Iraq judiciary dissolves three political parties over ties to PKK

Iraq’s judiciary has ruled the dissolution of three political parties due to their alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in the latest advancement of Baghdad’s crackdown on the outlawed group.

According to Iraqi and Kurdish media outlets, the Iraqi judiciary’s electoral authority ruled on Thursday last week to dissolve and shut down the offices of the Yazidi Freedom and Democracy Party, The Democratic Struggle Front and Kurdistan Society’s Freedom Movement (Tavgari Azadi) over links to the PKK and “conducting banned activities in Iraq”.

The decision was reportedly the result of a request filed by the directorate of party and political organisation affairs at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), and was issued in accordance with the provisions of the 2015 Iraqi Party and Political Organisations Law.

As part of the ruling, according to a document from Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, those three parties will be dissolved, will have their offices shut down and will have their finances confiscated.

The ruling comes around five months after Iraq’s National Security Council banned the PKK from operating in the country, in an agreement with Turkiye following a high-level security meeting between Iraqi officials and a Turkish delegation in Baghdad.

That led to the General Secretariat of the Iraqi Council of Ministers directing all state institutions in a letter last month to label as “banned” any mention of the PKK in official correspondences and documents.

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