Asa’ad Afrozi was born in Saqqez city in 1991.
. He, who has been a member of the Kurdistan Liberation Armed Group, in 2021 and after three years of being in the headquarters of this armed group and accused of terrorist acts, finally escaped from this group and reached Iran. After repeated follow-ups by Iranian Kurdistan Human Rights Watch and our reporter, Afrouzi agreed to being interviewed and revealed important things about this group and the way it treats the members. The details of the interview are as follows:
The beginning of trouble
My family is farmer and rancher, and the main capital of a person in our region is his agricultural land and livestock. In fall 2018, a serious disagreement with my family made me join PAK. It was about the family’s lack of support that caused me to be bored with them. Without agricultural land, I didn’t have any capital, so it made me leave Iran and my family. The main conflict was my brothers and I expected my family and father to support me. But they did not. Since childhood, I constantly entered into conflict and conflict because of my spirit. For farmland, I tried to make trouble for the family, which I met a decisive reaction from my father and brothers. At that time, my conflicts over the farmlands intensified. I kept threatening my father that I will leave the house and you forever. I thought they would listen to me by threats. My father did not take it seriously. They thought I am crazy and just make threats. In order to prove myself, I thought of going to the Kurdistan region. One day we were supposed to visit the agricultural fields together, I gathered all my things and left the house. During these days, after getting to know the PAK group through cyberspace and Instagram, I illegally left Sardasht border and entered the Kurdistan Region to join the group.
Entering the PAK headquarters
When I entered PAK headquarters, first and after acceptance, I entered the military training course. Military training took place in the mountains and lasted for three months. After completing the training course, we returned to a place called the castle and I started working in “Parizgari”. They assigned me various tasks. In fact, I was at the “Pardy” headquarters during my entire stay in PAK. During these days, the political education course began. We were taught topics such as the history of Kurdistan, the group’s manifesto, the Kurdish language, etc., which was not very attractive to me. I was regularly at odds with my superiors. I could not accept them; because I was sure that their knowledge is very little. The same disagreements with the officials and lack of good obedience caused me to work only in the security department. And so I thought of running away. It had become unbearable for me to be in the PAK headquarters and endure the stupid orders of the group officials. At first I tried to leave the group peacefully, but they kept opposing. I asked for separation several times, but eventually decided to escape at all costs. Finally, the right time came and I escaped from Pardy’s headquarters about four days before Nowruz. After escaping, I was lost and didn’t know what to do. In early April 2023, after being displaced and feeling serious danger, I managed to enter the country and now I am with my family.
Narrated by Mohammad Afrouzi; Asa’ad’s father
After Asa’ad left, we looked after him for nearly 6 months. He had left suddenly and we were all worried. We did not think that he would carry out his threat; because of the dispute over agricultural land. I was no longer able. Really, I am an old man who is now almost 80 years old, what could I do! We were disappointed. We did everything to make him come back, but we didn’t know where Asa’ad had gone. After a while that we did not hear from him, news spread in our village that Asa’ad was a member of PAK. We tried look for him. One of my sons had gone once and he was not allowed to visit or bring Asa’ad back. They practically imprisoned Asa’ad and did not allow to visit him. It was this spring that Asa’ad called us and said that he managed to escape from that group and introduced himself to the Iranian consulate in Sulaymaniyah. I became very happy. Just surviving meant the world to me. Now that he lives with us, my mind is at ease and he is shepherding in the village.
