EASTERN KURDISTAN NEWS

[Anthea]

kurdistanhumanrights.org

More than 675 arrested in Eastern Kurdistan

Iranian forces have arrested hundreds of protestors across Kurdish cities, in the west of the country, following the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini

Amini died on 16 September after she was hospitalized following her arrest and torture by morality police in Tehran.

The 22-year-old Kurdish woman was arrested on 13 September for having worn the hijab “inappropriately” and was beaten by the morality police on the way to a detention facility.

The statistics collected by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) from at least two sources in each city indicate that more than 675 activists and civilians were arrested in Sanandaj, Oshnavieh, Takab, Piranshahr, Sardasht, Bukan, Orumiyeh, Mahabad, Divandarreh, Qorveh, Saqqez, Bijar, Marivan, Baneh, Dehgolan, Marivan, Kamyaran, Paveh, Kermanshah, Eslamabad-e Gharb, Ilam, Abadanan, Tehran and Nowshahr.

There are at least 18 minors among those arrested.

It is important to note that due to the outages and severe disruptions in the internet connections and the highly secure atmosphere in the cities, it is very difficult to obtain accurate information on the detainees.

Of the detained protestors, 29 have been released by signing a pledge or providing bail.

The rest of the detainees are kept in the detention centres of the security police, the Ministry of Intelligence, the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the central prisons of various cities.

Among these detainees, there are at least 180 injured civilians who were tortured under detention or were hit by bullets during protests. They have been denied the right to access medical services.

Three Kurdish journalists and writers by the names of Masoud Kurdpour (editor-in-chief of Mukrian News Agency), Jabbar Dastbaz (journalist), and Mozhgan Kavousi (writer and former political prisoner) are also among the recently arrested.

In addition, at least 17 civil rights activists, artists and women’s-rights activists named Zhina Modarres Gorji, Leila Pashaei, Faranak Rafiei, Baran Saedi, Mahrou Hedayati, Azadeh Jamaati, Bahar Zangiband, Shadi Aslani, Avin Rasti, Leila Abbasi, Melika Kavandi, Kazhal Vatanpour, Rezan Ahmadi, Sorayya Khedri, Rozhan Ghaderi, Srvah Rahimi and Hayat Almasi were arrested in Marivan, Sanandaj, Bijar and Ilam.

Some of the protestors who were released recently told the KHRN that they had witnessed security officers “beating detainees with batons and threatening to rape some of them”.

Also, KHRN sources in Sanandaj reported that due to the mass arrests in Kurdistan province, Sanandaj Central Prison’s sports hall has been evacuated and allocated to the detainees.

In the past few days, at least 210 arrested protesters were kept in this place.

In addition, since the number of women detained in Kurdistan province is high, the authorities of the Sanandaj Juvenile Detention Centre transferred the youth from the prison to the military ward, turning the centre into a place where detained women would be held.

Other reports from Sanandaj, Kermanshah and Orumiyeh indicate that due to the high number of detainees, IRGC barracks in these cities are used as detention centres.

The list of 253 arrested protesters by cities as registered by the KHRN:

Kurdistan Province

Sanandaj: Zhina Modarres Gorji (women’s rights activist), Sarya Sharifi (civil rights activist), Faranak Rafiei (civil rights activist), Baran Saedi (civil rights activist), Gashin Mohammadi (women’s rights activist), Mahrou Hedayati (civil rights activist), Azadeh Jamaati ( civil rights activist), Bahar Zangiband (civil rights activist), Rezan Ahmadi (civil rights activist), Rozhan Ghaderi (artist), Soraya Khedri (civil rights activist), Nasser Golparipour (father of the executed Kurdish political prisoner Habibollah Golparipour), Shahriar Oskoui (athlete), Mozaffar Salehnia (labour activist), Amir Gholami (filmmaker), Farhad Sanandaji (filmmaker), Mohammad Abdollahpour, Kaveh Karimi, Shoja Roshan, Lotfollah Ahmadi (labor activist), Reza Sharifeh (Teachers’ union activist), Hossein Saedi (released), Adnan Rahimi (released), Sirvan Amini (released), Jamil Moradi (released), Hiva Rahimi (released), Srwah Shahabi (released), Zana Ahmadi, Diako Ahmadi, Shadi Aslani (social activist), Monireh Mohammadi (social and cultural activist), Parya Mortezaei, Mohammad Kazemi, Matin Asadi, Salah Zamani (labour activist), Bakhtiyar Samadi, Chiyako Beigleri, Arman Nourizad

Bijar: Leila Abbasi (artist and teachers’ union activist), Jafar Valadkhani (teachers’ union activist), Melika Kavandi

Saqqez: Behnam Rahimi, Rebaz Rezaei, Aria Majidpour, Seyyed Sroush Abbasi Shah-Ebrahimi (Yarsani activist), Rizgar Bahrami, Farough Mortezaei, Shorash Talaei

Qorveh: Ahmad Nezamipour (teacher), Soheila Babaei, Hiva Khani

Kamyaran: Hadi Kamangar (civil rights activist), Sirvan Moradi (civil rights activist), Omid Nazarian (civil rights activist), Datam Heshadast, Leila Ghaluzi, Mohammad Mehdizadeh, Zanyar Sabouri, Ako Hosseini, Hamid Yousefi, Milad Kamangar, Anvar Ghorbani, Ehsan Fatehi, Mohammad Parvizi (released), Turan Hosseini, Ako Hosseini (Turan Hosseini’s son), Sirous Nadimi, Khabat Mozafari (teacher and member of Kurdistan-Kamyaran Teachers’ Union, released), Edris Mehdizadeh (teacher, released), Hesam Mehdizadeh (teacher, released), Shayan Emami

Dehgolan: Sirous Abbasi (civil rights activist), Azad Abbasi (civil rights activist), Sirwah Rahmani (civil rights activist), Yadollah Motaei (athlete)

Marivan: Amjad Saedi (released), Rebwar Kamranipour (released), Khabat Veysi, Shahriar Afsari, Avin Rasti (women’s rights activist), Mojtaba Bartani, Sina Iranipour, Foad Delanginz

Divandarreh: Smko Mohammadian, Soran Mohammadian, Aboubakr Ghoreishi, Momen Ghoreishi

Baneh: Hadi Kia (cultural activist), Galavezh Khakipour, Somayyeh Ketabi, Sheyda Salimi

West Azerbaijan Province

Orumiyeh: Amir Abdoli, Mehran Pazeshi, Sisou Omarzadeh, Pano Abdollahzadeh, Omid (last name unknown), Towhid (last name unknown), Reza Sufi, Yousef Salamat, Kivan Jajouyi, Aran Tibash (civil rights activist and former political prisoner), Peyman Mirzazadeh (singer and former political prisoner), Armin Nabizadeh, Fereydoun Nabizadeh, Shorash Eslam Sakani (Balu village), Salim Mirzaei (Balu village), Mohammad Valizadeh (from Bukan, student at University of Orumiyeh), Dariush Kheyri (Balu village), Mehrdad Ebrahimi (youth kickboxing champion in Iran), Peyman Ebrahimi, Omran Mirzaei (Balu village), Mohsen Kalashi (Balu village), Nobakht Tafsili (Balu village), Kamran Mansouri (Balu village)

Oshnavieh: Ayoub Haghighi, Kamyar Shamati, Ayoub Esmaeilian, Ramin Khosravi, Haji Mohammad Peyghami, Omid Hosseinpour, Jafar Hosseinpour, Seyed Vahab Habibi, Musa Mam-Ali, Siamand Azarian, Shahram Maarouf Mola, Farzad Tahazadeh, Mowloud (last name unknown), Fardin Khosh-Khahash , Mamosta Anvar Rastgar (Imam), Matin Mihankhah (14-year-old child), Rahim Azizi, Keyvan Azarang, Vahab Azarang, Yaqub Mojavar, Shirzad Tahazadeh, Amin Khaleghi (14-year-old child), Kamal Esmaeili, Farzad Rasulpour, Osameh (last name unknown), Kamyar Maroufi, Shahram Bengini, Aboubakr Irandoust, Kambiz Shahi, Faryad Ahmadpour

Naqadeh: Masoud (Soran) Abdollahzadeh, Manouchehr Abdollahzadeh, Sohrab Sohrabi, Kiyan Abdollahpour, Hemin Ghassemi, Abdollah Khoshkalam, Ali Hanifi, Samad Hosseini, Hadi Dirmina

Takab: Bahman Faraji

Piranshahr: Ashkan Pirnia (student), Zanyar Nasiri, Saeid Karimi, Fardin Mam-Khezrpour, Aboubakr Barzinji, Shahab Lavjeh, Chia Bazergani, Jalal Sattarzadeh, Ali Heidarzadeh, Sharif Ghaderzadeh, Fardin Kamla, Mohammad (Shahram) Ghaderpour, Mohammad Nozari, Ebrahim Mohammadi, Esmaeil Nabi, Behzad Mostafapour, Ehsan Abdollahzadeh, Zanyar Nasri (minor), Hassel Ghadou

Bukan: Diako Mehr-Navaei, Kaveh Faghih-Amiri, Masoud Kordpour (Editor-in-Chief of Mukrian News Agency), Mohammad Valizadeh (Student at University of Orumiyeh)

Sardasht: Behnam Ghaderi

Mahabad: Saber Abdollahtash, Younes Chokali, Amir Abdollazadeh, Mohsen Nik-Manesh (graphic design student at Tabriz University of Art), Saeid Roghani (hospital medical staff), Aso Gorouhani (hospital medical staff)

Kermanshah Province

Kermanshah: Sadegh Olfati

Dalahu: Siavash Hayati (Secretary of the United Kurdish Front and the spokesperson of the Consultative Assembly of Yarsan Activists)

Paveh: Arvin Eghbali, Golareh Moradi, Soren Asaadi (released), Nima Naderi, Karo Hosseini, Anas Valadbeigi, Javad Mowloudi, Kamran Karimi, Peyman Karimi, Loghman Kiyani, Rebwar Fatehi, Hazhar Sharifi, Ehsan Sadeghiani, Milad Gholami, Sina Naderi, Danesh Karimi, Parsa Hosseini, Akar Salimi, Azhvan Sadeghi, Sirvan Ansari, Omran Ahmadi, Peyman Ahmadi , Milad Ansari, Soma Naghshbandi, Vahid Ansari, Mosleh Sharifi, Anis Maghsoudi, Peshawa Rahbari, Shayan Fatehi, Mohammad Fathi, Kamyab Salehi, Mobin Shafiei, Ramin Ahmadi, Kaveh Amini, Mahan Fathi (minor), Ramin Ahmadi, Parsa Hosseini, Akar Salimi

Ilam Province

Ilam: Mashallah Morshedi, Mohsen Morshedi, Taleb Morshedi, Hamed Vahdati, Miad Morshedi, Vahid Latifnezhad (athlete), Kajal Vatanpour (from Gilan-e Gharb and law student at Ilam University), Aref Omidi

Abdanan: Farshad Nasiri, Hassan Saffar, Shima Biranvand, Hadi Vafaei, Pouria Mahmoudnezhad, Ali-Asghar Alvandi, Ahmad Yareh, Omran Gheysari, Amir Jamshidi, Iman Nazari, Alireza Darvishi, Armin Hemmati

Tehran Province

Tehran: Zanyar Mohammadnezhad, Nima Soltani (from Baneh, student), Sarvin Heydari (student)

Mazandaran Province

Nowshahr: Mozhgan Kavousi

https://kurdistanhumanrights.org/en/ira ... kurdistan/

[Anthea]

Dozens dead in Iran

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have closed all the roads leading in and out of the city of Zahedan in southeast Iran as angry protesters burn tires and military helicopters fly overhead, a day after a crackdown on protests there left at least 42 dead and over 200 wounded, Baluchi activists say

Outside the police station, located near Makki Grand Mosque in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan and Baluchestan, security forces opened fire towards unarmed protesters with videos from the scene published by Baluchi activists showing hundreds of people running for cover.

The city resembles a war zone since crowds of angry protesters marched towards a local police station after Friday prayer, chanting anti-government slogans. Protesters demanded a response from the authorities regarding the case of a 15-year-old girl said to have been sexually assaulted by a senior police officer a month ago, accusing the government of covering up the offense.

Activists said that the death of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in Tehran last month also added fuel to protesters' anger.

"We have confirmed the killing of 42 people and 193 wounded by the security forces but the real number is much higher and many wounded are refraining from going to the hospital for fear of arrest," Abdollah Aref the head of human rights watchdog Baloch Campaign told Rudaw English on Saturday.

He added that most of the fatalities were a result of a lack of medical attention as most families were afraid to admit their wounded relatives to government-owned medical facilities.

Baluchis are a mainly Sunni ethnic minority in Iran, living predominantly in the southeastern Baluchestan region, near the border with Pakistan.

"The city is militarized with drones flying overhead and all the schools and government offices closed. Some have been reported missing but no one knows where they are and if they have been arrested," Aref said.

Videos posted on Twitter by other activists portray a defiant city reluctant to give up, chanting as helicopters flew overhead.

Photos were also published of dozens of people who were reportedly killed or wounded, with severe gunshot wounds, lying on the ground and being attended by other protesters, with no ambulances in sight.

Aref, who resides outside Iran and is in contact with activists and residents of Zahedan said that some activists placed the number of dead at around 100, adding that he could not confirm the figure.

"The internet was patchy yesterday and activists were using VPN to send videos and photos out of the events but last night the authorities switched off the internet," he recounted.

IRGC-affiliated media claimed that protesters used weapons when attacking the police station - a claim Aref rejects, accusing security forces of forcing people to make false confessions on camera about carrying weapons.

The head of the IRGC intelligence, his deputy, and two other guards were reportedly killed, according to Iran's state media, without any details being provided about how protesters would be capable of killing such senior officials.

IRGC officials and other members of the Iranian security apparatus adopted a strong position, threatening "rioters." Thousands of people have been arrested, including many women's rights activists, with hundreds wounded and over 80 killed in the two weeks of protests that have engulfed Iran since Amini's death.

Iranians inside the country and across the world have staged protests calling for the overthrowal of the regime in Tehran.

Authorities in Tehran have labeled the protests as foreign intervention aimed at turning Iran into another Syria, adding that Amini had died of a heart attack, and not at the hands of security forces.

Protests however, are showing no sign of subsiding as university students across the country, particularly in the Kurdish areas, are on strike on Saturday.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/01102022

[Anthea]

Iranian Kurds go on strike
Wladimir van Wilgenburg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A coordinated strike took place in cities in Iranian Kurdistan on Saturday in response to Wednesday's Iranian drone and missile attacks on the Kurdistan Region, which killed at least 14, and injured 60 others

Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan launched a general strike in protest of the missile and drone attacks in the Kurdistan Region, which killed at least 14, and injured 60 others.

Kurdish human rights organization Hengaw on Saturday said the widespread took place in 15 cities including Urmia, Oshnovieh, Naqadeh, Bukan, Mahabad, Piranshahr, Rabat, Sardasht, Saqqez, Diwandareh, Mariwan, Sanandaj, Kamiyaran, Rawansar, Shahu, and Ilam.

A Hengaw report said that on Thursday, the Center for the Cooperation of Iranian Kurdistan Parties issued a statement calling on the people of Iranian Kurdistan to go on a general strike on Saturday.

Videos posted by activists show that shop owners in several cities in Iranian Kurdistan closed their shops.

On Wednesday, Iran attacked Kurdish opposition groups with missiles and ‘suicide drones’ into the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani and Erbil provinces, killing at least 14, and injuring 60 others.

Mostly civilians were injured during the attack. Also one pregnant woman Reyha Kenani and her child Wanyar died in the Iranian attack.

Furthermore, for the eighth consecutive day Iranian artillery on Saturday bombed a number of border areas inside the Kurdistan Region amidst widespread anti-government protests in Iran over the death of Jina Amini at the hands of Iran's morality police.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/29 ... tan-Region

[Anthea]

Woman, Life, Freedom

Iranian university students on Tuesday continued protesting for the third day in a row in the Kurdish areas of western Iran, Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhelat) chanting “Woman, Life, Freedom”, after weeks-long nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in police custody

Students staged protests at several universities in the Kurdish cities of Marivan, Bukan, and Sanandaj on Tuesday in the backdrop of nationwide protests which began on September 16 after Amini’s death, resulting in the killing of over 130 people.

Videos posted on Twitter by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights show young women in their uniforms protesting at Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences in Sanadaj, refusing to attend classes and chanting “Women, Life, Freedom.”

According to the rights group, over 80 percent of teachers in Sanandaj and Saqqez have gone on strike and refused to attend classes.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei broke his silence on Monday blaming the US and Israel for plotting the unrest to stop the progress of his regime instead.

Amini, 22, died in police custody three days after her arrest on September 13 by Iran’s controversial morality police for allegedly breaching the country’s dress code of wearing headscarves and modest clothes.

Her death united Iranians from all walks of life in an unprecedented way that has created a serious challenge to the regime in Tehran. Many Iranian celebrities and even officials have criticized the police for their actions but the protests have morphed into a real push for the overthrow of the regime.

About 133 people have died, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR) said on Sunday, with hundreds of others wounded and dozens arrested.

Global rallies were held in solidarity with Amini’s death with people taking to the streets of dozens of cities, with many symbolically cutting off their hair.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/041020221

[Anthea]

Punishment against Kurds
Wladimir van Wilgenburg

(Kurdistan 24) – Canadian Conservative Party MP Tom Kmiec told Kurdistan 24 on Monday that the bombing campaign carried out by Iran in the Kurdistan Region is a “collective punishment” against the “Kurdish people in all parts of Kurdistan.”

“The bombing campaign using missiles and drones is a violation of Iraqi territorial sovereignty,” he said

“It is also part of the collective punishment the regime in Tehran continues against Kurdish people in all parts of Kurdistan.”

The Canadian government has recently imposed sanctions on Iranian officials in response to the crackdown by Iran on protests and the death of Jina (Mahsa) Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality policy.

Also the Canadian government earlier strongly condemned Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Sept 28 against Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, "which have resulted in multiple civilian deaths and injuries.”

Nevertheless, Iran has continued to bomb the Kurdistan Region's border areas for the eleventh consecutive day amidst the widespread protests in Iran.

MP Tom Kmiec said he supports the “limited measures the Canadian government has taken so far under the Special Economic Measures Act but more must be done.”

“The spear of the autocratic regime in Tehran is the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) and they must be listed as a terrorist organization.”

“Conservatives in Canada have been calling for years for the IRGC to be labeled officially as a terrorist group in Canada,” he said.

“This would allow criminal charges to be laid against its agents in Canada and direct our security agencies to treat them the way we do other terrorist organizations. Canada's security agency CSIS found the IRGC responsible for the downing of the civilian flight PS752.”

‘In 2018, Conservatives passed a parliamentary motion calling for the IRGC to be labeled a terrorist group and the federal government in Canada has ignored it since then.”

Moreover, he said Canada “should stop referring to the Iranian regime as elected, review the decision to grant economic sanctions relief in light of Iran's violations of the P5+1 nuclear deal, and finally the Canadian government should begin a campaign at the UN Commission for Women to have Iran ejected from that body because of its systemic violation of women's rights.”

During a passionate speech in the Canadian parliament on Monday, MP Tom Kmiec also said that the “response of Tehran to massive protests at the murder of Jina (Masha) Amini is a collective punishment of the Kurds Rojhlat (Iranian Kurdistan), and the persecution of Iranian protesters for simply demanding their rights be respected.”

“Over 2000 arrests have followed beatings, hangings and a bombing campaign across Bashur and Rojhlat, hitting civilians in places like Koya, Osnaniveh, Mariwan and sites in Iraq, including areas near Erbil and Sulaymaniyah,” he said.

He added in his speech that recently also 50,000 Canadians took to the streets in Toronto and all across Canada “to rally for free Iran and democratic rights.”

“Millions worldwide have joined in solidarity demanding justice for Jina Masha Amini, meaning the tip of the autocratic spear of oppressing the people of Iran and Rojhlat (Iranian Kurdistan) is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. There is only one moral ethical choice for Canada to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization in Canada.”

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/29 ... inst-Kurds

[Anthea]

Russia concerned over Kurdistan
Wladimir van Wilgenburg

(Kurdistan 24) – Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitriy Polyanskiy at the UN Security Council (UNSC) briefing on the situation in Iraq underlined that Russia has “serious concerns regarding the military escalation in the northern regions of the country, including in the autonomous Kurdistan Region.”

He stated in his speech that this “took a heavy toll on civilians, including children. Our heartfelt condolences go to the families of the deceased. We stress again that civilian immunity must remain a priority.”

On Sept 28, Iran bombed Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region with 73 missiles and dozens of drones. During the attack at least 14 people were killed and nearly 60 others were wounded.

This included one mother and her child, who was born on the same day of the attack.

“We share the opinion of Iraq’s President B.Salih that his country must not turn into an arena for “settling scores”,” Polyanskiy said.

However, at the same time he said Russia took notice of a “statement made by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to which the recent attacks that Iran has taken responsibility for were a response to a serious threat to the security of the country posed by terrorist groups based in the Kurdistan Region.”

Moreover, the Russian official noted the recent UN Secretary-General’s report on ISIS attacks in Iraq. “We would like to underscore that this challenge can be effectively opposed only through the maximum broad coordination of counter-terrorist efforts,” he said.

Therefore, he said that “that all those who are involved in fight against terrorism in Iraq need to respect sovereignty of the Iraqi state and coordinate their actions with the country’s official authorities.”

Oil and gas

Furthermore, the Russian official welcomed the resumption of dialogue between “Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Region that should address their current contradictions, mainly in the oil and gas area.”

Iraq’s Federal Court in February said the Kurdish oil and gas “unconstitutional”, a a claim the Kurdish authorities have strongly rejected, and described as “politically motivated”.

However, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has repeatedly underlined they are open to dialogue with Baghdad to solve their disputes according to the Iraqi constitution.

“We are convinced that further settlement will help respond to challenges of ethnic and confessional nature and engage the economic potential effectively in the interests of the entire Iraqi nation,” Polyanskiy concluded.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/29 ... tan-Region

[Anthea]

Threats from Kurdistan Region

Iran said Friday it refuses to tolerate any form of aggression from Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region on Iranian territory while warning that their presence in the Region poses security threats to the Islamic republic

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that despite the guarantees provided by the Kurdistan Region, armed Kurdish opposition groups “that have taken shelter in that region are still posing security threats against Iran,” he told his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein during a phone call.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) showered the skies of the Kurdistan Region’s Erbil and Sulaimani provinces with ballistic missiles and suicide drones late last month, targeting the bases of exiled Kurdish opposition groups. At least 16 people, including one child, were killed and over 50 injured in the attacks, according to data collected by Rudaw.

The attacks have been vehemently condemned locally and internationally, with the United Nations warning on Tuesday that such aggressions on the Kurdistan Region by neighbors Iran and Turkey have become the “new normal.”

“These reckless acts must cease. No neighbor should treat Iraq as its backyard,” UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) chief Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said during a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the situation in Iraq.

Abdollahian referred to the relations between Iraq and Iran as “excellent” but reiterated that attacks from Kurdish opposition groups threaten Tehran’s national security and will not be tolerated.

In response to the Iranian bombardment, the Kurdish opposition groups called for the second general strike in Iran’s western Kurdish areas (Rojhelat) since the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in detention in the capital of Tehran. The IRGC blamed the Kurdish parties for the violent country-wide unrest in Iran and demonstrations demanding the fall of the Islamic republic are ongoing.

Many villagers in Erbil’s bordering areas have abandoned their houses in recent days with Iran continuing to bombard the bordering areas.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/071020221

[Anthea]

2 killed 70 injured in East Kurdistan
Wladimir van Wilgenburg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Two people were killed and at least 70 people have been injured by Iranian government’s security forces during today's protests in the Kurdish cities of Javanrud, Saqqez and Sanandaj (Sine)

Two people were killed and at least 70 people have been injured by security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran during today's protests in Javanrud, Saqqez and Sanandaj in Kurdistan.#KurdistanProtests #JinaAmini #MahsaAmini
— Hengaw Organization for Human Rights (@Hengaw_English) October 8, 2022

Reportedly, Dariush Alizadeh, a resident of Sanandaj, was killed after being shot in the head while driving by oppressive forces, Hengaw said.

Moreover, Peyman Menbari, a resident of Sanandaj's Niar hamlet, was killed during the protests on Saturday, October 8, 2022 in Sanandaj.

The rights group also said more than 100 military vehicles full of special forces are moving from Hamedan to Sanandaj.

Reportedly protesters in Kamyaran had blocked the Kamyaran-Sanandaj route in order to obstruct the transfer of forces from Kermanshah to Sanandaj.

Widespread protests erupted in Iranian Kurdistan and the rest of Iran over the death of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd from Saqqez, who died on Sept 16., a few days after her arrest by the Iranian morality police.

During the protests many have been killed.

The International Federation for Human Rights on Saturday said that the crackdown on protesters has resulted in the death of at least 193 people, including 18 ‎children.

Moreover, Amnesty International said on Oct. 6, that Iranian security forces “unlawfully killed” at least 66 people, including children during a violent crackdown after Friday prayers on 30 September in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/29 ... -Kurdistan

[Anthea]

They killed all our youth

Cries for help from besieged Kurdish city in Iran

Iranian authorities on Monday night deployed thousands of security forces in armored vehicles, including riot police, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and its paramilitary wing Basij into the streets of the Kurdish city of Sanandaj in western Iran, launching a violent assault.

Hengaw Organization for Human Rights provided exclusive footage to Rudaw English which showed security firing heavy machine guns into civilian houses and shot at protesters who were burning tires and blocking roads. With the internet heavily restricted, few videos were able to circulate to show the harrowing scenes of an impending massacre in the city.

The ferocity of the attack on the city prompted Amnesty International to issue a warning about the violent crackdown taking place, accusing the authorities of cutting access to the internet in order to conceal their crimes.

“I can only tell you that in Baharan and Neysar [neighborhoods], they did not have mercy on the dead or the living, it was just constant shooting,” one protester told Rudaw's Fuad Haghighi from the city. “There were security forces as far as the eye could see.” Other videos showed fires sparked across the city as protesters confronted the security forces.

Hengaw, which monitors the violations in the Kurdish areas, published a video showing the range of bullets used by the authorities against protesters in recent days, including tear gas cannisters and bullets of Kalashnikovs.

“They killed all of them, they killed all our youth,” a woman can be heard sobbing in a video from the city on Monday night, two nights after the security forces gunned down four young men in the city and killed another during torture in the nearby town of Saqqez, where the nationwide protests originated last month. A seven year old child was also shot killed by the security forces.

“No one is coming to our rescue, all we can do is to scream from our houses,” the woman cried out as gunfire could be heard in the distance.

Kurdish areas in western Iran (Rojhelat) have seen violent protests in the wake of the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini at the hands of the morality police in mid-September in Tehran. At least 185 people have been killed countrywide by the security forces and many more have been wounded with thousands of people detained, according to Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization.

Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), which is run by a number of Kurdish activists, said that at least 30 were killed in the Kurdish areas in four weeks of protests while 825 people were wounded.

The war on the city of Sanandaj is reminiscent of the war in April 1980 in which the IRGC pounded the city with helicopter gunships, mortars, and heavy machine guns, killing hundreds of the residents. The massacre gave the city the nickname of “bloodied Sena, the gateway to revolution,” in a reference to the city’s Kurdish name.

The 1980 attack on the Kurdish areas came after the Kurds rejected the Islamic republic’s implementation of Sharia law on the country. The founder of the Islamic republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a religious edict describing the Kurds who rebelled against the state as infidels. In recent weeks, Iranian officials, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have described protesters as agents of foreign countries such as Israel and the US.

“The IRGC attacked the city for 24 days with all they had and fired on people, and killed hundreds and thousands were wounded, the fired mortars from their bases into the city,” a nurse who remembered the massacre of 1980 recalled the nearly one month siege on the city.

For years, the extent of the 1980 massacre in the city of Sanandaj was largely unknown as the security forces arrested thousands of people while many others were dealt with by the firing squads

With no internet in the city, it is difficult to gauge the extent of the current crackdown but many families are reported to have kept their wounded loved ones at home for fear of being arrested by the security forces.

Violent unrest also took place in other parts of the country, in particular in several neighborhoods of the capital Tehran. Security forces did not shy away from arresting school children.

“This is Sanandaj,” another resident said from his apartment window as a large number of security forces gathered near his apartment building firing randomly in different directions.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/11102022

[Anthea]

Iran right to act against Kurds

Iran’s mission to the United Nations on Wednesday reiterated its justification for military action against Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region, in a letter to the Security Council, saying that Tehran was left with no choice but to use force where diplomacy had failed

Iran's state media reported that in the letter, Iran stated that its territory has been the target of Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups - the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Komala, and the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) - for over 40 years and that the groups have launched “violent attacks” against Iranian infrastructure from their bases in the Kurdistan Region.

Tehran claimed that the groups were responsible for numerous attacks on Iran, posing a threat to civilian life in Iran. It also urged neighboring Iraq to act as a “responsible member” of the UN and prevent the groups from targeting Iranian territory and threatening national security, while reiterating Iran’s commitment to “the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Iraq.”

It added that Iran has repeatedly called upon Iraq and the Kurdistan Region to expel the opposition groups from their territory.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) last month showered with ballistic missiles and suicide drones bases of the groups in the Kurdistan Region under the pretext of fueling protests across the country.

At least 16 people, including one child, were killed and over 50 injured in the Iranian strikes on the Kurdistan Region, according to data collected by Rudaw.

Nationwide protests erupted in Iran on September 16, condemning the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini while in police custody. The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR) said on Tuesday that at least 154 people have been killed during the demonstrations.

Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region have waged an on-and-off armed war against the Iranian government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/131020221

[Anthea]

Iran against Kurdish groups

Iran’s mission to the United Nations on Wednesday reiterated its justification for military action against Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region, in a letter to the Security Council, saying that Tehran was left with no choice but to use force where diplomacy had failed

Iran's state media reported that in the letter, Iran stated that its territory has been the target of Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups - the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Komala, and the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) - for over 40 years and that the groups have launched “violent attacks” against Iranian infrastructure from their bases in the Kurdistan Region.

Tehran claimed that the groups were responsible for numerous attacks on Iran, posing a threat to civilian life in Iran. It also urged neighboring Iraq to act as a “responsible member” of the UN and prevent the groups from targeting Iranian territory and threatening national security, while reiterating Iran’s commitment to “the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Iraq.”

It added that Iran has repeatedly called upon Iraq and the Kurdistan Region to expel the opposition groups from their territory.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) last month showered with ballistic missiles and suicide drones bases of the groups in the Kurdistan Region under the pretext of fueling protests across the country.

At least 16 people, including one child, were killed and over 50 injured in the Iranian strikes on the Kurdistan Region, according to data collected by Rudaw.

Nationwide protests erupted in Iran on September 16, condemning the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini while in police custody. The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR) said on Tuesday that at least 154 people have been killed during the demonstrations.

Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region have waged an on-and-off armed war against the Iranian government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/131020221

[Anthea]

Protesters face beatings

Iranian intelligence agents are threatening Kurdish protesters, including teenagers and women rights activists, with sexual violence, blackmail, and psychological torture to silence them and in some cases force them to spy on other protesters, according to released detainees

The detainees say that the detention facilities run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) intelligence in Sanandaj is far worse than those under the ministry of intelligence or the security police.

Thousands of people including ordinary citizens, rights activists, lawyers, journalists, as well as many school and university students have been detained in one of the most violent crackdowns the Islamic republic has unleashed since the revolution of 1979.

An activist with over 15 years of experience in fighting for women’s rights in Eastern Kurdistan were among those rounded up by authorities in the city of Sanandaj in the early days of the protests sparked by the death of a young Kurdish woman while in custody on September 16.

Sama, whose name has been changed for security purposes, endured two weeks of interrogations by agents of the intelligence ministry. Given that the ministry’s office in Sanandaj does not have a facility to hold female detainees overnight, they were handed over to the general prison in the city after lengthy interrogations, providing them with a chance to speak to other activists and detainees.

Around 50 other female protesters and activists were detained at the time of Sama’s arrest and were all held in the general prison. There, Sama was able to liaise with other prisoners and offer advice on how to endure the psychological torture they were experiencing.

“The detainees ranged from 19 years of age to women in their 60s,” Sama told Rudaw English via a messaging app this week. “They would take me every morning from the prison to the interrogation office blindfolded and I would be back in the prison after dusk.”

Sama, in her mid-40s, said that out of the around 50 detainees held at the facility, the ones taken for interrogations were mostly activists. She would be blindfolded from the moment she left the general prison in a vehicle until she arrived at the interrogation room in a different facility.

“We would be interrogated for four to five hours in total and for the rest of the time we would be held in a solitary cell.”

In the interrogation room, Sama described the interrogators as appearing to be scared by the rate at which protests were growing and intensifying.

“They were apologetic and said that they did not want to see people like me in the interrogation room, but there were protests and they had to follow the instructions and the procedure,” Sama said. She was not physically tortured and has not heard of anyone being tortured or mistreated in the facility, but said that the psychological torture was intense.

However, those who were detained by the IRGC’s intelligence unit share a different story. They speak about blackmail and threats of sexual exploitation used against them in an attempt to sway them against the movement.

One tactic that has been used against female protesters handed over to the IRGC intelligence by the police force has been to blackmail them with content from their own phones which were forcefully taken away from them.

Rebin Rahmani from the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) heard many testimonies of protesters, both female and male, detained by the security forces.

“The freed detainees are terrified and they do not want to speak to anyone,” Rahmani told Rudaw English. “They speak about solitary confinement, light manipulation and subjecting them to cold temperature in the cells.” Rahmani said that from the testimonies his organization has gathered, there is no evidence that women in detention centers have been subjected to physical torture except during violent arrests, when they are transferred to prison. However, he stated that some of the male detainees have been severely beaten.

“The beating during arrests has been savage even for women and we have testimonies of people whose legs and arms have been broken by the agents during arrest.”

Rahmani said that in particular, IRGC intelligence has threatened the teenagers detained during the protest with “sexual exploitation” and forced them to return to the protests in order to spy on those attending.

“Another tactic has been with ordinary female protesters who are not well known, the agents search through their phones and find a photo of the protester with a male person,” Rahmani said. “Then they threaten the protesters that if they do not stop participating in the protests or spy for them, anonymous calls would be made to their families telling them that they were sexually active with men.”

“This kind of blackmail is far worse for these young women than beating or torture,” Rahmani said adding that some of them have spoken about the risks they face if the intelligence agents tell their parents about sexual relations which may at times even be false. “The most vulnerable detainees are protesters who are less-known publicly.”

“Another woman who had photos in pajamas in her phone was told by the agents “how soft she was and that she would be very nice for sex,” Rahmani added.

As the days passed, the authorities started releasing a small number of detainees but said that they would bring new detainees almost daily as demonstrations outside the prison continued.

The city of Sanandaj, which is officially the capital of the Kurdistan province, has arguably become the epicenter of the recent wave of protests in Iran. Protests were sparked in reaction to the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini at the hands of the morality police in Tehran.

Iranian authorities have made huge efforts towards delegitimizing protests by trying to prove links between the protesters to opposition groups and foreign powers such as the US or Israel. The top brass of the IRGC have accused the Kurdish opposition groups of being behind the protests, and even fired a barrage of short range ballistic missiles and Kamikaze drones last month at bases of these groups in northern Iraq.

Sama, who was interrogated by six different individuals, states that the interrogators were clear experts in manipulation and tried to pin charges on her but she refused.

“The interrogators try to link you to the outside world or the Kurdish opposition parties or the general opposition outside Iran,” Sama said. “At one point I became upset and I said more than 100 cities have protested and I would love to know what other excuses you are going to use for other protesters in cities outside the Kurdish areas.”

“You must understand that this is a grass root movement and it is not linked to the outside of Iran.”

Sama says that some young protesters with no previous experience of being incarcerated broke down and were ready to accept any charges that the interrogators filed. Some were even forced to undergo staged filmed interviews which have not yet been aired and it is unclear whether they will be.

She added that the authorities were especially concerned about the protests taking place in the towns of Qorveh and Bijar due to the majority of people living there being Kurdish, but Shiite.

“This is the first time activists from these two towns joined protests and this scared the authorities of the unity of the people,” Sama said. Authorities also treated protesters from these towns harsher than the rest.

At the time of Sama’s release, which was settled with excessive bail, none of the activists from Qorveh or Bijar had been released as their bail amounts were even higher.

Meanwhile, despite the crackdown, protests continue across the country and in particular in the Kurdish areas with the authorities launching a massive cyber campaign against the activists aimed at undermining the movement.

On Tuesday, several protests took place at universities in Tehran, Shiraz, and in the northern provinces.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/181020222

[Anthea]

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Singer Azizi Waisi arrested

Aziz Waisi was arrested on Saturday by Iranian security forces in the Kurdish city of Kermanshah on charges of allegedly supporting the ongoing nationwide protests across the Islamic republic, his son told Rudaw

Waisi is a highly-regarded, popular Kurdish singer from the town of Javanrud in Eastern Kurdistan. He was arrested after dedicating a song to people killed by security forces and posting a video on his Instagram page expressing support for the ongoing demonstrations in Iran stemming from the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa (Zhina) Amini last month in custody of the Islamic republic’s so-called morality police in Tehran.

His son Sahand confirmed the arrest to Rudaw and posted a video on Instagram.

“Unfortunately, today my father was summoned by the 16th branch of the Kermanshah court. According to the information we have, he is in detention of the security forces in Kermanshah,” Sahand said in the video.

Founder of Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) Rebin Rahmani told Rudaw English on Saturday that an additional three Kurdish singers were arrested in early October by Iranian security forces in the capital of Tehran, one of whom has been released while the fate of the two others remains unknown.

KHRN monitors human rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish provinces, namely in Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Ilam, parts of West Azerbaijan, and other localities across Iran where Kurds are present. At least 32 protestors have been killed in the Kurdish areas and nearly 1,000 others wounded.

Large protests have taken place in Iran’s Kurdish cities over the past month despite the arrests of thousands of people, according to KHRN.

According to Oslo-based Iran Human Rights, the nationwide death toll from the demonstrations is at least 201 since the protests began.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/15102022

[Anthea]

Protests continue in East Kurdistan

There has been a widespread popular uprising since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini in police custody in Tehran on September 16

Despite threats and the deadly crackdown by Iranian state forces, thousands of protestors took to the streets.

On Thursday (Oct. 27), protests took place in several cities of East Kurdistan, particularly in the cities of Mahabad, Bokan, Piranşar, Serdeşt, Bane, Seqiz, Diwander, Dêwlan, Kamyaran, Sine, Kirmaşan and Ilam.

In Mahabad, state forces are reported to have opened fire on protestors with live bullets. Several state-owned institutions and banks were set on fire by protestors. The Governor's Office came under protestors’ control for a while. According to reports, Iranian state forces killed or injured many demonstrators during the protests.

In the city of Bane, the regime forces opened fire on protestors, killing at least two people and injuring many others.

In the city of Diwander, protests took place as mourners marked the deaths of two protestors.

In the city of Xuremawa, Loristan, mourners commemorated a person named Niker Shakeremi 40 days after his murder. While anti-regime slogans were chanted during the protest in the city, regime forces opened fire on protestors, leading to clashes.

Protests resumed in the cities of Birucêrd and Miyandwaw in Loristan.

The regime forces had to retreat in the face of popular resistance in many cities.

Protests were also staged in Keraj, Mashhad, Erak, Shush, Zahidan and many other cities in Iran.

HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE KILLED

According to Amnesty International, at least 8 people have been killed since Wednesday evening, most of them in East Kurdistan.

Two Basij members were killed in Amol city, Mazandaran province, where paramilitary Basij forces were deployed.

According to human rights organizations and opposition groups, between 234 and 260 protestors, including 29 minors, have been killed since September 16.

Tens of thousands of people have been detained during the protests that have spread to almost 200 cities.

We should be asking WHY NOW?

The Islamic Regime took control of Iran more than 40 years ago

Overnight women were banned from almost everything including revealing clothing and were forced to cover themselves from head to toe

In over 40 years the world has done NOTHING to support the oppressed women of Iran

I am certain that a large number of women have lost their lives at the hands of the brutal anti-modesty police and the re-education treatment they received

The recent outcry is obviously being stirred up by propaganda

US are trying to cause problems for Iran, that this girl lost her life is sad but trues

However, what actually caused her death is being disputed

At this moment in time I see the US stirring up conflict and also giving Iran a reason to take action against Kurds

Until very recently, Kurds were very strong now they are being pulled down

[Anthea]

Defiant Iranians protest crackdown

PARIS. France - Iranians took to the streets around the country for a second successive night to protest against the killings of youths in a widely documented crackdown on demonstrations sparked by Mahsa Amini's death

The clerical state has been gripped by six weeks of protests that erupted when Amini, 22, died in custody after her arrest for an alleged breach of Iran's strict dress rules for women based on Islamic sharia law.

Security forces have struggled to contain the women-led protests that have evolved into a broader campaign to end the Islamic republic founded in 1979.

"This is the year of blood, Seyed Ali will be toppled!" hundreds of protesters chanted in the west Tehran neighbourhood of Chitgar late Thursday, in an online video verified by AFP.

The fresh rallies came as people gathered to mourn young demonstrators killed in the crackdown.

Security forces on Thursday shot dead at least three protesters in Mahabad and another two in Baneh, both near Iran's western border with Iraq, said Hengaw, a Norway-based human rights group.

Amnesty International said "unlawful killings" by Iran's security forces had claimed the lives of at least eight people in four provinces within 24 hours, in a statement late Thursday.

The deadly gunfire came after mourners paying tribute to Ismail Mauludi, a 35-year-old protester killed on Wednesday night, left his funeral and made their way towards the governor's office, it said.

- Governor's office burns -

"Death to the dictator," protesters yelled, using a slogan aimed at Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the Mahabad governor's office burned, in an online video verified by AFP.

Other verified footage showed clashes near the grave of 16-year-old Nika Shahkarami, outside the western city of Khorramabad, where dozens of people were marking the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period since she was killed by security forces.

"I'll kill, I'll kill, whoever killed my sister," they could be heard chanting, in a video posted on Twitter by the US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency.

Dozens of men were seen hurling projectiles under fire as they drove back security forces in riot gear on a bridge near Shahkarami's tomb.

The latest demonstrations came despite a crackdown that the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group says has already killed at least 141 protesters, including more than two dozen children.

At least another 93 people were separately killed during protests that erupted in the southeastern city of Zahedan on September 30 over the reported rape of a teenage girl by a police commander, IHR says.

The protests were held in defiance of warnings from Khamenei and ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi, who appeared to try to link the Amini protests to a mass shooting at a Shiite Muslim shrine in the southern city of Shiraz after Wednesday evening prayers that state media said killed at least 15 worshippers.

But the protests triggered by Amini's death on September 16 show no signs of dwindling, inflamed by public outrage over the crackdown that has claimed the lives of many other young women and girls.

- 'More killing would encourage protesters' -

Analysts say the Iranian authorities have sought to quell the protests through various tactics, possibly in a bid to avoid fuelling yet more anger among the public.

"I doubt that the security forces have ruled out conducting a larger-scale violent crackdown," said Henry Rome, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute.

"For now they appear to be trying other techniques -- arrests and intimidation, calibrated internet shutdowns, killing some protesters, and fuelling uncertainty and an overall securitised environment," he told AFP.

"They may be making the calculation that more killing would encourage, rather than deter, protesters -- if that judgement shifts, then the situation would likely become even more violent."

Amnesty International called for urgent action to halt the bloodshed.

"Failure to act decisively will only embolden the Iranian authorities to further crackdown against mourners and protesters set to gather in the coming days during commemorations marking 40 days since the first deaths of protesters," it said.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran on Thursday decried the "brutality" of Iran's regime and called for an international mechanism to investigate scores of deaths.

"In the absence of any domestic channels of accountability... the international community has a responsibility... to take action to address impunity for human rights violations in Iran," said Javaid Rehman.

An official Iranian medical report issued on October 8 concluded Amini's death was caused by illness, due to "surgery for a brain tumour at the age of eight", and not police brutality.

But lawyers acting for her family have rejected the findings and called for a re-examination of her death.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/281020221