The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) was founded in the city of Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan on August 16, 1945. Three years earlier, the founding members of the PDKI had established an organization called Komalay Ziyanaway Kurd (The Society for Kurdish Resurrection). The PDKI was founded to replace Komalay Ziyanaway Kurd for the purpose of creating a modern, well-organized and popular
political party with an explicit commitment to democracy, liberty, social justice and gender equality. Only 159 days after the founding of the PDKI the party established the Republic of Kurdistan. The PDKI struggles to attain Kurdish national rights within a federal and democratic Iran. Since there are other nations in Iran, the PDKI supports their struggle to achieve their national rights and regards them as strategic allies in pursuit of ending dictatorship and brining about a federal democracy that reflects the rights and interest of the country’s diverse national communities. To this end, the PDKI co-founded the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran (CNFI) with organizations representing the Azeri, Balouchi, Turkmen, and Arab nations in Iran. CNFI, which is one of the main opposition groups to the sectarian theocracy in Iran, believes that a federal system of government would accommodate the different nationalities’ quest for self-rule within a free, united and democratic Iran. The PDKI is a social democratic party and is a member of the Socialist International (SI). For us, democratic socialism entails the belief that all human beings, whether as individuals or as members of nations, should be free and equal in all spheres of life. The PDKI’s policies on economic, political and social issues are based on these beliefs. The PDKI is the official representative of Iranian Kurdistan in the UNPO and has representatives in many European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia, and organizations and institutions like the UN, EU and SI.
