What Bombing Means for Freedom In Iran

and language is definitely Persians. Yeah. And if I want to be more clear, this dominant ethnic group has been exploding and colonizing and destroying all the lands and the communities and societies from non Persian regions including Kurdistan, Baluchistan, Azerbaijan, Ahawas and many other regions in this biographical region paul Iran.

And this mainly started during the former monarchy Pahlavis, and it was intensified after the nineteen seventy nine Islamic Revolution led by Ayatu la Romeni, and as usual, the Kurdish people were the first to stand against this newly established regime.

In nineteen seventy nine, a few months after the so called revolution, the Kurds were demanding their rights, specifically the right to self determination and also federalism, which was responded by a heavy hit by heavy attacks and under the jihad order of Ayatu la Romeni, which led to the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians and destructions of several hundred villages and mass executions of Kurdish people across

the what we know as Eastern Kurdistan or Roshalat. And following that the oppression continued, and also it was done against other ethnic groups, specifically Baluchi's and also the Awazi Arabs and also the Azerbaijani Turks, but in Kurdistan and Baluchistan it has always been more intense and more brutal.

And then in late nineteen eighties and early nineteen nineties they killed two of the Kurdish leaders, doctor Abdur Rahman Kasumlu and doctor shut Off Candy in Europe during some negotiations and thus ended up in kurt being in a worse situation. And then until around early two thousands, I think around two thousand and four or three, the PKK built or established its wing in Rochalat known as the Free Kurdistan Party or Pajak sorry Free Kurdistan Life Party

in Rochalot. And then but unfortunately this party was not really as strong as the KDPI or Komala that were already in the fight with the with the Iranian states.

Since nineteen forty six and so on. This oppression has been just intensifying by mass execution of Kurdish people, the mass execution of the political prisoners and activists, and imprisonment of the different people in the Kurdish society from language teachers to environmental activists to children, women, anyone, and this whole impression that I've been mentioning about, like that that's happening in East Kurdistan. It has also resulted in a

humanitarian phenomenon called kulba. Pullbars are a group of people that are extremely underprivileged. They have no access to anything, so they are somehow forced to go into some sort of work that they have to carry goods between the borders of East Kurdistan and South Kurdistan or North Kurdistan specifically between Iraq, Iran and Turkey. And every year we have numbers in our organizations you can check. We have a specific statistics section for these col wars. Every year

hundreds of them get killed. Just for example, in since the beginning of twenty twenty five, twenty two of them have been killed and injured. And among these people there are children, women, old people. So this is also another form of oppression that this regime has been using. Again start people, because this is actually one of the biggest forms of oppression, if I want to talk about it.

There are over one hundred and fifty thousand coal bars in East Kurdistan that are somehow into this type of work because they have no other means of income, and the government, the Ringing government actually like limitits all the if I want to call it economic developments in East Kurdistan. This has been going on for decades. And then we come to twenty nineteen again there was another so I want to call it uprising or master tests across Iran

when the regime killed over one five hundred people. I mean before that, there were also tests almost every year, but that was like one of the biggest one. It was in November twenty nineteen, and they cut down the internet for twelve days. I remember I was at the university at that time. And then they killed one thy five hundred people, specifically so many people in Kurdistan. They even throw that kills people into like lakes and rivers, and then after like months and days people found the

bodies like in the nature jeeze. And then we come to twenty twenty two in September when they the morality police killed Gina Amini, the Kurdish woman who was apparently not wearing a proper hijab or the Islamic cloth or whatever you want to call it. She was killed by the Iranian morality police in Tehran, which led to the as we know it. I don't know if you can call it a revolution or uprising or just mass tests

called Jhinjiana Zadi or women life Freedom movement. And this also again because it was inspired by Kurtz the first victim was occurred again. Obviously it started in Kurdistan and it spread so fast. Just in a few days, the entire Kurdish cities were testing, and then it was followed by other Iranian cities like Tehran. She was but it was not as intense as in Kurdistan. I think it was.

Three days after her death, the Kurdish parties Katipi and Komala and some others that are not very well known like pak and also Pajak or the Free Life Kurdistan Party, they announced a general strike across Kurdistan and they called on people to close down everything and go on a full lockdown to protest the killing of Gina Amini, which was responded by I think over one hundred missiles or something from the IRGC and the Iranian regime and it killed I think eighteen if I'm not wrong, but it

killed several people in the camps belonging to these parties in today's Iraqi Kurdistan where as we call it South Kurdistan. There were also like family members of the Kurdish politicians and Kurdish Pishmarga that were in those refugee camps that are also supported by the UN. They were killed there and then the protests just got intensified. And I was also there. We were reporting every day about all the things that were happening. Also, the Baluchi people joined the protests.

And at the same time of those days, a fifteen years old Baluchi girl was raped and killed by an IRGC commander or member in Baluchistan, and people also protested that. And there was a Friday which is known as the Bloody Friday of Zahidan. People in Baluchistan. They went to a big mosque in the city of Zahidan and they were doing their Friday prayers as Mauslims, and then they

started protesting. And this was responded by the Iranian regime forces and over one hundred people were massacred on that day, which also led to mass execution of more political and just random prisoners in Baluchistan. The protests just went on and there was a really heavy repression so far, I think over maybe between five hundred to six hundred people were killed. These are like the official ones, and also several other of these protesters, specifically from Kurtiston were executed.

Some of them were executed in public to spread more fear among people, but people were not given up. And then it continued until twenty twenty three. I think it was around maybe in March, I'm not really remembering the exact date, but it was also in twenty twenty three that they started attacking schools, like girls' schools, with some sort of gases that nobody actually knows that what type of chemical gases they were using, and unfortunately we have them,

like we've reported on. Then some school children, like some kids, they were killed by these gases, and they were specifically targeting a girls school because they are like separate, they don't they're not together in the Iranian system.

the Kurdish parties like Comala and Abdullah Motadi. They tried to create some sort of collaboration with the so called Iranian oppositions, specifically the monarchists like the Pahlavis and some other groups. But unfortunately these groups, I mean it was in the middle of an uprising, like a movement that

hasn't been happening since maybe forty years. Instead of working together for a common goal like the Iranian opposition groups specifically the Parlavis and also the other ones like if I want to say, like the Massy and like all the people that work with her, instead of working towards

a common goal, they started discriminating against minorities. They started ignoring and denying and also censoring the minorities, the same minorities that were the most active against the regime that had the biggest number of sacrifices in the protests and also in prisons. They just started spreading their own typical national I mean, I would even call them ultra nationalistic sentiments.

And for example, if I want to give one of the biggest things that we always talk about, these people who are apparently against the regime, they have some red lines, and their main red line has always been the so called Iranian territorial integrity. So like these type of sentiments and discussions, it's somehow created like a lot of mistrust

between the Kurdish groups, the Baluchi groups. Also like with Hawazi Arabs and Azerbaijani Turks and all these groups, they couldn't trust each other because the dominant group, the Persians or the Iranians or those who identify as Iranians, they ignored us, They ignored our suffering, they ignored our identity. They were just repeating what the regime has been saying

since over forty years, but in a different form. So this somehow created a lot of mistrust and also the people inside, Like I was there when that was happening, and I was working non stop every day of recording, writing, texting, being on interviews, the people actually lost their hope because there was no united position, there was no united structure to say that, yeah, we're advocating for you. I mean,

in the first few months it was really great. For example, here in Germany they had a very big demonstration and over eighty thousand people from all across Europe. They traveled to Berlin for that demonstration. It was great, and all the groups from Iranians, turks, Arabs, Balucci is like everybody was there. But unfortunately following that, the people like specifically who's a Palavi, the so called crown Prince of Iran?

Who is another like his story is like very also like crazy, yeah, he and his group and his circle, and also people like Massi al Najatte And I would say all the celebrities because they are not truly they are politicians. They have no political study they have they haven't done any specific political work. They are just celebrities. Like Nazni Bulgnadi she played in some movies. Yeah she's

a really great actress, but not a good politician. Like these things that celebrities who truly don't understand or they don't want to understand what people inside Kurtistan, Iran and Baluchis don't want They pretended to be our voices and they never listened to us. And then this just made a lot of distraws and a lot of also hate

between the people. Yeah, so that's why I can say that it just failed after that, And unfortunately many many of the people who were arrested during that time, they are still in jail, and just a few days ago five of them were sentenced to death and we made a report about them. So like every day did they get sentenced to death? And I person know many of these people who were injured and they are now here in Germany. They were brought here but by some human

turing visas. Some of them are my friends. So like it just failed. At the same time, I also have to mention that one of the reasons that it also failed it was the regime's extensive propression. They militarized the entire cities, specifically in Kurdistan and Baluchistan. For example, in Kurdistan, they already have over two thousand military bases and checkpoints

all over the Kurdistan region. And during that time they they had like tanks and military vehicles in the entrances, like in the gates of every city and also town they were checking out people like I personally get during these two years, I really didn't go out much, maybe once a week or once in attendees just to I don't know, to go and eat something out, you know, like I was always home. Yeah, yeah, because I couldn't go out and because my work was important. And then

they were just controlling people. They were arresting people, and even like from the stories that I have worked on before, these injured people. They also they were hiding in small villages and even in the mountains, but the regime forces were everywhere looking for these people and these activists. So it was like a holy military lockdown in the region.

And there are many crazy stories. I don't know if you have time enough time to talk about, like some different and specific things that happened, and it was really scary at that time.

So yeah, us tell us some things about that capacity for repression.

have no respect for dignity of humans. Nothing, absolutely, Yeah, the first thing that happened it was that, Yeah, they targeted I think so as far as I remember from our statistics, over three hundred and fifty or around that were the IRGC commanders or the officials from the nuclear programs, and like really the judges who have sentenced thousands of people to death, Like the targeted people were mainly these type of people, and also there were also some civilians.

I think maybe around eighty or nineties civilians whom some of them were actually like family members of these IERGC members, and also some children. And also there was a lot of destruction, specifically in Tehran, many buildings including the Evan.

first days, they started attacking civilians. They started arresting every I don't know, some random people, and so far I think last time we checked hundreds of people across specifically in Kurdistan they were arrested, and some others were already like in these days, they got executed because they were

accused of spinach for Israel or working for Israel. Just a few weeks ago, I think five or four or maybe three, I don't recall the numbers right now, but some Kurdish political prisoners who were accused of working for Israel were executed in my hometown Formia in Iskordistan, and then so many others were also arrested and then I think some others were also tortured. At least I remember one case which we worked on it. There was one case that was tortured to death because he was accused

of working for Israel and things like that. This was like one of the responses that the Iranian regime started doing. And one of the things that this regime did in the first days, it was that they took lots of military vehicles and like I don't know, equipments inside schools. For example, in the city of Saradash, it's a really amazing beautiful Kurdish city on top of some mountains. It's beautiful.

There's a high school in the city center, exactly in the city center, and they took lots of military equipment and stuff inside the school and they threatened the school manager, if you don't give us the key right now, we will arrest you. We will do this and that. And they also did that in the city of Kermanshah. They also did that in the I remember because I worked

under report. It was in the neighbor in the neighborhoodhood called the Zilabad and they took some military coupments next to a hospital which was also bombed and the hospital was damaged and some people were injured. That was one of the things that the regime did. And at the same time, I don't know if you know about this, but in Iran the military service is compulsory, like Israel, like many like Switzerland, like many countries. But in Iran

it's it's forture. It's some sort of repression against young men. So across Kurtistan, for example, in a military base in my hometown in Urma, it's called Almahdi. It's a very big military base. I know that some soldiers who are like civilians, but they are forced into it. They're like teenagers, I don't know, nineteen twenty or twenty one, like you were. Young guys, yeah, very young that really don't want to

be there, but they are forced to. They they were saying that their commanders threatened, if you leave the military base, we will arrest you, we will torture you, and we will execute you for betraying for like I don't know, for training your country or things like that, or working for Israel. This was like one of one of the concerns that many families had before on those days, because I talked with some people like our neighbor's son was

also in a military base. He is like nineteen. Yeah, they were putting lots of pressure on civilians while ignoring that what Israel is doing every day. They were bombing all the military bases, I don't know places, and like they were even bombing places that nobody even knew that they existed. But their focus was, like the regime's focus was on civilians who were just scared, who were just trying to protect their families. Yeah, and this is like

what they started doing. And yeah, I mean it's still going It still is going on, and they are arresting people all the time, and as usual, the majority of the focus and repression is again happening in Kurtison against Kurdish people. Yeah.

I think there's this knee jack. Oh, that's good, right, These are people who opposed to this regime which is brutally cracking down on people. But often then, as you say, it's associated with like monarchists for the most part. And then we have these various like anything in Kurdistan, right, like it's an alphabet suit but like there is like there were seventy five different like initial groups of initials.

Can you explain who some of these actors are, right, we have the Iranian monarchies, we have the KDPI, we have all these different groups pagiach like you say, the kdk group. Can you explain who some of these people are? For people say understand.

all basically the same. And also there are other parties like PAK yeah, yeah, the Freedom Party of Kurdistan, and also we have Pajak, the Free Life Kurdistan Party or I don't know if it's that, it's the same in English.

Pahlavi regime. They were i would say, really really active until like twenty twenty three. They played a very very important role in the revolution and like in Kurdistan specifically because they were they were the ones who were announcing like strikes, and they were working together other and like

organizing things and helping people out to resist. Obviously, there was no arm struggle at that time or conflict because they said we're not going to fight because if we bring the fights and conflict inside Kurdistan, the regime will destroy the cities with styles. This is exactly what they

said at that time. Because there was a demand from people that yeah, the Peshmarga forces should come in the cities and fight alongside with us, but they said no, if you do this, the regime will destroy the cities. These are the main forces in Kurdistan, and of course they have different ideologies. Pajak is like the PKK's wing, or if I want to be more official, it's a member of the KCK or Kjaks, we'll say. And the ADPI is like as I said, the history goes back

to nineteen forty five and in the early seventies. And also pak I'm not sure when it was founded, but it was also like it was founded one by one of the members of the KDPI Huseinia's Dampana. And there are more of a military I would say, well organized military group that they also played a good role against the the Icis in twenty seventeen and eighteen, specifically in

keer Kuk in South Kurdistan or Iraqi Kurdistan. And about the Iran in a position if I want to say, yes, we have the monarchists, the rizapah Levi and his group. They have like a whole long list of parties. Basically they are all the same, but they have different names, and they are all right wing, and they all focused on the territorial integrity of Iran, but they also pretend that they care also about democracy, but that's that's a lie.

And then we have people like Massi Alinejad, who is more of She is an activist and she's she's internationally known for her activism against the compulsory hy job. But she doesn't have any specific party or organization. She is just an activist and a journalist obviously. And also there are other several people that work with her, like Nazani Bunyati who also works with like Pa Lavis. And also there is another one who also played a big role.

His name is Hamid Ismailiun. He is one of the members of the families of the people who were killed in that plane that was shot by missiles biology see in twenty twenty in Tehran. And again there were many Kurds inside that Ukrainian plane as well. This person Smailuni, he's one of the members of like. He lost his entire family in that plane crash or attack. He organized many many great and big demonstrations across Canada, Australia, I think even in the US and specifically in Germany. The

one in Berlin was the biggest. Also, he doesn't have a party, but he also somehow backed down after what Alavis did, for example, like or the monarchists did with the whole opposition groups. There are also some leftist groups and individuals, but unfortunately they're not truly leftists. So I want to give you a name. There is a person called adah As Easy. He is also well known in the US. I don't know. He wrote some books and

he works with really like international media. Just a few days ago he posted something that said, we the leftists of Iran, we are in love with our homeland and we care about our homeland and we don't it just posted something that was that was really nationalistic, like a typical Persian Iranian sentiment. That was that that that's been going on and it's got lots of criticism from different groups.

And then we have the the Awazi Arabs. They also have some parties, but they're not really strong or active or well organized, like the Kurdish ones, the Turks, the Ozer by Johnny Turks. They also have some groups, but

they're also not very active or organized. And many of these groups they are heavily affiliated with the azer Bai Johnny government or the Turkish regime and specifically the MHP party in Turkey, like the ulternational Turkish party yeah right, yeah, and then the Baluchiese I can say they are more organized because they have this I don't want to call him a leader, but like the the highest the highest

level h moullah in Baluchistan, Molavi Abdulhamid. He is like the most popular mulah in that region, and he was one of the people that was organizing protests and he was giving lots of speeches like during the Friday prayers in Baluchistan, and a lot of people were. They still like they follow him and they follow his words. But unfortunately he is also like appointed as the Imam of the Friday prayers, if I want to be more specific,

in Baluchistan by Kameny himself, the Iranian Supreme Realer. But it's like a little bit hard to understand that where he stands exactly because on one side he he's appointed by the regime, but on the other side he's also like acting as a political leader or advocate. In Baluchastan, I think they also have some armed groups, but there are mainly Islamists, and I would say, but they're also

not very very well organized. Yet they do attack the IRGC members and these agents who are pressing people on a daily basis sometimes and sometimes they get killed. And also sometimes just a few days ago, there was a fight between these people and like civilians in the village and also the IRGC courses and I think two women were killed and more than ten or eleven were injured. Jeez, but this this fights and conflicts and they're always happening in Baluchistan. Yeah, it can be hard, I.

I think it was just two years Again, in twenty twenty two, they literally bombed a civilian house in urban the capital of Iraqi, Curtistan, and they killed an entire family, like a it was like maybe a six seven month old baby and her father. They always respond to Kurtz when they get attacked or bombed or damaged or whatever by Israel or America.

with dates and numbers, that's okay. Just two days ago, they conducted like a cyber attack on this TV channel, Iran International, which is also advocating for monarchists, and they expose like some nude photos and like private photos and videos of some of the staff that work there, and they are threatening that we will publish more if you

don't stop or whatever. This is also like another strategies that the regime uses when they lose something, when they get attacked, they also like target at this journalists or for example, they threatened their families or they threatened them here inside Europe or in America or Canada or wherever they are. Yeah, this is like as we call it, it's the transnational repression of the regime and it's been going on forever and again if you look at the numbers,

most of the attacks have been on Kurdish activists. For example, during the past thirty years, over I think around six hundred non political activists have been killed by the regime outside of Iran, and nearly four hundred and fifty or something of them were Kurdish. Yeah, this is also another thing that the regime has been doing, and in these days they have intensified. Yeah.

to Afghanistan alone Jesus. Yeah, and they are haunting down Afghan my grants in different cities across around, especially in Tehran because most of them are there. And the thing is that the Afghan I think there are over three

million Afghan migrants in Iran or maybe more. Yeah, nobody knows the exact numbers because the Iranian government never ever publishes the true statistics, but there are millions of them in Iran and they are not actually allowed to They were not allowed actually like they're getting kicked out right now, but they were not allowed to work in Kurdish cities. They were only allowed to work in Persian speaking cities

like Tehran, Mashatras, Isfahan and these big industrial cities. So like right now, if you look at the internet, they are being hunted down by Iranian agents everywhere and they're

being forced to go back to Afghanistan. And one of the things that I want to mention that's been going on from a humanitarian perspective, that really really makes me sad, and also it reflects a very ugly reality about the Persian or the Iranian society and the amount of racism and fascism that exists among them, not just by the regime, by the people as well. There have been hundreds of

videos and footage online. You can also check just certain you will see that random citizens, young people, they are attacking Afghan people in the city and I don't know, in subways, in the parks, in cheese, in public places. Just yesterday I saw a very heartbreaking video because like Afgone people, they also have a different look. You can

easily say that they're not Iranians. An Afghan teenager was being attacked by eggs Jesus and they were just throwing eggs at him and then they poured like lots of some powder and then like some juice and like Coca cola. I don't know what was that. They were just throwing everything at him. And on the other another videw that I saw, they stopped a man maybe he was thirty or something. They forced him to kiss the hand of a stray dog. I mean, yeah, that would be like, yeah,

he's kissing a dog. But in the Middle East culture, when you force someone to kiss a dog.

took them all. And now the landlords are refusing to give back the passion money to Afghuns, and many of them are being forced out with any food, without any support anything, and especially the women, like I also read about like a doctor that fled Polybon and he was in Tehran and now if he goes back, the Tolliban will definitely kill him because he was like against Tolliban. Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's a very horrible humanitarian situation.

And the people, like in Baluchistan, they're also suffering. But I saw many videos and also some of the activists published lots of footage that they were they were bringing food, water, I don't know, medicine and things like that on the on the road to give it to those people who are going back, and they were offering I don't know whatever they had. And in Afghanistan there is also happening.

But it's just so crazy because both the regime and also the anti regime media are trying to portray Afghans as the problem, just exactly like how the far right parties in like if they are portraying refugees and migrants are as the main problem.

something better. We still have the Syrian Arab Republic. Yeah, yeah, it's maybe the Ala Whites are being persecuted now and they weren't before, But like that shouldn't matter, right, Like if we if we're build trying to build something better.

right that just like rage straight up regime propaganda. Now, where can people find like good resources to understand what's what's happening in a round? Like from the perspective of you know, the majority of people who just want to live a free life, and especially like you know, the women in particularly in a round, right, an extremely difficult and repressive every the regime dominates every aspect of their life. Like, where can people find reasonable coverage that achnowledge is there.

Like then we have Iran International, BBC, Persian Voice of America, Persian Independent, Persian like there are many many media that all of these, like I would say the big media, they are heavily dominated and I would say exploited by the ultranationalist people. And also there are people who are related to IRGC and this organization called Naya that is like the regime's lobby group in the US, and these individuals that work there, they truly don't reflect what's happening there.

And I mean, it's it's kind of hard because if people want to understand what's happening, maybe they should read everything they're posting and then analyze that, hey, this makes sense and this doesn't. But that just a little bit hard.

But also on the other side, I would suggest that people should follow more human rights organizations, which again some of them, if I want, I don't know if it's okay to say their names, some of them and the people for example, the Burumant Organization, they did lots of great work, but recently again they showed some sort of racism and like censorship against minorities, especially Kurt and people

like Lot and bozs are gone. They are like also doing some human rights work in the US, and even people like Massi and all the I would say known activists, and even here in Germany, they are not truly reflecting what's happening. They're just focused on the Persian perspective and they're like they talk about minorities time to time, but only when it fits into their agendas, into their ideologies and perspectives. But there are other organizations which I'm working with,

like Hangout Organizations for human rights. Until two thousand, late twenty twenty three, I guess we were mainly focused on East Kurdistan, but right now we report human rights violations from all over Iran, like yeah, but we try our best, and I think I could say that we are one of the best when it comes to all these things, and we don't care about what people think. We just report what's happening or what happened. And there are other

organizations like Iran Human Rights they're also good. For example, there is another one called Tawana. They are like a very big organization, but unfortunately they advocated for the monarchists again just a few months ago, so it's kind of hard to see that who is truly on the side of people. And when you look at the human rights organizations. I'm not saying this because I'm Kurdish, but this is

what I see and I think it's true. The only organizations that truly reflect what's happening without caring about people's backgrounds or ethnicity or whatever. It's our organization hang out and also like organizations like Curtis on Human Rights Network, but unfortunately the majority of the others are are really clear. So for Kurdish issue that I would say definitely hang out and also on my page Kurtistani people I also like write a lot of things, and also Kurdish Piece

Institute and Kurtish Center for Studies. They have lots of other Kurdish journalists and experts that write a lot of really good articles about the situation there. And if I want to mention names, I would say Roji Mokiani. She is like a really great researcher. She lives in Ireland. There is another professor called Camraan Martin. He also writes really great analysis on situation and like the things that people even don't think about. They're writing with so many

different international organizations and institutes. Yeah, there are like these individuals and activists.

work together. Obviously, like our organization, I think it's it's very very important for people to follow and support it. Hang Out Organization for Human Rights and also Kurtistan Human Rights Network that's also like another one that you can follow. Yeah, and also like gay I talked about some names and individuals and researchers. You can also follow them for more professional analysis about East Kurtistan or Rochalot.