TISHK Center for Kurdistan Studies, Postfach: 840108, Cologne (2026)

16/08/2026

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22/07/2026

🔖Why the PDKI Must Immediately Sever Ties with the Iran Freedom Congress

✍️ Sharif Behruz

🌐Kurdistan Agora

👨‍💻 Behruz, Sharif. (2026). Why the PDKI Must Immediately Sever Ties with the Iran Freedom Congress. TISHK Center for Kurdistan Studies: Bonn, Germany.

Abstract

The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s (PDKI) affiliation with the Iran Freedom Congress (IFC) is a fundamental strategic error that severely compromises party sovereignty and the Kurdish national struggle. Structurally, the IFC operates not as an equal-partner coalition, but as a centralist macro-institution that subjects historic political parties to majority-vote overrides and external auditing—equating a national movement with single individual members. Ideologically, the IFC’s platform replicates and exceeds the failures of the 2023 Georgetown Declaration (Mahsa Charter) by substituting explicit Federalism and National Self-Determination with non-committal formulas of “decentralization” and “pluralism” under an unmodified centralist state. This compromise directly violates Dr. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou’s foundational principle that core political status must precede administrative substance—a warning proven by the KRG’s experience in Iraq, where even constitutional federalism faces centralist encroachment. Strategically, the IFC’s attempt to monopolize opposition diplomacy and its recent “anti-war” statements against external pressure on Tehran directly contradict the PDKI’s doctrine of overthrowing the regime through all viable means, including armed struggle and strategic alliances. To protect its organizational autonomy, honor its historical mandate, and preserve the rights of the people of Eastern Kurdistan, the PDKI must formally sever all institutional ties with the IFC immediately.
Read the article:
https://tishk.org/blog/kurdistanagora/why-the-pdki-must-immediately-sever-ties-with-the-iran-freedom-congress/

29/06/2026

🔖“Rojava Has Been Extinguished. It is Gone. It Is A Tragedy”: Kurdish Constitutional Struggles, Regional Upheaval, and the Future of Kurdish Self-Determinationm

🎙 An Interview with: Brendan O’Leary, Interviewed by: Mahsun Oti

🌐TISHK Interviews

Abstract

This interview with Prof. Brendan O’Leary—Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and former constitutional adviser to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from 2003 to 2017—examines the Kurdish constitutional experience in, Iraq, the aftermath of the 2017 independence referendum in Southern Kurdistan[1], and the implications of the current regional upheaval for Kurdish political prospects across Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. Drawing on O’Leary’s extensive work in constitutional design and his direct involvement in Kurdish governance, the interview situates Kurdish political struggles within the comparative frameworks of federalism, consociation, and O’Leary’s views on the “right-sizing” of states. O’Leary offers an assessment of the systematic violations of Iraq’s 2005 constitution, particularly the failure to implement Article 140 on the disputed territories, and the internal Kurdish divisions that led to the catastrophic loss of Kirkuk by the Kurds following the 2017 referendum. The interview further addresses the collapse of the Rojava project in northeastern Syria, the PKK’s disarmament without reciprocal guarantees from Turkey, and the strategic calculus facing Kurds in Iran amid an ongoing regional war. Throughout, O’Leary argues that Kurdish political movements have repeatedly been undermined by a combination of great-power indifference, neighboring-state hostility, and internal fragmentation, a pattern stretching back over a century to the broken promises of the post-World War I order. At a moment when the Middle East is undergoing another profound structural rupture, this interview insists that Kurdish voices and Kurdish historical experiences must be understood not as peripheral footnotes to regional geopolitics, but as central to any durable political settlement.
Read the interview:
https://doi.org/10.69939/2026iv01

26/05/2026

🔖Broken and Suspended

Iranian Political Society Between the State’s Atrocities, External Destruction, and the Bankruptcy of Opposition

✍️ Shahin Modarres

🌐Kurdistan Agora

👨‍💻 Modarres , Shahin (2026). Broken and Suspended. TISHK Center for Kurdistan Studies: Bonn, Germany.

Abstract

In the essay “Broken and Suspended,” international security analyst Shahin Modarres explores the paralyzed state of Iranian political society following the devastating Israeli and American military strikes of June 2025. Modarres argues that while the Islamic Republic is militarily shattered, the Iranian people remain in a “state of suspension,” a liminal condition where they are dispossessed by a repressive regime and bypassed by external actors. Central to this analysis is the “conceptual failure” of the organized opposition, which has historically internalised a permanent state of exception—indefinitely deferring democratic deliberation in favor of perpetual emergency. Through a game-theoretic lens, the author diagnoses a “coordination failure” where mutual fixation on the divisive figure of Reza Pahlavi has created a political void. Ultimately, the essay contends that true liberation must be an act of sovereign political construction by Iranians inside the country, rather than a gift from foreign militaries or diaspora factions.
Read the article:
https://tishk.org/blog/kurdistanagora/broken-and-suspended/

15/05/2026

🔖From Fragmentation to Federation: Building the Political Architecture for a Free Iran

✍️ Soraya Fallah

DOI: https://doi.org/10.69939/TISHKar03

📄Articles in Advance

Abstract

Despite decades of organizing, the Iranian opposition has failed to produce a political structure capable of credibly challenging the Islamic Republic. This article argues that the problem is not a lack of unity but a flawed architecture of unity. The dominant model, the unified front, demands premature ideological convergence, creates winner-take-all dynamics, and presents a single point of failure to a regime skilled at fracturing dissent. In its place, this article proposes a federated coalition model grounded in international human rights law, drawing on the coordination record of Iran’s Kurdish political parties as a domestic proof of concept and on the democratic transitions of Spain, South Africa, and Sudan as comparative reference points. The article concludes that a federation anchored in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the right to self-determination, and transparent transitional governance mechanisms offers the most credible and durable path toward a free Iran.

Read the Article:

https://tishk.org/blog/articles-in-advance/from-fragmentation-to-federation-building-the-political-architecture-for-a-free-iran/

Save PDF
https://tishk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/From-Fragmentation-to-Federation-Building-the-Political-Architecture-for-a-Free-Iran.pdf

12/05/2026

🔖Uniting to End the Iranian Regime’s Lethal Legacy

✍️ Sharif Behruz

🌐Kurdistan Agora

👨‍💻 Behruz, Sharif. (2026).Uniting to End the Iranian Regime’s Lethal Legacy.
TISHK Center for Kurdistan Studies: Bonn, Germany.

Abstract

This article presents a scathing indictment of the Iranian regime, arguing that its systematic disregard for human life—from the lethal saturation of its own borderlands with landmines to targeted strikes on civilian infrastructure across the Middle East—has evolved from a domestic tragedy into an existential global threat. By detailing the heartbreaking toll on Kurdish civilians in Iran and the regime’s cynical victim narrative following technical military failures, the text illustrates a leadership that treats its citizens as human shields while prioritizing its own survival in fortified bunkers. The author contends that with the regime currently dragging 90 million Iranians into an unnecessary conflict while enforcing a total communications blackout and economic ruin, the window of opportunity for a decisive international intervention is closing. Ultimately, it issues a final call for the West, the Arab world, and the Iranian people to unite in a moral and strategic imperative to end the regime’s rule, asserting that its removal is the only path to reclaiming ancestral lands, securing global energy corridors, and preventing a future of nuclear-backed fanaticism.
Read the article:
https://tishk.org/blog/kurdistanagora/uniting-to-end-the-iranian-regimes-lethal-legacy/

11/05/2026

🔖War, Statelessness and Kurdish precarious lives

✍️ Moureshin Kurdistani

📄Articles in Advance

Abstract

This article addresses different political currents in Iran in a moment of war. While its critique is directed primarily at segments of the so-called progressive left, it also extends, to some degree, to anti-imperialist positions and supporters of axis of resistance that identify the United States and Israel as the only imperial powers and overlook other forms of regional domination.
Drawing on the positionality of Kurds as a stateless nation, and informed by the work of Judith Butler, this paper argues that a simple “no to war” stance is insufficient to capture the lived realities of populations that have experienced decades of continuous violence without comparable recognition or protection. Rather than prescribing a singular political position for Kurds, the paper seeks to illuminate the complexity of living under prolonged and normalized forms of violence. It asks: what does war mean for Kurds when it is not an exceptional event but an enduring condition? And what does it mean to be Kurdish in a moment when war is newly recognized by some, but has long been an everyday reality for others?
By foregrounding questions of precariousness, recognition, and affect, this article seeks to show how moral responses to war are unevenly produced, how certain lives are rendered visible and grievable while others are not, and why Kurdish experiences remain marginal within dominant anti-war narratives.

Read the Article:

https://tishk.org/blog/articles-in-advance/war-statelessness-and-kurdish-precarious-lives/

Save PDF
https://tishk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/War%5EJ-Statelessness-and-Kurdish-precarious-lives-1.pdf

26/04/2026

🔖Extrajudicial Executions in Iran: Between Political Rhetoric and Grave Violations of the Right to Life

✍️ Kawa Khoshnaw

🌐Kurdistan Agora

📚Khoshnaw, Kawa(2026): Extrajudicial Executions in Iran: Between Political Rhetoric and Grave Violations of the Right to Life. Published online by TISHK Center for Kurdistan Studies.
Abstract

This article shows how the Iranian government employs a “conspiracy narrative” to mask systemic human rights violations and justify the suppression of dissent. By consistently blaming external actors for domestic crises, the state creates a political smokescreen that diverts public attention from internal economic and political failures while legitimizing restrictive security measures. It argues that this entrenched approach to repression extends beyond national borders, significantly impacting Kurdish populations both within Iran and in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Ultimately, the piece highlights a dangerous disconnect between the government’s political rhetoric and its concrete actions, which frequently result in extrajudicial executions and grave violations of the internationally recognized right to life.

Read the article:
https://tishk.org/blog/kurdistanagora/extrajudicial-executions-in-iran-between-political-rhetoric-and-grave-violations-of-the-right-to-life/

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08/04/2026

🔖The Kurdish Alliance and the Politics of Territorial Integrity in Iran

✍️ Fateh Saeidi

🌐Kurdistan Agora

📚 Saeidi, Fateh (2026): The Kurdish Alliance and the Politics of Territorial Integrity in Iran. Published online by TISHK Center for Kurdistan Studies.
Abstract

This article examines the formation of a new Kurdish political alliance in Iran and the debates it has triggered over territorial integrity and political sovereignty. It argues that Iranian nationalism remains structured around a Persian-centered core that systematically marginalizes non-Persian peoples. Kurdish demands are consistently reframed as security threats rather than recognized as legitimate political claims. The article shows how this dynamic reflects a deeper structural contradiction within the Iranian state. It concludes that, under these conditions, meaningful equality is unlikely within the existing framework, and that the question of Kurdish independence emerges not as a distant possibility, but as an urgent horizon where the limits of the Iranian political order are finally laid bare.

Read the article:
https://tishk.org/blog/kurdistanagora/the-kurdish-alliance-and-the-politics-of-territorial-integrity-in-iran/

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06/04/2026

🔖Unequal Lands: War, Infrastructure, and Survival in Iran’s Kurdish Regions

✍️ Shna Pasbar

🌐Kurdistan Agora

📚 Pasbar, Shna(2026): Unequal Lands: War, Infrastructure, and Survival in Iran’s Kurdish Regions. Published online by TISHK Center for Kurdistan Studies.

Abstract

This article argues that the impact of conflict is dictated by a pre-existing “geography of inequality” that marginalizes East Kurdistan. While Iran’s central and southern provinces are defined by high-value economic assets, a century of occupation and systemic underinvestment under both the Pahlavi and Islamic Republic regimes has left Kurdish regions with little more than crumbling, lethal basic infrastructure. Instead of industrial development, the state has prioritized a dense security architecture designed to control a restive population, shifting the nature of wartime strikes from economic disruption to intensified militarization. Ultimately, the article demonstrates that war does not create this inequality but rather reveals it, exposing how decades of political marginalization and militarized state priorities have structured the landscape long before the first strike occurred.

Read the article:
https://tishk.org/blog/kurdistanagora/unequal-lands-war-infrastructure-and-survival-in-irans-kurdish-regions/

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