Letter to Annalena and awakened consciences
The ongoing violence against the women, civilians in Kurdistan and Iran, based on the on ground footage videos and reports, shows and proves another gross violation of all human rights standards.
Zhina Amini (Mahsa Amini), a 22-year-old Kurdish girl from Saqqez, who was beaten by the officers of the Tehran Guidance Patrol and went into a coma on the evening of Tuesday, September 13, 2022, died due to the severity of injuries at Kasra Hospital.
Sanandaj, capital city of Kurdistan province in Iran, was under heavy gunfire from the Iranian security and military forces, since Sept 13, 2022. There is a real threat of genocide for Sanandaj, remember the Halabja.
Few years ago, Ramin Hosseinpanahi (political prisoner) was executed by Iran, along with him two other innocent political prisoners (Xaniar and Luqman Moradi) were executed based on false charges too. The news was short and this is day to day story of the Kurds in Iran.
For close to a century, the outcry of the women suffering, ethnic suppression and yell for justice for the citizens’ under Iran rule, being ignored, overlooked and forgotten. Local, national and international human rights organizations, consistently have reported the systematic crimes of Iranian security, judiciary, and legislative institutions in Kurdish provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah, Koredstan and West Azerbaijan. Under biased laws, empty charges and dictatorial rule, fundamental rights and freedom have been violated. The detainees have been persecuted, imprisoned and executed in summary trials.
For years, women, minorities and Kurdish citizens have been captured, taken hostage and executed without any due process. The names and list of victims are listed in world sources, and considerable names are unknown to this date. The Iranian government and its branches, systematically denied the existence of such crimes. For instance, more than 700 Kurdish citizens have been arrested in the provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, and West Azarbaijan under the charges of dancing, wearing Kurdish cloth and carrying Kurdish flag after last year referendum (in Kurdistan-Iraq) by Iranian security forces arbitrarily. Information on many detainees is not available yet. Security forces break into houses at night to capture photographed protesters.
The European Union has been always a super power in the international scene when it comes to preserving and promoting human rights. The EU has used specific instruments to fulfil its human rights objectives of peace, liberty and democratic values.
The application of these standards in the EU external relations has been highlighted by its CFSP and CFDP documents.
Now it is time for the EU to take steps into action and safeguard its existential values.
It has become unbearable to the Kurdish nation to live under the rule of Iran. Colonialism, plunder and systematic genocide requires immediate action. UN Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 23: Article 27 states: ” In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their religion, or to use their language. ” The international community is responsible for exercising diplomatic, humanitarian and other means to protect the people of Kurdistan from the crimes and terrorism of the state of Iran.
The Iranian government has committed systematic crimes against women, minorities and specifcily the Kurdish people for the following reasons:
A- Continuous, systematic policy of denial of cultural identity, colonialism, economic plunder, geographic confiscation using coercion, media, and imposed one-language state education, destroyed the cities and villages of Kurdistan. Many people are displaced from their historical land.
B- The systematic destruction of the economy is underway by use of military forces, non-democratic laws and imposed regulations. Policies have led to economic colonization and plunder, absolute poverty, and widespread suicide. Estimated 150,000 to 200,000, Kolbars, porters who carry goods on their backs struggle to survive. These Kolbars have been shot at the border lines on daily basis. The protests in Baneh and few other cities were crushed brutally, and detainees conditions are unknown.
C- Kurdish political prisoners have the highest share of detainees in Iran. Dozens of Kurds have been executed in Iran’s prisons under political or security charges, some awaiting execution, and many are not listed in official records, and no human rights organization is aware of their file. The Iranian state, by threatening, arresting and torturing members of their families, prevent them from revealing their names to the world. In most cases, these prisoners have been sentenced to death or long-term imprisonment without access to a lawyer.
D- Education and use of the mother language as one of the most fundamental human rights in schools and government is prohibited.
E- The forests and the environment of the five Kurdish provinces are periodically and deliberately burned by military forces to counter any uprising in the short-term and to destroy Kurdistan national resources in the long-run.
In 1946, the 1980s and 1990s, the Kurdish nation continued their struggles with a widespread uprising against Iranian terrorism, but the Iranian institutions brutally suppressed popular uprising with the Mr. Khomeini’s Jihad against infidels. Five thousand innocent people, dozens of Kurdish elites were killed, and their leaders were assassinated in Europe. Recent events in Kurdish provinces have heightened the possibility of Jihad and offensive against Kurdistan by Iranian colonial institutions.
Long before the world, the Kurdish nation had already joined the fight against terrorism and recorded heroic struggles and resistance. Today the brave Kurdish Peshmergas are on the front lines of the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, lest we forget liberation of Kobani and Shingal from ISIS.
We, as Kurds under Iran colonial rule, declare that the continuation of life within the border of Iran has become impossible. The Kurds are threatened by the Iranian agencies and institutions. Even Persian-dominated opposition in diaspora convey parallel threats, domestically and abroad. The international support is required to prevent genocide of Kurds in Iran. We, the signatories of this letter, ask the international community for the right to life for Kurds in Iran under a referendum. In order to prevent the recurrence of crimes committed by Iran over the past 91 years:
1- We call on the EU and UN Security Council to force Iran, by possible means, to immediately stop the executions and release of political prisoners of Iran and Kurdistan.
2- We request the EU, abide by the principle of the responsibility to protect, take measures to stop the Iranian institutions from the deliberate destruction of the life of Kurdish civilians. Although a no-fly zone may not address this problem, it forces the regime to pursue a fundamental withdraw from aggression. We request a no-fly zone over mentioned provinces.
Sincerely,
Pejvak Kokabian, PhD
Texas, USA
info@kurdia.net
Author of Cocolonialism
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0995296421/