MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA Iranianian Influence and Assassinations in the Regional Government OE Watch Commentary: According to the accompanying article “… whose influence has increased after the excerpted from the Turkish daily Karar, Iran has gradually increased its presence and influence in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) referendum has been plotting assassinations and following the Kurdish independence referendum and has increased the attack against Iranian Kurdish leaders in . number of assassinations against the Kurdistan Democratic Party ” of Iran’s (KDPI) leaders based in the region. The article mentions a Source: Bekir Aydogan and Mehmet Alaca, “İran’ın Suikast bit of the history and it is worth remembering that the KDPI waged Politikası Altında Kürtler” ( Under Iran’s Assassination a bloody conflict in the 1980s against the Iranian regime. When the Policy),” Karar, 28 April 2018. http://www.karar.com/gorusler/ Kurds of gained autonomy in 1991, it enabled the KDPI to set up iranin-suikast-politikasi-altinda-kurtler-833949# bases in the new autonomous region. From the 1990s until early 2015, Iranian Kurdish forces stationed in the Kurdish region refrained from After the independence referendum of the Regional launching attacks on Iran in consideration of the interests of the KRG. Government (KRG), Iran has been increasing its influence within However, as the KRG gained more confidence over their fight against KRG borders, supporting Iraq’s sanctions against the KRG ISIS, they relaxed their grip on the KDPI to deploy their Peshmergas and taking control of a significant part of and disputed to border areas where they engaged in fighting Iranian border guards territories. and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iran considers Iran… whose influence has increased after the referendum has these attacks as existential threats and has engaged in assassinations been plotting assassinations and attacks against Iranian Kurdish of members of the KDPI to silence Kurdish dissent domestically and leaders in Erbil. This indicates that Iran, using the opportunity internationally. after the referendum to put intense pressure on [the Government of] Iraq and the KRG, has returned to its assassinations policy that The article states that Iran killed 153 Iranian Kurds in the KRG in reached its peak in the 1990s. Iran historically had influence over the 1990s and has once again launched its campaign of assassination in the regional parties the PUK [(the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan)] Sulaymaniyah and Erbil. It notes that Iran has allegedly been involved and the Goran [Movement] and its neighboring city Sulaymaniyah. in the following killings in the KRG: On 26 December 2016 the KDPI headquarters in Erbil’s Koya district was the target of twin bombings In the 1990s, besides the assassinations carried out by the killing seven members of the party, while people were celebrating the [Iranian] regime against Kurdish dissent in the European capitals, birthday of Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the KDPI leader who was it has been said Iran killed 153 members of the KDPI, who were assassinated by the Iranian agents in in 1989; on 1 March Iranian Kurds and active in the KRG which achieved its de facto 2018 the KDPI commander Salah Rahmani’s car exploded, killing autonomy in the same period… it is believed that Iran has its hands his son and injuring him in Banislawa, a town near Erbil; on 7 March in the twin bombs that went off in front of the KDPI’s headquarters another KDPI commander, Qader Qaderi, was killed in the district of and killed 7 people on 20 December 2016 in Erbil’s Koya district Balisan with 20 bullets found in his body. The latest attack targeted the ... Also, in the first of two assassinations that happened in March of Kurdistan Freedom Party leader Hussein Yazdanpanah, but he survived this year, on March 1, in the Binaslava district of Erbil as a result without sustaining injuries. of the explosion of a bomb placed in the KDPI commander Salah Rahmani’s car, his son was killed while Rahmani himself survived The authors conclude the article with a discussion of why Iran has with injuries. The second assassination on March 7… in the district escalated attacks against the KDPI. Besides the KRG’s lax policy of Balisan resulted in the death of another KDPI commander, towards the KDPI in the past three years, which led to the KDPI Qader Qaderi… Finally, on April 12 in Erbil when the convoy of engaging in armed conflict with the Islamic Republic, Iran still Hussein Yazdanpanah who is the leader of the Kurdistan Freedom remembers what a strong KDPI would be capable of, referring to the Party which operates in Iran was attacked by two people with short-live independent Mahabad Kurdish Republic that was established motorcycles, again fingers were pointing to Iran… by the KDPI in 1946 in Iran’s Kurdish region. A strong KDPI would The main reasons for Iran to intimidate and suppress the members add another problem to the multitude of conflicts involving Iran in of KDPI within and outside the country are KDPI’s establishment the Middle East. Additionally, the Kurdish independence referendum of the Mahabad State in Iran in 1946, its historical roots, its damaged the KRG’s relations with the regional and global powers that influence over people… balanced Iranian aggression. Using the 2017 independence referendum as pretext, Iran has increased its influence and assassinations in the [The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)] also gave the Iranian KRG and will likely continue to do so. End OE Watch Commentary Kurds the opportunity to organize and establish a base against the (Gunduz) [Iranian] regime in the KRG and this explains why Iran supports the PKK, the PUK and the Goran, against the KDP. … after the referendum, the damaged relations of the KDP, which governed Erbil with the regional and global powers, created the power vacuum that enabled Iran to reactivate its assassination policy of the 90s against the KDPI…

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