German levers of destabilisation in Iran

[Magda Hassan]

Lever for Destabilization
2007/09/19

ERBIL/TEHERAN/COLOGNE
(Own report) - Germany is supporting armed separatists in Western Iran, in their struggle against the Iranian government. In spite of repeated protests from Teheran, a leader of the Kurdish secessionist movement is continuing to recruit insurgents in Germany - in plain view of German intelligence services. The separatists are held responsible for the killing several hundred Iranian soldiers. A professor of the Bundeswehr Academy in Munich is pleading for supporting the insurgents: Iran should be weakened and "if necessary disbanded". German aid to Kurdish insurgents is complementing German contacts to the Kurdish autonomous government in Iraq and is strengthening Berlin's role in the framework of a possible ethnic reorganization of the entire Middle East. Plans to this effect were drawn up by the US military quite a while ago. Currently Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq's "Kurdish Autonomous Region", is the most aggressive proponent of Kurdish secessionism. For a long time, he has also been the contact person for German foreign policy experts, and has already met with Angela Merkel on various occasions.


Masoud Barzani, has already announced the secession of the northern Iraqi territory under his control ("Iraqi Kurdistan") and would like to expand this territory to include the three oil rich provinces of Kirkuk, Niniveh and Diyala. A referendum is planned this year in all three provinces to decide on the accession to the "Kurdish Autonomous Region". These secessionist plans are causing serious tensions in Kirkuk, already leading to ethnic violence and terrorist attacks. If he cannot take control of Kirkuk by referendum, Masoud Barzani has already announced a civil war.

Erbil
The clan of Masoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), is in control of the northern areas of the secessionist region. As President of the Kurdish autonomous government, Barzani is also controlling the other regions of "Iraqi Kurdistan" and since decades has had close relations with Germany. In the 1980's, he has had vivid exchange with Franz-Josef Strauß, chairman at the time of the (Christian Democratic) CSU. In the1990's he made contact with the government of the German federal state North Rhine Westphalia, which had financed several development projects in Northern Iraq. Important strategic military infrastructural projects (the "Barzani Road") were being discussed at the time.[1] The former parliamentarian of North Rhine Westphalia, Siegfried Martsch (Green Party), was one of the persons contacted at the time. He then became a member of the Barzani-Clan and is today allowed to call himself "Siggi Barzani". Martsch is director of the German branch of the official investment agency in Northern Iraq ("Kurdistan Development Corporation") and has arranged infrastructure contracts, worth millions of Euros, for German corporations. In January 2006, he represented Germany at the inauguration of the "German Cultural Centre" in Erbil, the capital of "Iraqi Kurdistan". Susanne Osthoff, an assistant of the German Foreign Ministry, had been helping to organize the center, until she was kidnapped a few weeks before the inauguration. She is suspected of working as an informant of the German Federal Intelligence Service, BND.[2]

Kandil Mountains
The Kandil Mountains, within Barzani's sphere of influence, located in the border regions of Iraq, Iran and Turkey, are the staging areas from which the PKK separatist militia regularly launches attacks against Turkish territory. The main base of the PEJAK, the "Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan", which is closely affiliated to the PKK, is also located in the Kandil Mountains. PEJAK is fighting the Iranian Army in western Iran. This organization, operating out of the region under the influence of Barzani, the German contact, is fighting a war for an ethnically homogenous "Kurdistan". It is estimated that more than 300 Iranian soldiers have already been killed in this war. The German television magazine "Monitor" reported that PEJAK Chief, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, has his headquarters in Cologne (North Rhine Westphalia), from which he recruits insurgents for the secessionist war against Iran.[3]. According to this report, in spite of repeated complaints by the Iranian government, Haji Ahmadi is allowed, without interference from German authorities, to regularly travel to his militia in Iraq. The German BND is said to have shady relations with PEJAK.[4] (The map shows the Kandil Mountains in the North of Iraq. Click here for an enlarged version.)

Kurdistan
According to reports, PEJAK receives aid not only from Germany but also from the USA.[5] The project of an ethnically homogenous "Kurdistan" is in the interests both of German ethnic policy and of US strategy. The US military is considering a reorganization of the Middle East along ethnic lines. In June 2006, the US Army's "Armed Forces Journal" published a map drawn up by Ralph Peters, a retired soldier, with new borders corresponding to ethnic criteria for the Arab Islamic world (see german-foreign-policy.com report [6]). Among others it includes Iran, which is refusing to unconditionally submit to western hegemonic Persian Gulf policy. Teheran is already weakened by economic sanctions and is threatened with US military attacks [7]. It is confronted with a secessionist militia that is gaining strength in the northwest of the country.

Under Cover
Michael Wolfssohn, a professor of the Bundeswehr Academy in Munich, already last spring. explained the geopolitical logic behind the German-American support of the PEJAK. According to Wolfssohn, Iran is "multinational state". He estimates that 49 Percent of its population is made up of "ethnic groups" hostile to Teheran. "Iran is threatened from within", Wolfssohn alleges and considers Kurdish separatism to be exemplary. "The Kurdish region of Iran is anxious to unite with Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as with the Kurds of Turkey and Syria."[8] He considers ethnic secessionist movements to be an apt "lever for destabilization" against the obnoxious government in Teheran. "This politically unstable internal situation could - and should (of course, under cover of intelligence services) - be used for western policy leverage against Iran, short of military intervention".

[1] see also Feudale Sonderbeziehungen and (Irakisch) Kurdistan
[2] see also Rückzugsgebiet, Zum Verbleib ermutigt and Lügen
[3], [4] Terrorismus: Wie die kurdische Arbeiterpartei PKK unter den Augen von BND und Verfassungsschutz in Deutschland Rekruten anwirbt; Monitor 21.06.2007. Die PEJAK tötete im Jahre 2005 120 Angehörige der iranischen Streitkräfte; seitdem fielen ihr bereits 200 weitere Soldaten zum Opfer. Ihre Waffen bezieht die PKK-Schwesterorganisation zu großen Teilen aus Europa, Berichten zufolge unter anderem auch aus Deutschland. Als Reaktion auf die Anschläge der Separatisten marschierten iranische Einheiten Mitte August in das irakische Rückzugsgebiet der PEJAK ein. Hierbei hat der Iran die stillschweigende Duldung der irakischen Zentralregierung; auch der mit Barzani rivalisierende Bagdader Staatspräsident Talabani von der Patriotischen Union Kurdistans (PUK) soll der PEJAK abgeneigt sein.
[5] Kurdish leader seeeks U.S. help to topple regime; The Washington Times 04.08.2007
[6] see also A Dirty Little Secret, Neue Staaten and Interview mit Dr. Pierre Hillard
[7] see also Außendruck
[8] Die Zerrissenheit des Iran; Die Welt 07.03.2007
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/...1sojhn4a76

[Magda Hassan]

Lever for Destabilization (III)
2009/10/20

TEHERAN/WASHINGTON/BERLIN
(Own report) - The trail of an US-backed Iranian terrorist secessionist offensive leads back to Germany. Simultaneous with the bombing attack, end of last week, in eastern Iran, killing more than 40 people, terrorists have begun new attacks also in western Iran. The "Party of Free Life of Kurdistan" [PJAK), which for years had recruited its members in West Germany is behind these attacks. Its leader lives in Cologne and, just a few days ago, he reiterated that his organization can "strike anywhere" in Iran. Both attacks were aimed at decisively weakening Teheran's control over large sectors of the nation. Recently, the foundation affiliated with the party of Germany's incoming foreign minister (FDP) adopted the goals of wresting power from the hands of Teheran and giving extensive special rights to ethnic minorities, thereby promoting the destabilization of Iran, which is rejecting the Western concepts of stabilization. In German military circles it is being said that support for centrifugal forces in Iran are an appropriate "lever in Western policy below the threshold of direct military intervention."


Last week Iranian secessionists continued their efforts to destabilize the country with a bombing attack that cost the lives of more than 40 people. The attack targeted high-ranking military officers in the Sistan and Baluchistan Province, where a hefty secessionist struggle has been raging for years. The organization "Jundallah" is one of the main organizations that carried out ruthless ambushes throughout this struggle, and is held responsible for this recent massacre. Jundallah wants to see Baluchistan secede from Iran. Teheran is accusing the United States and Great Britain of supporting Jundallah, as a means of weakening its government and bringing pro-Western forces into power. As a matter of fact, over the past few years, US intelligence service circles have leaked confirmation of cooperation between the CIA and Jundallah, as well as with other Iranian secessionists to the press.[1] East Iranian insiders for example the brother of the Jundallah leader has also confirmed these suspicions.[2]

"Partisans in the Mountains"
Simultaneous with the dreadful ambush in eastern Iran, the "Party of Free Life of Kurdistan" (PJAK) recommenced its attacks in the northwest of the country.[3] As reported last Friday in the Kurdish media, PJAK members ambushed an Iranian state representative in Salmas, near the Turkish border. The PJAK is affiliated with the Turkish PKK separatists and is officially struggling for an Autonomous Region Iranian Kurdistan, along the lines of the Autonomous Region Kurdistan in Iraq.[4] But critics see this merely as an intermediate step toward the creation of a composite greater Kurdish state. The PJAK claims to have killed several hundred members of the Iranian repression forces over the past few years. Just before the latest attack, its leader had declared that the "partisans in the mountains" of northwestern Iran are "but a small portion of the PJAK."[5] The attack on the military airbase last year in the vicinity of Teheran, is proof "that we can strike anywhere."

German Office
The activities of the PJAK in Germany have been the object of media reports, on various occasions over the past two years. It was reported that the organization has not only recruited a large number of its militiamen in West Germany, but that its chairman even lives in Cologne (the state of North Rhine-Westphalia). According to a televised documentary, PJAK leader Haji Ahmadi succeeds in regularly traveling from Germany to his militias stationed in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq - under the surveillance of "Iraqi Kurdistan's" current ruling (Barzani) clan, which has close relations to Berlin.[6] As evidenced by official reports of the "Verfassungsschutz" (the "Federal Office of the Protection of the Constitution"), German authorities are well informed on the activities of the PJAK, yet - unlike in the case of the Turkish PKK Kurdish separatists - they do not intervene. According to media reports, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) had maintained contact to PJAK leader Haji Ahmadi.[7] According to several research articles, the PJAK is also receiving support in the USA.[8] Even though at the beginning of the Obama administration, Washington placed it on its official list of terrorist organizations - to signal to Teheran a willingness to negotiate - effective sanctions against it are, to date, unknown.

Domestic Political Instability
Non-military Iranian secessionist organizations are receiving support from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FDP). Last June, the foundation held a conference, in cooperation with the "Society for Threatened Peoples," dedicated to the "ethnic question" in Iran. According to conference documents, the "time" has come to "more strongly focus international public opinion" on the needs of Iran's ethnic minorities, among which there is specific mention of the "Kurds" in northwest Iran and the "Balochs," in the east of the country.[9] "Up to 60%" of the Iranian population are members of ethnic minorities and should have special rights, declared the conference organizers, meaning a reinforcement of centrifugal force, linked with external intervention that could seriously threaten the survival of the state.[10] Critics of the Iranian military regime are warning against this sort of interference - the Iranian domestic opposition would be in great danger of "immediately being accused of taking orders from the West and its leaders, branded as collaborators."[11] A professor of the Bundeswehr University in Munich has even declared that ethnic secessionist movements are an appropriate "lever for destabilization." Iran is a "multi-ethnic nation." "This domestic instability could - and should (covertly, goes without saying) - be the lever of western Iran policy, below the threshold of direct military intervention."[12]

Diminishing Ties
Because of the enormous economic interests in Iran, Berlin had always sought a balance between threatening Teheran with an overthrow and making cooperation offers. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[13]) A shift in accent has begun to take place. Besides its support for Iranian secessionists, Berlin has now also begun to take on the intelligence service of Teheran's military regime. Last week the "Protection of the Constitution's" regional office in Hamburg announced that Iran's secret service was spying on oppositional Iranians in exile in Germany - a practice that has been known for years and tolerated by Berlin - often with bloody consequences for critics of the Iranian government. The mood has also changed in business circles, which in the past have been among the most ardent protagonists for cooperation with Iran. The "discouragement strategy" - the German government's efforts to induce companies to limit their business with Iran - is bearing fruit. Exports to Iran dropped by ten percent in the first seven months of 2009 in comparison to last year.[14] Intensification of activities to overthrow the government, running parallel with diminishing ties are accentuating tensions, heightening the prospect of further escalation.

[1] US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran; The Daily Telegraph 25.02.2007. Bush sanctions 'black ops' against Iran; The Daily Telegraph 27.05.2007
[2] Rigi's brother exposes US ties with Jundullah; presstv.ir 09.06.2009
[3] Kurdish PJAK rebels resume attacks in Iranian Kurdistan; http://www.ekurd.net 17.10.2009
[4] see also Feudale Sonderbeziehungen, (Irakisch) Kurdistan and Deutsche Brückenbauer
[5] PJAK-Rebellen: "Wir können überall im Iran zuschlagen"; Die Presse 15.10.2009
[6], [7] see also Lever for Destabilization
[8] Seymur M. Hersh: The Next Act; The New Yorker 27.11.2006. US wages covert war on Iraq-Iran border; Asia Times 28.11.2007
[9] see also Destabilisierungshebel (II)
[10] see also Anticipating a Coup
[11] "Endlich Freiheit"; http://www.boell.de 18.06.2009
[12] Die Zerrissenheit des Iran; Die Welt 07.03.2007
[13] see also Zwei Feuer, Traditional Role, Equilibrium rather than Exclusion and Potenzial zum Partner
[14] Die Deutsche Wirtschaft zieht aus dem Iran ab; Die Welt 04.10.2009
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56290

[David Guyatt]

Iran should be weakened and "if necessary disbanded".

Part 1 of Article 1 of the United Nations "INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON
CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS":

All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

One Ring to ignore all law and in the darkness bind them.

[Jan Klimkowski]

I have some instinctive sympathy for Kurds who want to create a nation state, a Kurdistan, after decades of being discriminated against by Turks, Iraqis, Iranians and western elites.

Of course the end result would probably be that Kurds would be discriminated against by other more powerful Kurds on grounds of class, tribe, gender, education, greed etc. But that's just the way it is....

However, my instinctive sympathy for the Kurds is completely outweighed by my horror at their stupidity in falling for these old geopolitical games. It's like the Ukrainians who formed SS divisions because Hitler promised them a nation state. The Kurds have not yet been enrolled in ethnic cleansing death squads, and hopefully they will not be. However, the Kurds should not expect the Germans, or the Americans, or NATO, to honour any deal they have made with Kurdish secessionist groups operating in Iran.

The cards are already clear.

At the end of Gulf War 2, when the Iraqi Kurds (like the marsh arabs in the south) listened to George Bush Sr and rose up against Saddam, they were then abandoned and slaughtered in their tens of thousands.

When Kurdish guerilla groups fight against Turkish forces, NATO gives the Turks a green light to carpet bomb ethnic Kurdish areas because Turkey is key to so many western geopolitical stragies (oil, drugs, gas, even Gladio).

The Kurdish secessionist groups in Iran are currently very useful to western interests. That usefulness has a clear sell-buy date, and the west will abandon them in a hearbeat if the Kurdish agenda no longer serves that of western elites.