Our Kurdish sister party stand as a shining example of solidarity in action

On paper, our sister party in Iranian Kurdistan – the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) is similar to the Labour Party. The PDKI was founded with “an explicit commitment to democracy, liberty, social justice and gender equality”. They share the values we prize in a region whose regimes are often lacking in all of the above. When you look for bastions of democracy and progress in the Middle East, our comrades in the PDKI are a good place to start. But that’s a longer article for a gentler time.

Over the past few weeks, thousands of Kurds have joined the PDKI’s Peshmerga units and have marched south to face Islamic State (IS) fanatics in towns and villages across northern Iraq/southern Kurdistan. Veterans from Kurdistan’s wars against the Iranian regime’s repression; new recruits; women fighters as well as men, have all put aside old factional disputes with other groups to stand alongside the Kurdish Regional Government’s forces against an enemy universally agreed to be cruel and murderous.

The Islamic State was made to look unstoppable, because the Iraqi army melted away in the face of a group that has made terror and extreme, almost maniacal, violence its trademark. After liberating a village from IS control in Gewar, one PDKI Peshmerga is reported as saying “we do not fear these terrorists”. Perhaps one side-effect from standing almost alone against Iranian regime oppression is that it has bred a particularly hardy volunteer force, dedicated to tolerance and the idea of a safe, secure Kurdistan.

After gaining air support, Peshmerga forces have proven an effective bulwark against the fanatical hatred of this misnamed “Islamic State”, but it is still extremely early days. PDKI statements say they have liberated several villages and handed IS prisoners over to the Government. Following this success, it now looks as though PDKI units will be used as reserve forces, standing behind Kurdish Regional Government troops – on alert but back from the frontline for now.

It remains to be seen what further contribution the Socialist International’s comrades in Iranian Kurdistan will make during this crisis, but I was able to speak to my friend Loghman Ahmedi, the PDKI’s Head of International Relations, over the past few days. He was clear that IS forces pose a threat to Kurdistan as a whole, but also that:

“It is our duty to both protect the defenceless civilians in the region against this brutal organisation and to preserve the democratic and progressive government in Iraqi Kurdistan.”

So it’s a war of necessary survival, but it’s also about standing against crimes that – in principle – we assume are beyond the pale: beheadings; forced starvation; torture; rape and genocide. They are only beyond the pale if someone will stop them.

Chronicles of our time will mark the killings in Rwanda and the atrocities of Srebrenica as events that happened because nobody would step in. It remains to be seen what will happen in Kurdistan and Iraq. We do not yet know if the torture inflicted on the Yazidi will end in a completed genocide, but what we do know is that the men and women of the PDKI didn’t ask “am I my brother’s keeper?”.

They marched to the front line – some reports say with 60 bullets each – not because it was expedient, nor because they share a faith with all of those being victimised, but because they were in a position to do something and they wouldn’t stand by.

As the crisis continues, the world must give them – and the other Kurdish forces they fight alongside – the support they need to continue protecting civilians from IS forces.