Iran's Kurds: Strangers in their homeland; victims of sectarian discrimination

In a never-ending series of persecution and discrimination, the Kurdish minority in Iran suffers from the systematic policy of the regime that is dominated by the Twelver Shi'a clerical sect. The Kurds constitute the largest Sunni minority in the entire country, and represent 10 percent of the Iranian population.

The majority of the Kurds live in the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Ilam and West Azerbaijan, all of which are located in the west of the country, and they spread on the borders with Iraq and Turkey, where millions of people of their race live on the other side of the border.

The Kurdish minority lives in a state of muffled anger two weeks ago after the massacre by the Revolutionary Guard militia in the region against 7 young people, working as porters across the border in mid-February 2020.

The Kurdish boys were shot and killed on the western border near Nosod in Kermanshah province, which caused an increase in the population boycott of the parliamentary elections that took place on February 21, 2020, despite the regime's media fools and begging them to vote by broadcasting unusual Kurdish songs and using the media.

The government terminology tickles the Kurds' nationalist feelings, as they describe them as "the heroes of the nation" and flirtation with the "spirit of the Kurdish nation".

But all of these methods did not find in overcoming the state of sadness that prevailed over the Kurds after the massacre that claimed their children, especially since it came only two months after the popular protests flared in November 2019, after the decision to increase fuel prices.

The incident of the killing of the seven boys comes days after the Iranian Supreme Court issued a death sentence for 7 Sunni Kurds, whom the Revolutionary Guards accused of killing a cleric in West Azerbaijan 12 years ago, despite their acquittal of this charge before.

The Kurds suffer from the scarcity of life, due to the narrowing of the sectarian system and the denial of them to job opportunities. Therefore, many of them profess to work as “kulparan”, a word that means “porters” in the Kurdish and Persian languages, but even in that arduous profession that the poor and some of them from ladies, the elderly, and children. The mullahs' regime did not leave them alone. It prevents them from working legally and kills those who work in smuggling goods cheaply, in an attempt to meet their hunger.

Last year alone, at least 74 porters were killed at the border, according to figures published by British Radio, 50 of whom were killed by the army, and 23 died as a result of falling slopes and avalanches.

The persecution of the Kurds continued during the time of the Shah and even after the mullahs' arrival to power, as Khomeini issued at the beginning of his rule a fatwa calling them "infidels" and calling on the official forces to fight them, despite their participation in the revolution against the Pahlavi regime, which was repressing them with nationalist motives.

Mahabad Republic

The Kurds of Iran had succeeded in forming an independent state for them in the northwest of Iran in the 1940s with the support of the Soviets, so an independent leftist government was declared.

This government formed armed Kurdish groups that replaced the Iranian police, but because of the American pressure on Moscow that finally abandoned the Kurdish Mahabad Republic.

The Iranian army restored its control over it once again, executing its chief Qazi Muhammad and his cousin, who was then defense minister.