Armed Struggle
2 articles filed under this keyword.
The Role and Participation of Women in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) (1945-1990).
Kwestan Ahmad Khdir, Hoshmand Ali Mahmood
This research focuses on the role and participation of women in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) (1945-1990), which is a period of enormous significance in the history of women's struggle in Eastern Kurdistan in general and within the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan in particular. During this historical phase, censorship and patriarchal traditions deprived women in Iranian society and Eastern Kurdistan specifically of their rights and freedoms. During the final stages of the Second World War, a number of international and domestic factors led to significant changes in Iranian society, politics, and social life, under the leadership of the newly empowered Mohammad Reza Shah. Among these changes was the establishment of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan-Iran and subsequently the Kurdistan Republic (also known as the Republic of Mahabad), where women from Eastern Kurdistan entered the scene for the first time within their own political and organizational frameworks, playing an influential and active role. The primary research question is: To what extent did women in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan participate in political, national, and armed struggle in Eastern Kurdistan? What were the internal and external obstacles and factors that impeded these steps? What role did they play in raising awareness in society? This study further emphasizes the roles and responsibilities of women within the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan in political, military, organizational, health, educational, and training domains.
Volume 10 · Issue 3 · September 2023The Kurdish Armed Struggle in Turkey and the Scope of International Law
Rebaz R. Khdir, Hiwa Mahmood Abdalla
The Kurdish issue is one of the complex issues in the Middle East region that has along bloody history. Although the issue is originally related to the sovereignty of the Kurds over their historical land, the geopolitical changes has transformed it into the question of identity and group rights in the states into which they are divided. Turkey is one of the region’s new states where the majority of Kurds reside in today but the state denies their distinct ethnic identity in its constitution and laws and they have consequently been deprived of all collective civil and political rights in the form of democratic autonomy. Meanwhile, the Kurds have a distinct historical tradition, cultural homogeneity, linguistic unity and territorial connection which ultimately make them qualify as a people and according to modern international law, all peoples have the right to self-determination at least in an internal context. In contrast to the state denial and tyrannical policy, the Kurds have not kept their silence but resisted the state. In their resistance, they have tried to resort to peaceful means in the form of demands and agreements and in contemporary times through political and civil parties and organizations but the state has not and does not allow such a movement. This article attempts to illustrate the origins of the issues which are rights and freedoms of the Kurds on the bases of a discriptive analytical method, alongside the recognition of the Kurdish struggle in Turkey as terrorism by the international community under the influence of Turkish media and diplomacy.