshmerga Forces in the mountains of Kurdistan. These threats also coincide with the agreement between Syria, ISIS and Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah to move ISIS terrorists to the borders of Southern Kurdistan, where PDKI’s leadership is based.

Kawa Bahrami, a member of PDKI’s leadership, said in an interview that Iran’s recent threats and the agreement between its proxies to move ISIS terrorists to the borders of southern Kurdistan are interconnected. He also pointed to Iran’s collusion with the Taliban in Afghanistan as part and parcel of Iran’s destabilizing policies in the Middle East.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always promoted instability and supported various terrorist groups, including those that are ostensibly its enemies, in order to advance its imperialist agenda in the Middle East,” Baharami said.

Bahrami also said that although PDKI takes Iran’s recent threats seriously, an attack against the bases of PDKI’s Peshmerga Forces is not imminent.

“Given the fact that the bases of our Peshmerga Forces are located in a mountainous region and considering Iran’s involvement in several ongoing conflicts, it would not serve their interests to attack our forces at this moment,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Peshmerga Commander in the mountains of Kurdistan said in a statement that their forces are ready to repel any attack by Iranian forces. “Sending their troops will be their decision, but whether they return will not be their decision”, the Peshmerga Commander warned.