Iranian Kurds Vow to Fight for Regime Change
MARK MACKINNON
ZARKUS, (Southern Kurdistan)-- Abdulla Mohtadi stares at the distant mountains
of his homeland, and plans for the day when he and his men can return to help
overthrow the ayatollahs of Iran.
After 24 years in exile, Mr. Mohtadi thinks that the moment he has been waiting
for is getting closer. The leader of an Iranian-Kurdish guerrilla movement
called Komala, he believes the United States is getting ready to push for regime
change in Tehran.
When that moment comes, Mr. Mohtadi says the Kurds of Iran will be ready to help
bring down Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, just as Iraq's Kurds helped
the Americans in ousting Saddam Hussein. Komala rebels already stage occasional
cross-border raids into Iran, prompting Iranian forces to cross into Iraqi
Kurdistan three times during the 1990s.
In an interview at the Komala compound, which is tucked into the hills of
northern Iraq about 50 kilometres from the Iranian border, Mr. Mohtadi said the
collapse of Mr. Ahmedinejad's regime is now inevitable. "It will definitely
happen," he said. "People are counting on it. So many people in Iran are waiting
for the explosion, for a chance to act."
The resources Mr. Mohtadi has at his disposal appear limited. He says Komala has
about 800 men and women under arms in northern Iraq, and no heavy weaponry. He
claims, however, that in a crisis he can count on the majority of Iran's 4.8
million Kurds. "The support is there. What you see is the tip of the iceberg,"
he said, waving his hand at the khaki-clad men carrying Kalashnikovs through the
compound.
Iranian Kurds actually took part in the 1979 uprising against the Shah that
brought about the Islamic Republic, but soon fell out with the hard-line Shia
regime. Most Kurds are secular Sunni Muslims.
Mr. Mohtadi flew to Washington last year to meet with U.S. officials, as well as
other members of the fractious Iranian opposition. Seven Iranian groups,
including Komala's traditional rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran,
later signed a co-operation pact.
In return for helping take on Mr. Ahmedinejad, the Kurds of Iran would want the
same prize that the United States delivered to Iraqi Kurds after the fall of Mr.
Hussein: effective autonomy in the provinces of northwestern Iran where Kurds
are the majority. Neither the Kurds of Iraq nor those of Iran have given up the
dream of eventually forming a greater Kurdistan stretching across parts of what
are now Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.
Mr. Mohtadi said he thinks popular uprising would be more effective than foreign
military strikes. But he admitted even that would require outside help.
"We believe the future of Iran is in political change," he said. "But we cannot
remove this government on our own."
