Pro-PKK Party Supports Opposition in Kurdistan

Source: rudwa

Former head of PCDK Fayaq Gulpi. Photo courtesy of PCDK.

ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan – Members of the pro-PKK Democratic Solution Party (PCDK) have recently been arrested in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq for supporting demonstrations. The PCDK called on the KRG to release demonstrators and the security forces to leave the streets.

On April 21st, Fayaq Gulpi, a member of the KNK, and former head of PDCK was arrested in a security checkpoint in the province of Sulaimani and allegedly tortured. Also PCDK-members Ebubekir Mecit and Kemal Said Sadik Kadir were arrested for supporting demonstrations. The detentions came after the KRG decided to ban the demonstrations.

The next day, the Kurdistan National Congress asked the Kurdish authorities to release the arrested PCDK members. Most of them were released after 8-10 hours, but Kadir was jailed for 10 days for supporting protests in the border town of Penjwin, said PCDK-member Emir Star. On May 5th yet another PCDK member named Sivan Muhammed was arrested in Sulaimani by the security forces and beaten, but later released.

Although the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are fighting the Turkish state for more cultural rights for the Kurds in that country, they supported the demonstrations against the Kurdish government in Iraq. It is said that members of the PCDK had participated in the protests and supported calls by Kurdish opposition parties for early elections.

Offices of the PCDK were closed in the Kurdistan region and the party was banned from participating in both the Iraqi and local Kurdish elections in the last two years after pressure from Turkey and the U.S.

The PKK and its Iranian offshoot, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) called on the Kurdish government to respect the will of the people and show more democracy and that unwanted interference upset the Kurdish authorities.

PKK spokesperson Roj Welat told Rudaw that the PKK leader had called on the government of the Kurdistan region to listen to the demands of the people.

In early March, just days after the start of protests in Kurdistan, pro-PKK slogans could be heard in the streets of Sulaimani, with some protestors shouting ‘long live leader Apo’, the nickname of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey.  The pro-PKK TV-station Roj TV also took airtime to cover the demonstrations. 

“Although there are three opposition parties here, we are not allowed to be in parliament,” said PCDK-member Najida Omar, speaking from the Sara Square, Sulaimani’s central square during the protests, which is now under the control of Kurdish security forces. “Otherwise we would support the opposition parties here. We need a new system in place to support democracy.” she said.

The PCDK had a list of 6 demands including calls for early elections, return of all party-occupied property to the government, a new constitution, more services (water, roads, electricity) and a project to attach the disputed territories to the Kurdistan region.

The PKK-leader Abdullah Ocalan, says Najidi Omar, thinks that no system can survive without full support of the people and without democracy.

“Therefore this current system here is not democratic nor does it listen to the people’s demands. It needs to be changed and he [Ocalan] fully supports the protestors.”

PKK spokesperson Roj Welat confirmed by telephone that the PKK thinks the Kurdish government should listen to the people, but denied that the PKK was directly involved in demonstrations.

“There are a lot of problems here in Iraqi Kurdistan and the government needs to tackle them and develop some level of democracy to solve these issues.” he said.

Kurdish journalist Rebwar Karim Wali believes that instability in the Kurdistan region benefits the PKK.

“They can do what they want. They have more liberty, freedom of movement for everything. Because the government and [ruling] political parties are busy with this internal issue, they forget the PKK.” said Wali.

Cengiz Candar, a Turkish writer and former government adviser, who has recently traveled to Syria, Iraq and Iran with Turkey's top leaders, told Rudaw that the PCDK has its own policy. 

“They [PKK] don’t have much a foothold in Kurdistan. Through this they might broaden their popular support.”

Candar added that it could also be because of the growing relationship between Turkey and Erbil that they try to use as a counterbalance.

Demonstrations against the Kurdish authorities started in Sulaimani on February 17th and lasted more than two months until they were quelled by the deployment of hundreds of heavily armed troops. The PCDK called on the authorities to normalize the situation, release demonstrators and withdraw the security forces from the streets.