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| Kurdistan Democratic Party Partiya Demokrata Kurdistanê پارتیا دەمۆکراتا کوردستانێ الحزب الديمقراطي الكردستاني |
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| Founded | 16 August 1946 |
| Headquarters | Arbil |
| Ideology | Kurdish nationalism, Social Democracy, (Party charter: Democratic Socialism) |
| International affiliation | Alliance of Democrats |
| Official colours | Yellow & Red |
| Website | |
| www.kdp.pp.se | |
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) (Kurdish: Partîya Demokrata Kurdistan (PDK)) is one of the main notable Kurdish parties in Iraq, by the Kurds called South Kurdistan. It was founded in 1946 in Suleimaiyah, and immediately elected Mustafa Barzani, a Kurdish nationalist who fought numerous revolts against Baghdad, as its president in absentium.
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History
A party called KDP was established in Eastern Kurdistan in 1946 upon the creation of the Kurdistan Republic of Mahabad, which lasted for less than a year. On 16 August 1946, a party with the same name was created in the Iraqi city of Suleimaniyah[1]. The Iranian party has since been called the KDP-I. In the founding congress the KDP stated that the political and economic situation of the Kurds in Iraq was different from that of Iran. It demanded autonomy for the Kurds of Iraq. Although he was not present Mulla Mustafa Barzani was elected as the president of the party, Kaka Ziad and Sheikh Latif were appointed as vice presidents. Hamza Abdullah was elected its Secretary-General.
Hamza Abdallah was expelled in January 1953 and established a party called the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Progressive Front. He and his followers were allowed to return to KDP in 1956.[1]
Rebelling against the Iraqi government in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the KDP became perhaps the single most influential Iraqi anti-Saddam group. Its peshmerga, or militia fighters, were able to operate with relative impunity in the no-fly zone of northern Iraq.
The KDP has jointly administered Iraqi Kurdistan(which the Kurds call the free Kurdistan, because of its semi-independent status). The KDP became the leading party in the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil. The other main Iraqi Kurdish party, the leftist Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, split with the KDP and established a de facto government of their own in the city of Suleymaniya.
In May 1994 supporters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) clashed with supporters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), leaving 300 people dead. Relations among the groups soured in March 1995 when the KDP backed out of an attack on Saddam's front lines led by Iraqi National Congress. Over the next year the PUK and KDP fought several more times, eventually devolving into a state of civil war. In August 1996, leaders of the KDP asked the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to intervene in the war. Hussein sent at least 30,000 troops into the UN-protected Kurdish region, capturing the PUK stronghold of Irbil. The KDP was immediately installed in power.[citation needed] The U.S. responded with two missile strikes against southern Iraq, but in early September Iraq again helped KDP fighters, this time taking the PUK stronghold of As Sulaymaniyah. After Saddam's move against them in 1996, about 700 Iraqi National Congress activists and fighters were evacuated to the US, along with 6,000 pro-Western Iraqi Kurds.
The fighting left over a thousand persons dead and forced thousands of civilians from their homes. A ceasefire established on 24 November 1997 ended the fighting for the remainder of the year, albeit with a few sporadic clashes.[2]
Both Kurdish groups fought alongside the Coalition of the Willing to topple Hussein's regime in 2003. More recently, the KDP and PUK have united to form a joint list, the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, under which it contested the 2005 Iraqi elections. This was followed by the decision in May 2006, to form an alliance with the PUK and run Irbil as a unified party. [1]
The party has alliances in other parts of the Middle East as well such as the KDPI (KDP-Iran, which functions autonomously from the KDP), in Syria (al-Party), in Turkey (PDK-Bakur) and even in Lebanon.
The KDP, alongside with the PUK, has had a number of members criticized for personally using a large amount of money and property that was set aside for government purposes.[citation needed]
An article written by a Kurdish Austrian citizen caused a state of panic within the classes of the party, talking about the past of Mustafa Barzani, claiming he was a KGB agent, and accusing the KDP of corruption and crime. The KDP jailed the writer once he visited Kurdish Iraq in October of 2005.[3]. After criticism and pressure from Austria, he was released on January 2006. [4]
On May 13, 2007, a car bomber drove into the local offices of the KDP in the city of Makhmur in Northern Iraq, killing at least 50 people and wounding at least 70. The attack was thought to come in response to an oil-sharing deal that gave Kurds a substantial amount of the oil revenue of the country.[5]
Political Ideology
The KDP ranges from centrist to a centre-left position. Most of the members are Social Liberals, Social Democrats, and a smaller number of Democratic Socialists. The KDP is a member of the Alliance of Democrats, and participates in some meetings of the Socialist International.
See also
References
- ^ McDowall, David. Modern History of the Kurds. London: I.B. Tauris, 1997. p. 296-297, 300
- ^ "KDP's profile on GlobalSecurity.org". http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/kdp.htm/.
- ^ "K-D-P Critic Jailed In Iraq". http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/archive/2006-01/2006-01-06-voa2.cfm.
- ^ http://www.antiwar.com/orig/qadir.php?articleid=9629
- ^ Car bomb kills 50 in northern Iraq Al-Jazeera, May 13th, 2007.
External links
- Official site
- The Iraqi Actors in the North of Iraq
- Kurdish Predicament in Iraq
- German-kurdish homepage for politics and culture
- The Kurds and the KGB - The secret history of the Barzani dynasty by Dr. Kamal Said Qadir, AntiWar.com, August 31, 2006
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