T. Belman. 10% of Iranians are Kurdish and live adjacent to Iraqi Kurdistan. Another 40% of Iranians are not Farsi and live in northern Iran. If Iran is destabelized, these groups with their adjacent neighbours will mount a serious challenge to the sovereignty of Iran in the areas in which they live. Rather than help them, Obama is “paving the way to the bomb, for Iran.
By Alessandria Masi, International Business Times
Protests against the Iranian regime in Iranian Kurdistan turn violent as demonstrators clash with security forces, May 10, 2015. It is one of the biggest uprisings against the Iranian regime in years.
Buildings are burning, protesters are bloodied, law enforcement vehicles are destroyed, hundreds of young men and women have been arrested and there is no end in sight. Iranian Kurdistan has been under what Iranian opposition called an “undeclared martial law” for the last week, and the Iranian regime has done all it can to keep it out of the media.
Thousands of Iranian Kurds have been demonstrating in the streets of roughly a dozen Iranian cities almost consistently for the past week. On Friday, protests turned violent as Iranian Kurdish political leaders called for an independent Kurdistan and democracy in Iran. It is one of the biggest Kurdish uprisings against the Iranian regime in years.
Iranian Kurds are “planning to carry out a comprehensive revolution and there are armed Iranian Kurdish political parties positioning themselves for the revolution,” said Sarkawt Kamal Ali, an Iraqi human rights lawyer familiar with the Kurdish situation.
On Friday, a recently formed coalition of Kurdish political parties, Kodar, threatened to deploy protesters and militia fighters to the Iranian capital of Tehran if the regime did not allow them to independently govern Iran’s Kurdish areas, according to Rudaw.
The initial protests against the regime’s oppression of Kurds began after a May 4 incident in which 27-year-old Farinaz Khosravani jumped to her death from a window when an Iranian intelligence officer allegedly tried to rape her at the hotel where she worked in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. Later, regime-affiliated social media accounts and news outlets circulated a video allegedly showing Khosravani “voluntarily” engaging in sexual acts with the officer, sources close to the issue told International Business Times.
“Whatever happened, it ignited a very significant outburst … by the Kurds in the city,” said Dave Pollock, a Kaufman Fellow at the Washington Institute whose research focuses on public opinion and media content in the region. He added that Mahabad “is not a gigantic city but it’s enough to provide the critical mass for a very large demonstration. But it was forcibly suppressed.”
The Iranian regime is known for its intolerance of anti-regime sentiment of any kind, and its anti-riot tactics include shutting off the Internet, wireless services and other means of communication in addition to banning reporters from the area. This means the Iranian Kurdish “revolution” has not yet been televised, but much like the uprisings in Syria and Egypt, it is being broadcasted on social media.
When demonstrations began on May 7 in Mahabad, S.Kurdax, a Syrian Kurd whose name has been changed for security reasons who was also forced to flee his own country when President Bashar Assad’s regime began arresting protesters in 2011, wanted to help. Along with several other Kurdish friends from the region, he created various social media accounts to provide accurate information from the ground in Iran, where many of his friends are demonstrating.
“We as young people, as Kurds, we have to put the news on Twitter, Facebook and Skype,” Kurdax told IBTimes via Skype. “We tell the truth for our people.”
His main news outlet is Facebook, where his page “Kurdish Revolution in Iran” has garnered more than 14,000 followers in less than two weeks. Kurdax said his group is organizing a “big revolution” in Iran for next Friday, but they are urging demonstrators not to resort to violence.
“We are trying to make it just revolution. Shooting and streaming videos and making a general strike against the regime in Iran,” Kurdax said. “If we try to fight this regime, they are so dangerous. They have chemical weapons and bombs.”
Since Khosravani’s death, Iran’s Law Enforcement Force has arrested hundreds of Kurdish youth in cities spanning the Iranian Kurdistan region on the border with Iraq. Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security has reportedly dispatched a “group of henchmen to torture and interrogate” the detainees, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition of opposition groups that describes itself as a “parliament-in-exile.”
Protests seemed to calm down in the days following Khosravani’s death, but they picked up speed this week, as Kurds around the world showed their solidarity with the Iranian cause. On Thursday, demonstrations were held in front of the Iranian embassies in several European cities, including Vienna, Paris and London. Meanwhile, at least 14 cities in Iranian Kurdistan held a general strike to protest the arrests earlier in the week.
Demonstrators hold Kurdish flags outside the Iranian embassy in Vienna in solidarity with the Kurds protesting the regime in Iran, May 14, 2015.
Demonstrations turned violent again on Friday when protesters reportedly placed explosive devices in Iranian law enforcement vehicles, in an attempt to block the convoy from entering the protest area. The armored trucks exploded, killing and injuring more than a dozen people, several sources familiar with the situation told IBTimes.
Hundreds of demonstrators and Iranian law enforcement have reportedly been injured since the clashes began. Recent reports from the ground claimed that the officer accused of attempted rape was killed in the clashes, but IBTimes was unable to confirm that.
There are an estimated 7 million Kurds concentrated in what used to be part of Kurdistan and is now Iranian territory on the border with Iraq. They have long been denied basic human rights in Iran and it has only become worse since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The Kurdish language is banned in Iran.
“The pace of the Iranian government’s oppression of Kurdish expression, including executions of community organizers, political figures and dissidents, has really picked up in the last year or two,” Pollock said.
Earlier this year, Amnesty International released a report that said Kurds make up the most executions per year compared to every other minority. And it seems Iranian Kurds have finally had enough of the regime’s oppression.
“The Kurdish street is angry. It was like a volcano in our Kurdish hearts,” Kurdax said, referencing “Arab street,” the term used to describe public opinion across Arab countries. “We just want our rights. We are also human.”
mar55 Said:
😛 😛 thanks, I wish I could write a spynovel.
I just look at whats happening and dont beleive everything I read or am told. I have been in situations privy to info where I can see how the street believes one thing but something else is really happening. I am aware that those at the top fabricate to fool those at the bottom.
Persians in Iran are under half the population and while they’re dominant politically, they have a low birth rate. So the Islamic regime is sitting on a volcano. Continued repression can buy it time but you can observe right now the fissures running underneath Iranian society in places like Mahabad. And the Syrian regime brutally suppressed a similar Kurdish rebellion in 2004 but the country disintegrated several years later. Iran’s mullahs know if they make concessions, it will mean the end of Iran. But if they don’t make concessions that end will come about after much blood has flown in the streets in the future.
@ bernard ross:
Bernard, you are a great observer and interpreter of the different situations in the ME. People, human beings do not change. If we look throughout history the behaviour and
situations that bring about wars it is exactly the same as in the past. The only big difference is the weapons.
Modern military uses weapons that kills the enemy with more efficiency and are more destructive than at any time in our history.
When I think about that many years ago when the British were dividing the ME the Kurds had been promised their own country Kurdistan. What happened? The British have a lot to account for the actual situation of the world today.
They divided the countries according to their own interest. Many problems in Israel could have been prevented. Israel ended with 27% of the territory.
As another commenter in this forum always mentions. Money, their own financial interest had priority over promises and what would have been a fair decision for people living without sovereignty . I hate the Brits. Their decisions in the past have created wars, pain, and prevented the development of the Kurds. Kurds are hard working and determined to fight for their freedom, for their country.
That is what makes them effective fighters. The US is helping our enemies.
You are right. So many pieces on the chess board makes for an interesting outcome. If effective it might prevent an all out war with WMD that will cause total obliteration of any country at the receiving end.
Have you worked in the past as a security agent? You always look at the big picture and its possible consequences.
The intelligence service as John le Carre MI6? Sometimes you sound like the spy novelist.
I said 2 years ago, and posted these current incidents a week or 2 ago, that the so called twitter revolution starting in syria would spread to Lebanon, Iraq and ultimately Iran in the GCC proxy war. I predicted it would use the ethnic mionrites internally to destabilize Iran from within prior to any attack: azeris(25% of Iran population, Kurds, Baluchis, sunnis……. and that the jihadis and kurds outside would shift to attacks on Iran if a deal is not reached that recognizes the GCC sunni spheres of influence upon which Iran has been encroaching. These are usually orchestrated by single isolated events while “activists” are activated to twitter it into, or out of, proportion. this may or may not be isolated but if we see concurrent behaviors and events in other parts of Iran with other minorities it might portend the next phase.
I believe the jihadis operating in the other 3 theaters are using hit and run tactics, taking targets holding, bringing Iran proxies and then leaving… in an effort to keep Iran and their proxies spread thin and moving around the board; and if they activate cells in Iran it would spread them even thinner. If there is to be any attack or even threats of attack, for negotiation purposes, then these preliminary tactics are sensible.
for more info on destabilization tactics check with Felix.
It would seem logical that Israel, Egypt, Arabia and the Gulf States would take advantage of this opportunity to weaken Iran by supporting the Kurds with weapons and diplomatic support. Does anyone know if this is happening?