Kurdish leader urges Iranian security forces to side with protesters

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—A Kurdish opposition leader called on members of the Iranian security forces on Friday not to turn their guns on civilian protesters, warning that the demonstrations may turn nation-wide.

“Members of Iran’s armed forces or the security should remember that they are part of that nation and therefore they should not be silent when something like this happens to their people,” Omar Baleki, member of the political bureau of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran told Rudaw.

“They must not take the side of the Islamic Republic against their own people,” Baleki added. “On a day like this they must protect the people.”

Abdullah Muhtadi, secretary general of the Kurdish Komala Party told Rudaw that the situation in Kurdish cities in Iran is tense due to the heavy deployment of security forces.

“I confirm that the Iranian regime has deployed the army and security forces heavily in many Kurdish cities especially in Mahabd city and this has created a very tense situation,” Muhtadi said.

Meanwhile, Baleki said that the demonstrations by the people of Mahabad against the death of Farinaz Khosrawani is the expression of more than three decades of oppression.

“That incident could easily become a nation-wide protest,” he said. “On the surface it is just an attack on a single woman, but in reality this injustice and repression has been happening to the Kurdish people for 36 years.”

Thousands of people took to the streets of the Kurdish city of Mahabad on Thursday to protest the death of Khosrawani, 25, who jumped from the fourth floor of Tara Hotel.

According to Muhtadi, Party, Khosrawani who was an accountant at the hotel jumped to her death to avoid being raped by a government hotel inspector visiting Mahabad from the city of Urumiyeh.

Meanwhile, Baleki warned that people’s patience against the Iranian authorities is running out.

“At one point or another patience will run out as we saw in Mahabad yesterday,” he said.

He said that Kurdish political groups were not behind the Mahabad demonstrations, but adding that  his party and others are not detached from events inside Iran.

“The Iranian regime would be deeply mistaken if it thinks that the Kurdish opposition groups are detached from their people,” he said. “The political parties and Kurdish nation are intertwined.”