Mustafa Hijri – Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDK-I) remarks and Q&A during his visit to the Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI).
Mustafa Hijri: Let me first thank the Washington Kurdish Institute for arranging this and also thank you all for coming here. I’m going to briefly talk about PDK-I. PDK-I was founded in 1948 and ever since has been struggling for democracy and human rights in Iranian Kurdistan both in the previous regime and the current regime.
Because both regimes were dictatorships and didn’t have any tolerance for different political parties, or pluralism, so they declared, both regimes declared PDK-I illegal and dissolved. After the revolution in 1979 we tried a lot to negotiate a peaceful solution for Kurdish rights in Iran with the new government.
Because the army was somehow disintegrated and the whole army fell apart after the revolution the Iranian government started negotiating with us for one year, and we were at the table for one year which turned to be just a way to kill time to reorganize the army and attack Kurdistan again. That is why the crackdowns on the people and attacks on Kurdistan happened after negotiations after the negotiations failed because they weren’t at the table for solving the solutions they were there just killing time. That is why the negotiations failed and they attacked Kurdistan again. In the second round of negotiations the Iranian government as us to negotiate with them. They asked for a second round of negotiations in 1989. It was when our Secretary-General, Dr. Ghassemolu, who was then the Secretary-General of PDKI went there and started negotiations but unfortunately, during the negotiations the Iranian diplomats drew their guns and killed, assassinated, killed Dr. Ghassemolu while they were negotiating a peaceful solution for the Iranian Kurdish question in Vienna, Austria. Despite these two rounds of failed negotiation and besides the fact that we negotiated, we pursued all sorts of struggle: armed struggle, civil society struggle, we pursued all sorts of struggle to reach our fundamental rights. Unfortunately, because there is no room for ethnic identity or national identity in the ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they never accepted our identity and they never accepted our rights.
These policies of Iranian government against Kurds are not just confined within its own borders, Islamic Republic Iranian has always been plotting and planning against Kurds on the other side of the border. For example, when something happens to the Kurds, something good happens, when they have some achievements, they plot against them and they plan against those achievements and they want to reverse the development.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is not only against the Kurds. It is also against stability. It is against peace in the Middle East and they always try to destabilize the region, especially the Muslim world as a kind of instrument for their foreign relations. The reason for this is because the Islamic Republic of Iran sees itself as the representative of God on earth and they believe that the other Islamic countries in the region should change and turn to an Iranian sort of Islam.
That is why the Iranian government has always been plotting against any sort of Islamic views that are different from the Iranian interpretation of Islam. They have always been using groups of Shiite who are actually with the Iranian government to destabilize the region.
We obviously see Iran’s hand and Iran’s traces in Lebanon with Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia in disturbing the Shiite areas of Saudi Arabia, in Bahrain, in Yemen, and in Iraq with creating Hash’d al-Sha’abi, or PMU (Popular Mobilization Forces.)
It is not as if it is a covert policy of Iran. They promote this policy, and they name it as “exporting the revolution.” They formalize it in their laws, it is in their regulations to export the Islamic revolution.
When you look at Iraq, for example, the experience Iran has with rivalries with Sunnis in Iraq, with Saddam Hussein for example, made them pursue these destabilizing policies in Iraq because they don’t want stability in Iraq because they are afraid of Sunnis being strong and compete with Iranian influence in the region. They always want to disturb the Sunni areas because they always want them to always be in competition with themselves a Sunni war.
The situation in Syria and Iraq and other places, we believe is the direct result of these sorts of policies that Iran pursues, especially what happens in Iraq, for example, the rivalries between and the competition between Sunni and Shiite we see the direct influence of Iran there. We see direct Iranian influence in rivalries between different Kurdish factions. We see Iran’s effects on the rivalries within Sunnis themselves and Shias themselves.
As long as these policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran continue, which we believe these policies stem from the religious point of view of Iran’s government, we will never see stability, and will never see peace in the Middle East.
We as Kurdish political parties in Iranian Kurdistan have been struggling for democracy and human rights for years and our struggle is going on even stronger.
Our objectives can be summarized in establishing a democratic and federal Iran in which all nationalities participate and political power has their shares and central government at the same time have their local ruling system like a federal government.
To this end, we initiated and endeavored to forge a coalition or alliance between different nationalities inside Iran against the regime. We were able to form an umbrella organization called “Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran”. This umbrella organization consists of 13 different organizations which represent different nationalities inside Iran, like Kurds, Baluchis, Turks, Turcoman (Azeris), and Arabs.
Also among ourselves as Kurdish political parties, we created a center of cooperation for Kurdish political parties. Five political parties of Iranian Kurds are part of this center.
Our message to the world and especially the United States and the western world is if they want a peaceful and stable Middle East it is imperative for them to go along with the quest of Iranian people to change the current regime in Iran. The quest has started. Iranian people are trying to change the regime. The world should go along with this and not leave the Iranian people alone. Otherwise, if they don’t want to go along with this they just need to keep Iran in check and keep Iran as weak as they can so it cannot interfere in other parts of the Middle East.
We have shared experiences that the free world has with Iran. We got into negotiations. We faced them, challenged them. The United States and the free world also has the same experience with Iran. For decades, they have been trying to change the behavior of Iran but this was a failure. They were never actually able to change their behavior, and they were not able to. It is important to understand the results of this policy, this approach toward Iran which was not a successful one. The results were very dangerous for the stability of the region.
We are not expecting the United States’ boots on the ground; we’re not expecting anybody’s boots on the ground or any direct attacks on Iran. We’re expecting the United States and the world to help us to confront the regime. That is all we are asking for here. It is the best time to turn to the people instead of the government of Iran. The public discontent has reached to an unprecedented peak in recent days. People on the streets are shouting for regime change in Iran during demonstrations. So this is very important for us that the United States and the world not leave us alone.
Syria gives us a very important lesson. When demonstrations started in Syria, the United States left them alone. This is how Syria turned into a breeding ground for evil forces: terrorist organizations went there, Iran there, rivals of the United States went there, Russia went there. It is very important to derive this lesson from the Syrian experience that they should not leave Kurds and other nationalities in Iran alone because this endeavor is definitely in favor of the United States and its allies and interests in the Middle East.
This was all a brief of our point of view of how we see the region and how we see the United States and a brief introduction to the PDKI.
Q: Where are you based?
Mustafa Hijri: The leadership in our party is located in Iraqi Kurdistan where I am based. But the main part of our organization which is the cover part for our organization is inside Iranian Kurdistan.
Q: How is your plan being received here in Washington? Who have you been able to speak to and has anyone given you support?
Mustafa Hijri: After the defeat of ISIS, the most pressing issue currently in the Middle East is Iran, so we are currently here to share our views with the government and with other different organizations, think tanks, within the United States, so that we can actually hope to search for a solution for regime change. Either regime change in Iran or containing Iran so Iran’s ability to interfere in neighbors’ affairs gets limited and at the same time this policy of Iranian containment will give us more space to act and will limit Iran’s ability to oppress Kurds in Iran.
Q: Do you feel Iran persecutes Kurds because they are mostly a Sunni population? And has your organization seen any support from any of the Sunni-majority powers in the region like Saudi Arabia or the UAE or Turkey?
Mustafa Hijri: It is really obvious and it is all over the news that Sunnis are persecuted in Iran. You can see Shiite mosques in all Sunni cities in Iran. Between 4-5 million Sunnis live in Tehran but they don’t have a Sunni mosque in the city. The government does not let them have a mosque there. Basically yes, Sunnis are getting persecuted, but at the same time, the Iranian regime’s pressure on Kurds who are Sunni is doubled because they are both Kurds and Sunni.
Q: Have any of the Sunni powers like Saudi Arabia or UAE supported Kurds?
Mustafa Hijri: Unfortunately we are not receiving any assistance from any Sunni countries because they are so afraid of Iran that they cannot approach the Iranian opposition.
Q: While you’ve been in DC have you met anyone from the NSC or the State Department or the Pentagon?
Mustafa Hijri: We have met people from State Department, and we exchanged our views with them.
Q: More broadly, how do you evaluate the current administration’s efforts to counter Iran in the region, from Iraq to Syria to the Gulf?
Mustafa Hijri: I believe that President Trump’s administration’s efforts in the Middle East has been more effective in the last two years because Iran was receiving huge resources from the sanction relief. So this financial resources helped them strengthen their influence in the region. With the withdrawal from the JCPOA and coming up against sanctions again will limit their resources to meddle in the Middle East and at the same time it has been limiting their efforts to control society. If you look at the news, there is news about different demonstrations, strikes inside Iran, truckers, taxi drivers, teachers, people in Kurdistan, mass demonstrations in different cities in Iran.
The more Iranian people see the decisiveness from the United States’ administration in terms of putting pressure on the Iranian government the more they get hopeful. It gives them a sense of hope and courage because they see a sort of supporter from the western world.
Q: The previous administration did not support the mass protest that broke out before and they were crushed. If there had been more rhetorical support, would that have been an implied promise that we’d intervene? Do you foresee the people of Iran being able to overthrow the regime without foreign support? I think the reason the previous administration didn’t offer more support at the time is because they didn’t want to be responsible for the aftermath.
Mustafa Hijri: The majority of people are hoping for an intervention. You cannot leave people alone there, confronting this sort of armed dictatorship, which is not restraining using arms against their own people. So we hope for this kind of intervention. You can see how Iran is supporting different terrorist groups in the Middle East and everywhere and how they see themselves completely free to use their arms against people inside Iran. We hope this time intervention happens in the future because it is very important that the Iranian people feel that they have support and don’t feel left alone.
Q: Are you talking to other Kurdish forces to interact with Iran less or do you think that other Kurds are more willing to work with the regime as it is?
Mustafa Hijri: We don’t see this as an Iranian effort to support the Kurds. Quite the contrary, we see this as using some fractions among Kurds as leverage for their regional policies. The Iranian government has been plotting against Kurds whenever they have reached achievement in their region. Go back to October 16, when Iraqi Kurds lost a lot of their lands to the Iraqi government. It was under the influence and direct planning of the Iranian government. The whole thing, October 16th, was planned by Iranians.
Q: Do you believe there is a growing PKK presence in Iran?
Mustafa Hijri: No, I don’t believe so. Even though PKK has offshoots for Iranian Kurds, for example, they created PJAK to act within Iranian Kurdistan, and they control it but I believe the strong presence of historical Kurdish parties like ourselves, PDKI and Komala party, people are not very welcoming with PJAK [Kurdistan Free Life Party] and PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party]. We are favoring a stronger constituency there and people are more with us than with PKK.
Q: What would you see as the potential solution for Kurds for Syria and Iraq and Turkey?
Mustafa Hijri: The most important pillar for our policy in our approach for other Kurds is that we fully support them but will not intervene in their internal affairs. So, whatever their decision is we fully support them. For example, in the last instance, we fully supported the Iraqi Kurds when they were going to hold their referendum and we respected its results, and we respect their will and that’s the main pillar of our policies.
Q: Are you confident that your party can speak for all Kurds in Iran?
Mustafa Hijri: We believe we are representing a strong majority of Kurds in Iran. For example, as the last instance, after the revolution there was a very good time when a free election happened, all parties were there. We were number one in Iranian Kurdistan.
Q: How long ago was that?
Mustafa Hijri: It was 1980 or 1981.
Q: Can you comment on other political forces in Iran? What’s your view on the MEK (People’s Mojahedin of Iran) and others who classify themselves as Iranian opposition? Who do you see as the most powerful Iranian opposition force?
Mustafa Hijri: It is really hard to compare them. There haven’t been any free elections in Iran. They are not as popular as us in Iran. We have a strong base and they don’t have that strong base in Iran, but it is really hard to compare these forces. Regarding the mujahedeen, or MEK, I should say, not a large part of the population is joining them. They have issues recruiting youth inside Iran. Their base is limited to their old members and families of the martyrs. In regards to the loyalists and those groups who are in favor of returning the Shah’s regime, it is important to notice that recently people have been comparing the Shah’s regime with this regime. It means that they want to say that the situation is getting worse. It doesn’t mean that they want to go back to the Shah’s regime. They have decided; there was a revolution in Iran, and people threw this monarchy out of the country, and they don’t want to go back to the previous regime. They want to compare and say that the Islamic republic is doing even worse and if we have a democratic situation in Iran, Iranian people will not go back to that previous regime.
Q: Do you think that further economic sanctions against Iran will have a negative effect on the Kurds there. They are already struggling, will this make it more difficult for Kurds in Iran?
Mustafa Hijri: There is this fallacy that Iranian people’s situation gets worse while there are sanctions on Iran. That is not true. Let’s compare the past two years, in the past two years there was sanction relief, Iran was allowed to sell its oil. Tens of millions of dollars were brought in by Iranian government by outside the country. They had access to an abundance of resources across their borders in the free world, but this didn’t lead to a good situation for Iranian people. The power of people to shop went even further down. Things got even more expensive so Iranian people didn’t feel anything as a result of the sanction relief. The Iranian government is not using these resources inside; they are using them outside. There is corruption inside. They are using the resources to further their influence in the region, so Iranian people never felt anything as a result of the sanction relief so I don’t think sanction is a factor that can make any change in their ordinary life.
Q: Do you that news of pulling out of the JCPOA will overshadow Kurdish human rights issues?
Mustafa Hijri: Kurdish Human Rights issues have never been a good source of news for anyone but this pulling out of the sanctions has also sidelined it even further.
Q: Are you not worried that the United States will be interested in you to maintain pressure on Tehran but as soon as anything becomes complicated or expensive then your aspirations will be forgotten?
Mustafa Hijri: We never want to put all of our eggs in the United States basket. We want to lean and count on our people for our struggle. Not anything more nor anything less, just our people. We use these opportunities to weaken Iran to put more pressure on Iran so we can have more space, more room to act. This is how we see the United States’ role in Iran and our cause. It’s not that we want to lean on the United States, we don’t want the United States to go inside and free Kurdistan for us. What happens in the future, we shall decide.
End.