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The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant and political organization based in the Kurdish regions of Turkey and Iraq. Since 1984, the PKK has been involved in an armed conflict with the Turkish state, with the initial aim of achieving an independent Kurdish state. The Kurdistan Workers' Party is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, the European Union, Australia and Japan.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a Kurdish nationalist political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The PUK describes its goals as self-determination, human rights, democracy and peace for the Kurdish people of Kurdistan and Iraq. The PUK is currently under the leadership of co-presidents Lahur Talabany and Bafel Talabani. The PUK was founded in 1975 by Jalal Talabani, Nawshirwan Mustafa, Fuad Masum, Adel Murad, Ali Askari and Abdul Razaq Feyli.
Ansar al-Islam or Ansar al-Islam fi Kurdistan, also referred to as AAI, is a Sunni Muslim insurgent group in Iraq and Syria. It was established in Iraqi Kurdistan by former al-Qaeda members in 2001 as a Salafist Islamist movement that imposed a strict application of Sharia in villages it controlled around Biyara to the northeast of Halabja, near the Iranian border. Its ideology follows a literal interpretation of the Koran and promotes a return to what it claims is the example of the first Muslims (Salaf). Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the group became an insurgent group which fought against the Kurdish government, American led forces and their Iraqi allies. The group continued to fight the Iraqi Government following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and sent members to Syria to fight the Government following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.
Human rights in post-invasion Iraq have been the subject of concerns and controversies since the 2003 invasion. Concerns have been expressed about conduct by insurgents, the U.S.-led coalition forces and the Iraqi government. The U.S. is investigating several allegations of violations of international and internal standards of conduct in isolated incidents by its own forces and contractors. The UK is also conducting investigations of alleged human rights abuses by its forces. War crime tribunals and criminal prosecution of the numerous crimes by insurgents are likely years away. In late February 2009, the U.S. state department released a report on the human rights situation in Iraq, looking back on the past year (2008).
The Peshmerga, meaning Those who face death, are the military forces of the autonomous region of Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Since the Iraqi Army is forbidden by Iraqi law to enter the Kurdistan Region, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, are responsible for the security of Kurdistan Region. These subsidiaries include Asayish, Parastin u Zanyarî and the Zeravani (Gendarmerie). The Peshmerga predates Iraq, starting out as a strictly tribal pseudo-military border guard under the Ottomans and Safavids and later changing to a well-trained, disciplined guerrilla force in the 19th century.
Kurdistan Islamic Union, colloquially referred to as Yekgirtû, is an Islamist party in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region in northern Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority populated governorates of Dohuk, Erbil, Halabja and Sulaymaniyah and bordering Iran, Syria and Turkey. The Kurdistan Region encompasses most of Iraqi Kurdistan but excludes the disputed territories of Northern Iraq, contested between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad since Kurdish autonomy was realized in 1992 with the 1992 Iraqi Kurdistan parliamentary election in the aftermath of the Gulf War. The Kurdistan Region Parliament is situated in Erbil, but the constitution of the Kurdistan Region declares the disputed city of Kirkuk to be the capital of the Kurdistan Region. When the Iraqi Army withdrew from most of the disputed areas in mid-2014 because of the ISIL offensive in Northern Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga entered the areas and held control there until October 2017.
The Kurdistan Free Life Party, or PJAK, is a militant Kurdish leftist, anti-Iranian government group. It has waged an intermittent armed struggle since 2004 against the Iranian government for self-determination for Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan.
The Iraqi Kurdish Civil War was a military conflict that took place between rival Kurdish factions in Iraqi Kurdistan during the mid-1990s, mostly between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Over the course of the conflict, Kurdish factions from Iranian and Turkish Kurdistan, as well as Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish state forces, were drawn into the fighting, with additional involvement from American forces. Between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters and civilians were killed.
The Iran–PJAK conflict is an armed conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), which began in 2004 and largely ended in 2011. The group carried out numerous attacks in the Kurdistan Province of Iran and provinces of Western Iran. PJAK is closely affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the primary opponent of the Republic of Turkey in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. PJAK has been designated as a terrorist organization by Iran, Japan, Turkey, and the United States.
The Gorran Movement or just Gorran (Change) is a Kurdish people political party in Iraq under the leadership of Omar Said Ali, founded in 2009 by Nawshirwan Mustafa. Gorran is the third largest political party by votes in Iraqi Kurdistan, after the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
This is the timeline of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. The Kurdish insurgency is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups, which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which was founded on November 27, 1978, and started a full-scale insurgency on August 15, 1984 when it declared a Kurdish uprising. Apart from some extended ceasefires, the conflict has continued to the present day.
Soran Mama Hama was a reporter for Livin magazine in Kirkuk, Kurdistan, Iraq. He was shot by unidentified gunmen and died in Kirkuk at approximately 9 p.m. on July 21, 2008 in the suburban Kirkuk neighborhood of Shorija. Hama's death remains unsolved after four years. It is believed that he was the victim of the very corrupt police and government personnel, which he had previously reported on.
The insurgency by the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran surged in 1989, lasting until 1996, as part of the Kurdish separatism struggle. The eruption of the conflict in July 1989 was caused by the assassination of KDPI leader Abdul Rahman Qassemlou by suspected Iranian government agents. The most violent episodes took place in 1990 and 1991, when Kurdish soldiers launched massive attacks on Iranian military bases in Kurdish areas of Iran. This brought heavy retaliation from the Iranian government, aiming to eradicate the KDPI leadership by assassinating Sadegh Sharafkandi and other KDPI leaders in 1992 in order to disable the Kurdish party's ability to function. The conflict faded with the effective targeted assassination policy of Iran and by 1996 KDPI was no longer able to function militarily and announced a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict claimed hundreds of lives, mostly Iranian government troops and Kurdish militants.
The Democratic Union Party is a Kurdish democratic confederalist political party established on 20 September 2003 in northern Syria. It is a founding member of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change, and is described by the Carnegie Middle East Center as "one of the most important Kurdish opposition parties in Syria". It is the leading political party among Syrian Kurds. Some analysts see the PYD as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 2003.
The December 2009 Kurdish protests in Turkey were five days of protests in Turkey that ensued after a December 11, 2009 ruling by the Constitutional Court of Turkey that banned the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), after finding them guilty of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and spreading "terrorist propaganda."
Rudaw Media Network, also known as Rudaw, is a media group in Iraqi Kurdistan. It publishes in Kurdish, English, Arabic and Turkish. Rudaw Media Network also owns a weekly newspaper in the Sorani dialect with a circulation of 3,000, a Kurmanji version published in Europe, a website in Kurdish, English, Arabic and Turkish and a satellite TV station. The network is funded and supported by Rudaw Company and aims to impart news and information about Kurdistan and the Middle East.
An independence referendum for Kurdistan Region of Iraq was held on 25 September 2017, with preliminary results showing approximately 93.25 percent of votes cast in favour of independence. Despite reporting that the independence referendum would be non-binding, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) characterised it as binding, although they claimed that an affirmative result would trigger the start of state building and negotiations with Iraq rather than an immediate declaration of independence of Kurdistan. The referendum's legality was rejected by the federal government of Iraq.
In late July 2015, the third phase of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict between various Kurdish insurgent groups and the Turkish government erupted, following a failed two and a half year-long peace process aimed at resolving the long-running conflict.
Kurdistan Freedom Party is a Kurdish nationalist and separatist militant group of Kurds in Iran, based in northern Iraq.
References
- ↑ Lee, Matthew. "U.S., Iraq closer to deal on U.S. troops." Associated Press / San Francisco Chronicle . September 28, 2008.
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