SUMMARY
PJAK (Partî Jiyanî Azadî Kurdistan: Free Life Party of Kurdistan), also known as the East Kurdistan Defense Forces and YRK, was a Kurdish liberation group established in Iran on 25 April 2004. It sought to overthrow the Iranian government regime and replace it with a democratic confederate system that permitted all ethnic groups within Iran to have the right to self-governance. In particular, the PJAK focused on the Kurdish area in north-western Iran where they wanted to create a self-governing region for the Iranian Kurds living there. This region would permit its inhabitants to have the right to bear arms and use them in all aspects of military defense in times of need.
PJAK was formed as an Iranian offshoot of the left-wing, nationalist, Turkish-Kurdish group PKK. Its creation as a separate entity was motivated by a PKK strategy to spread its forces across the Kurdish-populated countries and attempt to circumvent the consequences of it being designated a “terrorist” organization by multiple countries. Nevertheless, PJAK and the PKK remained closely-aligned in their objectives for their respective areas of interest, Iran and Turkey respectively. Some contended that the PKK continued to control PJAK due to overlapping leadership and the sharing of facilities and bases. It was also reported the PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was revered within the PJAK organization.
The PJAK base camp was located in the mountainous Kurdish-populated areas of northern Iraq, on the southern side of Mount Qandil in Irbil governorate. This location was within PKK-controlled territory so access to the PJAK base camp involved passing through multiple PKK checkpoints as the PKK base camp was located on the western slope of Mount Qandil. Within Iran, PJAK was located in Razgah, West Azerbaijan province.
Most PJAK members were Iranian Kurds but some Turkish Kurds were also reported to be part of the group and half of PJAK’s members were reportedly female. Many of its higher ranking members had previously been part of the PKK.
Although PJAK claimed to have some 1500 guerrillas along the Iranian border from Azerbaijan to Iraq, armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47s in 2006, other sources reported that the group had 2000 to 3000 troops.
Abdul Rahman Haci Ahmedi served as the General Secretary of PJAK while Majid Kavian, also known as Samakou Sarhaldan, was deputy commander. Ahmedi continued leading the group from Germany after being forced into exile. Prior to PJAK, Ahmedi had worked with PKK as an affiliate. Akif Zagros had been a significant member of PKK before becoming one of the PJAK founders. He served as one of its leaders until his death in May 2006. Ihsan Varya had been responsible for a regional PKK unit before becoming head of the PJAK coordination committee while Gulistan Dogan had been a PKK member before becoming head of the PJAK women's branch, the Eastern Kurdistan Women's Union (YJRK).
As shown above, PKK maintained a close relationship with PJAK and provided it with support through the sharing of military or intelligence infrastructure. The Government of Iran also accused the governments of Israel and the United States of America of having links to PJAK, although it did not present evidence for this accusation in 2009. There were some indications that suggested that the USA may have had some liaison with PJAK during an earlier period but the USA classified PJAK as a front for the PKK and a terrorist group in 2009.
