User:Idin 2828/sandbox

Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Komala Kurdistan’s Organization of the Communist Party of Iran

See also Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran

See also Solidarity for Freedom and Equality in Iran

See also Iran Transition Council, ITC

See also Cooperation Center of Iranian Kurdistan’s Political Parties

See also Abdullah Mohtadi

See also Salah Bayaziddi

The Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan (commonly shortened to Komala (Kurdish: كۆمه‌ڵه‌; Persian: کومله‎), is a political party in Iranian Kurdistan whose headquarters are based in Kurdistan region of Iraq.  Komala was originally founded in 1969 and it currently is among the leading forces that are representing over 10 million Iranian Kurds, which accounts for about 13% of Iran’s total population of about 80 million people. Its headquarters is currently located in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. As a democratic force, Komala Party has been engaged in the political opposition of the Islamic Republic of Iran since the first days of hijacking Iranian revolution by Mullahs in 1979. Since that early days, Komala Party has been a leading force to promote secularism, human rights values and establishing democratic institutions in Kurdistan and Iran. With support of Komala Party and other democratic forces, the Kurdish minority in Iran was the only ethnic group that boycotted the Islamic Republic of Iran’s “yes-or-no” referendum for an Islamic-Republic system of government on April 1st 1979.

Establishment

The Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan was founded in autumn1969 among Kurdish students and intellectuals in Tehran and some Kurdish towns. Since, there was no political freedom in Iran, every political organization had to go into hiding and to organize underground - Komala was no exception. Like all other opposition organizations at the time, Komala faced severe repression.

During those years many members of Komala Party and its leadership experienced persecution, torture and imprisonment at the hands of SAVAK, Shah’s notorious secret police, but Komala managed to survive and protect the main body of its organization and its growing network of activists. More than nine years of hard and disciplined work prior to the outbreak of the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, bore its fruit and helped Komala build a strong and cohesive body of cadres among sections of Kurdish society. Komala managed to win over considerable sections of Kurdish students, teachers, intellectuals and young people and develop a significant influence and social base among workers and peasants throughout Kurdistan.

Komala actively participated in the Iranian Revolution and was in fact behind almost every demonstration and popular movement of that period, albeit, with a completely different agenda from that of the Ayatollahs in Tehran. On February 16, 1979, a few days after the victory of the Revolution, Komala established an overt political party. By this time Komala had already become a major political force in Iranian Kurdistan.

Komala soon became the champion of the Kurdish cause and an uncompromising opposition against new religious dictators of Iran, as well as of political and religious freedoms, social justice, women’s rights and democratic change. While many political groups of the time underestimated the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism, Komala warned against it and opposed it even before it came to power. Unlike many, Komala never supported the Islamic regime in Iran and always considered their rise to power a backward move for Iranian society and a threat to democratic values, to political freedoms, women’s rights, and to Kurdish rights. Komala was the pioneering political force that encouraged the Kurdish people to boycott the first referendum on establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the spring of 1979. The Kurds were the only section of the Iranian society in Iran to have collectively boycotted that referendum.

When Khomeini ordered an unprovoked overall onslaught against Kurds on 19 August 1979, Komala made the historic decision to organize resistance against the brutal suppression and to defend its people. It recruited thousands of peshmarga and organized mass uprisings throughout Kurdistan. It took only three months for the Kurds to defeat the Iranian regime’s newly found Revolutionary Guards. The new rulers were forced to enter into negotiations with the Kurds. Komala, together with other political parties, formed a United Kurdish Delegation. A ceasefire was ensued that lasted about six months. In the spring of 1980, the Ayatollahs again attacked Kurdistan and launched an unjustifiable war against Kurds that lasted for about a decade.

Komala Party, as a leading and organizing force of the Kurdish movement, has gone through tough times and has lost about three thousand of its members as well as many thousands of its members taken into prison, sent into internal exile, expelled from their jobs, etc in the fight for freedom, democracy and justice.

During the late eighties and early nineties of the last century, Komala Party, headed by Abdullah Mohtadi, discussed and decided on a renewal program to adapt to the new domestic and world developments. Thus, Komala underwent a major ideological and political overhaul. The move was successful and was welcomed by the great majority of people, intellectuals, students, women, civil activists and others.

Ideology

Komala stands for a democratic, pluralist, secular, and federal Iran that is based on the rule of law which guarantees and safeguards the fundamental liberties and human rights of all ethnic groups in Iran. It advocates for a broad-based democratic coalition in Iran and for solidarity amongst ethnic and religious minorities that historically have been marginalized and persecuted by Iran’s current Islamist regime. Having adopted the European social democracy model as a fair and appropriate solution for the diverse Iran, Komala has been promoting that political model both in Iran and within its Kurdish region inside Iran.

Objectives

Komala’s objectives for Iran and all Iranians are:

·      A non-nuclear Iran that is at peace with itself, its regional neighbors, and internationally.

·      A democratic, federal, and free Iran, with separation of religion and State.

·      Establishment of and respect for the rule of law throughout Iran.

·      Freedom of expression and media, freedom of association, freedom of religion, and unconditional access by all to modern information technology and the Internet.

·      Guarantee and safeguard of fundamental liberties and human rights of all Iranians.

·      A market economy based on equal opportunities and fair society for all Iranians.

·      Self-rule for the Kurdish provinces of Iran.

·      Protection of all ethnic groups and religions in Iran and the safeguard of their political and cultural rights and heritages.

·      Equal economic, social, and educational opportunities for all minorities in Iran.

Representation

Komala is among the leading political party that is representing over 10 million Iranian Kurds, comprising about 13% of Iran’s total population of 80 million people.

Leadership

Komala currently has compounds in Iraqi Kurdistan near Sulaimaniyah where its headquarters, publication facilities, etc. are located. They have offices both in Erbil (capital city of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq) and Sulaimaniyah. Kurdistan Region of Iraq, a relatively safer haven for the political parties and thousands of Iranian Kurds who have fled oppression and persecution under Iran’s Islamist regime.

Komala party is well known to be the vanguard of grass root politics and civil movements in Kurdistan for the last four decades and it has been a main organizer of mass movements and successful general strikes in recent years. They have been behind almost every protest movement in recent years, e.g. the semi-uprising of all cities and towns in Iranian Kurdistan in 2005, the highly successful general strike of June 2010, the recent general strike of in September 2018 as a protest against execution of Komala members and rocket attacks against Kurdish parties by Iranian revolutionary guards in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Komala also has the most extensive relationship with various Iranian opposition groups, including liberals, leftists, social democrats, ethnic minority groups, labor leaders, student leaders, civil activists and so on.

Komala, together with some other groups, founded the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran (CNFI) in 2005 among Iran’s diverse ethnic groups. CNFI is an umbrella organization comprising of Kurds, Arabs, Azerbaijanis, Baloochis and Turkmen.

Komala Party warmly supported the so-called Green Movement in 2009 despite the shortcomings and weaknesses of its leadership because considered the movement as a vehicle of change. It was Komala who smuggled so many of the green movement’s well-known activists out of Iran and managed to save their lives.

Komala Party’s leader, Abdullah Mohtadi, was a co-founder of another Iranian opposition’s coalition called Unity for Democracy in Iran (UDI), which is well known for their support for free and fair elections in Iran. Komala is a leading founder of the coalition Solidarity for Freedom and Equality (2018), Council of Iranian Supporters of Democracy (2016). They have been among the founders of Iran Transition Council (ITC) which was launched on 28 September 2019 as an alternative to the Iranian regime.

In 2014, Komala Party was formally accepted as a member of the international social democracy, the international body of labor and social democratic parties of Europe and the world. At the same time, in order to help a better understanding by the international community of the Kurdish cause in Iran and getting a wider support for democratic change in Iran, Komala is establishing a wide range of contacts with the outside world.

Komala Party has been a tireless promoter of unity among different Kurdish political groups and they were instrumental in the forming of a new alliance among Iranian Kurds, namely Center for Cooperation of Iranian Kurdish Parties (2018). Abdullah Mohtadi is co-founder of Iran Transition Council (ITC) a democratic, pluralist Iranian coalition organization that was launched in September 2019 in London.

Abdullah Mohtadi is Komala’s Secretary-General and Salah Bayaziddi is its Representative to the United States.

Governance and Organizations

Komala’s governance structure is comprised of a Central Committee and an Executive Committee whose members are all elected by democratic vote every three (3) years. The Central Committee has twenty-five (25) members and the Executive Committee has five (5) members. The highest position is held by the Secretary-General who is also elected every three (3) years by the members of the General Convention also reffer as Congress. The Executive Committee performs its duties through its committees, subcommittees, and other constituent organs. Notable, Komala Party has held 15 congresses since its establishment so far.

Women play an important role in Komala’s governance, structure, and decision-making process. Aside from women members in the Leadership Council and Executive Committee, Komala’s Rojhelat Women Organization, established in 2010, is in charge of promoting women’s rights and empowerment through its various activities including conferences, seminars, workshops and training workshops and programs. The Organization’s board of directors is elected by majority vote in the General Conventions. For more information see: http://www.jnanirojhalat.com

Since its establishment, Komala has paid special attention to the Iranian and Kurdish youths and their rights. Under this goal, the Komala’s Rojhelat Youth Organization is to promote the youth rights and responsibilities in the administration of the society. The Organization holds seminars, conferences and workshops to raise the Iranian and Kurdish youths’ awareness on their righteous freedoms and liberties. Kurdish youths in Iran under threat of being recruited by extremist Islamic groups, and one of the Organization’s main obligation is to fight the extremist ideology and promote the values of a progressive and modern community among them. More importantly, the Organization is to train qualified cadres and personnel for Komala’s media and press. The Organization is governed by a board of directors elected into the position by voting every two years.

Position on Iran’s System of Government

Since the fall of the Shah’s regime in 1979, Komala has stood firmly against the Islamists who came to power in 1979. Komala decided to encourage the Kurdish people to boycott the so-called Yes-or-No to the Islamic Republic referendum in 1979 as a result of which Kurds massively declined to join the rest of Iran. Since then, It has been active in Iran’s opposition movements against the Islamists and it has been advocating for a democratic Iran since 1979.

Komala firmly believes in the separation of state and church and opposes any oppression and suppression against any religious groups in Iran. While the Islamic Republic has been oppressing the Baha’is in Iran, Komala and its leadership encouraged the Kurdish people to embrace those Bahai families escaping the oppression during the early days of post-revolution in 1979. The Kurdish region at that time was one of very few places where followers of the Baha’i faith could feel safe and start a new life.

Iranian domestic and foreign policies should be based on peaceful co-existence and international and regional cooperation—“a democratic Iran as a responsible member of the global community at peace with itself, its neighbors, and internationally.”

Position on Nuclear Deal with Iran

According to Abdullah Mohtadi, Komala’s Secretary-General, “the Obama administration had a theory: they thought if you make deals with Iran and say nothing about the atrocities, then it will strengthen the so-called reformists in Iran and they will abide by international law, and stop its aggressive foreign policy,”. “Instead, the opposite took place. Iran was emboldened, and increased its adventurist policy in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and in Yemen against Saudi Arabia and also against Israel, so the opposite has happened.”

Due to its shortcomings, Komala has been criticizing Iran nuclear deal, also known as JCPOA, because it didn’t stop Iranian regime’s efforts to export terrorism and destructive policies against its people and in the region. Komala Party also has been supporting the current US administration’s policies of designating IRGC as a terrorist organization and Maximum Pressure policy against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Persecution

For decades the Kurdish community in Iran has been suffering from systematic political, legal and social discrimination. According to a 2017 United Nations study, almost one-half of all political prisoners in Iran are Kurds, and larger portion of all political executions are  Kurds as well in Iran.

Komala’s constituents, who also include Kurdish religious minorities such as Yarsan, Baha’is, Jews, and Christians are systematically denied access to basic liberties, cultural and religious freedoms, and educational, and socio-economic opportunities by the Iranian regime. The Iranian regime has denied Kurdish political and cultural rights and it has prohibited learning and studying the Kurdish language in schools.

In March 1980, following the end of “Three Months War”, the IRGC and military forces launched another military attack to retake the Kurdish provinces, and this brutal assault accompanied by ground and air forces led to the death of thousands of Kurds and the destruction of many cities and villages. Notably there were several major mass killing cases of Kurdish villagers such as Qarna (Persian: قارنا‎,  Qārnā; also known as Karna and Qārneh) a village in central district of Naqadeh County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran), and village of Qalatan.

During the four decades of the Islamic rule, thousands of members of Komala have been arrested, tortured, executed and assassinated by the regime inside and outside the Kurdish provinces including in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq during the years of 1993-1997.

Fight Against ISIS

When the Kurdish Region of Iraq came under attack by the ISIS militants in 2014, Komala was one of the first Kurdish organizations that, on the request of Kurdistan Regional Government, deployed part of its Peshmerga force under the command of the KRG’s Ministry of Peshmerga to fight ISIS. Komala Peshmerga force was deployed near Kirkuk front where the ISIS threat was imminent and the force fought and pushed back ISIS alongside the KRG Peshmergas. During the same period, Komala Peshmerga force received training from the US-led Coalition against ISIS.

U.S. Representative Office

In September 2018 Komala established a representative office in Washington, D.C. which is registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA Registration Number 6595, dated _________).

References

1.     _____________________________

2.     _____________________________

3.     _____________________________

4.     _____________________________

5.     _____________________________

6.     _____________________________

7.     _____________________________

8.     _____________________________

9.     _____________________________

10.  _____________________________