Washington Kurdish Institute & Peace-building and Human Rights Program- Columbia University
With 12 million people, the Iranian Kurds make up the second largest population of the Kurds in the greater Kurdistan. Similar to Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, the Iranian Kurds have been struggling for decades for freedom under the current Iranian regime. The Kurdistan region of Iran (Rojhelat) has the highest rate of political prisoners in the country. The regime’s discriminatory economic policies in Rojhelat have resulted in poverty and poor living conditions for the Kurds, which led many to become border porters known as Kolbars. Hundreds of Kolabrs are victims of the Iranian border guard attacks and executions every year. The dire political, economic, and security situation of Rojhelat continues under the current regime that has been suppressing its citizens on an ethnic and sectarian basis.
As the first founders of the Kurdish nationalism and political parties in greater Kurdistan, the panel will discuss the current situation of the Iranian Kurds and their goals. The panel will also discuss the Iranian Kurdish relations and cooperation with other opposition groups in Iran and potential future understandings.
Speakers:
Keynote Speaker: David L. Phillips-Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights:
“Iranian Kurdistan, also known as East Kurdistan or “Rojhelat”, is home to 12 million Kurds who are dispersed in parts of Kermanshah, Ilam, West Azerbaijan, and Kurdistan provinces. In return for supporting the Iranian revolution in 1979, Iranian Kurds were promised local self-government, and control over natural resources and economic decision-making. They were also promised cultural rights, including use of both Farsi and Kurdish in education.”
“Iranian Kurds were deceived by Ruhollah Khomeini. Barred from participating in Khomeini’s Assembly of Experts, Kurds protested: “No referendum. Self-determination first.” Iran’s new constitution enshrined the principle of Islamic jurisprudence and Shia supremacy, while ignoring demands for regional autonomy. Article 15 of Iran’s 1979 constitution established Persian as the Islamic Republic’s official language. The constitution promised uniform development and cultural rights to all Iranian citizens. However, Kurdish areas were denied investment and lagged behind.
Kurds refused to participate in a referendum to approve the constitution in March 1979. When Kurds took up arms, 200,000 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a brutal counter-insurgency campaign. The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) proposed a 5-point peace plan, which was rejected by Khomeini’s representatives who insisted they disarm before negotiations. Khomeini declared a holy war against the Kurds on August 19, 1979. Khomeini rejected the concept of minority rights during a speech in December 1979. Disparaging Kurds, he referred to them as “children of Satan” and “enemies of God.” By 1982, more than 10,000 Kurds had been killed and 200,000 displaced by the IRGC. Thousands more were executed after summary trials. “
“Social injustice still prevails in Iranian Kurdistan, one of the poorest regions in Iran measured in average income, literacy, and life expectancy. Unemployment of Iranian Kurds is about 50%. Kurds rejected state-sponsored education in Farsi. The demands of Iranian Kurds were inspired by regional developments, such as the PKK rebellion in Turkey and Iraq’s constitution of 2004.
Kurds in Iran aspire to the same rights as their Kurdish brethren in Iraq. Non-Persian ethnic groups, including Kurds, Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, and Ahwazis, comprise 40-50% of Iran’s population and represent a potent force. However, divisions between Kurdish factions and between the Kurds and other ethnic minorities have undermined their effectiveness. The Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan evolved into the KDP, which splintered in 1988. Despite personality conflicts and power struggles, these groups share the same goal: a democratic, federal, republic “in Iran with local control over politics, natural resources, economic development and cultural expression.”
“Columbia University’s Program on Peacebuilding and Human Rights is pleased to co-sponsor the panel with the Washington Kurdish Institute. I have met the panelists in previous meetings at Columbia University on January 27, 2020 and in Washington on March 4. Plans to broaden the circle and upgrade the level of participation were stymied by the Coronavirus, which restricted travel in early March.
As soon as conditions allow, we hope to convene a meeting of political party leaders and their US-based representatives in Europe to break the ice; finalize terms of reference for the dialogue project; and agree on the way forward.”
Arash Salih– Representative of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan to the United States:
“The Rojhelat, AKA the Iranian Kurdistan, aka Radian Kurdistan, aka Kurdistan of Iran is the most forgotten part. But not to forget that the Kurdish nationalism originated in Rojhelat. In the pre-modern era, the longest and the most robust Kurdish dynasty, Ardalans was centered in Sanandaj in Rojhelat from where they organized their territory for several centuries. A territory that based on Sharafkhan Bidlisie the most renowned Kurdish historian sometimes also encompassed Qaradagh, Kirkuk, Kifiri, Khanaqin, and Sharazur in southern Kurdistan. In the modern times, the first experience of the Kurdish self-rule was established in Mehabad and in Rojhelat in the form of an independent Republic. Rajhelat is also the home for the oldest Kurdish political organization. The most important institutes of Kurdish nationalism, Peshmerga, national Anthem, and, Kurdish banner are all products of the rich political culture of Rojhelat”
“Rojhelat is forgotten not because it is silent. We don’t hear from Rojhelat a lot, not because nothing’s going on there. Quite contemporary Rojhelat is more alive than any time. It has its own way of expressing itself entered under the most brutal and the most insidious dictatorship mankind has seen in the past half a century. But unfortunately when it comes to Iran, other topics and subjects such as JCPOa, maximum pressure, the relationship between the United States and Iran, they are all topics and subjects that is more interest in the mass media”“It is important for the United States to realize that it is in their direct interest to support us Kurds in Iran. It will be in the direct benefit of the region to support us in Iran. It will be in the direct benefit of peace if they support us, Kurds in Iran. And basically it is very important to realize that, the Iranian Kurds can you actually repeat the same experience as Iraqi Kurds and Syrian Kurds and provide an example of democracy and tolerance in their region for the rest of Iran”
Salah Bayaziddi- Representative of the Komala Party to the United States:
“41 years ago when the revolution took place in Iran, Iranian Kurds, alongside other ethnic groups in Iran participated for hope for a free democratic Iran. In reality, in Iranian Kurdistan, the Islamic revolution never took place. The appeal in 1979 when Khomeini proposed the Islamic Republic referendum for yes or no, the Kurds fully boycott it. So from that point, that evolution in Kurdistan diverse to a different from what was going on in the rest of Iran. Khomeini was angry at the Kurds but the Kurds still remained peaceful, trying to resolve the issue with the central government.”In July of 1979, Khomeini declared jihad against the Kurds. It took more than decades in the military could be defeated, but politically still is strong. The took by estimate between 60 to 80,000 lives during that decade, Kurdistan still remains militarized when some changes might happen in other parts of Iran, but we still have a political execution in Iran. ” the Kurdish situation is not changed much, but what happened that changed for the Kurdistan and rest of Iran I think it was in November 2019 when the protest took place in Iran. For the first time, we saw the widespread protest, which is the same thing that the Kurds were asking for decades. The people who are this time to come to the street, they were not middle class, like in 2009, they were upset about the result of the presidential election, the people, the so-called poor people and low-class people who the regime always saw them as their base. But what we saw, the regime in the two days took a policy, shot to kill people.”
“The Iranian Persian parties, which is, unfortunately, a very fragmented, mostly the elites or some of them don’t believe even at limited, right for Kurds like federalism or power-sharing.”
Kamaran Balnour– Representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party to the United States:
“I would say have no doubt about the Iranian government, what they do in the Middle East, and also in Iran, what they do, It’s been their active policy since the establishment of the regime. So if I want to just put it in few words, I could probably say that execution, suppression, imprisonment, extortion, and on top of that disinformation to pursue the world in a different direction and picturing Iran like something else does not exist. “”If I want to speak about the reality of Kurdistan today, what is going on? It’s beyond our anybody’s imagination. Economically, politically, we are in very harsh conditions. Our people are suffering in one side because of these embargoes and other policies by the world Iran at the same time, the Iranian government does the same thing to their own people, which is Kurds in Rojhelat. So, therefore, we have a very dark situation economically they suffering a lot. There is an issue in Kurdistan called “Kolbars” [border porters]. for example, I have some, uh, statistics that say last year, only last year, 79 people died just to make a few dollars a day, 176 people got injured, the same thing. ”
“[Kolbars] carrying about a hundred, 250 pounds of goods and their shoulders and the crossing borders to make a few dollars. And then there were some reports saying that the only reason Iran in government does that to there Kurdish people in our region, just because 95.5% of the goods smuggled into Iran comes from the official borders. Now there is only 4.5 percent of goods coming from these areas, which Kurds live between the border of Iran and Iraq, and Iran and Turkey. So that’s why these guys do you want to make sure, hundred percent of these goods smuggled to Iran It actually controlled by the mafia of the regime, so they don’t want to have any Kurds benefited from these ports. ”
“It’s not easy to work with the other [opposition] factions like the Mujahedeen or probably monarchist in Iran. Unfortunately, they are so tied to their ideas that there is a unified Iran and they think that kind of situation that we have right now is a threat to separate Iran which we strongly believe that this is not a trend that we try to do. We try to create an environment to live in and be equal with the other minorities or especially Persians”
Keynote speaker: David L. Phillips is currently Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Phillips has worked as a senior adviser to the United Nations Secretariat and as a foreign affairs expert and senior adviser to the U.S. Department of State. He has held positions as a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Middle East Studies, executive director of Columbia University’s International Conflict Resolution Program, director of the Program on Conflict Prevention and Peace-building at the American University, Associate Professor at New York University’s Department of Politics, and as a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. He has also been a senior fellow and deputy director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Center for Preventive Action, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, director of the European Centre for Common Ground, project director at the International Peace Research Institute of Oslo, president of the Congressional Human Rights Foundation, and executive director of the Elie Wiesel Foundation. Mr. Phillips is author of From Bullets to Ballots: Violent Muslim Movements in Transition (Transaction Press, 2008), Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco (Perseus Books, 2005), Unsilencing the Past: Track Two Diplomacy and Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation (Berghahn Books, 2005). He has also authored many policy reports, as well as more than 100 articles in leading publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, and Foreign Affairs.