East Kurdistan Defense Forces
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Kurdistan Free Life Party
Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê (PJAK) پارتی ژیانی ئازادی کوردستان |
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| Leader | Siamand Moini and Zîlan Vejîn |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Armed wing | Eastern Kurdistan Units (YRK) |
| Women's wing | Women's Defence Forces (HPJ) |
| Ideology |
Kurdish nationalism Democratic confederalism Democratic socialism Libertarian socialism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| International affiliation | Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) |
| Eastern Kurdistan Units Yekîneyên Rojhilatê Kurdistan (YRK) |
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| Leader(s) | Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi |
| Dates of operation | 2004–2011 |
| Motives | To establish semiautonomous regional entities or Kurdish federal states in Iran, Turkey and Syria similar to the Kurdistan Regional Government, and establish a democratic confederalism as theorised by Abdullah Öcalan. |
| Active region(s) | Iraq, Turkey and Iran |
| Ideology |
Secularism, Kurdish nationalism Feminism, Democratic confederalism |
| Status | Active |
The Kurdistan Free Life Party or PJAK (Kurdish: Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê) is a militant leftist-nationalist, anti-Iranian government group. PJAK has waged an intermittent armed struggle since 2004 against the Iranian government to seek self-determination for Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan.
PJAK is widely described as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). In 2009, the U.S. Treasury labeled PJAK as a terrorist group and a front for the PKK. Both groups are members of the Kurdistan Communities Union or KCK (Kurdish: Koma Civakên Kurdistan), an umbrella group of Kurdish political and insurgent groups in Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq.
The membership of PJAK's armed wing, the Eastern Kurdistan Units or YRK, is estimated to be 3,000 and come from Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and the Kurdish diaspora. The group is considered a terrorist organisation by Iran,Turkey, and the United States.
Members of the PKK founded the PJAK in 2004 as an Iranian equivalent to their leftist-nationalist insurgency against the Turkish government. ` The present leader of the organisation is Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the members of PJAK are women, many of them still in their teens. The group actively recruits female guerrillas and states that its "cruelest and fiercest fighters" are women drawn to the movement's "radical feminism".
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Wikipedia