Washington Kurdish Institute
October 5, 2021
In an interview with the Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI), Arash Saleh, the Representative of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) to the United States, spoke about the Iranian regime’s recent attacks on Kurdish opposition parties in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iranian Kurdistan, sometimes referred to as Eastern Kurdistan, or “Rojhelat” (East), primarily consists of four Iranian provinces, home to an overwhelming majority of Kurdish demographic and cultural presence. Those four provinces are West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Illam. The last recorded Iranian census reported that 6,730,000 Kurdish peoples resided in Iranian Kurdistan and that Iranian Kurds make up approximately 10% of the entire Iranian population. Other sources insist that the Kurdish population is much higher than what Tehran chooses to report, with some estimates approximating 12 million Kurdish peoples in the Iranian Kurdish provinces.
Despite this presence, Iranian Kurds have long been ignored and oppressed by Tehran. All Iranian Kurdish political parties were banned from openly operating in Iran since 1979 when they were exiled after a brutal war on them by the newly established regime then. While rich in natural resources, much of Iranian Kurdistan has a bad economy and living conditions than the rest of the country. Many Iranian Kurdish people accuse Tehran of long ignoring the issues they suffer, including basic rights and discriminatory policies. With Iranian Kurdistan facing an economic crisis, many Iranian Kurds have turned to smuggling goods across the Iraqi-Iranian border, which such penalties from Tehran only threaten their lives further.
Tehran has continued to launch more attacks on Iraqi Kurdistan in recent months, claiming that the presence of “armed terrorists” in the Kurdish region justified the use of its military and bombing operations. The major Kurdish Iranian political parties all operate in Iraqi Kurdistan, and with previous bombing operations in 2018 and 2020 specifically targeting the areas where the political parties are located, the recent attacks are yet another attempt by Tehran to erase the existence of the Iranian Kurdish peoples. The missile bombings of 2018 targeted the headquarters of the Iranian Kurdish parties, killing 18 and injuring 50, including senior Kurdish Iranian political figures. In 2020, Tehran deployed a drone fleet that monitored more than 1,000 kilometers of its border with Iraqi Kurdistan. During the first month of operation, it killed five kolbars and left 26 wounded.
The Washington Kurdish Institute hosted Arash Saleh, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) representative to the United States to speak on Tehran’s actions against Kurds. Mr. Saleh spoke about the recent Iranian attacks and how it is creating new issues for Iraqi Kurdistan. Saleh talked about Iranian Kurdistan’s role in the ongoing conflict, the aspirations of the Iranian Kurdish people, and the steps that the KDPI is taking to help resolve the issue while simultaneously defending themselves from any Iranian threats to Iranian Kurdish peoples.
Saleh stressed that the Iranian Regime is attacking Iraqi Kurdistan under the “false pretenses of Iranian Kurdish Peshmerga residing in Iraqi Kurdistan”, and that the indefinite goal of Tehran is to “eliminate Iraqi Kurdistan as much as possible.” This comes as tensions between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Iran have escalated, with the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently striking the KDPI bases in Iraqi Kurdistan with “suicide drones” on the border of Iraq and Iran, which splits much of what is considered to be Iraqi Kurdistan and Iranian Kurdistan, sparking fear that Iranian Kurdish peoples would be stuck in the middle of the conflict.
Saleh explained that the uptick in military pressure and rhetoric from Iran towards Baghdad and Erbil has much to do with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, as Iran believes that the U.S. will do the same in Iraq, despite Saleh saying that the United States has anything but relieved its security efforts in the region. “The U.S. Withdrawal of Afghanistan has fueled Iran to believe they can fill the potential vacuum and have planned this for many months. But the United States has maintained the security commitments in Iraq and has not caved into Iranian threats.” For Saleh, the threats and attacks from Tehran are early warning signals of further hostility and muscle-flexing from the regime. What Saleh criticized the most from the United States is its silence towards the ongoing Iran attacks against Iraq, and he fears that the further the U.S. remains silent, the more animosity that Iran will display, unchallenged by any other regional power. “It is imperative for the United States to communicate its permanent position and mission in Iraq, and to do that, the U.S. must be more hard on Iran.” Saleh continued to mention the role that Iranian Kurdistan (Namely the KDPI and Iranian Kurdish civil society) are taking to both mediate and resist Iranian pressures through “the linking of the Peshmerga forces in the mountains, and the Iranian Kurdish civil society in the cities.” With the influx of IRGC bombings on border towns between Kurdish Iran and Persian Iran, the right of the Kurdish people to defend themselves has become crucial, as Saleh mentioned, “whenever there is no democracy, what or who preserves ethnic identity?” But on the topic of self-defense, Saleh stressed that “absolutely no Iranian Kurdish military groups have outright attacked Tehran’s forces”. Iranian Kurdish political leaders have no interest in advancing military strategies and have prioritized diplomatic dialogue between Tehran and Erbil, seeing it as a more effective avenue than combat and warfare to achieve peace and help fast avoid any Iranian Kurdish peoples being at the direct center of a political conflict.
Likewise, Saleh mentioned that the KDPI, while directly impacted by the policy decisions implemented by the KRG, has largely stayed out of its dispute with Iran, as if they were to directly involve themselves, it would “only further complicate the issue and escalate Iranian tension.” But Saleh further explained that the KDPI’s relationship with the KRG is a balanced policy, as even if the KDPI refrains from involving themselves in KRG issues, they simultaneously “stand with the KRG” and monitor their situation quite carefully.
Saleh closed his remarks with the explanation of the goal of the KDPI, a pan-Kurdish goal of uniting Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern Kurdistan to create a “safe haven for democracy and for all peoples of all backgrounds”, which is a goal that is daily threatened by the likes of the Iranian Regime. While Kurdish communities in Iraq and Iran remain visible, the power of the IRGC may be enough to erase them and their entire identities, and if power-players like Baghdad and the United States remain silent, Tehran may very well continue its path towards the complete assimilation of the Iraqi and Iranian Kurdish peoples.