The Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party or PÇDK ( ku, Partî Çareserî Dîmukratî Kurdistan), is a political party active in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok ...

, founded in 2002. It is part of the

Kurdistan Communities Union The Kurdistan Communities Union ( ku, Koma Civakên Kurdistanê, italic=yes, KCK) is a Kurdish political organization committed to implementing Abdullah Öcalan's ideology of democratic confederalism. Öcalan, Abdullahbr>Declaration of Democratic ...

(KCK), along with the larger

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

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

Turkish Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () refers to 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 th ...

and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syrian Kurdistan. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) closed down PÇDK headquarters and the party was banned in the

, but it continued to operate. The party contested the 2005 and

2009 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election The Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections of 2009 took place on 25 July 2009. A total of 2.5 million citizens of Kurdistan Region were eligible to vote for the parliamentary and presidential elections. People currently living outside Kurdistan ...

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,

Dohuk Duhok ( ku, دهۆک, translit=Dihok; ar, دهوك, Dahūk; syr, ܒܝܬ ܢܘܗܕܪܐ, Beth Nohadra) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It's the capital city of Duhok Governorate. History The city's origin dates back to the Sto ...

, and

Zakho Zakho, also spelled Zaxo ( ku, زاخۆ, Zaxo, syr, ܙܵܟ݂ܘܿ, Zākhō, , ) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, at the centre of the eponymous Zakho District of the Dohuk Governorate, located a few kilometers from the Iraq–Turkey b ...

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

Kurdistan Region Parliament The Parliament of Kurdistan ( ku, پەرلەمانی كوردستان ,Perlemanê Kurdistanê or simply Perleman, ar, برلمان كردستان, links=https://www.parliament.krd/arabic/), also called the Kurdish Parliament (IKP), is the parl ...

organised by the PÇDK to commemorate a massacre of PKK members by the KDP in Erbil in 1997, during the

Iraqi Kurdish Civil War The Iraqi Kurdish Civil War was a civil war that took place between rival Kurdish factions in Iraqi Kurdistan during the mid-1990s, mostly between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Over the course of the c ...

Positions and international relations

Positions

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

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

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Today the party is, amongst other influences,

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing 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-management within ...

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 (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, 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 ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

, 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 An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

), 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 Apoist organizations in Iraq Banned Kurdish parties Banned socialist parties 2002 establishments in Iraqi Kurdistan 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 Democratic confederalism

Positions and international relations

Positions

International relations

See also

References

External links