Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
|Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan|
|Founded||August 16, 1945 in Republic of Mahabad|
|International affiliation||Socialist International
|Colors||white, yellow, light blue, dark blue, white, green and red|
The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Partî Dêmokiratî Kurdistanî Êran), abbreviated as PDKI, KDPI is a Kurdish political party in Iranian Kurdistan which seeks the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a democratic federal republic of Iran.
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PDKI (also known as KDPI, KDP-I and DPIK) was founded in Mahabad, Western Azarbaijan, Iran, on August 16, 1945. Just 159 days after its foundation, on January 22, 1946, the party, availing itself of expedient circumstances in a section of Iranian Kurdistan (a Soviet occupation that had begun in 1941), established the Republic of Kurdistan, also referred to by historians as the Republic of Mahabad after its capital, under Soviet patronage. The Republic of Mahabad lasted not more than eleven months; following a pact signed by the Iranian government and the Soviet Union, the Iranian army launched a vast offensive into the region, destroying the Republic on December 17, 1946. The Republic having collapsed, a great number of PDKI leaders were imprisoned, of whom about twenty people including Qazi Muhammad, head of the party and president of the short-lived republic were executed. During the late 1940s and the early 1950s, the KDPI cooperated closely with the Tudeh party. The Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan and PDKI played an active part in the Iranian people's uprising against the Shah's dictatorship in the Iranian Revolution. The uprising of the Iranian peoples having succeeded, PDKI declared its overt activities in 1979 in a public meeting held in Mahabad. The highest body of PDKI is its Central Committee elected in PDKI's Congress. The Central Committee also elects an executive body best known as the Political Bureau, which also includes the General Secretary. The Central Committee also elects the party's General Secretary. The General Secretary is currently Mustafa Hijri and he remains in this position till the next party convention which will be held in 2012.
Mykonos Restaurant Assassinations
Dr. Sadeq Sharafkandi's killing became an international incident between Germany and Iran. On September 17, 1992, Iranian-Kurdish insurgent leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany. In the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi, an Iranian national who worked as a grocer in Berlin, and Lebanese Abbas Rhayel, guilty of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. In its 10 April 1997 ruling, the court issued an international arrest warrant for Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-Islam Ali Fallahian after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with knowledge of supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Ayatollah Rafsanjani.
The PDKI has held fourteen congresses. These occurred in 1945, 1964, 1971, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2004 and September 2008.
During the 20th Congress of the Socialist International, held in the UN headquarters in New York (9–11 September 1996), the PDKI was given the status of observer member. In 2005, the PDKI's membership was elevated to consultative status.
The highest body of the PDKI is its Central Committee, which is usually composed of 21 permanent and 10 substitute members. The Central Committee also elects about 7 of its members as the Political Bureau, which also includes the Secretary-General.
- Qazi Muhammad (1945–1947)
- (vacant) Ahmad Tofiq (1947–1973)
- Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (1973–1989)
- Sadegh Sharafkandi (1989–1992)
- Mustafa Hijri (2004–)