Iran
Iran called Persia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a country in Western Asia. With over 81 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 18th most populous country. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second largest country in the Middle East and the 17th largest in the world. Iran is bordered to the northwest by Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, to the north by the Caspian Sea, to the northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, to the west by Turkey and Iraq; the country's central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, give it geostrategic importance. Tehran is the country's capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BCE, it was first unified by the Iranian Medes in the seventh century BCE, reaching its greatest territorial size in the sixth century BCE, when Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire, which stretched from Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley, becoming one of the largest empires in history.
The Iranian realm fell to Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE and was divided into several Hellenistic states. An Iranian rebellion culminated in the establishment of the Parthian Empire, succeeded in the third century CE by the Sasanian Empire, a leading world power for the next four centuries. Arab Muslims conquered the empire in the seventh century CE; the Islamization of Iran led to the decline of Zoroastrianism, by the country's dominant religion, Iran's major contributions to art and science spread within the Muslim rule during the Islamic Golden Age. After two centuries, a period of various native Muslim dynasties began, which were conquered by the Seljuq Turks and the Ilkhanate Mongols; the rise of the Safavids in the 15th century led to the reestablishment of a unified Iranian state and national identity, with the country's conversion to Shia Islam marking a turning point in Iranian and Muslim history. Under Nader Shah, Iran was one of the most powerful states in the 18th century, though by the 19th century, a series of conflicts with the Russian Empire led to significant territorial losses.
The Iranian Constitutional Revolution in the early 20th century led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the country's first legislature. A 1953 coup instigated by the United Kingdom and the United States resulted in greater autocracy and growing Western political influence. Subsequent widespread dissatisfaction and unrest against the monarchy led to the 1979 Revolution and the establishment of an Islamic republic, a political system that includes elements of a parliamentary democracy vetted and supervised by a theocracy governed by an autocratic "Supreme Leader". During the 1980s, the country was engaged in a war with Iraq, which lasted for eight years and resulted in a high number of casualties and economic losses for both sides; the sovereign state of Iran is a founding member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC, OPEC. It is a major regional and middle power, its large reserves of fossil fuels – which include the world's largest natural gas supply and the fourth largest proven oil reserves – exert considerable influence in international energy security and the world economy.
The country's rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 22 UNESCO World Heritage sites, the third largest number in Asia and 11th largest in the world. Iran is a multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, the largest being Persians, Azeris and Lurs. Organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticized Iran's women's rights record; the term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān, first attested in a third-century inscription at Rustam Relief, with the accompanying Parthian inscription using the term Aryān, in reference to the Iranians. The Middle Iranian ērān and aryān are oblique plural forms of gentilic nouns ēr- and ary-, both deriving from Proto-Iranian *arya-, recognized as a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *ar-yo-, meaning "one who assembles". In the Iranian languages, the gentilic is attested as a self-identifier, included in ancient inscriptions and the literature of the Avesta, remains in other Iranian ethnic names Alan and Iron.
Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due to the writings of Greek historians who referred to all of Iran as Persís, meaning "land of the Persians", while Persis itself was one of the provinces of ancient Iran, today defined as Fars. As the most extensive interaction the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, the term persisted long after the Greco-Persian Wars. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, effective March 22 that year; as The New York Times explained at the time, "At the suggestion of the Persian Legation in Berlin, the Tehran government, on the Persian New Year, March 21, 1935, substituted Iran for Persia as the official name of the country." Opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably. Today, both Iran and Persia are used in cultural contexts, while Iran remains irreplaceab
Humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters. Precipitation is distributed throughout the year; the definition of this climate regarding temperature is as follows: the mean temperature of the coldest month must be below −3 °C and there must be at least four months whose mean temperatures are at or above 10 °C. In addition, the location in question must not be arid; the Dfb and Dsb subtypes are known as hemiboreal. Humid continental climates are found between latitudes 40° N and 60° N, within the central and northeastern portions of North America and Asia, they are much less found in the Southern Hemisphere due to the larger ocean area at that latitude and the consequent greater maritime moderation. In the Northern Hemisphere some of the humid continental climates in Scandinavia, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland are maritime-influenced, with cool summers and winters being just below the freezing mark.
More extreme humid continental climates found in northeast China, southern Siberia, the Canadian Prairies, the Great Lakes region of the American Midwest and Central Canada combine hotter summer maxima and colder winters than the marine-based variety. Using the Köppen climate classification, a climate is classified as humid continental when the temperature of the coldest month is below −3 °C and there must be at least four months whose mean temperatures are at or above 10 °C; these temperatures were not arbitrary. In Europe, the −3 °C average temperature isotherm was near the southern extent of winter snowpack; the 10 °C average temperature was found to be the minimum temperature necessary for tree growth. Wide temperature ranges are common within this climate zone. Second letter in the classification symbol defines seasonal rainfall as follows: s: A dry summer—the driest summer month has less than 40 millimetres of rainfall and has less than 1⁄3 the precipitation of the wettest winter month, w: A dry winter—the driest winter month has less than one‑tenth of the precipitation found in the wettest summer month, f: Without dry season—does not meet either of the alternative specifications.while the third letter denotes the extent of summer heat: a: Hot summer, warmest month averages at least 22 °C, b: Warm summer, warmest month averages below 22 °C and at least four months averages above 10 °C.
Within North America, moisture within this climate regime is supplied by the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent western subtropical Atlantic. Precipitation is well distributed year-round in many areas with this climate, while others may see a marked reduction in wintry precipitation, which increases the chances of a wintertime drought. Snowfall occurs in all areas with a humid continental climate and in many such places is more common than rain during the height of winter. In places with sufficient wintertime precipitation, the snow cover is deep. Most summer rainfall occurs during thunderstorms, in North America and Asia an tropical system. Though humidity levels are high in locations with humid continental climates, the "humid" designation means that the climate is not dry enough to be classified as semi-arid or arid. By definition, forests thrive within this climate. Biomes within this climate regime include temperate woodlands, temperate grasslands, temperate deciduous, temperate evergreen forests, coniferous forests.
Within wetter areas, spruce, pine and oak can be found. Fall foliage is noted during the autumn. A hot summer version of a continental climate features an average temperature of at least 22 °C in its warmest month. Since these regimes are limited to the Northern Hemisphere, the warmest month is July or August. For example, Chicago has average July afternoon temperatures near 29 °C, while average January afternoon temperature are near −1 °C. Frost free periods last 4–6 months within this climate regime. Within North America, this climate includes small areas of central and southeast Canada, portions of the central and eastern United States from the 100th meridian eastward to the Atlantic. Precipitation is less seasonally uniform in the west; the western states of the central United States have thermal regimes which fit the Dfa climate type, but are quite dry, are grouped with the steppe climates. In the Eastern Hemisphere, this climate regime is found within interior Eurasia, east-central Asia, parts of India.
Within Europe, the Dfa climate type is present near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, the Southern Federal District of Russia, southern Moldova, parts of southern Romania, Bulgaria, but tends to be drier and can be semi-arid in these places. In East Asia, this climate exhibits a monsoonal tendency with much higher precipitation in summer than in winter, due the effects of the strong Siberian High much colder winter temperatures than similar latitudes around the world, however with lower snowfall, the exception being western Japan with its heavy snowfall. Tōhoku, between Tokyo and Hokkaidō and Wester
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam, followed by nearly 90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word sunnah; the differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagreement over the succession to Muhammad and subsequently acquired broader political significance, as well as theological and juridical dimensions. According to Sunni traditions, Muhammad did not designate a successor and the Muslim community acted according to his sunnah in electing his father-in-law Abu Bakr as the first caliph; this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad announced at the event of Ghadir Khumm his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor. Political tensions between Sunnis and Shias continued with varying intensity throughout Islamic history and they have been exacerbated in recent times by ethnic conflicts and the rise of Wahhabism; as of 2009, Sunni Muslims constituted 87–90% of the world's Muslim population. Sunni Islam is the world's largest religious denomination, followed by Catholicism.
Its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa ahl as-sunnah for short. In English, its doctrines and practices are sometimes called Sunnism, while adherents are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis and Ahlus Sunnah. Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as "orthodox Islam". However, other scholars of Islam, such as John Burton believe that there is no such thing as "orthodox Islam"; the Quran, together with hadith and binding juristic consensus form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. Sharia rulings are derived from these basic sources, in conjunction with analogical reasoning, consideration of public welfare and juristic discretion, using the principles of jurisprudence developed by the traditional legal schools. In matters of creed, the Sunni tradition upholds the six pillars of iman and comprises the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools of rationalistic theology as well as the textualist school known as traditionalist theology. Sunnī commonly referred to as Sunnīism, is a term derived from sunnah meaning "habit", "usual practice", "custom", "tradition".
The Muslim use of this term refers to living habits of the prophet Muhammad. In Arabic, this branch of Islam is referred to as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, "the people of the sunnah and the community", shortened to ahl as-sunnah. One common mistake is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammad's death, that Sufism and Shi'ism developed out of Sunni Islam; this perception is due to the reliance on ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works, because the vast majority of the population is Sunni. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of several centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own doctrines; the first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as the Rashidun or "Rightly-Guided Ones". Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar as the second, Uthman as the third, Ali as the fourth. Sunnis recognised different rulers as the caliph, though they did not include anyone in the list of the rightly guided ones or Rashidun after the murder of Ali, until the caliphate was constitutionally abolished in Turkey on 3 March 1924.
The seeds of metamorphosis of caliphate into kingship were sown, as the second caliph Umar had feared, as early as the regime of the third caliph Uthman, who appointed many of his kinsmen from his clan Banu Umayya, including Marwan and Walid bin Uqba on important government positions, becoming the main cause of turmoil resulting in his murder and the ensuing infighting during Ali's time and rebellion by Muawiya, another of Uthman's kinsman. This resulted in the establishment of firm dynastic rule of Banu Umayya after Husain, the younger son of Ali from Fatima, was killed at the Battle of Karbala; the rise to power of Banu Umayya, the Meccan tribe of elites who had vehemently opposed Muhammad under the leadership of Abu Sufyan, Muawiya's father, right up to the conquest of Mecca by Muhammad, as his successors with the accession of Uthman to caliphate, replaced the egalitarian society formed as a result of Muhammad's revolution to a society stratified between haves and have-nots as a result of nepotism, in the words of El-Hibri through "the use of religious charity revenues to subsidise family interests, which Uthman justified as "al-sila"."
Ali, during his rather brief regime after Uthman maintained austere life style and tried hard to bring back the egalitarian system and supremacy of law over the ruler idealised in Muhammad's message, but faced continued opposition, wars one after another by Aisha-Talhah-Zubair, by Muawiya and by the Kharjites. After he was murdered his followers elected Hasan ibn Ali his elder son from Fatima to succeed him. Hasan, shortly afterwards signed a treaty with Muawiaya relinquishing power in favour of the latter, with a condition inter alia, that one of the two who will outlive the other will be the caliph, that this caliph will not appoint a successor but will leave the matter of selection of the caliph to the public. Subsequently, Hasan was poisoned to death and Muawiya enjoyed unchallenged power. Not honouring his treaty with Hasan he however nominated his son Yazid to succeed him. Upon Muawiya's death, Yazid asked Husain the younger brother of Hasan, Ali's son and Muh
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution was a series of events that involved the overthrow of the last monarch of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the replacement of his government with an Islamic republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a leader of one of the factions in the revolt. The movement against the United States-backed monarchy was supported by various leftist and Islamist organizations and student movements. Demonstrations against the Shah commenced in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that included both secular and religious elements, which intensified in January 1978. Between August and December 1978, strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country; the Shah left Iran for exile on 16 January 1979, as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and Shapour Bakhtiar, an opposition-based prime minister. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, returned to Tehran to a greeting by several million Iranians; the royal reign collapsed shortly after on 11 February when guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting, bringing Khomeini to official power.
Iran voted by national referendum to become an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979 and to formulate and approve a new theocratic-republican constitution whereby Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country in December 1979. The revolution was unusual for the surprise it created throughout the world: it lacked many of the customary causes of revolution, occurred in a nation, experiencing relative prosperity, produced profound change at great speed, was massively popular, resulted in the exile of many Iranians, replaced a pro-Western authoritarian monarchy with an anti-Western totalitarian theocracy based on the concept of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists, it was a non-violent revolution, it helped to redefine the meaning and practice of modern revolutions. Reasons advanced for the revolution and its populist and Shi'a Islamic character include a conservative backlash against the Westernizing and secularizing efforts of the Western-backed Shah, a rise in expectations created by the 1973 oil revenue windfall and an overly ambitious economic program, anger over a short, sharp economic contraction in 1977–78, other shortcomings of the previous regime.
The Shah's regime was seen as an oppressive, brutal and extravagant regime by some of the society’s classes at that time. It suffered from some basic functional failures that brought economic bottlenecks and inflation; the Shah was perceived by many as beholden to – if not a puppet of – a non-Muslim Western power whose culture was affecting that of Iran. At the same time, support for the Shah may have waned among Western politicians and media – under the administration of U. S. President Jimmy Carter – as a result of the Shah's support for OPEC petroleum price increases earlier in the decade; when President Carter enacted a human-rights policy which said countries guilty of human-rights violations would be deprived of American arms or aid, this helped give some Iranians the courage to post open letters and petitions in the hope that the repression by the government might subside. The revolution that replaced the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi with Islamism and Khomeini, rather than with another leader and ideology, is credited in part to the spread of the Shia version of the Islamic revival that opposed Westernization and saw Ayatollah Khomeini as following in the footsteps of the Shi'a Imam Husayn ibn Ali and the Shah in the role of Husayn's foe, the hated tyrant Yazid I.
Other factors include the underestimation of Khomeini's Islamist movement by both the Shah's reign – who considered them a minor threat compared to the Marxists and Islamic socialists – and by the secularist, opponents of the government – who thought the Khomeinists could be sidelined. The Shi'a clergy had a significant influence on Iranian society; the clergy first showed itself to be a powerful political force in opposition to the monarchy with the 1891 Tobacco protest. On 20 March 1890, Nasir al-Din Shah granted a concession to Major G. F. Talbot for a full monopoly over the production and export of tobacco for fifty years. At the time the Persian tobacco industry employed over 200,000 people, so the concession represented a major blow to Persian farmers and bazaaris whose livelihoods were dependent on the lucrative tobacco business; the boycotts and protests against it were widespread and extensive because of Mirza Hasan Shirazi's fatwa. Nasir al-Din Shah found himself powerless to stop the popular movement and cancelled the concession.
The Tobacco Protest was the first significant Iranian resistance against the Shah and foreign interests, revealed the power of the people and the Ulema influence among them. The growing discontent continued until the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911; the revolution led to approval of the first constitution. Although the constitutional revolution was successful in weakening the autocracy of the Qajar regime, it failed to provide a powerful alternative government. In the decades following the establishment of the new parliament, a number of critical events took place. Many of these events can be viewed as a continuation of the struggle between the constitutionalists and the Shahs of Persia, many of whom were backed by foreign powers against the parliament. Insecurity and chaos created
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It was written by more than 4,000 contributors; the 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition. The Britannica is the English-language encyclopaedia/encyclopedia, in print for the longest time: it lasted 244 years, it was first published between 1768 and 1771 as three volumes. The encyclopaedia grew in size: the second edition was 10 volumes, by its fourth edition it had expanded to 20 volumes, its rising stature as a scholarly work helped recruit eminent contributors, the 9th and 11th editions are landmark encyclopaedias for scholarship and literary style. Beginning with the 11th edition and following its acquisition by an American firm, the Britannica shortened and simplified articles to broaden its appeal to the North American market. In 1933, the Britannica became the first encyclopaedia to adopt "continuous revision", in which the encyclopaedia is continually reprinted, with every article updated on a schedule.
In March 2012, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced it would no longer publish printed editions, would focus instead on Encyclopædia Britannica Online. The 15th edition had a three-part structure: a 12-volume Micropædia of short articles, a 17-volume Macropædia of long articles, a single Propædia volume to give a hierarchical outline of knowledge; the Micropædia was meant as a guide to the Macropædia. Over 70 years, the size of the Britannica has remained steady, with about 40 million words on half a million topics. Though published in the United States since 1901, the Britannica has for the most part maintained British English spelling. Since 1985, the Britannica has had four parts: the Micropædia, the Macropædia, the Propædia, a two-volume index; the Britannica's articles are found in the Micro- and Macropædia, which encompass 12 and 17 volumes each volume having one thousand pages. The 2007 Macropædia has 699 in-depth articles, ranging in length from 2 to 310 pages and having references and named contributors.
In contrast, the 2007 Micropædia has 65,000 articles, the vast majority of which contain fewer than 750 words, no references, no named contributors. The Micropædia articles are intended for quick fact-checking and to help in finding more thorough information in the Macropædia; the Macropædia articles are meant both as authoritative, well-written articles on their subjects and as storehouses of information not covered elsewhere. The longest article is on the United States, resulted from the merger of the articles on the individual states; the 2013 edition of Britannica contained forty thousand articles. Information can be found in the Britannica by following the cross-references in the Micropædia and Macropædia. Hence, readers are recommended to consult instead the alphabetical index or the Propædia, which organizes the Britannica's contents by topic; the core of the Propædia is its "Outline of Knowledge", which aims to provide a logical framework for all human knowledge. Accordingly, the Outline is consulted by the Britannica's editors to decide which articles should be included in the Micro- and Macropædia.
The Outline is intended to be a study guide, to put subjects in their proper perspective, to suggest a series of Britannica articles for the student wishing to learn a topic in depth. However, libraries have found that it is scarcely used, reviewers have recommended that it be dropped from the encyclopaedia; the Propædia has color transparencies of human anatomy and several appendices listing the staff members and contributors to all three parts of the Britannica. Taken together, the Micropædia and Macropædia comprise 40 million words and 24,000 images; the two-volume index has 2,350 pages, listing the 228,274 topics covered in the Britannica, together with 474,675 subentries under those topics. The Britannica prefers British spelling over American. However, there are exceptions such as defense rather than defence. Common alternative spellings are provided with cross-references such as "Color: see Colour." Since 1936, the articles of the Britannica have been revised on a regular schedule, with at least 10% of them considered for revision each year.
According to one Britannica website, 46% of its articles were revised over the past three years. The alphabetization of articles in the Micropædia and Macropædia follows strict rules. Diacritical marks and non-English letters are ignored, while numerical entries such as "1812, War of" are alphabetized as if the number had been written out. Articles with identical names are ordered first by persons by places by things. Rulers with identical names are organized first alphabetically by country and by chronology. Places that share names are
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan known as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, is an armed leftist ethnic party of Kurds in Iran, exiled in northern Iraq. It is banned in Iran and thus not able to operate openly; the group calls for self-determination of Kurdish people and has been described as seeking either separatism or autonomy within a federal system. Since 1979, KDPI has waged a persistent guerrilla war against the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; this included the 1979–1983 Kurdish insurgency, its 1989–1996 insurgency and recent clashes in 2016. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials have called the party a terrorist organization. Hyeran Jo of Texas A&M University classifies KDPI as "compliant rebels". According to Jo, the KDPI gained "legitimacy" qualities by denouncing violence against civilians, claiming commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Geneva Convention Article 3, as of 2007 is one of the signatories to the Geneva Call's ban on anti-personnel mines.
Qazi Muhammad founded the PDKI in Mahabad, Iran, on 16 August 1945. On 22 January 1946, Qazi Muhammad declared a Kurdish Republic of Kurdistan, of which he formally became president; the Republic lasted less than a year: after the USSR retreated from the area, the Imperial Iranian army first reclaimed Iranian Azerbaijan, followed by Mahabad on 15 December 1946. After the fall of the Republic, many of the PDKI leaders were arrested and executed ending the party; the PDKI cooperated with the Tudeh party and saw a short revival under the anti-Shah administration of Mohammad Mosaddegh, but this ended after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took full control again in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état. In 1958, the PDKI was on the verge of unifying with the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party, but was dismantled by the SAVAK secret police; the remains of the PDKI continued to support the KDP, but this changed as the Shah started aiding the KDP, which fought against the Iraqi regime that had overthrown the royal Hashemite dynasty.
In return for the Shah's aid, the KDP decreased its support for the PDKI. The PDKI reorganised itself, marginalising its pro-KDP leader Abd-Allah Ishaqi, adding new communist and nationalist members, forming the Revolutionary Committee to continue the struggle against the Iranian regime; the Committee began an unsuccessful revolution in March 1967. After reforms by a new leader, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the PDKI fought alongside Islamic and Marxist movements against the Shah, culminating in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Khomeini's new Islamic Republic, refused the Kurdish demands, suppressing the PDKI and other Kurdish parties; the PDKI continued its activities in exile, hoping to achieve "Kurdish national rights within a democratic federal republic of Iran". In January 1981, Iraq supported the party in the Iranian cities of Nowdesheh and Qasr-e Shirin and provided weapons supplies to the PKDI; this move was made. The PKDI hoped as well to establish a level of autonomy in the area. However, the Iranian forces staged a series of debilitating attacks against the KDPI, leaving them a "marginal military factor during much of the Iran-Iraq War".
In 1997, the party's call for abstaining the presidential election remained ignored by Kurdish citizens in Iran and amid a high turnout in Kurdistan Province, a large number voted for Mohammad Khatami. By 2004, Seymour Hersh in the June 28, 2004 issue of the New Yorker magazine reported that Israel has started The highest PDKI organ is the Central Committee, composed of 21 permanent and 10 substitute members, elected in PDKI Congresses; the Central Committee elects 7 of its members for the executive Political Bureau, which includes the Secretary-General. The current Secretary-General is Mustafa Hijri. In 2016, the organization announced it was reviving its armed struggle following death of Farinaz Khosravani and subsequent Mahabad riots. Sadeq Sharafkandi's murder became an international incident between Iran. On 17 September 1992, PDKI leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany.
In the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi, an Iranian national who worked as a grocer in Berlin, Lebanese Abbas Rhayel, guilty of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. In its 10 April 1997 ruling, the court issued an international arrest warrant for Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-Islam Ali Fallahian after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with knowledge of Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ayatollah Rafsanjani. In 13 July 1989, Dr. Gassemlo arrived in Vienna with his delegation to have talks with diplomats, dispatched by Iran, regarding the terms of reconciliation between the central government in Teheran and the Kurds; those were not the only talks with Iran, held in Vienna. After they entered the conference hall and the talks started, the Iranian “diplomats” took out automatic weapons and murdered all of the members of the Kurdish delegation, including Dr. Gassemlo.
The PDKI has held sixteen congresses. These occurred in 1945, 1964, 1971, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2018. During the 20th Congress of the Socialist International, held at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, the PDKI was given the status of observer member. In 2005, the PDKI's membership was elevated
Kurdistan Province
Kurdistan Province or Kordestan is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. The province of Kurdistan is 28,817 km² in area which encompasses just one-fourth of the areas in Iran inhabited by Kurds, it is located in the west of Iran, in Region 3, bound by Iraq on the west, the province of West Azerbaijan to its north, Zanjan to the northeast, Hamedan to the east and Kermanshah to the south. The capital of Kurdistan Province is the city of Sanandaj. Other counties with their major cities are Marivan, Saqqez, Piranshahr, Kamyaran, Dehgolan and Sarvabad; the mountainous lands of this area first encouraged Iranian-speaking tribes to settle in this region after their immigration to Iran. It was from here where the first plan to overthrow the Assyrian Empire began, leading to their defeat in 612 BCE, setting the stage for the commence of the Median empire. During the next few hundred years, the area of present-day Kurdistan Province became the arena of conflict between various invaders, including the Mongols and Timurids.
Its steady decline began in the 16th century. Upon the order of Sultan Muhammad Khodabandeh, a small town by the name of Soltanabad Chamchal was constructed in Bisotun region to function as the official and political center of Kurdistan in the Middle Ages, it remained the capital for nearly one-and-a-half centuries, until, in 1372 CE, the government moved to Hassanabad fort, 6 km south of Sanandaj. Around 14th century, people from Ardalan tribe established themselves in Sinne as the rulers of this region. According to Sharafnama written by Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi, the earliest known leader of the tribe, Bawa Ardalan, was a descendant of Ahmad bin Marwan, who ruled in Diyarbakır, he settled down among the Gorani people in Kurdistan and toward the end of the Mongol period took over the "Şare Zor" region, where he established himself as an absolute ruler. He is considered to be the founder of the Ardalan principality; the territories of Zardiawa, Khanaqin and Kifri, which were the homelands of the Goran-Kurds, all belonged to this principality.
The capital city of the principality was first in Sharazor, but was moved to Sinne on. During the reign of Shah Ismail I, the founder of Safavid dynasty, Sunni Kurds were supported by Ottoman against the Shi'ite government of the Safavids; when Soleiman Khan Ardalan came to power in 1630 CE, the throne was transferred to Sanandaj, from on, the rulers contributed to the flourishing and development of the area. The Ardalan Dynasty continued to rule the region until the Qajar monarch Nasser-al-Din Shah ended their rule in 1867 CE; the area of Kurdistan Province incorporates portions of the former Gerrus Province. Kurdistan Province is a mountainous region that can be topographically divided into a western and an eastern section at Sanandaj; as a result of its elevation and mountains, Kurdistan province has many rivers, lakes and caves, which render it rather picturesque. Kurdistan has always attracted a large number of tourists and fans of mountaineering and water-sports; the Zarrineh River, 302 km long, is one of the longest rivers of this province.
Its banks offer great opportunities for recreation and the river's plentiful water renders itself ideal for water sports. This river runs northwards and pours into Lake Urmia; the Sirvan River is another prominent river in this province. It runs over a long distance to join the Tigris in Iraq; the banks of this river are remarkably attractive. The Simineh River is an important river in this province. A large number of marine species and birds live on the banks of the province's numerous rivers which they seem to find ideal habitats. Lake Zarivar is the most beautiful water-way of the province, which lies at the feet to high mountains, providing a delightfully picturesque sight, its water is sparklingly fresh. The lake has an average depth of 3 m, it is surrounded by thick forests. The lake, the mountains and the forests create a scenic panorama; this lake, which has a length of 5 km and a maximum which width of 1.7 km, lies to the west of Marivan. Lake Vahdat's dam, to the north of Sanandaj, provides excellent opportunities for fishing and water-sports.
Kurdistan Province benefits from many resourceful mineral water springs. The most outstanding of these are: Govaz to the northwest of Kamyaran, Abetalkh close to Bijar and Baba Gorgor to the north of Qorveh. Cave Kereftoo, close to Divandarreh, is a unique natural and at the same time archeological site. Inside the cave there are a number of ancient buildings known as the Temple of Heraclius, because the name of this Greek god is carved on the ceiling of one of the halls. Cave Shoovi, 267 m long, is another prominent cave. Mount Charkhaln 3,330 m high, mount Chehelcheshmeh, 3,173 m, Mount Hossein Bak, 3,091 m, Mount Masjede Mirza, 3,059 m, are the other large mountains of Kurdistan. Kurdistan Province has vast forests and refuges, where many animals and birds live, safely from the harms of the human beings: the leopard, wild goat, jackal, fox, sable and such birds as the partridge, wild duck, stork and eagle. Kurdistan Province is one of the most mountainous regions in Iran and has a mild and quite pleasant climate throughout the spring and summer.
Winters are long and can be cold with heavy snowfalls. The population of the province in 1996 was 1,346,383 of which 52.42% were urban dwellers and 47.58% rural dwellers. According to National Census, in 2011 population
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