Second Letter from KDPI:s Foreign Relations Office to the International Community
As mentioned in our first open letter, on September 13, 2022, a 22-year-old Kurdish girl from the city of Saqez named Jina Amini, was beaten to death by the Iranian morality police in Tehran. She was accused of not wearing the Hijab properly. Unfortunately, the injuries she sustained during her short detention at the Tehran Morality Police headquarters, caused her to die three days later while in a coma.
The tragic death of this innocent Kurdish girl triggered a wave of unrest and demonstrations in Eastern Kurdistan and across Iran. These anti-regime protests have now spread to nearly hundred cities from north to south, east to west. Demonstrations are now also taking place across, Europe, the, US, Canada, and elsewhere in support for and solidarity with the peoples of Iran.
According to reliable figures, only in Eastern Kurdistan 225 people have been arrested (31 women, 194 men) and another 25 (1 woman, 24 men) have been martyred by the direct fire of the terrorist forces of Iranian regime. The number of wounded in Eastern Kurdistan is estimated to over 900. In cities outside Eastern Kurdistan, 17 people have been martyred, and another 200 arrested by the Iranian security forces. These figures are up to September 26, 2022. Unfortunately, we fear that the number of martyrs and wounded will increase as the Iranian regime is responding to the protests with more violence and military action.
To divert attention from the ongoing protests in Kurdistan and Iran, and to show its military strength, Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has now resorted to indiscriminate shelling of Kurdistan’s mountainous regions and the border area between eastern (Iranian) and southern (Iraqi) Kurdistan. The indiscriminate shelling has been extended to civilian populated areas inside South Kurdistan. Fortunately, no fatalities or injuries are reported. We call on the international community not to remain silent in the face of repeated acts of military aggression against the Kurdish people by the terrorist regime of Iran.
Once again, we call upon the international community, government agencies, NGOs and human rights activists to raise their voices in support of Kurds in Eastern Kurdistan and the oppressed peoples of Iran. This oppressive silence in international society vis a vis the plight of Kurds and other nationalities in Iran needs to be broken and the international community should hold the Iranian regime accountable for its crimes against its own citizens. Based on our experience of more than 40 years of struggle against this regime, we believe that achieving rights in Iran can be accomplished in two ways. First, by creating a wide and strong opposition whereby all citizens of Iran who want freedom and democracy, and especially the oppressed nations of Iran, join forces to pose a serious challenge to the regime. Second, by peacefully overthrowing the regime and establishing a democratic and federal Iran, in which all the different nations of the country participate and have equal rights in all aspects.
A free and democratic Iran will not only be at peace with itself, but also with the outside world. Iran has every potential become a great country and a constructive member of the international community if it takes the path toward liberty and democracy. We will together with other oppressed nations and other democratic forces of Iran continue the struggle for our national rights and democracy. We are willing, as ever, to assume our responsibility for a democratic transition in Iran and to make sacrifices to that end.
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
Foreign Relations Office
September 27, 2022