The Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party or PÇDK (), was an illegal political party active in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous Federal regions of Iraq, federal region of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurds, Kurdish-majority governorates of Arabs, Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate ...

, founded in 2002 and disbanded in 2015. It is part of the

Kurdistan Communities Union The Kurdistan Communities Union (, KCK) is a Kurdish political organization committed to implementing Abdullah Öcalan's ideology of democratic confederalism. The KCK also serves as an umbrella group for several confederalist political parties o ...

(KCK), along with the larger

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

(PKK). It has not been as successful as its sister parties, such as the PKK in

Turkish Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () is the southeastern part of Turkey where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of them in the ...

and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in

Syrian Kurdistan Syrian Kurdistan or Rojava () is a region in northern Syria where Kurds form the majority. It is surrounding three noncontiguous enclaves along the Turkish and Iraqi borders: Afrin in the northwest, Kobani in the north, and Jazira in the nor ...

. The

Kurdistan Democratic Party The Kurdistan Democratic Party (), usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is the ruling Political party, party in Iraqi Kurdistan and the senior partner in the Kurdistan Regional Government. It was founded in 1946 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. ...

(KDP) closed down PÇDK headquarters and the party was banned in the

, but it continued to operate. The party contested the

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

and

2009 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election General elections were held in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on 25 July 2009 to elect a president and the 111 members of the National Assembly. Around 2.5 million people were eligible to vote, although those outside the region were not allowed to ...

s but failed to win any seats. The party likewise participated in the parliamentary elections of Kurdistan held on 21 September 2013, winning 3,605 votes (0.18%, no representatives elected). In the approach to the elections the PÇDK had been denied a license to operate due to pressure from Turkey, but in the end they were able to take part in the elections. On 20 May 2014, members had been taken into custody by security forces of the KDP during operations against different opposition organisations in the cities of

Erbil Erbil (, ; , ), also called Hawler (, ), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The city is the capital of the Erbil Governorate. Human settlement at Erbil may be dated back to the 5th millennium BC. At the h ...

Dohuk Duhok (; ; , ) is a city in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. It is the Capital (political), capital city of Duhok Governorate. Name The city of Duhok received its name from the Kurdish languages, Kurdish words ’du’ (two) and ’hok’ (lump) as a ...

, and Zakho. The operations were justified by the banning of the party some days before, after a demonstration in front of the

Kurdistan Region Parliament The Kurdistan Regional Parliament, also known as Kurdistan Parliament – Iraq (; ), or simply Perleman, is the parliament of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. It is made up of representatives from the various parties, lists or slates that are elec ...

organised by the PÇDK to commemorate a massacre of PKK members by the KDP in Erbil in 1997, during the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War. PÇDK dissolved itself in 2015 and it was succeeded by Kurdistan Society's Freedom Movement.

Positions and international relations

Positions

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

was a part of the party's ideology, it had the highest number of female candidates of all parties in Kurdistan during the parliamentary elections in 2013. According to the director of the election office of the PÇDK, Hassan Judi, it is one of the major goals that women's participation won't be below 50%. In 2013, the party's list was headed by a woman, Najiba Mahmood. Even if the party denies that it is a front organisation for the PKK fighters, it admits a shared ideology with them. The central person in the leftist Kurdish movement of the PKK and offshoots is

Abdullah Öcalan Abdullah Öcalan ( ; ; born 4 April 1948 or 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish; Kurdish for "uncle"), is a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Öcalan was based in Syria from 1979 to 1998. He ...

. Historically a Marxist organisation, the party re-evaluated its ideology with the end of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Today the party is, amongst other influences,

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...

and follows the works of Abdullah Öcalan as the PKK does.

International relations

Although the PKK is seen as a terrorist organisation in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the PÇDK is neutral towards America. "We used to consider the U.S. as the greatest of all imperialist powers. We were a Marxist organization dedicated to a socialist future. But after the Soviet Union collapsed we began a process of re-evaluating Marxism, and PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan indeed wrote several books on this subject," said the former leader of the party, Fayaq Golpi. He added that "in an era of globalization, you cannot ignore real ies. We then went for democracy and federalism instead. After the liberation of Iraq and the removal of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

, so many things changed-especially the issue of the USA." The party's relations with Turkey are very negative, since there are many ties between the PKK and the PÇDK. Fearing that the PÇDK could be able to gain power in Kurdistan and turn the land even more into a stronghold of the PKK (the PKK operates mainly in the Kandil mountains and on the front against

ISIL The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...

), the Turkish government has pushed the KRG to prevent a rise of the PÇDK, which led to the PÇDK being denied licenses during elections and the resolution of the party's headquarters. The PÇDK for its part accused Turkey and the ruling AKP in a statement at the end of 2011 of planning a massacre of the Kurdish people using chemical and other prohibited weapons and fighting without any ethical principles. The party also claimed that "international communities, institutions and so-called democratic states have been silent in the face of it." They appealed to the Peshmerga forces to accomplish their national duty and protect the Kurds in Turkey from being massacred.

References

External links

PÇDK Homepage (Soranî)PÇDK Homepage (Arabic)
{{Authority control 2002 establishments in Iraqi Kurdistan Apoist organizations in Iraq Banned Kurdish parties Banned socialist parties Democratic confederalism Federalist parties Kurdish nationalism in Iraq Kurdish nationalist political parties Kurdish political parties in Iraq Kurdistan Communities Union Political parties established in 2002 Political parties in Kurdistan Region Socialist parties in Iraq Socialist parties in Kurdistan

Positions and international relations

Positions

International relations

See also

References

External links