ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iranian Kurdish shopkeepers on Wednesday began Rojhilat-wide (Iranian Kurdistan) strike against the executions of Kurdish activists and the bombing of opposition parties in Koya in the neighboring Kurdistan Region.

Over the weekend six Kurdish political prisoners were executed, and, in a missile attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I) and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDK-I), at least 15 were killed and 42 injured.

Kurdish parties and Kurdish activists in Iran called for shop owners to strike in protest of the Iranian government’s actions. Protests are also expected to take place in Europe.

People of eastern (Iranian) #Kurdistan are staging a general strike today in response to #Iran’s missile attack against their political parties and the execution of Kurdish political prisoners. #Twitterkurds #Rojhelat #PDKI #KDPI pic.twitter.com/qwWoSzvOcN — PDKI (@PDKIenglish) September 12, 2018

“People in Kurdistan will stage a peaceful general strike to show the brutal Islamist regime in Iran that we will not accept more military attacks against our political parties and executions of our political activist,” Loghman H. Ahmedi, a senior member of the PDKI’s leadership, told Kurdistan 24.

“This regime is on its last leg. With a combination of peaceful demonstrations and general strikes, together with the resistance of the Peshmerga Forces, the Kurdish people will be at the forefront to bring about change in Iran. The only factor that is missing is international support to end the rule of this brutal theocratic regime,” he added.</s>Former Iraqi Kurdistan region's president Masoud Barzani speaks to his supporters ahead of regional elections in Erbil, Iraq, on Tuesday (Reuters photo)

ERBIL, Iraq — Campaigning kicked off on Tuesday for a parliamentary election in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region amid political divisions a year after hopes for independence were dashed.

Around 673 candidates from 29 political movements have thrown their hats into the ring hoping to secure one of 111 seats in Kurdistan's parliament at the election on September 30.

Eleven of the seats are however reserved for religious and ethnic minorities and five will go to Turkmen candidates, five to Christians and one to the Armenian community.

The outgoing parliament is dominated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of veteran leader and former president Massud Barzani — as is the government.

The KDP currently holds 38 seats, while its traditional rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, has 18.

The main opposition Goran (Kurdish for "change") Party has 24 seats in the outgoing parliament.

The election is not expected to change the political map in Kurdistan, according to experts, but could shed light on the divisions that emerged after the September 2017 independence referendum.

That vote — championed by Barzani — saw more than 92 per cent of Kurds back secession but the federal government in Baghdad was incensed after long warning that any plebiscite would be "illegal".

In response, Baghdad imposed economic penalties while federal troops pushed Kurdish forces out of oil fields in Kirkuk province which were vital to the Kurdish economy.

"The political climate is tense," said Kurdish political analyst Hokar Jeto.

"All indications are that there could be a low voter turn-out similar to what happened in the Iraqi legislative polls."

The Kurdish election follows a parliamentary election across Iraq in May which saw a record low turn-out of around 55 per cent, with long-time political figures pushed out by voters seeking change in a country mired in conflict and corruption.</s>Iran's top military commander defended Saturday's strikes in the Koya area east of Erbil, Iraq, which killed at least 16 and injured several dozen others, citing Tehran's right to defend itself amid US "provocations."

Iraqi Kurdish officials and the PDKI had "made a written commitment not to conduct operations in Iran, but they have been breaking that promise over the past year due to US provocations," Armed Forces Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri said in a statement on Tuesday, according to PressTV.

Bagheri also urged Baghdad and the regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan to either extradite or deport the remnants of these Iranian Kurdish separatists, and warned that further "counter-measures" would be taken against commanders if the group's attacks on Iranian military and border forces persist.

"The officials of Iraqi Kurdistan and the Iraqi government should hand these criminals over to Iran. If they cannot do this, they should at least expel them and these groups from the country," he said, as quoted by Iran's IRIB broadcaster.

On Sunday, the IRGC issued a statement taking responsibility for the Erbil attack, justifying the strike by citing PDKI plans to carry out acts of sabotage in the provinces of West Azarbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah. The missile strikes are believed to have wounded PDKI secretary general Mustafa Mawludi and his predecessor Khalid Azizi.

In a separate statement issued on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said the deaths of Iranian personnel "left the Iranian armed forces with no choice but to take a retaliatory and deterrent measure based on the credible information it had received" against the PDKI.

Iranian-Kurdish militant groups, most of them demanding autonomy or a separate Kurdish state, established bases in northern Iraq in the early 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War. The PDKI, an armed leftist Kurdish nationalist group, which Tehran characterizes as a terrorist group, waged a guerilla campaign against Tehran for decades before declaring a unilateral ceasefire with Tehran in 1996. Tehran accused the group of resuming its operations across the border from Iraq in 2016.</s>Now, fast forward three years. The organization has given birth to a political party known as the Change Movement ("Gorran")—a name borrowed from Barack Obama's political campaign—and in the Kurdish assembly’s regional elections, it claimed, to the surprise of many observers, 25 of the 111 seats. Gorran has become the third-strongest player in Kurdish politics, and it is undoubtedly the party to watch in the north. But who exactly are these people? And what do they want for Kurdistan—and Iraq?

Political change does not come easily in Kurdistan. Since the 1970s, Kurdish politics have been monopolized by the KDP and PUK. The leaders of both have cultivated reputations as patriots and heroes for persevering in the face of Saddam Hussein's repression. The KDP is more tribal, in the sense that it is rooted in the Barzani family, and power has remained within that family. (Future power struggles in the KDP will likely be internal, between one of Barzani's sons and his very capable nephew, former Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani.) The PUK, led by Talabani, is more consciously left-wing, vesting its power in a "politburo," and in many senses more modern. After the Kurds gained autonomy in the wake of the first Gulf war, the KDP-PUK rivalry took on heightened stakes, culminating in an internal war that claimed 1,000–3,000 lives and displaced upward of 70,000 people between 1994 and 1996. Peace arrived with the intervention of Hussein and then political mediation by the United States. Subsequently, both Kurdish parties actively supported the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein—and in the power vacuum after the 2003 invasion, the Kurds grabbed as much control over their future as possible, securing important places in the national government (Talabani became Iraq’s president) and advantageous constitutional provisions that give them, among other things, virtual veto power over constitutional amendments. As violence descended upon the rest of the country, Kurdistan gained a reputation for being a haven of relative peace and prosperity.

Yet the region's politics and business are still pervaded by a culture of "wazda" (connections) that frustrates many of the Kurdish youth in particular. Economic opportunity and party politics remain inextricably linked. As a young Kurd, it is likely that you will know what you will do with your life by your mid to late teens, and there is little you can do to change that. But, as peace and stability have set in, expectations have risen, and a younger generation has grown frustrated in its potted place. I recall vividly when a young teacher—who taught a room full of students who already knew that they too would become teachers—asked me if I knew a synonym for Kurdistan and Iraq. I asked him what he meant, and he responded: "futureless."

Like much of the region, the demographics of Kurdistan are heavily tilted toward the young. According to the Kurdistan Regional Government, more than half of its population is under 20, with more than one-third under the age of 15. By contrast, roughly one-quarter of the population of the United States is under 20. Iraqi-Kurdistan's young adults think of themselves as Kurds, do not speak Arabic, and remember the Kurdish internal war rather than the one between Iraq and Iran. Many of them live in urban areas and are concerned, perhaps above all else, with opportunity. They are naturally attracted to crusades against patronage and tribalism. And, like nearly 80 percent of Kurds, they vote.

That's where the Change Movement comes in. Significant efforts to reform Kurdistan’s political structure were, it must be said, already underway when Mustafa and Rahim burst on the scene. As recently as 2006, two separate Kurdish governments still existed, one in Erbil (KDP), the other in Sulaimaniyah (PUK); and the recent unification of the two governments and their respective ministries (with some important exceptions) has been no small achievement. The healing of divisions, however, does not seem to have lessened young, urban Kurds' concerns about their future. So when Gorran's founders stepped out of the PUK, they expected, and indeed found, that this large slice of the Kurdish populace shared their discontent. And it was only a short step from crusading against political corruption as a media company to running in elections themselves.</s>ANKARA (Reuters) - The head of Iran’s armed forces demanded on Tuesday authorities in neighboring Iraq hand over separatist Kurdish dissidents stationed there and close their bases, according to a report by the semi-official Fars news agency.

Major General Mohammad Baqeri was quoted three days after reports that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards fired seven missiles at the base of an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group in northern Iraq, killing at least 11 people.

“The government of Iraq and the Kurdistan authorities should not allow existence of such bases in their territories and should hand over these separatist terrorists to Iran,” Baqeri said, according to Fars.

“If they cannot hand them over, then they should expel them ... It is Iran’s right to defend itself.”

Iranian missiles hit the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday in a statement.

The PDKI is an armed opposition group that fights for greater autonomy for Iran’s Kurdish community. Shi’ite Muslim-dominated Iran has up to 10 million Kurdish citizens who are mostly Sunni. Iran accuses its regional rival Saudi Arabia of funding Kurdish armed groups.

“Provoked by some regional countries and America ... these separatist terrorists carried out some operations inside Iran ... such measures are unacceptable for Iran,” Baqeri said.

“The authorities of Iraq’s Kurdistan had repeatedly tried to stop them but the group was provoked by others.”

The PDKI denies receiving Saudi support and says Kurds have been forced to take up arms because they have no alternative to secure their political rights.

Riyadh in turn accuses Iran of stirring up trouble amongst the kingdom’s own Shi’ite minority, a charge Iranian officials have denied.

Iran is involved in a proxy war with Sunni Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, where Tehran backs President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war, Houthi forces in Yemen’s conflict and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Riyadh backed President Donald Trump’s decision in May to pull the United States out from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and to reimpose sanctions on its arch-foe Tehran.
Iranian Kurdish shopkeepers begin a region-wide strike against the executions of Kurdish activists and the bombing of opposition parties in Koya in the neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan Region.