RUDAW – May 26, 2015

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Workers Party ( PKK) prevented a convoy of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (KDPI) in the contested area of Kelashin from returning to Iranian Kurdistan Tuesday evening, Sadiq Darwesh, a member of the central committee of the KDPI, told Rudaw.

According to information obtained by Rudaw, the KDPI force was on its way to the Iranian Kurdish city of Shno before being halted by the PKK forces in the area.

“In retaliation for the PKK behavior against our Peshmerga, we arrested seven PKK guerrillas in return, but later released them and told them our intention is not to fight, but peace, and showed them the right intention we have,” said Darwesh.

After two weeks of tense stand-offs, a clash erupted between armed wings of the PKK and KDPI on the Iran-Iraq border Sunday, with at least two KDPI fighters reportedly killed

Following the events of the last two weeks, a KDPI force has been stationed in the Barbazin Heights area in the Sidakan district of Erbil province only 100 meters away from PKK stockades on Mount Kelashin.

The KDPI is a Kurdish-Iranian party that has struggled for Kurdish rights in Iran for decades. The group has been based in the Kurdistan region of Iraq for more than 30 years.

The PKK is a Kurdish nationalist organization based in Turkey, but has been highly active in Iranian border areas. The group has been listed by the US as a foreign terrorist organization since the 1990s.

Reprinted from Rudaw