MESOPOTAMIA NEWS WEEKLY IRAN (KURDISTAN) REPORT – 25 9. 2019

Iran 

  • Iranian security forces killed four Kurdish border porters known as Kolbars and wounded five last week. On Thursday, the Iranian military opened fire on a vehicle in Sanandaj city and severely injured the driver who was accused of working with Kolbars. On the same day, Iranian border guards killed a Kolbar near Mako, which is located near the Turkish-Iranian border. According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Association (KMMK), a Kolbar named Khaliss Hamidzada was tortured by Turkish forces before he was sent to Erzurum hospital where he later died. Iranian border guards also attacked a group of Kolbars near Piranshahr, killing one named Adris Waissi. Simultaneously, Iranian security personnel shot and wounded a Kolbar near Sardasht on Saturday. On Sunday, Iranian security forces ambushed a group of Kolbars and wounded one in the Saqqez Valley and in a separate incident, killed a 22-year-old Kolbar named Rebwar Omarzada near Urmia Heights. The Iranian regime has killed 64 Kolbars and injured at least 114 since the beginning of 2019.
  • The fate of four Kurdish political activists detained by Iranian intelligence officers (Ettela’at) in Urmia remains unknown since their arrest in early September.  Three of the four activists, Farhad Noori, Safar Noori, and Parwez Noor, are from the same family and remain jailed without trial. Ettelaa’t previously arrested the four activists for “aiding one of the Kurdish opposition parties.” In Sanandaj, an Islamic Revolutionary Court began the trial of jailed Kurdish language teacher Zara Mohammedi. Mohammedi had been detained for months and accused of membership of a political party, though the Nozhen organization, which she works for, denied the allegations and claimed “her only sin is teaching the Kurdish language.” Likewise, in Ilam, a prominent Kurdish author and poet named Ali Mohammed Mohammadi was sentenced to four years in prison by an Islamic Revolutionary Court. Mohammadi was charged with “disrespecting the Imams.”
  • Three people from Sanandaj and Kamyaran committed suicide last week. 64 inhabitants of Iran’s Kurdish region have committed suicide in 2019 due to poor living conditions and various social issues.

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