PJAK PRESS RELEASE AND PROPAGANDA FROM THE LA TIMES

"While Turkey shouldered the role of the actual attacker, the assaults were the result of an agreement between Iran, Turkey and Iraq and of American intelligence sharing."
~ PJAK press statement, 7 May 2008.

PJAK has issued a press release on the bombing at Qendil and a recent AP report:

Press release

7 May, 2008

To the Press and Public Opinion

On Thursday, 1 May 2008, Turkish military warplanes heavily bombed the Qendil region in Southern Kurdistan/Northern Iraq. The attacks carried out by 30 to 40 Turkish warplanes for three hours, from 11:00 pm on the first of May, to 2:00 am on the second of May.

They bombed the Press Central Unit of PJAK as well the villages of Rezge, Marado, Shnawe, Zergelêsh and Qelatukan. These attacks caused major physical and economic damage to the Kurdish civilian and their properties. In the bomb attacks six members of PJAK, four of them journalists from the Press Central Unit have become martyrs. They are: Diyako Bakhtiyari known as Herish Amed From Mahabad, Kardo Eliyali known as Argesh Bawer From Piranshahr, Behjat Takin Alp known as Firat Chele, Jamal Rasuli known as Armanj Mariwan From Mariwan, Memed Guren known as Wedad Amed From Amed, Rahim Borna known as Raman Cawid From Mahabad

Hundreds of families who live under difficult circumstances have been intimidated by the air raids. A school has been destroyed and the teachers have left the villages, thus the children are now without school and teachers. Hundreds of livestock have been killed, causing serious economical damage to the villages. On top of this, the regional government and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have imposed an embargo on the region and closed it off to journalists.

The attacks occurred shortly after a high level Iranian delegation visited Turkey in April and signed a security and economic agreement between the two countries to cooperate against PJAK and the Kurdish people in both countries.

While Turkey shouldered the role of the actual attacker, the assaults were the result of an agreement between Iran, Turkey and Iraq and of American intelligence sharing. It is important to mention that on the day of the attacks a Turkish delegation, led by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Chief Adviser Ahmet Davutoglu was in Iraq and at the same time the deputy president of Iraq, Tariq Al-Hashimi, was in Turkey for diplomatic talks. This means that a new phase of attacks against the Kurdish people has started, which will lead to more turmoil in the region. The role of the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government is submissive to the Turkish policies against the Kurds.

It is necessary to find out why the headquarter of PJAK has been bombed. Why the intelligence provided by the United States used in favour of the Iranian state? And why does the Turkish regime militarily targets Kurdish organisations of another part of Kurdistan? We ask the United States and the Kurdistan Regional Government to give an explanation for this, or they shall lose all credibility in our eyes. The USA tells the world that it has a strategic conflict with the theocratic regime in Iran. But when the Kurdish people in Iran wages a sacrificing, modern struggle for the democratisation of the country, they provide the means for an attack on them!

Meanwhile 25 bombs that did not explode have been found. The writings on the bombs suggest that they contain chemical weapons. They are being examined; the results from independent scientific laboratories will be published soon.

In addition to these Turkish barbaric attacks the Associated Press, hired journalists and other press agencies are publishing misinformation about PJAK. These media news articles which claim that PJAK will carry out suicide attacks against Iraq and the USA interests in the region are untrue and fabricated, they are against PJAK principles, policies and democratic values. We ask the AP and other press agencies to clarify and correct their wrong information about PJAK and the Kurdish people.

Clarification:

1. PJAK is based mainly inside Eastern Kurdistan and Iran, not in Iraq. It depends on the support of the Kurdish and Iranian people. It is a democratic national movement for the Kurds in Iran. Its aim's are to unite the Kurdish and Iranian opposition, to change the oppressive Islamic regime in Iran and to establish a free democratic con-federal system for the Kurds and the Iranian peoples. "Changing of the regime to a democratic system in which all citizens; Iranians, Kurds, Azaries, Baluchs, Turkomans and Arabs and all other ethnic groups within the framework of the democratic system, can govern themselves."

2. PJAK is against any suicide or terrorists attacks. It adheres to the roles of the United Nations human rights declaration. It is in self defense and does not launch any military cross border attacks from Iraq. All of the operations inside Iran are in self defense and to protect our people from the Iranian security and revolutionary Guards forces continues atrocities and forced assimilation.

3. PJAK is not a rebels organization. PJAK is a political massive national democratic movement of the Kurds in Iran. PJAK strategy is to use all form of struggle; political, social, economic, nonviolence civil disobedience, human rights, NGOS and to carry arms in self defense etc,. "PJAK is always continuing the work and struggle needed to achieve an increase in the level of intelligence, a democratic organization of people as well as practice of the democratic values, to achieve a radical type of democracy and to be able to launch a system of democratic confederacy in eastern Kurdistan."

4. PJAK is a self sufficient and independent organization. It depends on the Kurds and Iranian people support, contrary to the Iranian dictatorial regime misinformation campaign that PJAK getting help from the USA and the west. We again declare to the public opinion that PJAK did not receive any help from any country including the USA. We depend on the support of our people and on our organization.

The Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) calls upon the United States of America, Iraq, the European Union and the European states to realize that the path to security and democracy in the Middle East leads through a change of the Iranian theocratic regime. Therefore a positive approach to the Kurdish question and the demands and views of Iran's peoples and the peoples of the Middle East is necessary. Oligarchic, theocratic and reactionary states cannot be force of stability and cannot meet the demands of the peoples. At the same time these states undermine global security by setting up and funding fundamentalist groups.

It is time to put stop to the atrocities and human rights violations of the Turkish and Iranian Islamic oppressive regimes.

We call upon the international community to help the Kurds and the peoples of Iran in their struggle for democracy, freedom and peace.

Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK)
Coordination Committee

Much of this information was presented in Özgür Gündem in the last few days. As for the AP article, in it, PJAK spokesperson Peritan Dersim clearly stated, "some rebels want to join suicide squads to avenge the deaths of their comrades but that 'combatants are under the control of the organization,' which [ ] is against such attacks." Of course, individual combatants have gone outside of both PJAK and PKK and have carried out suicide attacks in the past, but these incidents have not had the approval of the organizations.

From the LATimes, we have another piece of propaganda. Some of it is old news rehashed, however, such as this from Osman Öcalan:

"Since the beginning, we thought we would get the American help," said Ocalan, who left the group two years ago. "And it's a good relationship now. . . . They are in talks with each other, and there is some military assistance."

Ocalan and others say U.S. help has included foodstuffs, economic assistance, medical supplies and Russian military equipment, some of it funneled through nonprofit groups. Every two or three months, U.S. military vehicles can be seen entering PKK and PEJAK strongholds, Ocalan said.

"There's no systematic relationship, no number to call," he said. "Americans do not intend to have an official relationship. Whenever there's any kind of question by the Turks, they can say we don't have a relationship."

How does that square with the joint US-Turkish-Iranian bombing of Qendil? Or how is that reconciled with Cemil Bayık's very clear statement on the matter in November 2006?

Both PEJAK and the Mujahedin Khalq operate like cults, barring members from having sexual relations and discouraging personal lives. Each touts a strict Marxist ideology.

Why is PJAK in the mountains, to fight or have sex? But the Western--and particularly the American--willfull misunderstanding on PJAK's restrictions on sexual relations stems from a flaw that lies deep in the Western character. How else to explain the epidemic of rape within the US military or rampant rape among American contractors like KBR?

As for Marxism, how could PJAK "tout a strict Marxist ideology" when PKK dropped its "strict Marxist ideology" in 1995? PJAK was formed at the end of 2003, almost 10 years after PKK dropped the hammer and sickle from its flag.

Then there's the Ansar excuse:

The Ansar al Islam fighters have been used as a "pressure card" by the Iranians, said Jafar Barzinji, the minister of affairs for peshmerga, or Kurdish security forces, who oversees military issues in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

Iraqi Kurds say they have asked Iranian authorities to rein in Ansar. "They never deny that they're supporting them," Barzinji said. "They always promise a solution in the near future." Sometimes, he said, they bring up PEJAK.

Fareed Asasard, head of the Kurdish Strategic Studies Center, a think tank in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaymaniya, recently visited Tehran to meet with analysts at a research institution close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"The reason for their support of Ansar is PEJAK," he said. "They're 100% worried about PEJAK's actions."

Really? Then how do they explain that Iran supported Ansar within South Kurdistan long before PJAK ever materialized? Iran's support of Ansar has absolutely nothing to do with PJAK, except that PJAK stands in the way of Ansar re-taking the region:

“The Turkish plan to attack Qandil mountain [in northern-eastern Iraq] is an action to help Iran eliminate the PJAK forces and replace them with Ansar Al Islam-al-Qaida forces, trained and supported by Iran, to launch attacks against the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq in order to destabilize Kurdistan and Iraq . . . "

And this is exactly what the US is helping Iran to do.