Kurdistan Free Life Party

The Kurdistan Free Life Party, or PJAK (Kurdish: Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê), is a Kurdish leftist anti-Islamic Republic of Iran armed militant group. It has waged an intermittent armed struggle since 2004 against the Iranian regime, seeking self-determination through some degree of autonomy for Kurds in Iran (also known as "Eastern Kurdistan" or "Rojhelat").

Kurdistan Free Life Party
Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê (PJAK)
پارتی ژیانی ئازادی کوردستان
LeaderZilan Vejin and Siamand Moeini
Founded2004 (2004)
Armed wingEastern Kurdistan Units (YRK)
Women's armed wingWomen's Defence Forces (HPJ)
IdeologyDemocratic confederalism
Kurdish Nationalism
Political positionLeft-wing
International affiliationKurdistan Communities Union (KCK)

The PJAK is aligned with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) through the Kurdistan Communities Union, an umbrella group of Kurdish political and insurgent groups in Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq.

PJAK spokespersons have repeatedly told visiting media that its armed wing, the Eastern Kurdistan Units (YRK), has approximately 3,000 active members - half of them women - however estimates from academic specialists over the years point to more conservative figures such as 1,000. However, PJAK's capabilities to inflict significant damage on Islamic Republic of Iran forces in Kurdish areas of Iran has by some accounts been significantly weakened over the past decade, firstly due to a relatively large-scale 2011 cross-border campaign that killed potentially hundreds of PJAK fighters, secondly to due to recent increased Turkish-Iranian cooperation through sharing intel (satellite, drone footage) on PKK and PJAK movements in their Qandil Mountains bases. On the other hand, a recent uptick in Iranian regime repression, imprisonment, executions, and extra-judicial killings of Kurdist activists have allegedly caused an increase in recruits to PJAK and the other clandestine anti-IRI Kurdish rebel groups Komala, KDPI, and PAK.

PJAK has been designated as a terrorist organisation by Iran, Turkey, and since 2009, by the United States.

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