Iranian Kurdistan News in brief – January 28, 2015
Ekurd
Posted on January 28, 2015 by Editorial Staff in Iranian Kurdistan News in brief
Kurdish politicla prisoner Fakhredin Faraji Transferred to a Hospital in Birjand
Fakhredin Faraji, a Kurdish political prisoner of Tabas prison was transferred to medical center outside the prison. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on Monday 26th January, Fakhredin Faraji, political prisoners of Tabas prison, was transferred to a hospital in the city of Birjand. This political prisoner who suffers from lumbar disc and consequently from severe back pain will have an operation in that hospital. It is to say, Fakhredin Faraji has been transferred to Tabas prison since 4 years ago and now is held with another political prisoner named Mohammad Amin Abdullahi at this prison. Fakhredin Faraji who was arrested along with three others on 6th June 2011 near Shovisheh, a village of Sine (Sanandaj) in Iranian Kurdistan, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and on 25th August 2012 and was sentenced to endure thirty years imprisonment and exile to Tabas by the branch 1 of Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj on charges of acting against national security and membership in Komaleh party. hra-news.org| Ekurd.net
PJAK: Political/military operations of Iran is to militarize Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat)
“Mass arrests, raids artillery of Iran, political operations and military presence in Kurdistan is the meaning of militarizing the Kurdish region,” said the Council of Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) in a statement. The statement of PJAK is as follows: “After growth of quality of knowledge of the peoples of the Middle East and increase its presence in the political arena, social and cultural rights, the government used both global as well as regional powers to try to lower the higher frequency and intensity, positive and compressing it. Iran as a country participating in the current issues of regional and global impact on the entire plane surfaces have taken their domestic and foreign mutual policy; and the other side is its participation in world affairs, they require their rights, as well as with a combination of policies of classic and modern colonial policy in domestic politics, attempts to violate the equal rights of Iranian nationalities. With the balance of Iran’s demand for world power, we witnessed the growth policy of occupation and imperialists of this government to the Iranian nationalities in the political geography of the country. The PJAK, or the (Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistane) (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), is a militant Kurdish nationalist group based on the border areas between Iraq’s Kurdistan region and Iran’s Kurdish region. Since 2004 the PJAK took up arms took up arms to establish a semi-autonomous Kurdish regional entities or Kurdish federal states in Iran, similar to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq. The PJAK has about 3,000 armed militiamen, half the members of PJAK are women…diclehaber.com | Ekurd.net
Kurdish Sunni Imam severely beaten in Iranian Kurdistan
Bokan: A Kurdish Imam from Iran’s Kurdish minority was left unconscious in a field in Iranian Kurdistan (West Azerbaijan province) after being interrogated and savagely beaten by plain-clothed officers on Monday 19 January 2015. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Ali Hosseinzadeh, the Imam of the Khankandi village mosque in the city of Miandoab, was pursued by plain-clothed armed officers near the village of Dash Band on the Bokan-Miandoab road on Monday evening. He was chased by the armed officers, who were travelling in two cars with personalized number plates, until he was detained near the village of Anbar in the Akhtachi-ye Sharqi Rural District. He was immediately blindfolded, and officers began to interrogate him in the open field. After refusing to answer their questions or participate in the field interrogation, the officers began to attack him. The officers punched and beat him severely, and suffocated him by pushing his head into the mud, before they abandoned his lifeless body. Out of the five attackers, four had been Persian speakers, indicating that they were not local to the area. Only one of the officers had spoken in Kurdish…hra-news.org| Ekurd.net
jueves, 29 de enero de 2015
jueves, 9 de octubre de 2014
PDKI- Back to War?
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/02102014
ERBIL,— A Kurdish rebel group’s battles with Iran is drawing a mixed response from other opposition groups that have pledged to lay down their arms against the Islamic Republic.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI’s) fights with the Iranian military in Iran last month marked the first clashes between the two in years. Several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups including KDPI are based in South Kurdistan, but most agreed to respect the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) demand that they not carry out armed operations against the Islamic Republic.
KDPI, however, has claimed responsibility for the recent battles just over the border in Iran and announced that they are deploying their fighters to Iran for “political activities,” apparently in defiance of the KRG’s stance.
The fighting, which began in mid-September, has mostly occurred outside of the Kurdish Iranian cities of Sardasht and Piranshahr and has killed at least five Iranian soldiers and several Kurdish rebels. An Iranian army commander and a KDPI fighter were killed and several others wounded last week in a clash in Shino.
Despite the concerns of the KRG, which has allowed KDPI and other Iranian Kurdish opposition groups to use the region as a base for decades, KDPI senior official Omer Balaki announced the group will not retreat from the Iranian Kurdistan.
He said KDPI’s fighters “have been inside Iranian Kurdistan and they are conducting political activities. It is very normal that the Iranian government won’t stand for this. We will continue our path,” Balaki added.
In a sign of increased tensions with the KRG, KDPI officials have recently refused to meet with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) which runs security along the Iraqi side of the border in the north.
Officials from Iraq’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has strained relations with Iran but brokered a major peace deal between the Islamic Republic and Kurdish rebels in 2011, have refused to comment the uptick in fighting.
Other Iranian Kurdish opposition groups are split on the KDPI’s new armed campaign against Iran.
Karim Karimi, a senior official with the Kurdistan Tailors’ Movement, said his group is ready to fight.
“We will support any Kurdish political parties that fight the Islamic Republic,” he said.
Last year, KDPI fighters called for attacking Iran but the party’s leadership rejected the proposal.
The Kurdistan Revolutionary Tailors’ Movement, another Iranian Kurdish opposition group, supports civil resistance against the Islamic Republic but is not speaking out against KDPI.
Senior leader Anwar Mohammadi said, “Each party will decide for itself on its form of struggle.”
The Kurdistan Freedom Party, which has fought along with Peshmerga against Islamic State militants in the South Kurdistan, believes that thewww.Ekurd.net current environment is “not appropriate” for armed activities and such activities would damage the interests of the South Kurdistan, said Rizgar Abaszade, a member of the party’s leadership.
Haji Jundi, a prominent KDPI commander currently based in Germany, said the time is right for armed struggle but the parties don’t have enough experienced fighters. He said he expects the fighters could suffer losses in the early stages but will gradually gain experience.
Kamil Nuranifard, a member of the Kurdistan Struggle Agency leadership committee, told Rudaw, “We support any armed activities against the Islamic Republic.”
As to whether the Kurdistan Struggle Agency is willing to fight Iran, Nuranifard said, “Why not? If we have a good opportunity we will resume armed struggle.”
ERBIL,— A Kurdish rebel group’s battles with Iran is drawing a mixed response from other opposition groups that have pledged to lay down their arms against the Islamic Republic.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI’s) fights with the Iranian military in Iran last month marked the first clashes between the two in years. Several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups including KDPI are based in South Kurdistan, but most agreed to respect the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) demand that they not carry out armed operations against the Islamic Republic.
KDPI, however, has claimed responsibility for the recent battles just over the border in Iran and announced that they are deploying their fighters to Iran for “political activities,” apparently in defiance of the KRG’s stance.
The fighting, which began in mid-September, has mostly occurred outside of the Kurdish Iranian cities of Sardasht and Piranshahr and has killed at least five Iranian soldiers and several Kurdish rebels. An Iranian army commander and a KDPI fighter were killed and several others wounded last week in a clash in Shino.
Despite the concerns of the KRG, which has allowed KDPI and other Iranian Kurdish opposition groups to use the region as a base for decades, KDPI senior official Omer Balaki announced the group will not retreat from the Iranian Kurdistan.
He said KDPI’s fighters “have been inside Iranian Kurdistan and they are conducting political activities. It is very normal that the Iranian government won’t stand for this. We will continue our path,” Balaki added.
In a sign of increased tensions with the KRG, KDPI officials have recently refused to meet with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) which runs security along the Iraqi side of the border in the north.
Officials from Iraq’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has strained relations with Iran but brokered a major peace deal between the Islamic Republic and Kurdish rebels in 2011, have refused to comment the uptick in fighting.
Other Iranian Kurdish opposition groups are split on the KDPI’s new armed campaign against Iran.
Karim Karimi, a senior official with the Kurdistan Tailors’ Movement, said his group is ready to fight.
“We will support any Kurdish political parties that fight the Islamic Republic,” he said.
Last year, KDPI fighters called for attacking Iran but the party’s leadership rejected the proposal.
The Kurdistan Revolutionary Tailors’ Movement, another Iranian Kurdish opposition group, supports civil resistance against the Islamic Republic but is not speaking out against KDPI.
Senior leader Anwar Mohammadi said, “Each party will decide for itself on its form of struggle.”
The Kurdistan Freedom Party, which has fought along with Peshmerga against Islamic State militants in the South Kurdistan, believes that thewww.Ekurd.net current environment is “not appropriate” for armed activities and such activities would damage the interests of the South Kurdistan, said Rizgar Abaszade, a member of the party’s leadership.
Haji Jundi, a prominent KDPI commander currently based in Germany, said the time is right for armed struggle but the parties don’t have enough experienced fighters. He said he expects the fighters could suffer losses in the early stages but will gradually gain experience.
Kamil Nuranifard, a member of the Kurdistan Struggle Agency leadership committee, told Rudaw, “We support any armed activities against the Islamic Republic.”
As to whether the Kurdistan Struggle Agency is willing to fight Iran, Nuranifard said, “Why not? If we have a good opportunity we will resume armed struggle.”
They Did Not Ask "Am I My Brother's Keeper?"
At present, the East Kurdish Parties (PDKI, Komala, PJAK, and others) have all risen to the call to help defend the people of South Kurdistan against ISIS. What Kenny Young says here can well be said of all the groups from all the regions of Kurdistan who have joined the war effort. Kurds have also been at the forefront in rescuing and organizing defense for Christians, Yezitis, Assyrians, and all the other minorities who were otherwise defenseless.
(From the PDKI website.)
The PDKI didn’t ask “am I my brother’s keeper?”
by PDKI | on August 14, 2014 | in Articles | Like it
By Kenny Young
On paper, our sister party in Iranian Kurdistan – the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) is similar to the Labour Party. The PDKI was founded with “an explicit commitment to democracy, liberty, social justice and gender equality”. They share the values we prize in a region whose regimes are often lacking in all of the above. When you look for bastions of democracy and progress in the Middle East, our comrades in the PDKI are a good place to start. But that’s a longer article for a gentler time.
Over the past few weeks, thousands of Kurds have joined the PDKI’s Peshmerga units and have marched south to face Islamic State (IS) fanatics in towns and villages across northern Iraq/southern Kurdistan. Veterans from Kurdistan’s wars against the Iranian regime’s repression; new recruits; women fighters as well as men, have all put aside old factional disputes with other groups to stand alongside the Kurdish Regional Government’s forces against an enemy universally agreed to be cruel and murderous.
The Islamic State was made to look unstoppable, because the Iraqi army melted away in the face of a group that has made terror and extreme, almost maniacal, violence its trademark. After liberating a village from IS control in Gewar, one PDKI Peshmerga is reported as saying “we do not fear these terrorists”. Perhaps one side-effect from standing almost alone against Iranian regime oppression is that it has bred a particularly hardy volunteer force, dedicated to tolerance and the idea of a safe, secure Kurdistan.
After gaining air support, Peshmerga forces have proven an effective bulwark against the fanatical hatred of this misnamed “Islamic State”, but it is still extremely early days. PDKI statements say they have liberated several villages and handed IS prisoners over to the Government. Following this success, it now looks as though PDKI units will be used as reserve forces, standing behind Kurdish Regional Government troops – on alert but back from the frontline for now.
It remains to be seen what further contribution the Socialist International’s comrades in Iranian Kurdistan will make during this crisis, but I was able to speak to my friend Loghman Ahmedi, the PDKI’s Head of International Relations, over the past few days. He was clear that IS forces pose a threat to Kurdistan as a whole, but also that:
“It is our duty to both protect the defenceless civilians in the region against this brutal organisation and to preserve the democratic and progressive government in Iraqi Kurdistan.”
So it’s a war of necessary survival, but it’s also about standing against crimes that – in principle – we assume are beyond the pale: beheadings; forced starvation; torture; rape and genocide. They are only beyond the pale if someone will stop them.
Chronicles of our time will mark the killings in Rwanda and the atrocities of Srebrenica as events that happened because nobody would step in. It remains to be seen what will happen in Kurdistan and Iraq. We do not yet know if the torture inflicted on the Yazidi will end in a completed genocide, but what we do know is that the men and women of the PDKI didn’t ask “am I my brother’s keeper?”.
They marched to the front line – some reports say with 60 bullets each – not because it was expedient, nor because they share a faith with all of those being victimised, but because they were in a position to do something and they wouldn’t stand by.
As the crisis continues, the world must give them – and the other Kurdish forces they fight alongside – the support they need to continue protecting civilians from IS forces.
Kenny Young previously worked as press officer for Gordon Brown and Ed Milliband of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom
(From the PDKI website.)
The PDKI didn’t ask “am I my brother’s keeper?”
by PDKI | on August 14, 2014 | in Articles | Like it
By Kenny Young
On paper, our sister party in Iranian Kurdistan – the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) is similar to the Labour Party. The PDKI was founded with “an explicit commitment to democracy, liberty, social justice and gender equality”. They share the values we prize in a region whose regimes are often lacking in all of the above. When you look for bastions of democracy and progress in the Middle East, our comrades in the PDKI are a good place to start. But that’s a longer article for a gentler time.
Over the past few weeks, thousands of Kurds have joined the PDKI’s Peshmerga units and have marched south to face Islamic State (IS) fanatics in towns and villages across northern Iraq/southern Kurdistan. Veterans from Kurdistan’s wars against the Iranian regime’s repression; new recruits; women fighters as well as men, have all put aside old factional disputes with other groups to stand alongside the Kurdish Regional Government’s forces against an enemy universally agreed to be cruel and murderous.
The Islamic State was made to look unstoppable, because the Iraqi army melted away in the face of a group that has made terror and extreme, almost maniacal, violence its trademark. After liberating a village from IS control in Gewar, one PDKI Peshmerga is reported as saying “we do not fear these terrorists”. Perhaps one side-effect from standing almost alone against Iranian regime oppression is that it has bred a particularly hardy volunteer force, dedicated to tolerance and the idea of a safe, secure Kurdistan.
After gaining air support, Peshmerga forces have proven an effective bulwark against the fanatical hatred of this misnamed “Islamic State”, but it is still extremely early days. PDKI statements say they have liberated several villages and handed IS prisoners over to the Government. Following this success, it now looks as though PDKI units will be used as reserve forces, standing behind Kurdish Regional Government troops – on alert but back from the frontline for now.
It remains to be seen what further contribution the Socialist International’s comrades in Iranian Kurdistan will make during this crisis, but I was able to speak to my friend Loghman Ahmedi, the PDKI’s Head of International Relations, over the past few days. He was clear that IS forces pose a threat to Kurdistan as a whole, but also that:
“It is our duty to both protect the defenceless civilians in the region against this brutal organisation and to preserve the democratic and progressive government in Iraqi Kurdistan.”
So it’s a war of necessary survival, but it’s also about standing against crimes that – in principle – we assume are beyond the pale: beheadings; forced starvation; torture; rape and genocide. They are only beyond the pale if someone will stop them.
Chronicles of our time will mark the killings in Rwanda and the atrocities of Srebrenica as events that happened because nobody would step in. It remains to be seen what will happen in Kurdistan and Iraq. We do not yet know if the torture inflicted on the Yazidi will end in a completed genocide, but what we do know is that the men and women of the PDKI didn’t ask “am I my brother’s keeper?”.
They marched to the front line – some reports say with 60 bullets each – not because it was expedient, nor because they share a faith with all of those being victimised, but because they were in a position to do something and they wouldn’t stand by.
As the crisis continues, the world must give them – and the other Kurdish forces they fight alongside – the support they need to continue protecting civilians from IS forces.
Kenny Young previously worked as press officer for Gordon Brown and Ed Milliband of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom
Former Peshmerga killed by Iran- Ferhad Mohammadi
A former Peshmerga has been murdered, the PDKI says- at present this release from them is all that is known but any updates will be posted:
A former PDKI Peshmerga by the name of Ferhad Mohammadi was brutally murdered by individuals affiliated with Iran's Basij forces in the Soma Bradost region outside the Kurdish city of Ourmye. Mohammadi was beheaded and his heart was cut out of his body and left next to his body according to witnesses.
Iran spread miss information and claimed it was ISIS that beheaded former PDKI Peshmerga Ferhad Mohammadi. All Kurdish witnesses in the region state that it was individuals affiliated with Iran's Basij force that brutally kille Mohammadi. http://nisannews.net/?p=2587
(Some background on the Basij:
http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/basij-resistance-force
http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/terrorism-fundamentalism/16496-iran-senior-irgc-commander-130-000-trained-basij-forces-waiting-to-enter-syria)
A former PDKI Peshmerga by the name of Ferhad Mohammadi was brutally murdered by individuals affiliated with Iran's Basij forces in the Soma Bradost region outside the Kurdish city of Ourmye. Mohammadi was beheaded and his heart was cut out of his body and left next to his body according to witnesses.
Iran spread miss information and claimed it was ISIS that beheaded former PDKI Peshmerga Ferhad Mohammadi. All Kurdish witnesses in the region state that it was individuals affiliated with Iran's Basij force that brutally kille Mohammadi. http://nisannews.net/?p=2587
(Some background on the Basij:
http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/basij-resistance-force
http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/terrorism-fundamentalism/16496-iran-senior-irgc-commander-130-000-trained-basij-forces-waiting-to-enter-syria)
miércoles, 8 de octubre de 2014
Round up of News in East Kurdistan- Oct. 7
Iranian Kurdistan News in brief
October 7, 2014
Mariwan - Mehabad - Sanandaj (Sne) - Baneh - Saqiz - Paweh- Kermanshan - Urmiyê (Orumiye), Nowsud, Sardasht, Bokan, Paweh, west Azerbaijan, [Eastern Kurdistan, Iranian Kurdistan]
A Kurdish civilian was killed by IRGC forces
Iran's IRGC forces opened fire on a number of Kurdish Carrier man (Kolrbar) and killed Pedram Mohammadi, 19, at the scene. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on Monday, 29th September, Revolutionary Guard’s “Border Guard troops” at the border checkpoint, called Jaleh, in Bayngan region of “Markheyl” opened fire towards a group of Carriers men, Kolbaran. A 19-year-old young man, Pedarm Mohammadi son of Anoshirvan, from Serias village in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) was killed instantly and four others who were with him were detained. A local source identified those four people as following: Reykot Mohammadi, Arash Hosseini, Shirzad Hosseini and Horman Hosseini. Kolbaran (carriers) are a group of edgy workers who have to earn their living expenses by carrying goods. They mostly work in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah. They are perforce to carry these items and sell them for a meager wages. They transport these foreign goods outside of the official customs. hra-news.org | Ekurd.net
Security forces threatened a Kurdish family in Dehgolan
The intelligence service has investigated the house of Mohammad Hossain Panahi and threatened the people inside the house. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), intelligence forces with cooperation of Basij headquarter of Gharv-Chay village, the suburbe area of Dehgholan, rushed in Mohammad Hossain Panahi’s house and investigated the house for long time and threatened the family. Mohammad Hossain Panahi is the father of Anvar Hossain Panahi who is a civil right activist of Kurdistan and was arrested by security forces in Autumn 2007 and in Spring was sentenced to death by revolutionary court of Sne (Sanandaj) in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) . This sentence was reduced to six years in prison after international human rights organizations protested at it. He is now released from prison, but is banned from going back to Kurdistan and lives in exile in Tehran. hra-news.org | Ekurd.net
"40 Percent of Political Prisoners in Iran are Kurds"
http://m.basnews.com/en/News/Details/40-Percent-of-Political-Prisoners-in-Iran-are-Kurds-/34021
BasNews, New York
The Secretary-General of the United Nations said that the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani’s consideration of human rights in Iran remains symbolic, with serious efforts for improvement yet to be seen.
In his annual report about human rights in Iran, Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, expressed concern that execution rates in Iran have risen.
’President Rouhani has pledged to decrease restrictions on freedom of expression and to ensure security for the press,’ the report said.
’Unfortunately, those promises have not yet led to significant improvements, and restrictions on freedom of expression continue to affect many areas of life,’ added the UN report.
Ban Ki-moon added that journalists still have obstacles ahead of them and different ethnic and religious minorities continue to face persecution.
Meanwhile, human rights activists in Iran claim that 40% of political prisoners in Iran are Kurds. Among this contingent, 15 face execution.
They also announced that in the past two months, 140 people in Kurdish cities have been arrested, 111 of which were by security forces.
According to media reports, there were between 624 and 727 executions in Iran last year. Estimates for 2012 executions range from 314 to 580.
Release from the PDKI:
Four Kurdish political prisoners in Ourmye prison stage a hunger strike in solidarity with Kobani. The names of the political prisoners on hunger strike are Mohammed Abdullahi, Keiwan Dawodi, Mansor Arwand and Molod Yezdanpenah
October 7, 2014
Mariwan - Mehabad - Sanandaj (Sne) - Baneh - Saqiz - Paweh- Kermanshan - Urmiyê (Orumiye), Nowsud, Sardasht, Bokan, Paweh, west Azerbaijan, [Eastern Kurdistan, Iranian Kurdistan]
A Kurdish civilian was killed by IRGC forces
Iran's IRGC forces opened fire on a number of Kurdish Carrier man (Kolrbar) and killed Pedram Mohammadi, 19, at the scene. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on Monday, 29th September, Revolutionary Guard’s “Border Guard troops” at the border checkpoint, called Jaleh, in Bayngan region of “Markheyl” opened fire towards a group of Carriers men, Kolbaran. A 19-year-old young man, Pedarm Mohammadi son of Anoshirvan, from Serias village in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) was killed instantly and four others who were with him were detained. A local source identified those four people as following: Reykot Mohammadi, Arash Hosseini, Shirzad Hosseini and Horman Hosseini. Kolbaran (carriers) are a group of edgy workers who have to earn their living expenses by carrying goods. They mostly work in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah. They are perforce to carry these items and sell them for a meager wages. They transport these foreign goods outside of the official customs. hra-news.org | Ekurd.net
Security forces threatened a Kurdish family in Dehgolan
The intelligence service has investigated the house of Mohammad Hossain Panahi and threatened the people inside the house. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), intelligence forces with cooperation of Basij headquarter of Gharv-Chay village, the suburbe area of Dehgholan, rushed in Mohammad Hossain Panahi’s house and investigated the house for long time and threatened the family. Mohammad Hossain Panahi is the father of Anvar Hossain Panahi who is a civil right activist of Kurdistan and was arrested by security forces in Autumn 2007 and in Spring was sentenced to death by revolutionary court of Sne (Sanandaj) in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) . This sentence was reduced to six years in prison after international human rights organizations protested at it. He is now released from prison, but is banned from going back to Kurdistan and lives in exile in Tehran. hra-news.org | Ekurd.net
"40 Percent of Political Prisoners in Iran are Kurds"
http://m.basnews.com/en/News/Details/40-Percent-of-Political-Prisoners-in-Iran-are-Kurds-/34021
BasNews, New York
The Secretary-General of the United Nations said that the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani’s consideration of human rights in Iran remains symbolic, with serious efforts for improvement yet to be seen.
In his annual report about human rights in Iran, Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, expressed concern that execution rates in Iran have risen.
’President Rouhani has pledged to decrease restrictions on freedom of expression and to ensure security for the press,’ the report said.
’Unfortunately, those promises have not yet led to significant improvements, and restrictions on freedom of expression continue to affect many areas of life,’ added the UN report.
Ban Ki-moon added that journalists still have obstacles ahead of them and different ethnic and religious minorities continue to face persecution.
Meanwhile, human rights activists in Iran claim that 40% of political prisoners in Iran are Kurds. Among this contingent, 15 face execution.
They also announced that in the past two months, 140 people in Kurdish cities have been arrested, 111 of which were by security forces.
According to media reports, there were between 624 and 727 executions in Iran last year. Estimates for 2012 executions range from 314 to 580.
Release from the PDKI:
Four Kurdish political prisoners in Ourmye prison stage a hunger strike in solidarity with Kobani. The names of the political prisoners on hunger strike are Mohammed Abdullahi, Keiwan Dawodi, Mansor Arwand and Molod Yezdanpenah
viernes, 4 de julio de 2014
The Republic of Mahabad
Qazi Muhammad’s Son Remembers Father’s Role in Mahabad Uprising
By RUDAW 3/4/2014
http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/020420142
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At the time when president Qazi Muhammad was executed by Iranian authorities for leading a short-lived Kurdish republic in Mahabad, his son Ali Qazi was only 13, sitting at home with his family.
On the anniversary of his father’s execution on March 31, 1947, he recalled that Qazi Muhammad, who was president for only a few months before the republic was crushed by the Iranian Shah, was publicly mourned.
"We heard the sounds of people weeping and beating their chests as they approached our home. Then we understood it; then we walked toward Chwarchra."
Muhammad was a well-known and educated Kurdish leader from Mahabad. Along with several colleagues, he began preparations for Kurdish self-determination in 1941, when the Allied powers invaded Iran.
According to his son, the Pahlavi regime had wanted to leave the body of the president and two of his colleagues -- Muhammad Hussein Saif Qazi and Abdul Qassim Sadr Qazi -- in the square for several days after the executions.
“Public pressure from the city of Mahabad -- by closing stores and the market -- forced the regime to transfer the bodies to the people,” he said.
Recounting the final days of his father’s presidency, Ali Qazi called the period a “golden page” in the Kurdish struggle.
"The Republic of Kurdistan is the first and the last Kurdish state that has been established until now," he said. "The Kurdistan Republic is a golden page in the history of the Kurdish liberation struggle."
The Kurdish republic was left stranded after the Soviet Union withdrew its troops and backing from the eastern part of Iran, opening the way for an Iranian crackdown. Ali Qazi explained that his father had vowed not to leave his people behind and decided to face his fate, even after the Kurdish state was left unsupported.
The short-lived Kurdistan Republic was declared on January 22, 1946. It gained support of Kurds from other parts of Kurdistan, mainly Iraq, where former Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani joined the republic, along with thousands of Kurdish fighters.
Ali Qazi castigated Kurdish parties in Iran for not carrying the slogans of freedom and independence for the Kurds.
"President Qazi demanded freedom and independence for the Kurdish people, but if you look at the Iranian Kurdish parties, they have no such slogans."
Qazi said that only his own Kurdistan Free Party (Parti Azadi Kurdistan) has carried these slogans. "We want to raise the Kurdistan flag in Chwarchara once more."
"I don't claim to have served Kurdish people much, but I have served Kurds whenever possible,” he said.
He also added that he and his family had faced lots of persecution by the Iranian governments, and there were even three assassination attempts on him.
In 1990, his sister, Efat Qazi was killed by a letter bomb in Vasteras, Sweden, an incident widely blamed on the Iranian regime.
Ali Qazi said he still had a dream: the formation of a Kurdish state in Greater Kurdistan.
Some photos of the 1946 rebellion, including the execution of its leaders:
http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=9bd_1375841079
Some footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCmYyU5ZNx4
Mahabad – the first independent Kurdish republic
http://kurdistantribune.com/2011/mahabad-first-independent-kurdish-republic/
Written on June 12, 2011 by Editor in History, Iran
By Mufid Abdulla:
One of an occasional series of articles on aspects of Kurdish history
The first independent Kurdish republic was in Iran. The ‘State of Republic of Kurdistan’ was founded in Mahabad in January 1946 and, although it survived for less than a year, it greatly inspired Kurdish nationalists everywhere.
Abdication of Reza Shah
The backdrop to this heroic chapter was the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, carried out primarily to ensure a ‘Persian corridor’ for US Land-Lease supplies to reach the Soviet Union. The invasion led to the abdication of the pro-Nazi Iranian sovereign Reza Shah, who had a record of brutal repression of the Kurds who comprised around ten per cent of Iran’s population. He tried to ban the Kurdish language and national dress and destroy tribal and other organisations through a programme of executions and deportations. Most Kurds welcomed the advance of the Soviet Red Army into northern Iran and armed themselves with weapons abandoned by the retreating Iranian forces. However, Soviet forces were at this stage committed to upholding Iran’s independence and integrity, and initial Kurdish overtures towards the Red Army met with a cool response. A British commentator noted at the time:
“In the north, Kurdish eyes were turned towards Russia. When the Russians entered Iran in 1941 hopes were aroused that they might assist the Kurdish independence movement, but their very correct behaviour quickly gave the Kurds the impression that any such hopes were vain” (1).
The Soviets did forge links with many of the tribal leaders by arranging for a group to spend a fortnight in Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, but they gave a non-committal response to demands that the Kurds be allowed to keep all the rifles that they had accumulated. In May 1942 a meeting between Soviet officials and tribal leaders reached deadlock because the Soviet Union was calling for Iranian officials and regulations to be treated with respect, and seized weapons returned to them, while the Kurds demanded that their language to be used in schools and called for ‘freedom in their national affairs’. As William Eagleton Junior put it:
“Nothing came of the meeting except perhaps a growing realisation on the Soviet side that their security problems were beginning to take on a Kurdish nationalist aspect” (2).
The Komala and Qazi Muhammad
Despite Soviet aloofness at this stage, Allied propaganda denouncing the Axis powers for enslaving other nations and calling for political freedom and national self-determination had a strong impact on many Kurds and this was reflected in the establishment of Komala-I-Zhian-Kurd (Committee of the Life of Kurdistan) in Mahabad in September 1942.
Mahabad was a small town of around 16,000 people situated south of the Soviet sphere of influence. The last vestige of authority of the Iranian government in the town was removed in May 1943 when, in response to sugar rationing, a crowd besieged and destroyed the police station, killing several of its inhabitants. The most powerful figure in the town was Qazi Muhammad a hereditary judge who set up a militia to protect the town from raids by the more predatory roving tribal gangs. Mahabad now enjoyed de-facto independence from the government in Tehran.
Initially Qazi Muhammad was not a member of the Komala. In fact, he was unaware of this secret organisation’s existence for about a year. The Komala was formed by a group of fifteen local citizens, aged from nineteen to fifty, who had sworn an oath never to betray the Kurdish nation and to work for self-government. They represented urban pan-Kurdish nationalism and an alternative to the hitherto predominant tribalism. An article in the first issue of Komala’s magazine vehemently denounced the tribalists:
”You the aghas and leaders of Kurdish tribes, think for yourself and judge why the enemy gives you so much money … they give it because they know it will become capital to delay the liberation of the Kurds and hope that in a few years this capital will create intrigues detrimental to the Kurds” (3).
In April 1943 around 100 members of the Komala gathered on a hill outside the town and elected a central committee to coordinate the work of their growing organisation. Komala’s influence spread through much of northern Iran and also into Iraq. In March 1944, it sent Muhammad Amin Sharifi to Kirkuk to meet representatives of the Iraqi Kurdish Hewa party and a few months later the Sulaymani branch of Hewa sent its representatives on a return visit to Mahabad. In May, the Komala and it Iraqi allies designed a Kurdish national flag – a tricolour of red, white and green with a sun mounted by heads of wheat with a mountain and a pen in the background – as a symbol of the Kurdish nation. Then, in August, an historic meeting of Kurds was held at Mount Dalanpar where the frontiers of Iraq, Iran and Turkey intersect. The delegates signed an agreement, known as the Pact of Three Borders, to support each other in the cause of a greater Kurdistan.
Qazi Muhammad joined Komala in 1944 after the central committee initially turned him down, worried – rightly, as it turned out – that he would take control. In March 1945, the movement went public with the performance of a play attended by many of the local tribal leaders who were now sympathetic. ‘Daik i Nisitiman’ portrayed an old woman being abused by three hooligans (Iran, Iraq and Turkey) and then rescued by the united efforts of her sons. According to an American observer, it made the desired impact:
“… the audience, unused to dramatic representations, was deeply moved, and blood-feuds generations old were composed as lifelong enemies fell weeping on each other’s shoulders and swore to avenge Kurdistan” (4).
Soviet Union pursues oil concessions and backs Kurds
These developments coincided with a shift in strategy by the Soviet Union, now buoyant following its tremendous military victories over Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union wanted to press the Iranian government to grant it oil concessions and decided to encourage separatist movements among the Iranian Azerbaijanis and Kurds as a bargaining chip. Soviet agents flooded into Iranian Kurdistan and tried to control the direction of the Komala.
In September 1945, Qazi Muhammad and a group of prominent Kurds were invited for a second visit to Baku. At a reception with Mir Jafar Baghirov, the head of the Azerbaijan Communist Party, the Kurds made clear their wish for a separate Kurdish state backed by Soviet arms and money. Baghirov told them that their desire for statehood could not be immediately fulfilled because they were dependent on developments in three countries (Iran, Iraq and Turkey) and, in the interim, the aspirations of Iran’s Kurds could be met within an autonomous region of Iranian Azerbaijan. Qazi Muhammad stood up to insist that the Kurds wanted separate autonomy and Baghirov changed his tune.
“Banging his fist on the table, he proclaimed that, as long as the Soviet Union exists, the Kurds will have their independence. Qazi rose to the emotional pitch of his host by declaring that a weak nation would welcome any hand extended to it: ‘Not only will we shake it we will also kiss it’” (5).
Qazi went on the press the case for material support and Baghirov pledged the delivery of military equipment, including tanks, cannon, machine guns and rifles, in “emphatic if general terms” (6). He also argued for the Komala to convert itself into a fully fledged party – the Democratic Party of Kurdistan.
This proposal was implemented soon after the delegation returned to Mahabad. The new party’s manifesto was signed by many leading Kurds who demanded:
“We must fight for our rights … It is for this sacred aim that the Kurdish Democratic Party has been established in Mahabad …It is the party that will be able to secure its national independence within the borders of Persia” (7).
The party’s programme consisted of the following points: the Kurds in Iran should have freedom and self-government in the administration of their local affairs and obtain autonomy within the limits of the Iranian state; the Kurdish language should be the medium of education and administration; a provincial council for Kurdistan should be elected to supervise state and social matters; all government officials should be Kurds; revenue collected in Kurdistan should be spent there; the development of the local economy, public health and education; unity and fraternity with the Azerbaijani people; and the establishment of a single law for peasants and notables.
Barzani arrives
The launch coincided with the arrival in Iran of the Iraqi Kurd leader Mustafa Barzani with several thousand fighters and their families following the defeat of their uprising in Iraq.
Although Soviet officials feared that Barzani was close to the British he soon forged an alliance with Qazi Muhammad who arranged for the Iraqi Kurds to be billeted in Mahabad and other neighbouring towns.
Republic proclaimed
In December 1945 the Iranian garrison in Tabriz, the effective capital of Iranian Azerbaijan, surrendered to the militia forces of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party which proclaimed an Azerbaijan People’s Government and assumed authority for all of eastern (Iranian) Azerbaijan. From the outset it had the trappings of a Soviet-backed regime, including a proclamation of land reform and a secret police force. These events created pressure on Qazi Muhammad to follow suit or risk being outflanked by younger, more militant nationalist elements in Mahabad. On 22 January 1946 he proclaimed the establishment of the Republic of Kurdistan at a meeting in the town centre attended by local citizens, tribal leaders from across the region and three Soviet officers. A national parliament of thirteen members was approved by the crowd, as was the election of Qazi Muhammad as president of the republic.
That same day the new president announced the opening of a high school for girls, a significant reform in a region where the education of girls was practically non-existent. The Kurdish parliament passed laws for universal and compulsory elementary education, with free instruction, clothing, food and textbooks for the children of the poor. Teaching in the Kurdish language was introduced for the first time though, for practical reasons, Kurdish textbooks only became available shortly before the fall of the republic.
The Soviet influence was more subdued here than in Azerbaijan. The Kurds hung portraits in Stalin in government offices but there was no significant repression and no secret police. In an interview with a French journalist, Qazi Muhammad expressed a conciliatory approach to the Tehran government:
“The Kurds would be satisfied if the central government decided really to apply democratic laws throughout Iran and recognised the laws now in force in Kurdistan concerning the education of the Kurd and the autonomy of the local administration and the army.
“The situation in Kurdistan is very different from that in Azerbaijan. Our country has never been occupied by Soviet troops and since the abdication of Reza Shah, neither the gendarmerie nor Iranian troops have penetrated into Kurdistan. We have therefore practically been living in independence since that time. Further we shall never tolerate foreign intervention wherever it comes from. The question of Kurdistan is a purely internal affair which should be settled between Kurds and the central government” (8).
Indeed Soviet material support was much more limited than many Kurds had hoped for: a vital printing press arrived, together with a supply of rifles and pistols but there were no tanks.
Soviet Union and tribal leaders backtrack
Although the Kurds did not realise it, the fate of their republic was sealed the moment the Soviet Union pledged to withdraw all its forces from Iran in return for the prospect of oil concessions. Shortly after this the fledging Azerbaijan regime in Tabriz signed an agreement with Tehran formally reverting to Iranian sovereignty and leaving the Kurds effectively isolated. The Republic of Kurdistan had established an army of around 13,000 fighters, including the big contingent of Iraqi Kurds under the command of Barzani. The Kurds even contemplated a southern offensive against Iranian forces but this plan was shelved in response to Soviet warnings.
When Qazi Muhammad began negotiations with Tehran it was from a weakening position, especially because many Kurdish tribal leaders were now distancing themselves. They were motivated by a variety of factors, including historic hostility to Russia, religious hostility to the atheist Soviet Union, concern about the economic viability of the republic, resentment toward the Iraqi Kurd Barzani (who was one of the republic’s four generals), annoyance that the republic’s president was not himself a traditional tribal leader and finally a shrewd sense of where the wind was blowing and a desire not to be on the losing side. In December the Iranian army entered Tabriz and the pro-Soviet regime collapsed instantly, with most of its leaders fleeing across the border. Although Qazi Muhammad’s war council had pledged to fight the Iranian army, many tribal chiefs and notables were changing sides and it was decided not to resist the occupation of Mahabad.
In the early hours of March 23 1947, Qazi Muhammad, his brother Sadr Qazi, and his cousin Sayf Qadr were hanged at dawn in the town centre where the republic had been proclaimed just ten months before. It was a vindictive act by the Tehran regime against the leaders of a popular, progressive and largely peaceful nationalist movement.
An American correspondent wrote:
“… while terrorism reigned unchecked in eastern Azerbaijan, in Kurdistan there were few if any political prisoners and only one or two cases of what may have been political assassination; though a number of Kurds not in sympathy with the regime did flee to Tehran. In the streets of Mahabad one could hear radio broadcasts from Ankara and London, while in Tabriz to listen to these brought the death penalty … the net result was to make the regime popular at least among the citizens of Mahabad who enjoyed their respite from the exactions and oppression they considered to be characteristic of the central Iranian Government” (9).
As the historian David McDowall put it: “The Qazi trio perished because they personified the nationalist ideal” (10).
While the Iranian regime succeeded in cowing Iran’s Kurds for a generation, they also created martyrs who would inspire the Kurdish struggle in Iraq and elsewhere. The tradition of nationalist, as opposed to tribal, struggle became entrenched in the Kurds’ collective consciousness.
References
The Kurdish Question, WG Elphinston, Royal Institute of International Affairs,1946
The Kurdish Republic of 1946, William Eagleton Jr, Oxford University Press, 1963
A Modern History of the Kurds, David McDowall, IB Taurus, 2004
The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, Archie Roosevelt Jr., Middle East Journal, no 1, July 1947
Eagleton
Eagleton
McDowall
Eagleton
Eagleton
McDowall
By RUDAW 3/4/2014
http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/020420142
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At the time when president Qazi Muhammad was executed by Iranian authorities for leading a short-lived Kurdish republic in Mahabad, his son Ali Qazi was only 13, sitting at home with his family.
On the anniversary of his father’s execution on March 31, 1947, he recalled that Qazi Muhammad, who was president for only a few months before the republic was crushed by the Iranian Shah, was publicly mourned.
"We heard the sounds of people weeping and beating their chests as they approached our home. Then we understood it; then we walked toward Chwarchra."
Muhammad was a well-known and educated Kurdish leader from Mahabad. Along with several colleagues, he began preparations for Kurdish self-determination in 1941, when the Allied powers invaded Iran.
According to his son, the Pahlavi regime had wanted to leave the body of the president and two of his colleagues -- Muhammad Hussein Saif Qazi and Abdul Qassim Sadr Qazi -- in the square for several days after the executions.
“Public pressure from the city of Mahabad -- by closing stores and the market -- forced the regime to transfer the bodies to the people,” he said.
Recounting the final days of his father’s presidency, Ali Qazi called the period a “golden page” in the Kurdish struggle.
"The Republic of Kurdistan is the first and the last Kurdish state that has been established until now," he said. "The Kurdistan Republic is a golden page in the history of the Kurdish liberation struggle."
The Kurdish republic was left stranded after the Soviet Union withdrew its troops and backing from the eastern part of Iran, opening the way for an Iranian crackdown. Ali Qazi explained that his father had vowed not to leave his people behind and decided to face his fate, even after the Kurdish state was left unsupported.
The short-lived Kurdistan Republic was declared on January 22, 1946. It gained support of Kurds from other parts of Kurdistan, mainly Iraq, where former Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani joined the republic, along with thousands of Kurdish fighters.
Ali Qazi castigated Kurdish parties in Iran for not carrying the slogans of freedom and independence for the Kurds.
"President Qazi demanded freedom and independence for the Kurdish people, but if you look at the Iranian Kurdish parties, they have no such slogans."
Qazi said that only his own Kurdistan Free Party (Parti Azadi Kurdistan) has carried these slogans. "We want to raise the Kurdistan flag in Chwarchara once more."
"I don't claim to have served Kurdish people much, but I have served Kurds whenever possible,” he said.
He also added that he and his family had faced lots of persecution by the Iranian governments, and there were even three assassination attempts on him.
In 1990, his sister, Efat Qazi was killed by a letter bomb in Vasteras, Sweden, an incident widely blamed on the Iranian regime.
Ali Qazi said he still had a dream: the formation of a Kurdish state in Greater Kurdistan.
Some photos of the 1946 rebellion, including the execution of its leaders:
http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=9bd_1375841079
Some footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCmYyU5ZNx4
Mahabad – the first independent Kurdish republic
http://kurdistantribune.com/2011/mahabad-first-independent-kurdish-republic/
Written on June 12, 2011 by Editor in History, Iran
By Mufid Abdulla:
One of an occasional series of articles on aspects of Kurdish history
The first independent Kurdish republic was in Iran. The ‘State of Republic of Kurdistan’ was founded in Mahabad in January 1946 and, although it survived for less than a year, it greatly inspired Kurdish nationalists everywhere.
Abdication of Reza Shah
The backdrop to this heroic chapter was the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, carried out primarily to ensure a ‘Persian corridor’ for US Land-Lease supplies to reach the Soviet Union. The invasion led to the abdication of the pro-Nazi Iranian sovereign Reza Shah, who had a record of brutal repression of the Kurds who comprised around ten per cent of Iran’s population. He tried to ban the Kurdish language and national dress and destroy tribal and other organisations through a programme of executions and deportations. Most Kurds welcomed the advance of the Soviet Red Army into northern Iran and armed themselves with weapons abandoned by the retreating Iranian forces. However, Soviet forces were at this stage committed to upholding Iran’s independence and integrity, and initial Kurdish overtures towards the Red Army met with a cool response. A British commentator noted at the time:
“In the north, Kurdish eyes were turned towards Russia. When the Russians entered Iran in 1941 hopes were aroused that they might assist the Kurdish independence movement, but their very correct behaviour quickly gave the Kurds the impression that any such hopes were vain” (1).
The Soviets did forge links with many of the tribal leaders by arranging for a group to spend a fortnight in Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, but they gave a non-committal response to demands that the Kurds be allowed to keep all the rifles that they had accumulated. In May 1942 a meeting between Soviet officials and tribal leaders reached deadlock because the Soviet Union was calling for Iranian officials and regulations to be treated with respect, and seized weapons returned to them, while the Kurds demanded that their language to be used in schools and called for ‘freedom in their national affairs’. As William Eagleton Junior put it:
“Nothing came of the meeting except perhaps a growing realisation on the Soviet side that their security problems were beginning to take on a Kurdish nationalist aspect” (2).
The Komala and Qazi Muhammad
Despite Soviet aloofness at this stage, Allied propaganda denouncing the Axis powers for enslaving other nations and calling for political freedom and national self-determination had a strong impact on many Kurds and this was reflected in the establishment of Komala-I-Zhian-Kurd (Committee of the Life of Kurdistan) in Mahabad in September 1942.
Mahabad was a small town of around 16,000 people situated south of the Soviet sphere of influence. The last vestige of authority of the Iranian government in the town was removed in May 1943 when, in response to sugar rationing, a crowd besieged and destroyed the police station, killing several of its inhabitants. The most powerful figure in the town was Qazi Muhammad a hereditary judge who set up a militia to protect the town from raids by the more predatory roving tribal gangs. Mahabad now enjoyed de-facto independence from the government in Tehran.
Initially Qazi Muhammad was not a member of the Komala. In fact, he was unaware of this secret organisation’s existence for about a year. The Komala was formed by a group of fifteen local citizens, aged from nineteen to fifty, who had sworn an oath never to betray the Kurdish nation and to work for self-government. They represented urban pan-Kurdish nationalism and an alternative to the hitherto predominant tribalism. An article in the first issue of Komala’s magazine vehemently denounced the tribalists:
”You the aghas and leaders of Kurdish tribes, think for yourself and judge why the enemy gives you so much money … they give it because they know it will become capital to delay the liberation of the Kurds and hope that in a few years this capital will create intrigues detrimental to the Kurds” (3).
In April 1943 around 100 members of the Komala gathered on a hill outside the town and elected a central committee to coordinate the work of their growing organisation. Komala’s influence spread through much of northern Iran and also into Iraq. In March 1944, it sent Muhammad Amin Sharifi to Kirkuk to meet representatives of the Iraqi Kurdish Hewa party and a few months later the Sulaymani branch of Hewa sent its representatives on a return visit to Mahabad. In May, the Komala and it Iraqi allies designed a Kurdish national flag – a tricolour of red, white and green with a sun mounted by heads of wheat with a mountain and a pen in the background – as a symbol of the Kurdish nation. Then, in August, an historic meeting of Kurds was held at Mount Dalanpar where the frontiers of Iraq, Iran and Turkey intersect. The delegates signed an agreement, known as the Pact of Three Borders, to support each other in the cause of a greater Kurdistan.
Qazi Muhammad joined Komala in 1944 after the central committee initially turned him down, worried – rightly, as it turned out – that he would take control. In March 1945, the movement went public with the performance of a play attended by many of the local tribal leaders who were now sympathetic. ‘Daik i Nisitiman’ portrayed an old woman being abused by three hooligans (Iran, Iraq and Turkey) and then rescued by the united efforts of her sons. According to an American observer, it made the desired impact:
“… the audience, unused to dramatic representations, was deeply moved, and blood-feuds generations old were composed as lifelong enemies fell weeping on each other’s shoulders and swore to avenge Kurdistan” (4).
Soviet Union pursues oil concessions and backs Kurds
These developments coincided with a shift in strategy by the Soviet Union, now buoyant following its tremendous military victories over Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union wanted to press the Iranian government to grant it oil concessions and decided to encourage separatist movements among the Iranian Azerbaijanis and Kurds as a bargaining chip. Soviet agents flooded into Iranian Kurdistan and tried to control the direction of the Komala.
In September 1945, Qazi Muhammad and a group of prominent Kurds were invited for a second visit to Baku. At a reception with Mir Jafar Baghirov, the head of the Azerbaijan Communist Party, the Kurds made clear their wish for a separate Kurdish state backed by Soviet arms and money. Baghirov told them that their desire for statehood could not be immediately fulfilled because they were dependent on developments in three countries (Iran, Iraq and Turkey) and, in the interim, the aspirations of Iran’s Kurds could be met within an autonomous region of Iranian Azerbaijan. Qazi Muhammad stood up to insist that the Kurds wanted separate autonomy and Baghirov changed his tune.
“Banging his fist on the table, he proclaimed that, as long as the Soviet Union exists, the Kurds will have their independence. Qazi rose to the emotional pitch of his host by declaring that a weak nation would welcome any hand extended to it: ‘Not only will we shake it we will also kiss it’” (5).
Qazi went on the press the case for material support and Baghirov pledged the delivery of military equipment, including tanks, cannon, machine guns and rifles, in “emphatic if general terms” (6). He also argued for the Komala to convert itself into a fully fledged party – the Democratic Party of Kurdistan.
This proposal was implemented soon after the delegation returned to Mahabad. The new party’s manifesto was signed by many leading Kurds who demanded:
“We must fight for our rights … It is for this sacred aim that the Kurdish Democratic Party has been established in Mahabad …It is the party that will be able to secure its national independence within the borders of Persia” (7).
The party’s programme consisted of the following points: the Kurds in Iran should have freedom and self-government in the administration of their local affairs and obtain autonomy within the limits of the Iranian state; the Kurdish language should be the medium of education and administration; a provincial council for Kurdistan should be elected to supervise state and social matters; all government officials should be Kurds; revenue collected in Kurdistan should be spent there; the development of the local economy, public health and education; unity and fraternity with the Azerbaijani people; and the establishment of a single law for peasants and notables.
Barzani arrives
The launch coincided with the arrival in Iran of the Iraqi Kurd leader Mustafa Barzani with several thousand fighters and their families following the defeat of their uprising in Iraq.
Although Soviet officials feared that Barzani was close to the British he soon forged an alliance with Qazi Muhammad who arranged for the Iraqi Kurds to be billeted in Mahabad and other neighbouring towns.
Republic proclaimed
In December 1945 the Iranian garrison in Tabriz, the effective capital of Iranian Azerbaijan, surrendered to the militia forces of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party which proclaimed an Azerbaijan People’s Government and assumed authority for all of eastern (Iranian) Azerbaijan. From the outset it had the trappings of a Soviet-backed regime, including a proclamation of land reform and a secret police force. These events created pressure on Qazi Muhammad to follow suit or risk being outflanked by younger, more militant nationalist elements in Mahabad. On 22 January 1946 he proclaimed the establishment of the Republic of Kurdistan at a meeting in the town centre attended by local citizens, tribal leaders from across the region and three Soviet officers. A national parliament of thirteen members was approved by the crowd, as was the election of Qazi Muhammad as president of the republic.
That same day the new president announced the opening of a high school for girls, a significant reform in a region where the education of girls was practically non-existent. The Kurdish parliament passed laws for universal and compulsory elementary education, with free instruction, clothing, food and textbooks for the children of the poor. Teaching in the Kurdish language was introduced for the first time though, for practical reasons, Kurdish textbooks only became available shortly before the fall of the republic.
The Soviet influence was more subdued here than in Azerbaijan. The Kurds hung portraits in Stalin in government offices but there was no significant repression and no secret police. In an interview with a French journalist, Qazi Muhammad expressed a conciliatory approach to the Tehran government:
“The Kurds would be satisfied if the central government decided really to apply democratic laws throughout Iran and recognised the laws now in force in Kurdistan concerning the education of the Kurd and the autonomy of the local administration and the army.
“The situation in Kurdistan is very different from that in Azerbaijan. Our country has never been occupied by Soviet troops and since the abdication of Reza Shah, neither the gendarmerie nor Iranian troops have penetrated into Kurdistan. We have therefore practically been living in independence since that time. Further we shall never tolerate foreign intervention wherever it comes from. The question of Kurdistan is a purely internal affair which should be settled between Kurds and the central government” (8).
Indeed Soviet material support was much more limited than many Kurds had hoped for: a vital printing press arrived, together with a supply of rifles and pistols but there were no tanks.
Soviet Union and tribal leaders backtrack
Although the Kurds did not realise it, the fate of their republic was sealed the moment the Soviet Union pledged to withdraw all its forces from Iran in return for the prospect of oil concessions. Shortly after this the fledging Azerbaijan regime in Tabriz signed an agreement with Tehran formally reverting to Iranian sovereignty and leaving the Kurds effectively isolated. The Republic of Kurdistan had established an army of around 13,000 fighters, including the big contingent of Iraqi Kurds under the command of Barzani. The Kurds even contemplated a southern offensive against Iranian forces but this plan was shelved in response to Soviet warnings.
When Qazi Muhammad began negotiations with Tehran it was from a weakening position, especially because many Kurdish tribal leaders were now distancing themselves. They were motivated by a variety of factors, including historic hostility to Russia, religious hostility to the atheist Soviet Union, concern about the economic viability of the republic, resentment toward the Iraqi Kurd Barzani (who was one of the republic’s four generals), annoyance that the republic’s president was not himself a traditional tribal leader and finally a shrewd sense of where the wind was blowing and a desire not to be on the losing side. In December the Iranian army entered Tabriz and the pro-Soviet regime collapsed instantly, with most of its leaders fleeing across the border. Although Qazi Muhammad’s war council had pledged to fight the Iranian army, many tribal chiefs and notables were changing sides and it was decided not to resist the occupation of Mahabad.
In the early hours of March 23 1947, Qazi Muhammad, his brother Sadr Qazi, and his cousin Sayf Qadr were hanged at dawn in the town centre where the republic had been proclaimed just ten months before. It was a vindictive act by the Tehran regime against the leaders of a popular, progressive and largely peaceful nationalist movement.
An American correspondent wrote:
“… while terrorism reigned unchecked in eastern Azerbaijan, in Kurdistan there were few if any political prisoners and only one or two cases of what may have been political assassination; though a number of Kurds not in sympathy with the regime did flee to Tehran. In the streets of Mahabad one could hear radio broadcasts from Ankara and London, while in Tabriz to listen to these brought the death penalty … the net result was to make the regime popular at least among the citizens of Mahabad who enjoyed their respite from the exactions and oppression they considered to be characteristic of the central Iranian Government” (9).
As the historian David McDowall put it: “The Qazi trio perished because they personified the nationalist ideal” (10).
While the Iranian regime succeeded in cowing Iran’s Kurds for a generation, they also created martyrs who would inspire the Kurdish struggle in Iraq and elsewhere. The tradition of nationalist, as opposed to tribal, struggle became entrenched in the Kurds’ collective consciousness.
References
The Kurdish Question, WG Elphinston, Royal Institute of International Affairs,1946
The Kurdish Republic of 1946, William Eagleton Jr, Oxford University Press, 1963
A Modern History of the Kurds, David McDowall, IB Taurus, 2004
The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, Archie Roosevelt Jr., Middle East Journal, no 1, July 1947
Eagleton
Eagleton
McDowall
Eagleton
Eagleton
McDowall
martes, 1 de julio de 2014
Kurdish Activists Assassinated by Iran
The following is a list of victims of Iranian assassinations. I have copied and pasted the Kurdish victims (mostly PDKI and Komeleh political leaders), though the list contains many more- the majority non-violent dissidents.
It is obvious from the list that Iran has no qualms attacking its dissidents anywhere, even in supposed safe zones like the US and Germany. (One of the unreported secrets of the PJAK war is that Iran bombed targets in Iraqi Kurdistan while it was under American control.)
A more complete but less detailed list can be found here:
http://www.pdk-iran.org/english/doc/terrorismus.htm
(See also: http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/reports/3150-murder-at-mykonos-anatomy-of-a-political-assassination.html)
http://www.iran-e-azad.org/english/terrorlist.html
(Name, Date of death, place of death, description)
Osman Rahimi 18.03.96 Iraq Iraqi Kurdestan
Taher Azizi 18.03.96 Iraq Iraqi Kurdestan
Hassan Ebrahimzadeh 18.03.96 Iraq Iraqi Kurdestan
Faramarz Keshavarz 18.03.96 Iraq Iraqi Kurdestan
Mohammad Sadeq Sharafkandi 17.09.92 Germany- leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, three other Kurds (Homayoun Ardalan, Fattah Abdolahi, and Nuri Dehkordi) and a fifth unidentified individual. Sharafkandi and the 3 Kurds were shot dead when terrorists sprayed them with machinegun fire
Shahpour Firouzi 31.05.92 Iraq member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Revolutionary Leadership. Assassinated by machinegun.
Members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party 29.10.91 Iraq A bomb-laden mini-bus was detonated in the path of a bus carrying the KDP members and their families. 3 persons were killed and a number, including small children, wounded.
Saeed Yazdanpanah 19.09.91 Iraq member of the Revolutionary Union of the Kurdish People, and Sirous Katibeh, his secretary. Terrorist infiltrators stabbed both to death at Yazdanpanah's residence.
Ahad Aqa 01.01.91 Iraq Member of Kurdistan Democratic Party. Assassinated in the street.
Komeleh H.Q 01.01.91 Iraq A Peshmarg was killed when a bomb planted by terrorists went off at the HQ.
Amir Qazi 06.09.90 Sweden member of Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran. His wife, Effat Qazi, was killed when she opened a letter bomb addressed to her husband.
Ali Kashefpour 15.07.90 Turkey member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran -Revolutionary Leadership. Terrorists kidnapped him from his home in a refugee quarter. His tortured body was later found in a roadside ditch.
Sadiq Kamangar 04.09.89- Iraq- member of Komeleh. Infiltrators assassinated him at his H.Q.
Bahman Javadi and Youssef Rashidzadeh 26.08.89- Cyprus- members of Komeleh, Javadi was shot and killed in the street. Rashidzadeh was wounded.
Abdol Rahman Qassemlou 13.07.89- Vienna Austria- Leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, Abdullah Qaderi-Azar, Fadel Mala, and Mahmoud Rassoul, his aides. Shot dead in Vienna while meeting secretly with representatives of Rafsanjani. A senior Guards Corps commander oversaw the murders.
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