News & Analysis As Iran Polls Loom, Kurds Sharpen Ethnic Divisions
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October 9, 2016 17 News & Analysis Iran As Iran polls loom, Kurds sharpen ethnic divisions Gareth Smyth London n Iran’s 2005 presidential election, reformist candidate Mostafa Moin used a series of posters featuring Iranians in an array of traditional clothing Ito project himself as a man sympa- thetic to the half of Iran’s popula- tion that hails from its ethnic mi- norities. In the 2013 election, the centrist Hassan Rohani polled well among both the Baluchis in eastern Iran and the Kurds in the west. Treatment of non-Persian groups remains divided between reform- ists and pragmatists on one side such as Rohani, and fundamental- ists on the other, who often look to security solutions. The Kurds and Baluchis are particularly suspect not just because both have spawned armed groups hostile to the Islamic Republic but also because they — unlike the Azeris, Iran’s largest ethnic minority, or Turkic-speaking nomads — are Sunni Muslims. Rohani visited Kurdistan in June and made a speech in Mahabad, capital of the short-lived Soviet- backed Kurdish Republic of 1946. A new recruit of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan trains at their base in Koya, northern Iraq, last September. He promised to open Kurdish-lan- guage centres since the “mother tongue of ethnic groups, especially Brigadier-General Mohammad Pa- Assad or the Islamic State (ISIS). sisted the KDPI cannot give blanket eralism and the party draws on the of Kurds, should be respected and kpour alleged they were supported Unlike the PKK, the KDPI has assurances to the Iraqi Kurdish au- political legacy of Abdulrahman recognised”. The president also in- by “reactionary states”, meaning enjoyed friendly relations with the thorities over its activities. Ghassemlou, a leader assassinated augurated a petrochemical works, the Arab monarchies of the Gulf. Kurdish parties ruling northern Both Sharafi and Hijri have said by Iranian agents in Vienna in 1989 a rare large jobs provider in one of During a parliamentary session, lo- Iraq, which have often been put they believe Tehran has cracked after being lured into talks by Teh- Iran’s poorer regions. cal deputy Rohulla Hazratposh ex- under Iranian pressure — witness down on Kurdish dissidents as a ran. PJAK wants something far clos- plicitly named Saudi Arabia. this summer’s intermittent Iranian consequence of its 2015 agreement er to independence. The Kurds and The KDPI denies it follows any- shelling of areas inside Iraq — to with world powers over Iran’s nu- Few doubt the atmosphere is vol- Baluchis are one else’s agenda, although its prevent the KDPI expanding its ac- clear programme. atile. In May 2015, riots broke out in particularly suspect leader, Mustafa Hijri, told the Je- tivities within Iran. Facing a presidential election in Mahabad and spread to other Kurd- because they are Sunni rusalem Post in July that “Israel The KDPI has therefore since the May 2017, Rohani will seek Kurdish ish cities, including Sardasht and should be providing help to opposi- early 1990s spoken of an “armed support and recently dispatched a Marivan, just days after a 25-year- Muslims. tion groups standing against Iran”. presence” rather than an “armed delegation to Sanandaj, Iran’s larg- old Kurdish chambermaid, Farinaz Apart from deciding how to build struggle”. As its deputy leader, est Kurdish city but Ahsan Alawi, a Khosravani, plunged to her death support internationally, the party Hassan Sharafi, recently put it: “We parliamentary deputy for Sanandaj, from a hotel room. Social media But this was also a summer with has for many years faced a chal- don’t call it armed struggle — we told the Kurdish news website posts suggested she was fleeing armed clashes between Iranian lenge in demonstrating a contin- call it the presence of peshmerga Rudaw he thought the president sexual pursuit by a member of the security forces and the Kurdistan ued relevance to Iran’s Kurds, who alongside the people of Kurdistan would lose votes. security forces. Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), number perhaps 8 million, about who are under the pressure of the For many Kurds, differences be- As winter draws in on the moun- which has been largely based in 10% of Iran’s population. Islamic Republic of Iran. They are tween Rohani and his fundamen- tains along the Iraq-Iran border, neighbouring Iraq since it was driv- The KDPI has to avoid being out- detained, jailed and being moni- talist critics appear small. While snow will reduce the forays of both en there in the early years of the Is- flanked by the more militant Party tored. Our peshmerga have a pres- the Kurds are closer to Persians in peshmerga and smugglers. Come lamic Republic. for Free Life (PJAK), an offshoot of ence… to protect those people.” language and culture than to Arabs spring, a new political season will Tehran claimed this summer to the Turkish Kurd Kurdistan Work- With Kurdish nationalist senti- or Turks, the overtly Shia nature of open. have killed dozens of KDPI fight- ers’ Party (PKK), which is gaining ment enhanced regionally by de- the Islamic Republic often makes ers in clashes, while Iranian secu- strength through the success of its velopments in Syria, the KDPI also them feel like second-class citi- Gareth Smyth was chief rity officials and commanders con- Syrian ally in controlling territory argues there has been a toughening zens. correspondent for the Financial demned the KDPI as “terrorists”. pried from either President Bashar of Tehran’s approach. Hijri has in- The KDPI’s official policy is fed- Times in Iran in 2003-07. Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood: An unholy alliance Viewpoint he Muslim Brother- Brotherhood exploited the have played a large part in fuelling Muslim Brotherhood remain hood and Iran have a unification of Yemen in 1999 to the internal conflicts that have Iran and the strategic allies on a number of long and complicated enter politics, establishing al-Islah beset Yemen. issues. Both specialise in forming relationship. The party. The Brotherhood leader- The ties between the Muslim embattled proxy groups and fronts, whether Muslim Brotherhood, ship there included many figures Brotherhood and Yemen can be Muslim militias such as Hezbollah and the which has been who had fought in Afghanistan traced to the early days of the Brotherhood Houthis for Iran or sleeper cells Tdesignated a terrorist organisation and there can be no doubt that the group. In 1929, Muslim Brother- affiliated with the Brotherhood by Egypt and a number of Arab Muslim Brotherhood is one of the hood founder Hassan al-Banna remain uncovered across the Arab Gulf. Gulf countries, is not much reasons, and perhaps even a major gave a historic speech in Yemen strategic The Muslim Brotherhood also different from a militia. cause, for the chaos that has and met with well-known Yemeni allies on a pioneered a media strategy that Abdullah We have seen how the Muslim enveloped the southern Arabian leader Muhammad Zabara number of has been adapted by groups such al-Alami Brotherhood rejoiced at the news peninsula country. al-Hassan. Even then, the Broth- as Iran-backed Hezbollah and of the 1979 Islamic revolution in In the past, we saw the suspi- erhood was seeking to spread its issues. even the Islamic State (ISIS). It is a Iran. We also saw, more than 30 cious coalition that was formed ideology and views from the strategy of promoting its views years later, how its members between al-Islah and the Houthis, mother organisation in Egypt and ideology through affiliated rejoiced when Muhammad Morsi, who are backed by Iran and who across the Middle East. news channels and media outlets a former member of the Brother- are the main instigators of the Since the Islamic revolution, the — and the more controversy that hood, signed as president of Egypt current conflict. These are the ties between the Muslim Brother- can be created the better. a number of strategic agreements same Houthis who are peppering hood and Iran have become closer The Muslim Brotherhood has with Iran and welcomed Iranian southern Saudi Arabia with and closer, culminating during entered a new stage in its nearly president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iranian-made rockets. Morsi’s ill-fated presidency. The 90-year history. Its ideology was to Cairo in 2013. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, Brotherhood sought to extend its instrumental in the establishment This is a relationship that goes who led the Houthi insurgency hand to the mullahs of Tehran, of al-Qaeda and ISIS, which are beyond direct bilateral ties to prior to his death in 2004, who welcomed the Brotherhood wreaking havoc across the region. include Yemen, where both the received military support from with open arms. A Muslim Iran-backed proxies, such Hezbol- Brotherhood and Iran have a Iran and lessons about jihad from Brotherhood-affiliated advocacy lah, the Assad regime in Syria and strong presence. The Muslim Muslim Brotherhood schools in and reform group was established the Houthis in Yemen, are also Yemen. The Brotherhood estab- in the Iranian capital to represent creating unrest based on Iran’s lished a number of such religious the group in Iran. desire to export its Islamic We have seen how the Muslim schools across Yemen, which But all fragile alliances are revolution. The Middle East is helped it spread its ideology subject to the vagaries of fortune trapped between two violent and Brotherhood rejoiced at the among the Yemeni people and and there was a seismic shift in self-serving Islamist ideologies. news of the 1979 Islamic even among those who were not 2012 when al-Islah party accused Sunni Muslims. The result is that Tehran of targeting it directly.